154 



NATURE 



\7une 24, 1875 



Board also, under certain conditions, might be entrusted 

 with the duty of appointing Professors for life. It appears, 

 however, that several additions to the permanent staff of 

 Professors will be required. These must be provided for, 

 the Report states, from time to time, by statute. Thus, for 

 example, the following suggestions have been made with regard 

 to the chief departments of study pursued in the Museum : — i. In 

 the department of Chemistry it is stated that an additional pro- 

 fessorship is required. 2. In the department of Physics also it 

 is stated that an additional professorship is required. 3. In the 

 department of Biology it is proposed — {a) That the present 

 Linacre Professorship should become a Professorship of Human 

 Anatomy and Ethnology. (J)) That the Hope Professorship of 

 Zoology should become a Professorship of Zoology and Com- 

 parative Anatomy, {c) That the Clinical Professorship of 

 Medicine should become a Professorship of Physiology and 

 Public Health. 



A CORRESPONDENT sends us the enclosed cutting from Le 

 JPrattfais as an illustration of how they do things in France : — 

 "On salt que sur la proposition de M. de Cumont, ministre de 

 I'instruction publique, des cultes et des beaux-arts, I'Assemblee 

 a vote, le 18 juillet dernier, une pension annuelle et viagere de 

 12,000 fr. a M. Pasteur, membre de I'Institut, professeur a la 

 Faculte des sciences de Paris, a titre de recompense nationale. 

 Un nouveau decret, rendu par M. le marechal de Mac-Mahon 

 sur le rapport de M. Wallon, contre-signe par M. Leon Say, vient 

 d'accorder une nouvelle pension de 6,000 fr. a M. Pasteur, inde- 

 pendamment de celle de 12,000 fr. qui, lui avait ete donnee 

 precedemment. De telles mesures ne peuvent qu'encourager 

 nos hommes de science et stimuler I'esprit de decouverte. Cette 

 pension permettra done d'assurer d'une maniere digne de lui les 

 jours d'un homme qui compte pres de trente-trois annees de 

 services devoues, et que les fatigues d'un travail assidu ont mis 

 dans I'impossibilite de continuer b. exercer ses fonctions de 

 professeur." 



Last Thursday, in the House of Commons, in reply to a ques- 

 tion by Sir John Lubbock, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said 

 he would be ready to consult with his colleagues in the course of 

 the autumn to see whether the object of preserving the ancient 

 monuments of the country could in any way be carried out. 

 Sir J. Lubbock, considering this a favourable answer, said he 

 would withdraw his Ancient Monuments Bill. 



A SPECIMEN of a sturgeon, eight feet in length, has been 

 added to the Manchester Aquarium. Several examples of the 

 Wolf, or Cat Fish, and three of the Monk, or Angel Fish, each 

 five feet long, are also to be seen in the same building. 



During this season the Morning Post has made a speciality 

 of noticing the proceedings of some of the learned societies. 

 The lectures at the Royal Institution have generally occupied 

 half a column, and some of the popular lectures of the Zoological 

 Society have been given at equal length. In a notice of one of 

 the ladies' lectures of Prof. Bentley at the Botanic Society is 

 this passage : — " Future historians of the social condition of the 

 people of England at our period will have to make constant refer- 

 ence to the daily press, and it is therefore but right, alongside 

 of the notices of the culture of music and the sister fine arts, 

 to record each attempt to spread the knowledge acquired by men 

 of science." We are glad the Morning Post has set so good an 

 example. 



Prof. Nordenskjold's expedition left Tromso for Novaya 

 Zemlya on June 8. The expedition is undertaken on board the 

 Norwegian Arctic sea-yacht Proven, Capt. J. N. Isaksen, who 

 has been to Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya a great many 

 times previously. On the southern coast of the latter island the 



party expect to meet with Samoyedes ; they intend then to 

 move in an easterly direction, towards the rivers Obi and Yenesei. 

 Prof. Nordenskjold will then leave the ship to continue the expe- 

 dition by boat. 



The so-called tobacco-meal, the Kolmsche Zeitung says, 

 has been successfully used in agriculture for the destruction 

 of noxious insects, but it has not yet been applied largely on 

 account of its high price, which is caused by heavy import duty. 

 The Prussian Minister for Agriculture has jubt addressed a letter 

 to the Minister for Commerce with a view to reduce this duty or 

 to take it off entirely. The only obstacle lies in the fact that 

 the meal might be used for the manufacture of snuff. A 

 Hamburg firm is said to have a stock of over thirty tons of this 

 meal. 



We regret to learn that Mr. Alexander Agassiz, director of the 

 Anderson School of Natural History, has been unable to make 

 arrangements for a third session of this establishment during the 

 present summer. He announced some time ago that, in view of 

 the expense of the enterprise and the limited funds at his com- 

 mand, it would be impossible for him to proceed unless a suf- 

 ficient number of students could be found willing to pay fifty 

 dollars for the course. This appeal not proving effectual, he has 

 given notice that the school will not be opened during 1875. 



The French Minister of Public Instruction has established a 

 new commission to report on the state of meteorology and the 

 improvements to be introduced in the system of observations, as 

 hitherto practised at the Observatories of Paris and Montsouris, 

 and other public establishments. 



Col. Montgomerie, the representative at the International 

 Geographical Congress of the Royal Geographical Society and 

 the Indian Survey Office, has arrived in Paris. A representative 

 of the English Admiralty is expected very shortly. It is hoped 

 that the Admiralty will send to Paris one of the magnificent 

 yachts of the English navy for exhibition during the Congress. 

 An immense quantity of goods for exhibition is stated to have 

 already arrived from London. 



The death of Mr. Thomas Baines, the African traveller, is 

 announced. 



At the last meeting of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, the 

 British Medical Journal states. Dr. T. A. G. Balfour reported 

 some interesting experiments on the Dioncea muscipula, which 

 he considered a carnivorous plant. He showed that the irrita- 

 bility under which the leaf contracts is resident in six delicate 

 hairs, so placed on the surface of the leaf that no insect could 

 avoid touching them in crawling over. Chloroform dropped on 

 a hair caused the leaf to close immediately ; water had no such 

 effect. Contraction only lasted for a considerable time when 

 any object capable of affording nutrition was seized, when it 

 lasted for about three weeks, and the interior of the leaf gave 

 out a viscous acid secretion. A number of interesting points were 

 made out with regard to the secretion, digestion, and absorption 

 performed by the plant. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during 

 the past week include two Dorsal Squirrels {Sciurus dorsalis) 

 from West Mexico, presented by Mr. John G. Haggard ; a 

 Yellow-shouldered Amazon {Chrysotis ochroptera) from South 

 America, presented by Miss Amelia Grove Grady; a Grison 

 {Galictis wV^afo) from South America, a Yio\i\iy {Hyfotnorchis sub- 

 buteo), European, a Humboldt's Lagothrbc {Lagothrix humboldti) 

 from the Upper Amazon, purchased ; ten Summer Ducks {Aix 

 sponsa), seven Spotted-billed Ducks {Anas facilorhyncha), four 

 Temminck's Tragopans {Ceriornis temminckii) bred in the 

 Gardens. 



