290 



NATURE 



{July II, 1878 



if more constant intercourse were established among 

 them. Cocoa-nuts are at present the o.ily article of any 

 commercial value which the natives possess, and it is 

 probable that some day large quantities of copra will be 

 exported from this part of New Guinea ; no doubt, too, 

 the country has other resources which are as yet un- 

 developed. 



NOTES 



In reference to our article (vol. xviii. p. 235) referring to the 

 very unsatisfactory manner in which the publications of the 

 Geological Survey are produced and distributed, we have 

 received several communications professing to indicate the 

 causes to which this unfortunate condition of affairs is to 

 be attributed, and suggesting means by which it can be 

 remedied. It would scarcely be within our province — even 

 f it were in oiu power — to point out the particular depart- 

 ments or the individual officials with whom the responsi- 

 bility for bringing about this almost perfect deadlock 

 rests. We do, however, feel ourselves called upon to give 

 expression to that dissatisfaction which is so widely felt in 

 scientific circles, both in England and abroad, at the slowness 

 with which the survey is carried on, the dilatoriness with which 

 its results are published, the exorbitant prices charged for the 

 maps and memoirs, and the parsimonious manner in which they 

 are distributed. And in doing so we are acting no less in the 

 interest of the overworked and often underpaid officers of the 

 survey, whose efforts are frequently wasted, and whose patient 

 labours fail to obtain proper recognition, through the neglect 

 of the publishing department in making known the results 

 of their work. 



As an instructive comment on the above, we may state that 

 we have just received a magnificent series of maps illustrating 

 the geology of Wisconsin and Colorado, along with a thick de- 

 scriptive volume relating to the former state, full of beautiful 

 chromo-lithographic illustrations of the peculiar geological phe- 

 nomena to be found in the state. In execution and scientific 

 accuracy these maps are equal to anything of the kind we have 

 seen produced in Europe, and their liberal distribution by the 

 Central and State Governments ought to make oiu own Govern- 

 ment ashamed of its " penny-wise and pound-foolish " parsimony. 

 The Colorado maps are issued, under the care of Dr. Hayden, 

 by the Department of the Interior, while the Wisconsin volume 

 and maps have the names of Messrs. Chamberlin, Irving, and 

 Strong attached to them. 



Dr. Janssen has succeeded M. Puiseux in the astronomical 

 section of the French Bureau des Longitudes, thus leaving 

 vacant the post of geographer to the Bureau. 



At its session of July I, the French Academy of Sciences 

 elected Prof. C. Friedel to the vacancy in the chemical section 

 resulting from the death of V. Regn^ult in January last. His 

 chief competitors were MM. Cloez and Schutzenberger. Prof. 

 Friedel occupies the chair of mineralogy at the Ecole des Mines. 

 His time is devoted, however, chiefly to chemical research, and 

 he is at the present day the most prominent representative of the 

 modern school of French chemists, who have grown up under 

 the eye of Prof. Wurtz. His activity as an investigator began 

 in 1856, and since that time he has chronicled a large number of 

 valuable results won in various departments, but more especially 

 in organic chemistry. His name is associated chiefly with 

 extensive and elaborate researches on acetones, and on silico- 

 organic compounds, and with the remarkable series of syntheses 

 in the aromatic series by means of aluminium chloride, which 

 for some time past he has been carrying out in company with 

 Prof. Crofts, of, Boston. Although his hair is streaked with 

 grey. Prof. Friedel possesses a vivacity, energy, and devotion to 



his science, unexcelled by any of the younger chemists of the 

 day, and promising a long-continued activity in the future. 



Among recent deaths abroad we notice those of Prof. J. L. 

 Chateau, of Ivry-sur-Seine, Prof. Labat of Bordeaux, and Prof. 

 Ehrmann, formerly Dean of the Medical Faculty of Strasburg, 

 who was aged eighty-six at the time of his death. 



Prof. Virchow is following up the cranial investigations 

 which led him to assign a Turkish rather than a Slavic origin 

 to the Bulgarian race. For this purpose he has recently received 

 fifteen Bulgarian skulls from the battle-field of Kadikibi, which 

 have been carefully prepared by the red-cross surgeons. 



Prof. Virchow has decided to resign his seat in the German 

 Parliament. He takes this step solely because his parliamentary 

 duties interfere with his scientific labours ; and, while he may 

 be a good enough politician, he thinks himself a better savant. 



We briefly alluded recently to the annual session of the Vienna 

 Academy of Sciences. At this session Baron von Rokitansky 

 was re-elected president for the coming year, and the Crown 

 Prince Rudolph of Austria was named honorary member. The 

 class for mathematics and natural sciences has lost by death 

 during the past year among its regular members K. v. Littrow, 

 and among the corresponding members, the astronomer, Santini, 

 of Padua, and the physicists Weber and von Mayer. These 

 vacancies were filled by the election of Prof. E. Weiss of Vienna 

 to Littrow's chair, and by the election to corresponding members 

 of the zoologist. Prof. v. Brauer, of Vienna, the physicists, Prof. 

 G. T. Fechner, of Leipzig, Sir William Thomson, of Glasgow, 

 and Prof. J, Schwann, of Luttich. The triennial prize for the 

 most fruitful contribution to physics was assigned to Capt. A. 

 von Obermayer, for his researches on the influence of tem- 

 perature on the friction coefficients of gases. Prizes for the 

 discovery of comets have likewise been assigned to MM. 

 Winnecke, of Strassburg, Coggia, of Marseilles, Tempel of 

 Florence, and Swift, of Rochester, New York. The Academy 

 has appointed during the past year a standing committee for 

 ethnographical researches in Au>tria. Prof. Doelter, of Graz, 

 who was recently sent by the Academy to make a study of 

 the extinct volcano, Monte Ferru, on the island of Sardinia, 

 has recently submitted to the academy a detailed report of his 

 investigations. The analyses of the lavas would tend to place 

 them among the more modern eruptive formations. Monte 

 Ferru exhibits a variety in the character of its lava deposits 

 rarely found among volcanoes thus far examined. The chief 

 species described are normal phonolite, trachytic phonolite, 

 sanidine-plagioclase trachyte, sanidine-augite trachyte, felspir 

 with and without olivine, leucite -basalt, trachyte, -tufa, rhyolite 

 and hornblende-andesite. 



Arrangements are being made in Paris for an interesting 

 sequel in 1879 to the present exhibition, which shall be entitled 

 "Exposition des Sciences appliquees a ITndustrie." It wil' 

 occupy the old Palais de 1' Industrie. Assurances of co-operation 

 on the part of leading scientific and industrial personages have 

 been so numerous, that the success of the undertaking is already 

 well guaranteed. The programme defining the aims and limits of 

 the exhibition will appear at an early date. 



The Medical Times and Gazette regrets to learn that Dr. 

 Burdon Sanderson has resigned his post as Professor at the 

 Brown Institution. The work he has done in this position has 

 been of a kind that is above praise. It has been mainly directed 

 to the investigation of the phenomena of contagion, and, coupled 

 with that of Dr. Klein, also connected with the Brown Institu- 

 tion, has done much to instruct us in the structure, functions, 

 and characteristics of the lymphatic system — to mention only 

 one series of researches. We sincerely hope that the post will 

 be filled by one who will continue and expand the work aheady 

 commenced in this invaluable Institution. 



