446 



NATURE 



[Sept. 1 6, 1875 



account of its quick growth and its value as a timber tree, the 

 wood being exceedingly hard and durable. With regard to its 

 supposed beneficial effects in malarious districts, Dr. Hooker 

 says he is "still unable to endorse the views of those who regard 

 the tree as capable of cultivation in tropical swamps and as a 

 prophylactic against ague and fever." 



The prospects of the Ipecacuanha cultivation in India is, we 

 are told, not very encouraging, owing rather to the slow growth 

 and small yield of the underground root stock from which the 

 drug is obtained, than to the want of success in growing and 

 propagating the plants. "Nevertheless the cultivation must be 

 persevered in. The causes that retard the progress of this valu- 

 able herb under cultivation are those that raise the price of it in 

 its native country. Were it a plant that increased rapidly, it 

 would be with difficulty eradicated from the forests which it 

 inhabits." 



One very important matter mentioned in the report is that 

 referring to the new Herbarium, the site for which is not yet, 

 however, determined upon. It is, moreover, satisfactory to learn 

 that when erected it will, through the liberality of Thomas 

 Philip Jodrell, Esq., M.A., the founder of the Jodrell Profes- 

 sorship (of Physiology) in University College, London, be asso- 

 ciated with a laboratory for physiological botany. The contri- 

 butions to the Gardens of living plants and seeds, to the 

 Herbarium of dried plants, and to the museums of economic 

 specimens, have been exceedingly numerous and interesting. 



NOTES 

 M. Janssen's appointment as the head of a new French 

 Physical Observatory, which we intimated some time ago, has 

 been gazetted. The French Government, we believe, wishes 

 to give M. Janssen the choice of having the Observatory built 

 at Fontenay, as was originally decided upon, or at Vincennes, 

 which is at a less distance from Paris. 



Mr. Watson, at Monday's sitting of the French Academy, 

 read a long and interesting paper on the observations of the 

 Transit of Venus made at Peking station, of which he was 

 the chief. The question of the atmosphere of Venus and 

 the difficulty of determining the exact time of real contact 

 were examined at full length. M. Leverrier expressed his 

 decided opinion that the determination of the parallax of the 

 sun by this method was useless unless some unexpected service 

 should be rendered by photography for solving the difficulty raised 

 by Mr. Watson. Mr. Watson tried to discover to what height 

 the atmosphere of Venus was liable to cause optical disturbances 

 by its illumination by the sun, and he found it to be fifty-five 

 miles, about i-7oth the diameter of the planet. 



The Kirtland Summer School of Natural History (named in 

 honour of Dr. Jared P. Kirtland) was inaugurated July 6, 1875, 

 in Cleveland, Ohio (U.S.) The session this year extended 

 through five weeks, closing August 9, with appropriate exercises. 

 The school was founded on behalf of the Kirtland Society of 

 Natural Sciences, by Prof. Theo. B. Comstock and Dr. Wm, K. 

 Brooks. Instruction was given in botany and entomology by 

 Prof. Theo. B. Comstock, of Cleveland ; in general invertebrate 

 zoology by Dr. Wm. K. Brooks, of Cambridge, Mass. ; in 

 microscopy and protozoa by Prof. Albert H. Tattle, of the Ohio 

 Agricultural and Mechanical College, Columbus, Ohio ; and a 

 short course of lectures on geology was given by Dr. J. S. New- 

 berry, of Columbia College, New York City, Director of the 

 Ohio Geological Survey. The work was all done in the labora- 

 tory and in the field, text-books being wholly discarded. Twenty- 

 five enthusiastic pupils, many of them lady teachers, availed 

 themselves of the advantages afforded for the small fee of ten 

 dollars. The expenses were paid by a subscription.fund, the 

 instructors receiving but slight compensation by a division of the 

 small balance in hand. The session was very profitable, and it 

 is hoped that the school will be continued year after year. 



The French Department of the International Maritime 

 Exhibition^contains a large number of apparatus intended for 



the raising of wrecks from the bottom of the sea. Working 

 models of these have been sent in by M. Bazin, an engineer. 

 This inventor has organised an immense submarine observatory 

 which enables the bottom of the sea to be inspected with perfect 

 security. M. Roselli, an ItaUan engineer, exhibited a self- 

 moving gigantic grapnel, which being worked by steam could 

 render great 'service to raise even such heavy weights as the 

 Vanguard. M. Bazin has also invented a ship for dredging at 

 small depths when it is necessary to open a channel for a port. 

 Several ships of this kind have been constructed for the Russian 

 Government, and are now at work in Russian waters. The 

 principle involves the use of syphons, which are let down to the 

 bottom and are so worked as to send mud, sand, and water into 

 the main hold of the vessel, from which they are taken out by 

 powerful steam-engines. 



A UNIVERSITY is to be founded at Tomsk, one of the chief 

 towns of Siberia. The new establishment will have only two 

 faculties, one of Law and the other of Medicine. The want of 

 doctors in Siberia may be inferred from the fact that there are 

 only fifty-five of them in a country which is as large as the whole 

 of Europe, and whose population amounts to more than 

 6,ooo,cxx) inhabitants. The Russian Minister of Finance has 

 granted a credit of 40,000/. on the revenue of the State for the 

 new establishment, which will raise the number of Russian 

 Universities to eight, seven others being already in existence, 

 viz., St. ^Petersburg, Moscow, Kiew, Kazan, Kharkow, Odessa, 

 Varsovie, besides two foreign Universities — a German one in 

 Dorpat, and a Swedish one in Helsingfors. A new University 

 is also to be established in Vilna. 



Captain Waterhouse writes that he has verified Dr. 

 Vogel's discovery of the influence of certain dyes in increasing 

 the sensitiveness of bromide of silver to the less refrangible rays 

 of the spectrum. 



An examination will begin at Merton College on Tuesday, 

 October 12, for the purpose of electing to one Mathematical and 

 one Physical Science Postmastership. The postmasterships are 

 of the annual value of 80/., and are tenable for five years Irom 

 election, or so long as the holder does not accept any appoint- 

 ment incompatible'with the pursuance of the full course of Uni- 

 versity studies. After two years of residence the College will 

 raise by a sum not exceeding 20/. per annum the postmasterships 

 of such postmasters as shall be recommended by the tutors for 

 their character, industry, and ability. Further information may 

 be obtained from the Mathematical and Physical Science Tutors. 



Mr. E. J. Mills, D.Sc, F.R.S., has been appointed Young 

 Professor of Technical Chemistry in Anderson's College, Glasgow, 

 on the resignation of Prof. Gustav Bischof. 



We would direct the attention of zoologists to a sketch and 

 description by Prof. Wilder, of Cornell University, in the 

 American Journal of Science and Art for last month, of a fcetal 

 Manatee whose total length is 37 inches. "The head (which 

 is somewhat pig-like) is strongly flexed upon the chest, and the 

 tail forms a right angle with the trunk ;" a contour very different 

 from the adult animal being the result. The specimen was 

 obtained at Pebos, Peru, upon the Maraiion, a tributary of the 

 Amazons, by Prof. James Orton, 



In a letter to yesterday's limes, Mr. W. L. Watts gives a long 

 description of a volcanic eruption which he witnessed last month 

 on the Myvatns Orcefi,^in Iceland. 



The Berlin Geographical Society has received.'a telegram from 

 Lisbon, dated the llth inst., announcing that Dr. Pogge and 

 Lieut. Lux, with their African Exploring Expedition, were on 

 their way from Cassandje to Lunda. Major von Homeyer was 

 still on the coast. 



