96 



NATURE 



\yune 3, 1875 



by the fecole de Medecine ; no' fees are to be charged from 

 pupils. M. Wallon has granted a sum of 300/. yearly for labora- 

 tory expenses. Anthropological societies and private individuals 

 have subscribed a fund ; the shares are said to be worth 40/. 

 Five courses of lectures are to be delivered, including a series by 

 M. Broca on Craniology, by M. Dailly on Human Races, M. 

 G. de Mortillet on Prehistoric Times. The number of lectures 

 is to be increased as the resources of the association multiply. 



Active preparations are being made for the exhibition of the 

 French Geographical Society at the Pavilion des Flores. The 

 large hall is almost finished, and is said to be of superior taste 

 and magnificence. 



For the first time in >ecent years the French Minister of 

 Public Instruction is one of the leading members of the Cabinet. 

 It is said that in the discussion on the new electoral law, M. 

 Wallon intends to ask the Versailles Assembly to vote that 

 ignorance be considered a disqualification, and that any elector 

 be disfranchised who cannot read and write. 



M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, the Director of the Jardin 

 d'Acclimatation, Paris, has just instituted a new intermediate 

 station for tropical plants at the lies d'Hyeres. Delicate plants 

 will consequently not be taken at once from a hot to a cold 

 atmosphere. 



A MEMORTAL tablet, bearing an appropriate inscription, now 

 marks the spot in Westminster Abbey where the remains of Dr. 

 Livingstone are deposited. 



A Scientific Society has recently been established in Caius 

 College, Cambridge, for the diffusion of scientific knowledge 

 among the members of the College, for the reading of essays on 

 scientific subjects, and for the holding of scientific discussions. 

 The Society admits within the range of its discussions all sciences 

 of observation. An interesting feature in the scheme of the 

 Society's proceedings is that the first half-hour of each meeting 

 is to be devoted to open discussion, to the answering of questions 

 proposed by any member either at the time or at a previous 

 meeting, or to the exhibition of specimens. The first presi- 

 dent of the Society is Mr. B. Anningson, M.A., M.B., the 

 newly-appointed Medical Officer of Health for Cambridge, and 

 the secretary is Mr. Wm. Ewart. A number of papers have 

 been read during the present term. The meetings have been 

 well attended and the discussions well supported. 



A Scientific Society has been formed at Gloucester, chiefly 

 in connection with the School of Science there, under the title of 

 the Gloucester Philosophical Society. A programme of papers 

 for the year has been issued. In addition to the regular 

 monthly meetings, a course of six lectures on Structural Botany 

 is being delivered by Mr. Allen Harker to the members of the 

 Society. One or more excursions are to form a feature of the 

 course. Gloucester has hitherto been rather apathetic than 

 otherwise on science ; this looks more healthy. 



On Nov. 23, at BaUiol College, Oxford, there will be an 

 examination for a Brackenbury Scholarship for the encourage- 

 ment of Natural Science, worth 80/. a year for four years. 



We are very much surprised, and on all accounts it is greatly to 

 be regretted, that the Legislature of Massachusetts has rejected the 

 Bill for a new Survey of the State to which we have already referred. 

 Massachusetts is known all the world over as being one of the 

 most intelligent and best educated States in the Union. Evi- 

 dently, however, the State schools are too strong in arithmetic ; 

 a Mr. Plunkett brought some extraordinary calculations before 

 the House, showing that the Survey would cost nearly a million 

 and a half of dollars and occupy nearly a hundred years ! Be- 

 sic? es an advanced and accomplished calculator, the Massa- 

 chusetts Legislature is also happy in the possession of a *' funny 



man," a Mr. Rice, who seems occasionally to relieve the severity 

 of Mr. Plunkett's extreme calculations by bright flashes of 

 buffoonery. Mr. Rice described the proposed Survey as "send- 

 ing young men with m.uck-rakes to scratch the sterile soil of the 

 State and make pictures." 



The Indian Museum at South Kensington was opened to the 

 public on the ist instant. 



The newly issued part of the Transactions of the Zoological 

 Society of London contains an exhaustive memoir on the birds 

 inhabiting the Philippine Archipelago, illustrated by twelve 

 coloured quarto plates. 



Prof. Hall Gladstone completed his course of lectures at 

 the Royal Institution on chemical force on Tuesday, and exhi- 

 bited a new compound he had just discovered, Zinc Ethylochlo- 

 C2H5. I 



ride, Zn 



CI 



The necessity of utilising the large rivers for maritime naviga- 

 tion is becoming one of the questions of the day in France. The 

 Municipal Councils of Lyons and Marseilles are considering the 

 means of connecting Marseilles with the Rhone by a canal prac- 

 ticable for shipping ; while the Municipal Council of Paris have 

 appointed a commission to devise means to render the Seine 

 navigable from Rouen to Paris. 



Prof. Drake, the eminent Berlin sculptor, has just finished 

 a colossal statue of Alexander von Humboldt, ordered by the 

 city of Philadelphia ; it is nine feet high, and will be shipped to 

 its destination early in June. 



A telegram, dated Berlin, May 28, states that the Tashkend 

 Government has sent an expedition to Hissar, an unknown prin- 

 cipality east of Shahrisiabsk, and north of the Afghan frontier. 

 The members of the expedition are mostly scientific. 



BAiLLifeRE, of Paris, has published an analytical " Table des 

 Matieres" of the first ten volumes (1864-74) of the Revue 

 Scuntifique. The Table forms a very useful index to much of 

 the scientific work of the last ten years. 



A thick Supplement (No. 41) to Petermann's Mittheilungen 

 has just been published, containing a multitude of statistics on 

 the population of the earth, by E. Behm and H. Wagner. They 

 estimate the total population of the globe at 1,396,842,000, dis- 

 tributed as follows : — Europe, 302,973,000 ; Asia, 798,907,000 j 

 Africa, 206,007,000; America, 84,392,000; Australia and 

 Polynesia, 4,563,000. 



Heft vi. of Petermann's Mittheilungen contains a beautiful 

 map illustrative of Dr. Rohlfs' travels in the Libyan Desert 

 during 1873-74. It embraces the portion of North Africa be- 

 tween 25° and 29° N. lat., and 26° and 32° E. long. This map, 

 along with the explanatory letterpress by Dr. Jordan and Dr. 

 Rohlfs which accompanies it, will be found to add in a very im- 

 portant degree to an accurate knowledge of this hitherto imper- 

 fectly known region. The map shows the route not only of 

 Rohlfs' expedition, but of Schweinfurth and several other 

 explorers, from Krump (1701) downwards. 



In a paper by Prof. J. D, Dana, in the May number of Silli- 

 man's American Journal, on Dr. Koch's evidence with regard 

 to the contemporaneity of Man and the Mastodon in Missouri, 

 the author comes to the following conclusions :— Taking all 

 things that have been reviewed into consideration, he thinks 

 there is sufficient reason for regarding Dr. Koch's evidence of 

 the contemporaneity of Man and the Mastodon very doubtful. 

 He hopes that the geologists of the Missouri Geological Survey 

 now in progress will succeed in settling the question positively. 

 The contemporaneity claimed will probably be shown to be true 

 for North America by future discoveries, if not already so esta- 



