ISIOV. 22, 1877] 



NATURE 



69 



the fashion of the preceding, and has been prepared by 

 Dr. John Anderson, the Superintendent of the Imperial 

 Museum at Calcutta. It shows that though so recently 

 in actual operation these gardens have already made con- 

 siderable progress, and are able to show a good series of 

 the better-known Indian animals for the instruction and 

 amusement of the Calcutta public. Amongst others we 

 may notice the Indian Otter {Ltdra leptonyx) and the 

 Isabelline Bear, as animals which have not yet reached 

 the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London. Alto- 

 gether there are TJ species of mammals in the collection, 

 120 of birds, and 17 of reptiles. 



The " Guide to the People's Park " shows that Madras 

 does not intend to be left behind the sister-city of Calcutta, 

 and that she too will have a zoological garden. As its name 

 imports, this little work is more of the nature of a " Guide " 

 than a Catalogue. It appears that Madras is indebted to Sir 

 Charles Trevelyan for the People's Park. Prior to 1859 the 

 plot of ground which it now occupies formed " an im- 

 mense swamp." In that year the enlightened governor 

 of the day first suggested, and subsequently put into 

 execution, the conversion of it into a park of about 116 

 English acres. (How glad would be the Council of the 

 Zoological Society of London to have such an area at their 

 disposal !) The collection of animals does not yet, it is 

 true, appear to be very extensive ; but space, at any rate, 

 does not fail them, and there is, at all events, plenty of 

 room for additions, which cannot be said of some of the 

 sister institutions. 



We must now turn to the western hem'sphere, and see 

 what our Anglo-Saxon relatives on the other side of the 

 Atlantic have done in the way of zoological gardens. In 

 this matter, we must say, our usually energetic cousins 

 seem to have moved a little slowly. Such vast and 

 wealthy populations as those of New York and Phila- 

 delphia might well have started zoological gardens for 

 the instruction and amusement of their citizens years ago, 

 and they would by this have been in possession of well- 

 organised institutions. But although the subject has 

 been mooted in both these cities for many years, it is 

 only within these last few years, we believe, that anything 

 very practical has been effected. 



, The Zoological Garden of New York forms a part of 

 the Central Park of that city, and the report now before 

 us is addressed by Mr. W. A. Conklin, the director, to 

 the Board of Commissioners of the Department of Public 

 Parks of New York. It gives us an account of the affairs 

 of the Zoological Garden during the year 1876, and not 

 apparently a very satisfactory one — since a reduction of 

 the sum usuc.Uy appropriated (by the City of New York, 

 we presume) to the Park was made that year, which 

 rendered it impossible to keep up the Gardens on their 

 usual footing. It was resolved " not to receive any animal 

 for exhibition in the menagerie unless the owner furnished 

 the necessary food." This measure and the diminution 

 of the sum expended in new purchases seem to have 

 caused a sad decrease in the number of animals exhibited 

 in 1876. In spite of this the number of visitors was larger 

 than in any previous year, which, however, is accounted 

 for by the concourse of visitors passing through New York 

 to and from the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. 



While the Zoological Garden of New York is kept up 

 out of public moneys that at Philadelphia is, like ours in 

 London, the property of a private society, and appears to 

 be in a much more flourishing condition. Here the *' Cen- 

 tennial" told still more largely on the number of visitors 

 than at New York, raising them to a grand total of more than 

 600,000 for the year ending April 30 last. The extra receipts 

 from this source have not only enabled the society to make 

 many important additions to its menagerie, but also to 

 spend a considerable sum in improvements and new build- 

 ings. Amongst the latter we notice " a house for the 

 accommodation of warm-climated (!) hay-eating animals " 

 (qu. zebras and antelopes ?) now under construction at an 



estimated cost of 18,000 dollars, which will apparently 

 exceed in dimensions even the new lion-house of the 

 Zoological Society of London. This is pretty well for a 

 society only now issuing its fifth annual report. It is 

 evident that in zoological gardens, as in other scientific 

 institutions, Philadelphia means to "go-ahead" of her 

 more populous neighbour. 



NOTES 



We take the following from the Times : — The Royal Society 

 medals for the present year have been awarded by the President and 

 the Council as follows : — The Copley Medal to Prof. James D wight 

 Dana, for his biological, geological, and mineralogical investiga- 

 tions, carried on through half a century, and for the valuable works 

 in which his conclusions and discoveries have been published. A 

 Royal Medal to Mr. Frederick Augustus Abel, F.R.S., for his 

 physico-chemical researches on gun-cotton and explosive agents. 

 A Royal Medal to Prof. Oswald Heer, of Zurich, for his nume- 

 rous researches and writings on the tertiary plants of Europe, of 

 the North Atlantic, North Asia, and North America, and for his 

 able generalisations respecting their affinities and their geological 

 and cHmatic relations ; and the Davy Medal to Robert Wilhelm 

 Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, for their researches and 

 discoveries in spectrum analysis. This is the first award of the 

 Davy medal, which, as will be remembered, was founded by the 

 proceeds of the sale of the service of silver plate bequeathed for 

 the purpose by Sir Humphry Davy. The medals will be pre- 

 sented at the Society's anniversary meeting on the 30th inst. 



A FEW days ago the French Minister of Public Instruction, by 

 a decree which has not yet been published, appointed a Com- 

 mission to deliberate with the members of the council of the 

 Observatory of Paris, as to the improvements which are pos- 

 sible in the organisation of the establishment without inter- 

 fering with existing decrees. Among the commissioners are 

 Dr. Janssen, Director of the Meudon Physical Observatory, M. 

 Herve Mangon, President of the Meteorological Society of 

 France, and M. Marie Davy, the Director of the Montsouris 

 Observatory. M. Yvon Villarceau and M. Loewy have been 

 appointed as councillors. The first meeting of the Commission 

 took place last Saturday, under the presidency of M. Dumesnil, 

 one of the heads of the ministry, representing M. Brunet. M. 

 Yvon Villarceau, the astronomer delegate, read a long and 

 elaborate report on the improvements which it was considered 

 desirable to make in the establishment. The Commission came 

 to no decision, and the meeting adjourned to Saturday, Dec. i. 

 Some of the members are desirous of separating the meteoro- 

 logical department from the observatory, and either transfer it 

 to Montsouris or establish a Meteorological Institute ; to accom- 

 plish this long desired change it would be necessary to suppress 

 the decrees signed by M. Thiers and approved by M. Leverrier. 

 The intentions of the Government are not to alter radically the 

 existing state of things, which works satisfactorily, but to im- 

 prove it as far as possible. Public opinion is strongly in favour 

 of the organisation consecrated by M. Laverrier's administration. 



Two volumes of the French Transit of Venus Reports are now 

 going through the press, and will be diitributed in a very few 

 days. The first is a compte rendu of the m'ssion in China, com- 

 manded by Capt. Fleurian. The second \s 2^ prods verbal of the 

 sittings of the Transit Commission, which was presided over by 

 M. Dumas. It is known that M. Leverrier abstained from being 

 present at its deliberations, the illustrious astronomer being one 

 of the few opponents of the transit observation. He preferred 

 the opposition of Mars or direct measurements as taken by 

 Cornu in his experiments on the velocity of light. 



The French Government intends to send out an expedition to 

 San Francisco in order to observe the next transit of Mercury, 

 which will take place on May 6, 1878. 



