Sept. 12, 1878] 



NATURE 



521 



be surprised at the alleged unhealthiness of Cyprus, when 

 Mr. Wyld tells us that the average temperature in 

 February is 5 2 "8" Centigrade, and that of July and 

 August 82° of the same scale ! 



Lieut. Kitchener, R.E., has handed over to the 

 Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund the whole 

 of the memoirs, special plans, and lists connected with 

 the great map of Western Palestine. These materials, 

 now in the hands of the Committee, consist of a map in 

 twenty-six sheets, on the scale of one inch to a mile ; a 

 map in three sheets, on the scale of three-eighths of the 

 large map ; and an immense collection of memoirs from 

 the note-books of Lieut. Conder and himself. The Com- 

 mittee have already taken steps for the publication of the 

 maps, and will at once proceed to consider that of the 

 memoirs, a part of the work as important as the map. 

 Lieut. Kitchener exchanges the work of the Palestine 

 Fund for the important charge of the survey of Cyprus, 

 to which he has been appointed by the Foreign Office. 

 He achieved in Palestine what may be called the unparal- 

 leled feat in survey work of surveying 1,000 square miles 

 for 1,000/., and in eight months. 



We learn from Washington that Capt. Tyson is 

 expected in America with the Florence in which last 

 year he made a preliminary trip, with the view of 

 establishing a polar colony at Lady Franklin's Sound. 

 The scheme, which has been devised by Capt. Howgate, 

 of the Signal Service, has not been given up, but post- 

 poned for one year, Congress having terminated its 

 session without any resolution having been taken on the 

 necessary grant of credit. It will be proposed again Avhen 

 the Congress meets in 1879, and the report drawn up this 

 year by the special commission will receive an additional 

 force from observations taken by Capt. Tyson and his 

 able scientific staff. 



The Geographical Magazine for September describes 

 the equipment of two expeditions from the United States 

 for the survey of the Amazon. One of these is in the Enter- 

 prise, under Commander Selfridge,ofthe U.S. Navy, which 

 will survey the river as far as Manaos, and the Madeira as 

 far as San Antonio, the point of departure of the line of 

 railway around the Falls of Madeira. The other expedi- 

 tion is sent out by Messrs. Mackie and Scott, of Phila- 

 delphia, its object being to arrange a route by way of the 

 large rivers which connect Bolivia and Brazil, over which 

 trade can be carried on. As a preliminary measure a 

 surveying party will go to BoUvia to study the country, 

 and will be accompanied by a naturalist, Mr. Ernest 

 Morris, who has already done good work on the Lower 

 Amazon. 



The just published June number of the Bulletin of the 

 French Geographical Society contains M. de Ujfalvy's 

 account of his official journey to Zarafshan, Ferganah, 

 and Kuldja, which contains a good many original ethno- 

 logical observations. Dr. Hamy has a paper on Manoel 

 Godinho de Eredia, the Portuguese whom Mr. Major and 

 others had accepted as the earliest discoverer of Aus- 

 tralia ; fuller evidence, however, convinced Mr. Major 

 that Godinho had no claim to this honour, and Dr. Hamy 

 endeavours to show what were the real services rendered 

 by this " Descobrider " to geography. The number con- 

 tains the letter from Savorgnan De Brazza, describing his 

 journey on the Ogovd, to which we alluded some time 

 since. 



From t\\QBollettino of the Italian Geographical Society 

 we learn that Romola Gessi had been furnished with a 

 formidable equipment for the exploration of the Sobat, by 

 Gordon Pasha, who, at the last moment, was compelled 

 to stop the expedition, on account of a formidable re- 

 bellion in Darfur. 



M. Paul Soleillet, who, it will be remembered, was 

 to cross Africa from Senegambia to Algeria, reached 



Kuniakaro on June 23 by way of Bakel. This was 1,250 

 kilometres beyond St. Louis, and thitherto M. Soleillet had 

 few difficulties. After Kuniakaro, however, the real 

 work of the expedition will commence, and not a few 

 dangers will have to be faced. His next point Avas 

 Yamina, a small town on the banks of the Joliba, about 

 50 kilometres from Segou. 



Letters have been received in Holland from the 

 members of the Dutch North Polar Expedition, and their 

 contents are said to be highly interesting. The expedi- 

 tion, after leaving Bergen, had proceeded to Jan Mayen, 

 where they arrived on May 9. On June 27 they reached 

 Amsterdam Island, where a simple monument was erected 

 in memory of the Dutch sailors buried there. The expe- 

 dition then visited the other principal points of Spitz- 

 bergen, and eventually sailed for Vardo, on the north 

 coast of Norway. It was then their intention to cross, 

 the Barentz Sea in order to reach Novaya Zemlya in the 

 middle of August. The letters state further that numerous 

 scientific observations have been made. 



Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs, after finding that his efforts to 

 form a large society with a view of organising an exploring 

 expedition to Africa upon a grand scale, have not met with 

 the success he anticipated, has now resolved to start alone 

 as on former occasions. 



At the meeting of the French Geographical Societies 

 in Paris a number of resolutions were adopted, bearing 

 principally on the teaching of geography and topography 

 in the public schools, the creation of regional geogra- 

 phical museums and congresses, the means of multiplying 

 the number of geographical societies, and fostering in- 

 tercourse between members of the several European 

 societies. It was decided that all the] members of the 

 different French and Algerian societies should have the 

 right to be admitted to each others meetings. It was 

 proposed to advise foreign societies to do the same, and 

 to adopt an universal geographical society's ticket. The 

 next national geographical exhibition will take place at 

 Montpellier in 1879, on the occasion of the meeting of 

 the French Association. A conference of all French 

 societies will also be held at the same time. 



The gold medal for English maps, charts, &c., at the 

 Paris Exhibition, has been awarded to Mr. Stanford. 



BREWING IN JAPAN 



AT the present time, when the history of the origin and 

 development of the lower forms of life is occupying 

 a great deal of attention, any facts which increase our 

 knowledge of the growth of such bodies should be wel- 

 comed. In our breweries the growth of the yeast-ferment 

 is tolerably well understood, or, at least, has been well 

 observed and described. Under ordinary conditions the 

 yeast-fungus exists only in the aquatic form, as it may be 

 termed ; and only under special circumstances, and with 

 considerable difficulty in preventing putrefaction, is it 

 enabled to produce spores. The internal substance of 

 the cell becomes differentiated ; granulations form and 

 collect round certain points, and these ultimately become 

 invested with a membrane, upon which the spores are 

 ripe. The production of spores is thus unattended with 

 the formation of a mycelium, or, if formed, it is so minute 

 as to have been overlooked. This, however, is not a 

 normal process of reproduction : the principal one, and 

 indeed under the usual conditions, the only mode, is by 

 budding. ^ 



Those living in Japan, however, have the opportunity 

 of seeing a mode of fermentation which differs in many 

 particulars from that employed in Europe. The subject 

 is now under investigation, and at present I am not able 

 to explain accurately what takes place ; but as the pro- 

 cess followed is interesting from its novelty, as it appears 

 to consist in the previous practical use of a discovery 



