Jafi. 12, 1888] 



NATURE 



257 



the numerous family of the deceased clergyman have entered 

 ilie Church, so that the interesting ecclesiastical connection of 

 the family with the parish now comes to an end. Dr. Mackinnon 

 was a noble type of the true old Highland gentleman, digni- 

 fied, courteous, kindly, and always the same, whether conversing 

 with crofter or countess. He was delighted to tell his reminis- 

 cences of the old geologists. It was his uncle who put into 

 visible expression by his famous but unspeakable "device of 

 the pots" (as Barbour has it) the universal indignation of Skye 

 at the account of the island and its inhabitants given by the 

 geologist Macculloch, in his book on the Highlands and 

 Western Islands. It was in his father's house that Sedgwick 

 and Murchison were entertained when they passed through the 

 north-west Highlands in 1827, and he had some amusing stories 

 about the impression made on himself and his brothers by the 

 iloings of these two great brethren of the hammer. In later 

 years geologists and other students of science, as well as artists 

 an I distinguished men of many kinds, have enjoyed the hospi- 

 tality of his home at Kilbride under the shadow of the great 

 mountain, and in sight of the gleaming Atlantic. Only a few 

 months ago he had an opportunity of renewing his early love for 

 mineralogy and geology, and while riding on his favourite quiet 

 coll, looking after his faroi-servants as they harvested between 

 tiie sh(jwers of a Skye September, he would stop now and again 

 to point out geological features that had been familiar and in- 

 teresting to him from boyhood. He belonged to a type of 

 Scottish. clergyman that is slowly disappearing, and carries with 

 hidi the affectionate regrets of everyone who was privileged to 

 enjoy his friendship. 



The Annual General Meeting of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society will be held at 25 Great George Street, Westminster, on 

 Wednesday, the i8th instant, at 8 p.m., when the Report of 

 the Council will be read, the election of officers and Council for 

 the ensuing year will take place, and Mr. W. Ellis, the 

 President, will deliver his address. 



On Tuesday next (January 17), Mr, George J. Romanes will 

 begin at the Royal Institution a course of ten lectures, being 

 the first part of a course on " Before and After Darwin ;" Mr. 

 Hubert Herkoaier'will' on Thursday (January 19), begin a course 

 i)f three lectures on (i) "The Walker School," (2) " My Visits 

 to America," and (3) "Art Education" ; and Lord Rayleigh 

 will on Saturday (January 21) be2;in a course of seven lectures 

 on "Experimental Optics." The Friday evening meetings 

 will begin on January 20, when Lord Rayleigh will give a 

 discourse on " Diffraction of Sound." 



The following are the arrangements for the Penny Science 

 Lectures at the Royal Victoria Hall for the present month : — 

 January 10, "The Great Sea- Serpent," by Arthur Stradling ; 

 January 17, "Caves and Cave-Men," by Y. W. Rudler ; Janu- 

 ary 24, "The Oldest Monuments in Brittany and Britain," by 

 Prof. Bonney, F.R.S. ; January 31, "Speech made Visible, or 

 Picture-Writing as it was, ard as it is now," by Prof. Ramsay. 



Lectures will be dtlivered in Gresham College, Basinghall 

 Street, E.C., on January 17, 18, 19, and 20, at 6 p.m., by Dr. 

 v.. Symes Thompson, on " Sleep, Sleeplessness, and Pain." 



In relerence to the review in these columns last week 

 (p. 218) of the second series of collected papers on Indo-China, 

 we observe from the last Annual Report of the Council of the 

 Straits Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, that there is at present 

 11) intention of proceeding further with the publication of 

 -elected papers on the East Indian Archipelago. The Council, 

 however, expresses a hope that, at some fiitU'-e time, an effort 

 will be made by the Society to translate and publish selected 

 papers which have appeared in the Journals of Societies in 

 Holland and Java, written by learned Duic'i Orientalists. The 

 Report adds that the new nin^. of the peninsul.i, to which we 



have several times referred, was finished in 1886, but before it 

 could be sent to England the Siamese Government gave further 

 geographical information concerning the northern part of the 

 peninsula, and the map will not be published till this new 

 information is incorporated in it. 



In the November Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 

 issued from the Royal Gardens, Kew, attention was drawn to 

 the subject of fruit-growing in British colonies, and an admir- 

 able report on the fruits of Canada was given. The treatment 

 of the subject is continued in the January Bulletin, which con- 

 tains full reports sent by the Governments of Victoria, South 

 Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Nesv Zealand, Cape 

 Colony, and Mauritius. Prominence is given to the quantity of 

 fruit actually available for export in each colony. To this the 

 writers add the months during which the fruit is in season, and 

 the prices usually paid for it locally. It was intended to publish 

 tiie reports from the Australian colonies, Tasmania, New 

 Zealand, and the Cape of Good Hope in one series, so as to 

 present a general review of the fruit industries of the Southern 

 Hemisphere ; and this was to have been followed by reports 

 dealing exclusively with the fruits of tropical colonies. So far, 

 hov\ ever, reports from New South Wales and Queensland have 

 not been received. 



An interesting paper, by Mr. Daniel Morris, on the use of 

 Certain plants as alexipharmics, or snake-bite antidotes, has just 

 been issued. Mr. Morris explains that his enumeration of the 

 plants reputed to possess alexipharmic properties is offered 

 without any expression of opinion. as to thejr value. It is in- ' 

 tended chiefly as an attempt to bring together for the first time 

 a summary of information about these plants, in order that 

 inquiry may be made to confirm or refute the popular opinion 

 respecting them. " Opportunities," says Mr. Morris, "to test 

 the action of these plants on a person actually bitten by a well- 

 known poisonous snake are seldom offered to a competent 

 investigator. But as material is being brought together which 

 can be carefully tested by chemical and therapeutical investiga- 

 tions, the most prominent of these plants, such as species of 

 Aristolochia and Mikania, deserve very careful attention." 



A VAl.UAiii.E paper, by Prof. Marshall Ward, on the tuber- 

 cular swellings on the roots of Vicia Faba, has just been printed 

 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 



Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. will publish in a 

 few days a new work by Mr. Theodore Wood, entitled 

 "The Farmer's Friends and Foes." The book describes in 

 considerable detail the nature and habits of those animals, birds, 

 and insects which exercise a good or evil influence upon the 

 products of British agriculture, and is profusely illustrate:!. 



We have received the " Annuaire," for 1888, of L'Academie 

 Royale des Sciences, des Lettres, et des Beaux- Arts de Belgique. 

 It contains full information as to the organization, rules, and 

 work of the Academy ; and there are several rather elaborate 

 memoirs of late members. Each of these memoirs is accom- 

 panied by a carefully-engraved portrait. 



Caft. M. Rykatschew, the Assistant Director of the 

 Central Physical Observatory at St. Petersburg, has published 

 in the Repertoriuin filr Meteorologie (Bd. xi. No. 2) a discussion 

 of the winds and pressure of the Ca-pian Sea. The title is 

 misleading, as the observations are made on land, ten stations 

 being on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and nine in neigh- 

 bouring districts. And the mean winds are deduced by 

 Lambert's formula, which deals with the number of observa- 

 tions without reference to the force of the wind. Nevertheless 

 the work is a valuable and elaborate discussion, based on trust- 

 worthy observations extending from three to forty-four years. 



