238 



NATURE \t 



\yune 27, 1878 



else, the exact French term being, we believe, Arpenteur- 

 giotnetre. As the Paris Daily News correspondent showed 

 the other day, even good French scholars may make themselves 

 ludicrous to a Frenchman by translating words literally into 

 their corresponding French forms, such as physicien and chimiste, 

 which, we need hardly say, mean not physician and pharma- 

 ceutical chemist, but physicist and scientific chemist. 



A GENERAL meeting of the Mineralogical Society of Great 

 Britain and Ireland will be held at the Meteorological Office, 

 116, Victoria Street, on July 4, at 8 p.m., when the following 

 papers will be read: — "On a New Manganesian Garnet," by 

 Prof. M. F. Heddle. ; "On Cotterite, a New Variety of 

 Quartz," by Prof. Harkness ; " On Youngite," by Messrs. 

 David Stewart and J. J. Hood, communicated by Mr. J. B. 

 Hannay ; "Notes on Cornish Minerals," by Mr. J. H. Collins. 



There is every prospect at present of the early commence- 

 ment of another of the gigantic engineering enterprises charac- 

 teristic of our century. The last steamer from Panama brings 

 news of the ratification of the contract between the Government 

 of Columbia and the International Committee for the Construc- 

 tion of a Canal across the Isthmus of Darien. Among the 

 conditions we notice the clause declaring the future canal 

 to stand open to the commerce of the entire world, and to be 

 entirely neutral. Another condition is the completion of the 

 work before 1895, ^^t we fear that only pronounced optimists 

 will look forward to the fulfilment of this clause. The Canal 

 Company receives a grant of land including stretches 200 yards 

 wide on each side of the canal, and over 1,000,000 acres in 

 addition, to be chosen at will. It has besides the free use of all 

 building materials on the isthmus, so that no complaint can be 

 made of a lack of readiness on the part of Columbia to further 

 the undertaking, 



M. Bardoux has opened at the Palais du Champ de Mars the 

 Exhibition connected with Public Instruction, The minister said 

 in his address that, owing to the recent progress of France, that 

 country was now inferior to no other European nation as regards 

 popular education. The results of the last conscription are highly 

 satisfactory in this respect. Out of 294,382 men admitted into the 

 ranks of the French army in 1877, only 4,992 were unable to 

 read or write, 2,620 had taken their preliminary degrees in letters 

 or sciences, 234,279 kn.w the "three R's," 36,325 could only 

 read and write, and 5,856 could only read. Elementary schools 

 have been established in the various regiments of the French 

 army for years, but the attendance, which had been very limited, 

 is now almost universal. Not less than 305,989 soldiers were 

 pupils of regimental schools in 1877 ; out of these, 255,380 fol- 

 lowed the course of elementary instruction, 36,981 the secondary 

 course, and 4,682 the course of superior instruction. The army 

 has been turned into a machine for promoting elementary know- 

 ledge. In 1877 not less than 33,337 soldiers learned to read, 

 24,483 to write, and 111,303 were taught arithmetic. Under 

 guidance of their officers, 200 soldiers firom the garrisons of Paris 

 visit the Exhibition daily. 



The Emperor of Germany has named Prof, von Briicke, of 

 Vienna, and the mathematician, C. Hermite, of Paris, as knights 

 of the Order of Merit for Science and Art. 



The well-known physicist, Prof. Clausius, of Bonn, has been 

 elected a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, 



M. G. A. Six has lately Avritten a history of the progress of 

 botany in Holland, a work for which this little kingdom has 

 certainly furnished rich material during the past two centuries. 



An interesting fact for agriculturists is communicated by Herr 

 Rudolf Mayerhoffer, of Prague, the editor of the agricultural 

 serial, Dcr BicnenvatLr aus Bohmen. It appears thr.t a German 



colonist upon the Island of Java has successfully tried the culti- 

 vation of the native bee, Apis dorsata, which hitherto has been 

 valued by the natives only for the sake of the larva;. Herr 

 Mayerhoffer even expresses the hope that it will be possible to 

 acclimatise the Javanese bee in Europe. 



On July I Prof, Victor Carus will bring out the first number 

 of a new serial entitled Zoologiscker Anzeiger, which will form a 

 sort of zoological record in monthly instalments, and, to a 

 certain extent, will be the continuation of Carus and Engel- 

 mann's invaluable " Bibliotheca Zoologica." Engelmannof Leipzig 

 is the publisher. The new serial will contain communications 

 r^jarding museums, institutions, and private collections, notes 

 on zoological and biological subjects, besides a quantity of gene- 

 rally interesting scientific matter. 



The Japan Times understands that for the Hong-Kong 

 "afforestation" scheme considerable quantities of seed have 

 lately been forwarded thither at the request of the authorities. 

 As much as will furnish a quarter of a million trees has been 

 sent, the varieties being the sugi, kinoki, and tsitbaki (the wild, 

 single-flowered camellia). 



Prof. Frus, of Christiania, who has been engaged for years 

 in the preparation of a complete dictionary of the Lapp language^ 

 has nearly brought his work to a conclusion. This language is 

 richer than most of the northern tongues, the first eleven letters 

 of the alphabet embracing not less than l2,oco words. 



The Harvey Tercentenary Memorial Fund is so far advanced 

 that it has been resolved to take steps to select a sculptor to 

 whom the execution of the memorial statue should be intrusted. 

 Of 1,680/. subscribed, 1,228/. are in hand. 



A Manatee, caught at the mouth of the Essequibo River, 

 British Guiana, is now on view at the Westminster Aquarium. 

 The poor " whale " has gone the way of its predecessor. 



M. A. CossA has recently communicated to the Acadcmia 

 dei Lincei the results of extensive litho-chemical investigations 

 on the Island Volcano, north of Sicily. He has succeeded in 

 finding here considerable quantities of the sulphates of the rare 

 metals lithium, thallium, caesium, and rubidium, apparently in 

 the form of alums. The metals appear to have been present in 

 the rocks surrounding the crater, as silicates, and the latter have 

 been decomposed by the acid vapours mounting from the interior 

 of the volcano. Hitherto the mineral poUux scattered over the 

 Island of Elba has been the most abundant source of cesium 

 and rubidium. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Pig-Tailed Monkey {Macacus net}testnnus) 

 from Java, a Scarlet Ibis {!bis rubra), a Red-Billed Tree Duck 

 (Dendrocygna aulutnnalis) from South America, presented by 

 Mr. R. M. Hyde; a Green Monkey {Cercopithecus callitrichus\ 

 from West Africa, presented by Mr. Samuel Curtis ; an Indian 

 Gazelle {Gazdla bennetti) from India, presented by Miss 

 Statter; two Prairie Marmosets {Cynamys ludovicianus) from 

 North America, presented by M. J. N. Comely ; three Common 

 Cormorants (Pkalacrocorax carbo), British Isles, presented re- 

 spectively by Mr. Edward Banks and Mr. W. Thompson ; two 

 Cereopsis Geese {Cercopsis novce-hollandia), two Australian Shel- 

 drakes {Tadorna taniatus) from Australia, a Yellow-Billed 

 Sheathbill {Chiornis alba) from Antarctic America, purchased; 

 two Mantchurian Crossoptilons {Crossoptilon ma/tU/iuriaim) 

 from China, received in exchange ; two Argus Pheasants (Arpis 

 giganteus), four Summer Ducks {Aix sponsa), four Chiloe 

 Widgeons {Mareca ckiloensis), three Australian Wild Ducks {Anas 

 supariliosa), bred in the Gardens. 



