344 



NATURE 



{yuly 25, 1878 



contend with, but during the sixteen years of his office these 

 were more or less overcome. Besides being elected a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society in 1848, he received the Royal medal of the 

 Society in 1875. The Emperor of Austria conferred on him a 

 medal in recognition of his work. The papers he wrote, apart 

 from his official work, were not numerous. He died at Rugby 

 July 17. 



It has been arranged that Prof. McKendrick, as President of 

 the Physiological Section at the meeting of the British Medical 

 Association in Bath, will give an address on the recent progress 

 of acoustics, more especially as regards the mechanism of the 

 ear. 



At a meeting recently held at Netley of the subscribers to 

 the Parkes Memorial Fund, it was resolved — i. That a prize of 

 one hundred pounds in money, and a large gold medal bearing 

 the portrait of the late Dr. Parkes, be given triennially for the 

 best essay on a subject connected with hygiene, to be declared 

 at the commencement of each triennial period, the prize to be 

 open to the medical officers of the army, navy, and Indian ser- 

 vices of executive rank on full pay (with the exception of the 

 officers of the Army Medical School during their term of office). 

 2. That the subject for the first competition for the above-named 

 prize be as follows : — "On the Effects of Hygienic Measures in 

 arresting the Spread of Cholera." 3. That the essays be sent 

 in to the Committee of the Parkes Memorial Fund, care of the 

 Director-General, Army Medical Department, 6, Whitehall 

 Yard, London, S.W., on or before December 31, 1880. Each 

 essay to have a motto, and to be accompanied with a sealed 

 envelope bearing the same motto, and containing the name of 

 the competitor. 4. That a bronze medal (also bearing the por- 

 trait of the late Dr. Parkes) be given at the close of each session 

 of the Army Medical School to the best answerer at an examin- 

 ation in hygiene. 



At p. 104 of this volume we called attention to an additional 

 exception to one of Fermat's remarkable statements regarding the 

 forms of primes. The discoverer, M. Pervouchine, has lately 

 succeeded in showinsr that 



2^ -f I 



(a number containing many more than two millions and a halfoi 

 places of figures) is divisible by the prime number 



167,772,161 

 or" S'a^'s + I. 



This result has been verified by Zolotareff of the St. Petersburg 

 Academy of Sciences. We are not told what method he em- 

 ployed, but it is obviously reduced to a question of mere labour 

 by the use of the binary scale. And even this labour may be 

 dispensed with by the aid of very simple machinery. It is much 

 more difficult to see how M. Pervouchine was led to choose this 

 divisor, though it would appear that the divisor Avas probably 

 first assumed and the dividend calculated from it. 



The annual meeting of German Archaeologists and Historians 

 will take place at Marburg about the middle of September, 



The American Minister for Agriculture has recently stated 

 that in the extensive caverns of Texas enormous masses of guano 

 are deposited. The quantity is estimated at 20,000 tons, and 

 the quality is said to be superior to that of fish guano. Its origin 

 must be looked for in the immense numbers of bats which 

 inhabit these caverns. It is also rei^orted that in the Indian 

 Ocean several guano islands have been discovered, so that the 

 threatened exhaustion of guano deposits need not be feared for 

 some time to come. 



In different parts of Costa Rica grasshoppers have appeared in 

 alarming masses, particularly near Herodia, Alajuela, and 



Atenas, one of the most cultivated and fertile districts' of the 

 whole country. The coffee crop for this season has been nearly 

 all destroyed by the plague. 



At a recent meeting of the Geneva Society of Physics and 

 Natural History, Prof. Alph. de Candolle presented a glass 

 jar containing fruits of the coffee plant collected before maturity 

 in Mexico, preserved in a liquid which chemical analysis proved 

 to be salt water. It is fifty years since the jar thus filled was 

 hermetically sealed, [under the eyes of Aug.-Pyr. de Candolle, 

 and to-day the coffee-beans which it contains are in a thoroughly 

 satisfactory state of preservation. The water contains a solution 

 of chloride of sodium and very small quantities of other chlo- 

 rides or salts. No gas was found in solution ; the water must 

 then have been boiled, and introduced while hot into the jar. 

 This experiment may give valuable hints as to the substitution 

 of salt water for alcohol (of which every one knows the incon- 

 venience) for the preservation of organic substances. 



The Japanese Government have finally authorised the imme- 

 diate commencement of a Hue of railway between Kioto and 

 Otsu, which is expected to cost nearly a quarter of a million 

 sterling, and will probably be completed in three years. The 

 construction of this line will have a beneficial effect upon that 

 part of the empire, as it will afford a much needed outlet for the 

 valuable products raised at Tsuruga, and in the rich districts in 

 the neighbourhood of Lake Biwa. 



The Government engineering works at Shindin are a con- 

 spicuous proof of the enterprise of the Japanese, and it is 

 satisfactory to learn from the Japan papers that the under- 

 taking is in a highly prosperous condition. It was formed by 

 combining the Kaga Foundry, originally started by the Daimio 

 of Kaga in 1869, with the Vulcan Iron Works, which were 

 bought by the government in 1872. The foreign staff at present 

 consists of only four persons, and the works give employment 

 to nearly a thousand skilled mechanics, exclusive of ordinary 

 labourers. In addition to several works which have been 

 recently executed, there are said to be sufficient orders on hand 

 to occupy the staff for the next three years. The evidence 

 which this establishment exhibits of the rapid development of 

 internal trade is very satisfactory to all who watch with interest 

 the progress of Japan. 



"NoMENCLATOR Stratigraphicus : a Hand-book of the 

 Nomenclature of the Sedimentary Rocks," by G. A. Lebour, 

 F.G.S., is the title of a work which has been in hand for 

 several years, consisting of a list — as complete as may be — of the 

 subdivisions of the geological scale now or at any time in use in 

 this country or abroad. The names are arranged in alpha- 

 betical order as the easiest for reference. The date of publica- 

 tion, the meaning when it seemed necessary, and the equivalence, 

 are also given. The volume will be of at least 250 pp., and will 

 be published as soon as the number of subscribers has reached 

 200, Information may be obtained from Mr. G. A. Lebour, 

 2, Woodhouse Terrace, Gateshead-on-Tyne. 



There are very few botanical gardens, colonial or foreign, that 

 can boast of such a carefully-prepared or extensive catalogue as 

 that which Dr. Schomburgk has pronuced of the plants under cul- 

 tivation in the Government Botanic Garden, Adelaide, South Aus- 

 tralia, now before us. It comprises 285 pages ; and not alone on 

 the score of bulk, but also with regard to its contents, it is some- 

 thing more than a mere catalogue. The plants are arranged 

 under their natural orders, the scientific and common names and 

 native countries being given also. We are told whether the 

 plant is a tree or shrub, a climber, a trailing, or a creeping 

 plant, annual, biennial, or perennial, evergreen or deciduous, 

 out-door or stove-plant. Besides all this are too good indices, 

 one of English and the other of Latin names. From the pre- 

 face a very good idea may be had of the climate and meteor- 



