June 27, 1878] 



NATURE 



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237 



"Action of Narcotics on the Human System;" and "Contri- 

 butions to the Natural History of Chili ; " and in 1858-60, by 

 rese::rches on cereals and coffee. At this period von Bibra turned 

 hb attention more especially to belles-lettres. The record of his 

 travels in South America was followed by works of fiction, 

 and in a short time he won a prominent place among the German 

 novelists of the day. So fruitful was his pen that no less than 

 fifty-one volumes of novels and tales appeared under his name 

 from 1861-73. Despite this degree of literary activity, the 

 claims of science were not entirely neglected. Papers appeared 

 from him at intervals on various South American mineral?, on 

 the chemical composition of various German geological forma- 

 tions, on the properties of aluminium, on a bismuth tin-lead 

 alloy nearly as fusible as Rose's metal, on methods for regaining 

 silver from the solutions of the cyanid, &c. Of more im- 

 portance were two chemico-archseological monographs "On the 

 Bronze and Copper Alloys of Antiquity" (1869), and " Ancient 

 Iron and Silver Work" (1873). A paper " On the Restoration 

 of Ancient Manuscripts and Paintings " which appeared during 

 the present year, was lately alluded to in these columns. Baron 

 von Bibra was a corresponding member of the Vienna Academy, 

 and several other German academies. 



The State Museum of Sweden has suffered a severe loss 

 through the death of Prof. C. Stil, which occurred on the 14th 

 inst., after a few days' illness; Prof. Stil was only 45 years of 

 age. He was keeper of the Entomological Department of the 

 Museum, to the maintenance of which he devoted an unusual 

 activity and diligence. He is widely known in the scientific 

 world as the author of many important papers on hemiptera and 

 orthoptera, to the systematising of which orders he chiefly con- 

 tributed. He has been snatched away before his time from other 

 works unfinished and from a large circle of friends who deeply 

 deplore the decease of the amiable and faithful man. 



With the formation of international exhibitions like that now 

 attracting the world's notice at Paris, there are placed on record, 

 in the form of catalogues, lists of all, or nearly all, the contents 

 of an immense building. These contents are, as it is intended 

 they should be, of a very varied character. The catalogues 

 themselves being the productions of different sections or depart- 

 ments and of widely different nations, consequently we might 

 expect some difference of character in the preparation of these 

 " Guides." Too often a bulky book is produced which is 

 nothing more than a mere list of exhibitors' names and addresses, 

 of no use to the visitor while in the exhibition, and of still less 

 use for reference after. Thus, for instance, opening promis- 

 cuously the catalogue of the British Section of the present exhi- 

 bition, our eye rests on the name of a well-known firm of manu- 

 facturing chemists, but all the information we obtain about 

 their exhibits is " Pure Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Products," 

 The Australian colonies have hitherto distinguished themselves 

 in producing full and descriptive catalogues which have been 

 worth a place in the library not only as records of each great 

 show, but as books of reference on the products of the Colonies. 

 We are glad to find that our Indian exhibits are being treated 

 in a somewhat similar way, for we have before us a "Cata- 

 logue of the Raw Products of Southern India Collected and 

 Forw arded (under orders of the Government of Madras) to the 

 Paris International Exhibition of 1878." This Catalogue has 

 been prepared by Dr. G. Bidie, the Superintendent cf the 

 Government Central Museum at Madras, and comprises sub- 

 stances used as drugs, for food, and in manufactures. Forest 

 products, such as woods, are excluded from this catalogue for 

 the reason that their collection and exhibition has been made a 

 specialty by the Forest Department, a catalogue of which has 

 been drawn up under the title of a " Catalogue of Specimens of 

 Timber, Bamboos, Canes, and other Forest Produce from the 



Government Forests in the Provinces under the Government of 

 India and the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay." Return- 

 ing to the first-named catalogue we have an exceedingly 

 well drawn up handbook of 136 pages -divided into 

 three great divisions of drugs, food substances, and sub- 

 stances used in manufactures, each being lettered in red on 

 the margin for easy reference. These primary divisions are 

 subdivided into products of the vegetable, animal, .and mineral 

 kingdoms, and, in the case^of the drugs, again subdivided into 

 such as are officinal in the Pharmacopoeia of India, those not 

 officinal, but described in the Pharmacopoeia, and those not 

 included in the Pharmacopoeia. Again, amongst foods we have 

 agricultural produce, such as cereals, pulses, &c., fruits and 

 seeds, substances used in the preparation of drinks, &c., and so 

 on through each great division. The genera of plants are 

 arranged under each natural order, and, being printed in black 

 letters, are very easily found. After the Latin name follows the 

 English, French, German, and other vernaculars. The plan of 

 the book is, in short, founded on Bridwood's "Economic Pro- 

 ducts of Bombay," with many improvements. From the cata- 

 logue of specimens of timber, bamboos, &c., we find that as 

 many as 650 different specimens of woods have been sent from 

 India to the Exhibition, the total number of specimens of woods 

 and other products of trees amounting to 1,055, ^vhich, at the 

 close of the Exhibition, are to be presented, by order of the 

 Indian Government, to the French National School of Forestry 

 at Nancy, "where," as we read, "for ten years past a large 

 proportion of the forest officers of India have^ received their 

 professional education." 



M. DE Lesseps has inaugurated at the Paris Exhibition a 

 series of lectures, which will be given on Saturdays at two o'clock 

 in the Egyptian House erected by the Suez Company and the 

 Egyptian Government. This house has been built from designs 

 by Mariette-Bey, and professes to represent the mansion of a 

 noble Egyptian at the end of the thirteenth dynasty, before 

 Abraham was born. It consists of a court and a number of 

 rooms. In one of the largest has been placed a model of the 

 Suez Canal and a bird's-eye view of the delta and the Isthmus. 

 M. de Lesseps explained the great work of boring the canal, the 

 actual state of the lands of the Company and the influence of the 

 salaries paid to natives during the execution of the works. A 

 second lecture by M. de Lesseps was delivered in the second hall, 

 • where has been hung an immense map of Africa as at present 

 known. Relics of Livingstone, his books, instruments, cap, &c., 

 ha\'e been disposed in the room as well as objects connected with 

 the natural history, industry, and trade of the lake region. M. 

 de Lesseps lectured on the necessity of supporting the Interna- 

 tional Society for the Civilisation of Africa, and on the results 

 accomplished by the Egyptian Government in taking possession 

 of the banks of the Nile from 31° to 1° N. lat. 



A CONGRESS of Demography will be held at the Trocadero 

 Palace from July 5 to 9 to discuss the following topics : — Census 

 of population, registers of population, organisation of statistics, 

 registration of births and deaths, publication of periodical 

 demographical results relating to large cities, emigration, &c. A 

 Congress of Anthropological Science well be held in the same 

 place from July 15 to 17. The programme consists of old 

 things adorned with new names, such as ethnodicee, ethno- 

 gepie, &c. 



Let not those of our mathematical readers who are rather 

 shaky in their French be misled by a letter in Saturday's Times 

 from the editor of the jfournal des GJomHres, inviting English 

 geomltres to a conference to be held in Paris on July 8 and 9. 

 The context seems to show that the French word geomitris has 

 really its original Greek signification of "land-measiurer," and 

 corresponds more nearly to English "surveyor" than anything 



