May 15, 1879] 



NATURE 



65 



alluded to his long length of service, and the improbability of 

 Iiis again addressing the collected body of graduates. The 

 labours of the winter session had proved too much for his 

 enfeebled health. Immediately after their close he left for the 

 country, where he seemed at first to revive, but a cold which he 

 caught brought on congestion of the lungs, against which he 

 had not strength to rally. He died on the 7th inst. His 

 eminence as a mathematician, and his excellence as a teacher, 

 combined with his admirable personal qualities, will be long 

 remembered by all who have known the Edinburgh University 

 daring the last forty years. 



The death is announced of Prof. Grisebach, the well-known 

 botanist and geographer. He was born in 1814 at Hanover, 

 and in 1841 was called as Professor of Botany to Gottingen, 

 where he was still officiating up to his death. He contracted 

 his illness while on a visit with his family to Italy. 



M. Pasteur is about to found, in the department of the Jura, 

 with the support of the French Minister of Agriculture and 

 Commerce, who has for this purpose granted a subvention of 

 1,000/., a special laboratory for the study of all questions con- 

 nected with the vine and wine. This laboratory, provided with 

 all the means of investigation which bear on researches of this 

 nature, will be located at Arbois, and M. Pasteur will devote six 

 months each year to it. Important results may justly be looked 

 for from this mstitution. 



The Baly Medal of the Royal College of Physicians of London 

 has been awarded to Mr. Chas. Darwin, F.R.S. 



Herr Karl Bock, who, at the request of the late Marquis 

 of Tweeddale, has spent eight months in exploring the high- 

 lands of Sumatra, has, the Times states, returned to Padang with 

 a rich collection of natural history specimens. Among other 

 living animals he has secured a specimen of the Capricornis 

 sumatrtnsis, which is peculiar to the island. It is a species of 

 mountain antelope, rarely met with, and only among the most 

 remote and almost inaccessible peaks. Herr Bock was travelling 

 in Lapland in the autumn of 1877, under the 71st parallel of 

 north latitude. The autumn of 1 878 was spent by him under the 

 first parallel of south latitude. 



A SERIES of " Davis " lectures upon zoological subjects 

 will be given in the lecture-room of the Zoological Gardens, 

 in the Regent's Park, on Thursdays at 5 p.m. The first 

 was given last Thursday by Prof. Flower, on " Birds that 

 do not Fly." The others are as follow: — May 15, "The 

 Pleasures of Zoology," Prof. J. Reay Greene, M.D. ; May 22, 

 "Tails," Prof. Mivart, F.R.S. ; May 29, "PaiTots," P. L. 

 Sclater, F.R.S. ; June 5, "Snakes," Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., ; 

 June 12, " Nocturnal Animals," Dr. J. Muric, LL.D., F.L.S. ; 

 June 19, "Reptiles and their Distribution," P. L. Sclater, 

 F.R.S. These lectures will be free to Fellows of the Society 

 and their friends, and to other visitors to the Gardens. 



Mr. Orville A. Derby contributes to the Rio News some 

 interesting information on the plague of rats in Brazil. From 

 time to time in all parts of Brazil the plantations are subject to 

 the depredations of armies of rats that issue from the forests 

 and consume everything edible that comes in their way. During 

 a recent excursion in the province of Parana Mr. Derby found an 

 almost universal lack of corn throughout the province, due to 

 such invasion of rats, by which almost the entire crop of last 

 year had been destroyed. This invasion, or plague as it is 

 called, is said to occur at intervals of about thirty years, and to 

 be simultaneous with the drying of the iaquara, or bamboo, 

 which everywhere abounds in the Brazilian forests. The popu- 

 lar explanation is that every cane of bamboo sprouts with a 

 grub, the germ of a rat, within it, and that when the bamboo 

 ripens and dies the germ becomes a fuUy- developed rat and 



comes out to prey on the plantations. An educated and obser- 

 vant Englishman, Mr, Herbert H. Mercer, who has resided a 

 number of years in the province and had an opportunity of 

 studying the phenomenon, furnished Mr. Derby the following 

 rational and curious explanation : — The bamboo arrives at 

 maturity, flowers and seeds at intervals of several years, which 

 doubtless vary with the different species. The period for the 

 species most abundant in Parana is thirty years. The process, 

 instead of being simultaneous, occupies about five years, a few 

 of the canes going to seed the first year, an increased number 

 the second, and so on progressively, till finally the remaining 

 and larger portion of the canes seed at the same time. Each 

 cane bears about a peck of edible seed, resembling rice, which is 

 very fat and nourishing, and is often eaten by the Indians. The 

 quantity produced is enormous, and large areas are often covered 

 to a depth of five or six inches. After seeding the cane dies, 

 breaks off at the root and falls to the ground, the process of 

 decay being hastened by the borings of larva which live upon 

 the bamboo and appear to be particularly abundant at seed- 

 ing time. These larva have doubtless given rise to the story of 

 the grub developing into a rat. New canes spring up from the 

 seed, but require seven or eight years to become fit for use, and 

 thirty to reach maturity. With this sudden and constantly in- 

 creasing supply of nourishing food for a period of five years, 

 the rats and mice, both of native and imported species, increase 

 extraordinarily in numbers. The fecundity of these animals is 

 well known, and the result after four or five years of an unusual 

 and constantly increasing supply of excellent food and in the 

 absence of enemies of equal fecundity, can readily be imagined. 

 The last of the crop of seed being mature and fallen to the 

 ground, the first rain causes it to decay in the space of a very 

 few days. The rats, suddenly deprived of food, commence to 

 migrate, invading the plantations and houses and consuming 

 everything that does not happen to be repugnant to the not very 

 fastidious palate of a famishing rodent. If this happens at the 

 time of corn planting, the seed is consumed as fast as it can be 

 put into the ground. Mr. Mercer, who plants annually about 

 fifty acres of corn, replanted six times last year, and finally gave 

 up in despair. The mandioca is dug up ; the rice crop, if it 

 happens to be newly sown or in seed, is consumed, as is also 

 everything in the houses in the way of provisions and leather, 

 if not carefully guarded in tin trunks. 



The Congress of the Social Science Association at Manchester 

 has been fixed to take place from October I to 8. 



Deutsche Acclimatisation is the title of a new German journal 

 devoted to questions connected with the acclimatisation, training, 

 and breeding of birds. It is the organ of the German Society 

 for the Breeding and Acclimatisation of Birds, and will appear 

 at irregular intervals. The editor is Dr. Reichenow. 



The ciyptogamous division of the herbarium of the Boston 

 (U.S ) Society of Natural History, we learn from the American 

 Naturalist, has been enriched by the discovery of a valuable 

 collection of lichens. This was formerly the lichen-herbarium 

 of Dr. Thomas Tayler, an Irish botanist, to whom Sir W. J. 

 and Sir Joseph Hooker gave the whole of their extensive col- 

 lection of lichens, gathered during many exploring expeditions. 

 Dr. Tayler published descriptions of these plants in the Journa 

 of Botany, 1844-66, and many of the specimens are the originals 

 of the descriptions. In 1850 Mr. John A. LoweH purchased 

 the collection from Dr. Tayler's heirs, and it formed a part of 

 the herbarium subsequently presented by him to the Society. 



The following {ben irovato, if not the other thing), seems worth 

 reproducing from Science Nruis .-—It is not long ago that a young 

 man went to one of the wise men at the Smitlisonian Institution, 

 and said : " I think I should like to be a naturalist." " Well, 

 be one," replied the doctor in charge. " But I don't know how, 



