350 



NATURE 



[Feb, 28, 1878 



Prof. Ernst, who attributes the " rain " to secretion from 

 glands on the footstalk of the leaf on which drops of 

 liquid are found, which are rapidly renewed on being 

 removed with blotting paper. It is curious that precisely 

 the same question has been the subject of controversy 

 in the Old World with respect to honey-dew. It is gene- 

 rally believed that this is the result of the aggregate ejecta 

 of Aphides feeding on the juices of the lime. So competent 

 an observer, however, as Boussingault was of opinion that 

 honey-dew was a spontaneous exudation, and it seems not 

 impossible that the lime, as well as the Pithecolobium 

 Saman may, under some abnormal circumstances, exude 

 a sugary secretion which insects would eagerly feed on.^ 



W. T. Thiselton Dyer 



NOTES 



We have to record still another great loss to science in the 

 death on Tuesday, at Rome, of Father Secchi, the eminent 

 astronomer, whose serious illness we recently recorded. We can 

 do no more at present but announce the sad event. 



About 355/. have been subscribed to the Darwin Memorial 

 Fund, the idea of which, our readers may remember, originated 

 at Cambridge on the occasion of conferring the degree of LL. D, 

 on Mr. Darwin. We would again draw the attention of our 

 readers to the fund ; many of them, we are sure, will be glad to 

 contribute to it, and those who desire to do so should lose no 

 time in sending their subscriptions to the treasurer and secretary, 

 Mr. A. G. Dew- Smith, Trinity College, Cambridge. 



A Committee of members of the several classes of the 

 French Institute, together with a number of eminent scientiiic 

 men, has been formed to promote the erection of a monument 

 to Leverrier in the grounds of the Paris Observatory. It is 

 expected that foreigners as well as Frenchmen will subscribe. 



Prof. Flower's Hunterian Lectures at the Royal College of 

 Surgeons this year will treat of the Comparative Anatomy of 

 Man, more particularly of the Osteological and other Physical 

 Peculiarities of the Races of Australia and the Pacific Ocean. 

 The first two lectures will be devoted to an exposition of the 

 principal methods of craniological research, exemplified by a 

 series of fifty Australian and as many European skulls. The 

 account of the structure of each race will be preceded by a 

 notice of the principal facts of its history and social condition. 

 The lectures commence on Monday next at 4 o'clock, and will 

 be continued at the same hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and 

 Fridays, till March 28. Any one interested in the subject is 

 admitted. 



The Philosophic Faculty' of the University of Zurich has 

 just conferred the degree of Doctor Philos. honoris causa on Mr. 

 J. J. Wild, formerly of the scientific staff of H.M.S. Challenger, 

 and author of the recent work,fj" Thalassa," embodying some of 

 the results of that expedition. 



The Photographic Society have awarded to Capt. Abney a 

 silver Progress Medal for having made the greatest advance in 

 the science of photography during the past year. 



The third general meeting of Polish naturalists and physicians 

 wiU take place at Cracow this year. The two former meetings 

 were held at Posen and Lemberg respectively. 



The Committee of the French Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science held a meeting last Thursday. The i6th of 

 August was appointed for the opening of the session, which will 

 be presided over by M. Fremy. The general and sectional 

 meetings will take place at the Hotel des Beaux Arts, Paris, which 

 contains an immense number of rooms tastefully decorated with 

 fine pictures. The Committee has distributed 8,850 francs among 

 a number of inventors who are constructing machines or scientific 



I I have translated Boussingault's paper, and collected the evidence on 

 both sides, in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, new series, 

 vol. iv. pp. 1-7. 



apparatus for exhibition. A number of other encouragejnenls 

 for similar purposes will be distributed ; among the scientific 

 men who will be assisted we are in a position to mention the 

 name of M. Mouchot, for establishing on a large scale his 

 celebrated solar steam-engine. 



The annual session of the Deutsche snthropologische 

 Gesellschaft for 1878 begins at Hamburg on August 11. The 

 meetmgs on the 12th, 13th and 14th take place at Kiel, and those 

 on the 15th and i6th at Liibeck. 



In the January session of the Berlin anthropologische Gesell- 

 schaft, Prof. G. Fritsch delivered an exhaustive address on the 

 subject of Bushman drawings, in which he compared his own 

 observations in the Cape Colony with the late discoveries of Rev. 

 C. G. Biittner in the neighbourhood of Ameib, in the Damara 

 region. These combined results show the widely extended 

 presence of these drawings in South Africa and [the existence of 

 a surprising familiarity with perspective and the principles of 

 grouping. In view of the fact that the Bushmen are probably 

 the most degraded race of mankind now existing, dwelling as 

 they do in caves and living from hand to mouth, these evidences 

 of the first principles of art among them possess no small degree 

 of value as explanatory of numerous attempts at illustration 

 before the stone and bronze ages. This is especially the case 

 with the cave dwellers of the fso-called reindeer epoch, whose 

 remains have been uncovered recently in France and Switzerland. 

 Anthropologists have had frequent discussions during the past 

 year with regard to the origin of the sketches of animals in the 

 cave of Thainingen, supposed to date back to this epoch ; and the 

 opinion has been stoutly maintained that the human race at this 

 stage of development was utterly unable to produce works of 

 this kind. This view will scarcely be tenable in light of these 

 late discoveries among the Bushmen, who are certainly not 

 advanced beyond the stone-age. 



It is expected that the British Archaeological Association will 

 hold its annual congress next summer at Wisbeach,'to which it 

 has been courteously invited by the Mayor and Corporation. If 

 this arrangement should be definitely made the Prince of Wales 

 will be asked^ to allow his name to be used as the patron of the 

 congress. 



The Russian division in the Paris Exposition will contain a 

 most interesting! anthropological collection, the material for 

 which is now being gathered by a Commission in Moscow. 

 Among the more prominent features are an enormous cranial 

 collection from the various parts of the empire, and a model of 

 a Russian barrow. The latter is being executed by the sculptor, 

 Ssewojugin, in 'natural size, and will offer a perfect imitation of 

 the skeletons, ornaments, weapons, &c. , 'as usually found in these 

 ancient remains. The Russian educational system will be like- 

 wise very fully represented, as was the case in 1876. 



The official report of the Munich Session of the German Scien- 

 tific Association, which took place last September, has just 

 appeared. It forms a volume of 264 quarto pages, and has been 

 prepared with unusual care. Reports of all addresses delivered 

 have been furnished by the speakers themselves, who numbered 

 considerably over a hundred. The number of members and 

 participants in the last session was 1,800, of whom 650 were 

 from Munich or its vicinity. We notice that the Society is ex- 

 ceedingly strict'in the observance of one of its statutes stating that 

 it shall possess no property with the exception of its archives, 

 for the receipts exactly cover the expenses. 



The death is announced of Major-General Sir Andrew Scott 

 Waugh, F.R.S., of the Royal Engineers, at the age of sixty- 

 eight. He entered the Bengal Engineers in 1827, and assisted 

 in the making of the great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 

 1832. He also took a leading part under Sir George Everest 



J 



