Feb. 1 6, 1888] 



NATURE 



Z19 



St. George's were so much damaged thatthey cannot be safely 

 occupied. The walls of the St. David's Roman Catholic Church 

 are so seriously injured that they will have to be taken down in 

 some places and rebuilt. The sacristy was all but demolished ; 

 the basement wall of the presbytery was thrown down, and the 

 building itself had to be propped up with posts. The Court 

 House in the same parish sustained considerable injury. The 

 tower of the Anglican Church in Granville was cracked. During 

 the succeeding week several mild shocks of earthquake were 

 experienced in the island, the strongest of which occurred 

 between 7 and 8 o'clock on the night of Sunday, January 15. 



Dr. Forbes Watson's collection of commercial products, 

 which was lately offered to the University of Aberdeen at the 

 comparatively small price of £zy>, has been bought by Dr. 

 Carnelley and his father, and presented to University College, 

 Dundee. Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, at whose suggestion the 

 purchase was made, writes to the Dundee Advertiser : " This 

 excellent gift puts us at once in possession of a museum which is 

 first-class of its kind, and of which town and College should be 

 proud for ever. Dr. Forbes Watson is well known to many of 

 the older men in Dundee for his knowledge of jute and all other 

 commercial fibres. His works are standard on the subject. His 

 collection was amassed with unrivalled opportunities and the 

 highest technical skill. Great part of it was brought together as 

 an official duty for the India Museum, and was presented by the 

 Department to Dr. Forbes Watson when that Museum was 

 broken up. It contains nearly 7500 samples. Between 700 and 800 

 of these are fibres, including textiles and paper- making materials. 

 There are over 500 dyes and dye-stuffs, 500 oils and oil-seeds, 

 600 or 700 gums, resins, and guttas, nearly 2003 medicinal 

 substances (may they be useful to us in the future), and more than 

 as many samples of food-stuffs. The bulk of the collection is 

 stored in bottles, filling fourteen cabinets, and there are also 

 stands and cases for the display of specimens. Altogether the 

 cases and bottles in which this great collection is stored repre- 

 sent a cost greater than the price which Dr. Forbes Watson now 

 asks and receives." 



The Batavia Nieiusblad announces that the Government has 

 decided upon establishing a bacteriological laboratory in that 

 town. An institution for the pursuit of that special branch of 

 study will be built immediately the funds for the purpose become 

 available. The existing laboratory arrangements will be improved 

 and extended, so as to admit of pathological and bacteriological 

 investigations. 



We are glad to learn from the American Naturalist that the 

 project of a Marine Biological Laboratory on the New England 

 coast is not languishing. Several thousand dollars have already 

 been subscribed towards the erection of the necessary building 

 and its equipment and maintenance. The Cominittee on the 

 Laboratory have arranged a course of eight lectures, the proceeds 

 of which are to be added to the fund. 



Lieut. Niblack, U.S.N., has returned to Washington from 

 a three-years' voyage to Southern Alaska, where he has been 

 engaged on coast-survey duty. He has brought with him many 

 photographs and objects which will be of interest to students of 

 ethnology and anthropology. He devoted special attention to 

 the totem posts of Southern Alaska. He says that in that 

 country winter is the best season for ethnological studies. The 

 natives are then at home, whereas in the summer they are often 

 far inland. 



Assistant Charles x\. Schott, assistant in charge of the 

 Computing Division of the United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, has addressed a letter to the Superintendent of his Bureavi 

 about the recent discovery, by Assistant G. Davidson, of records 

 of the magnetic declination, a.d. 1714. He says that these 

 records greatly increase our knowledge of the secular variation 



of the declination. »SV/t'w<r^ gives the following account of the 

 substance of M. Schott's letter :— " By means of these observa- 

 tions we are able to improve materially the expressions for San 

 Bias and Magdalena Bay, to add the new station Cape San Lucas, 

 and to make their influence felt as far north as San Diego and 

 Santa Barbara. It is the range which is greatly improved ; 

 besides, the epoch of maximum declination is shifted in the right 

 direction. Apart from the fact that a region of west declination 

 is here for the first time observationally indicated on the Pacific 

 coast, the power of the newly recovered declinations is due to 

 the circumstance, that, as far as known, they cover a time when 

 the needle was in or near a phase the opposite of the present one. 

 For want of early observations, those previously collected f©r 

 San Diego and Santa Barbara, Cal. , were extremely difficult to 

 handle ; and, while it was not an easy matter to establish new 

 expressions for these stations, their correctness, or rather applic- 

 ability over the whole period of time the observations cover, is 

 quite reassuring. He points out the desirability of new obser- 

 vations (either using funds yet available before July next, or 

 providing funds to be used after that date) at San Diego, Santa 

 Barbara, and Monterey, and states that these stations have re- 

 ceived no attention for seven years. These observations are 

 demanded to give greater precision to the computed variations 

 on our charts." 



A NUMBER of American geographers, all belonging to Wash- 

 ington, have incorporated the American National Geographical 

 Society for a term of 100 years. The principal objects of the 

 Society are to increase and diffuse geographical knowledge, to 

 publish the T ransactions of the Society, to publish a periodical 

 magazine and other works relating to the science of geography, 

 to dispose of such publications by sale or otherwise, and to 

 acquire a library under the restrictions and regulations to be 

 established by its by-laws. 



The Commissioners of Public Schools of Baltimore, Md., 

 deserve much credit for the efforts they are making to secure 

 for the schools under their care important reforms which have 

 always been advocated by students of sanitary laws. They lately 

 resolved that the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore should be 

 requested to authorize them to appoint an officer, to be known 

 as the Sanitary Superintendent of Public Schools, whose duty 

 would be : (i) to carefully examine all plans submitted for the 

 construction of new school-houses, and suggest such modifica- 

 tions as may be necessary from a sanitary point of view ; (2) to 

 advise with the Commissioners with reference to necessary alter- 

 ations in school-buildings to improve their hygienic condition ; 

 (3) to examine all text-books before adoption, in order that type, 

 printing, or paper injurious to the eyesight of pupils may be 

 avoided in selecting such books ; (4) to satisfy himself, by per- 

 sonal examination if necessary, that all pupils admitted to the 

 schools have been properly vaccinated, or are otherwise pro- 

 tected against small-pox ; (5) to take such other measures, in 

 conjunction with the Plealth Commissioner of the city, as may 

 be necessary to prevent the spread of contagious diseases in, or 

 through the medium of, the public schools ; (6) to examine 

 annually the eyesight of all children attending the public 

 schools, and keep an accurate record of such examinations j 

 (7) to report annually, or as often as may be required by the 

 Commissioners, upon the sanitary condition of the schools, and 

 of the pupils attending them, and to advise the Commissioners 

 upon sanitary questions connected with schools whenever re- 

 quired ; (8) to give instruction, by lectures or otherwise, to the 

 teachers in the schools upon the elementary principles of school 

 hygiene. 



We have received the second volume of the Transactions of 

 the Meriden (Conn., U.S.A.) Scientific Association. It contains, 

 among other things, a valuable list, drawn up by Mr. Franklin 

 Piatt, of the birds of Meriden. 



