Jan. 3, 1878] 



NATURE 



193 



corroborates the fact of its being a comparatively small land- 

 locked lake. Col. Mason is in the service of the Khedive. 



Mr. Stanley has arrived in Egypt, and is to spend a few 

 days at Cairo. On Newr Year's Day he was to be entertained 

 at a banquet by Sir George Elliot, M.P., to which the principal 

 English and American visitors and residents were invited. 



The African Association presided over by the King of the 

 Belgians has learnt by telegram that its travellers have safely 

 reached Zanzibar. 



At a recent" meeting of the Liverpool Historic Society, 

 Mr. T. Glazebrook Rylands, F.S. A., read an important 

 paper or " Ptolemy's Geography of the Coast from Caer- 

 narvon to Cumberland (including Cheshire and Lancashire). 

 The paper was the preliminary result of extensive and long 

 research, during which the author has found out that pre- 

 vious writers have examined Ptolemy's work carelessly or 

 inadequately, and greatly misrepresented his data. It has, 

 for example, been inferred for centuries that the Mersey was 

 unknown to Ptolemy, and that the river known as Belisama was 

 identical with the Kibble. This has led to further deductions of 

 an erroneous character ; as, for example, that there was a wide 

 sheet of water making the mouths of the Mersey and the Dee 

 undistinguishable, while two islands in it reared their heads, 

 viz., Wallasey, separated by a branch of the tide through Wal- 

 lasey Pool, and Wirral, separated by a strait almost coincident 

 with the canal from Chester. Mr. Rylands believes — and there 

 can be little doubt of the fact — that he has ascertained the ideas 

 of Ptolemy and verified his measurements and mode of projection 

 in a way wholly unknown to former inquirers. He has thus 

 explained apparent anomalies and corrected misunderstandings 

 of former writers. Commencing southwards at Caernarvonshire, 

 he has verified the positions from beyond Pwlhelli round by 

 Caernarvon and Conway to the Dee ; he has verified the positions 

 of the Mersey and the Kibble, and all along the coast to St. 

 Eee's Head, in Cumberland. In several instances where it was 

 thought Ptolemy was in error, Mr. Kylands has shown he is cor- 

 rect, and it is a matter of surprise that where we should expect 

 approximate truth only , the more rigid tests give more accurate 

 results. 



The Bristol Naturalists' Society appears to be in a flourishing 

 condition. It has recently added to its organisation a Physical 

 and Chemical "Section," of which Dr. W. A. Tilden is secre- 

 tary and Mr. P. J. Worsley president. The recent meetings 

 of the Society have been more largely attended, and there 

 appears to be a revived interest in physical science in the ancient 

 city. 



M. Gauthier Villars has just published a new edition of 

 a highly interesting old book, "Lectures on Chemical Philo- 

 sophy," delivered at the College de France in 1836 by M. 

 Dumas. In this curious work all the prevalent ideas in che- 

 mistry were initiated. Not a single sentence has been altered, 

 yet M. Dumas' lectures seem quite fresh and young, ready to 

 be used by students in the highest schools. They weie col- 

 lected by M. Bineau, a gentleman who died twenty years ago, 

 afcer having been a professor in the Lyons Faculty of Sciences. 



The sittings of the enlarged council of the Paris observatory 

 came to an end last week. The resolutions come to, of which we 

 have already given the substance, have been sent to M. Bardoux, 

 the Minister for Public Instruction. The International Meteoro- 

 logical Service entered, on January i, the twenty-first year of its 

 existence, and will continue connected with the Paris Observa- 

 tory, where it was established by M. Leverrier in 1857. The 

 present head of the service is M. Front, a physicist connected 

 with the service for many years, and trained by Leverrier him- 

 self. The first physicist-a^i;w/ is M Moureau, formerly a school- 

 master, whom Leverrier remarked for his zeal and assiduity 



in meteorological researches and observations. The great 

 astronomer required no other scientific qualifications than intel- 

 ligence and instruction obtained by personal exertion. He 

 turned away many doctors in science and pupils of the highest 

 schools who were wanting in the requirements he was anxious to 

 secure, and sought to find them even in the humblest stations of 

 life. 



Mr. John Fielding, of Todmorden, has just presented to the 

 Aquarium at Westminster two specimens of Proteus sanguineus, 

 obtained by his courier, C. F. Kohl, from the grotto of 

 Adelsburg. They are said to be the first shown in England. A 

 specimen of Menobranchus lateralis has been on view for some 

 little time. 



A MOST unfortunate series of disasters followed Mr. Car- 

 rington's endeavours to bring to London a collection of specimens 

 of the Mediterranean fauna. Dr. Eisig, of the Naples Aquarium, 

 offered him every facility, suggested localities, and placed some 

 store-tanks at his service. A collection of fish zoophytes and 

 corals was made, and seven tanks were fitted up on a cargo 

 steamer to transport them to England. Shortly after starting a 

 thunderstorm was encountered, the ship was struck by lightning, 

 and the contents of two metal tanks were at once destroyed. 

 Among other things a fine collection of mureen eels averaging 

 2 feet in length was thus lost. Rough weather for a day or two 

 caused further deaths. After leaving Gibraltar the change of 

 temperature proved excessively fatal, the bright-coloured animals 

 suffering most. The heavy weather in the Channel broke some 

 of the other tanks, so that but i^"^ animals reached England 

 alive. Mr. Carrington, however, arranged for supplies with 

 agents at Naples, Messina, Palermo, Valentia, Gibraltar, Tan* 

 giers, and Lisbon. 



Mr. B. Ralph, of Launceston, Cornwall, sends us a ripe 

 strawberry which he gathered on December 29 from a hedge 

 about 400 feet above sea-level. Pink strawberry blossoms, he 

 states, are not uncommon. The thermometer stood at 50" in 

 the shade. Bar. 29 '2, with a west wind. Many of the com- 

 moner hedgeflowers linger on, such as lychnis and geranium. 

 He also incloses some primroses, blossoming in an exposed 

 situation outside his window. 



Two somewhat forcible shocks of earthquake were felt at 

 Bclo£ina on December 23, and a slight one at Alicante on the 

 preceding day. 



Prof. Barrett, in a recent lecture on the telephone, gave a 

 receipt for making a cheap one. Take a wooden tooth-powder 

 box and make a hole about the size of a half-crown in the lid 

 and the bottom. Take a disc of tinned iron, such as can be had 

 from a preserved meat tin, and place it on the outside of the 

 bottom of the box, and fix the cover on the other side of it. Then 

 take a small bar-magnet, place on one end a small cotton or silk 

 reel, and round the reel wind some iron wire, leaving the ends 

 loose. Fix one end of the magnet near, as near as possible 

 without touching, to the disc, and then one part of the telephone 

 is complete. A similar arrangement is needed for the other end. 

 The two are connected by the wire, and with this Prof. Barrett 

 says he has been able to converse at a distance of about 100 

 yards. 



M. Bardoux, the new Minister of Public Instruction in 

 France, has held a reception of the several heads of his depart- 

 ment and employes of the central administration. He delivered a 

 speech insisting upon the necessity for a Republican Government 

 to educate the people, as a good system of public education is 

 the strongest basis on which any Republic can be safely 

 established. According to the XIX. Sikle M. Bardoux is not 

 only preparing a Bill for establishing gratuitous elementary 

 education, but also for organising a higher elementary education. 



