424 



NATURE 



{August 28, 1879 



music. The Catalog^ie consists of six volumes and supplement 

 — containing over 200,000 entries — and extending to more than 

 5,500 quarto pages in double columns. Some idea of the ex- 

 pense of making and printing such a catalogue may be foi-med 

 from the fact that individual Members of Faculty have already 

 contributed, in donations and subscriptions, a sum of 3,700/. 

 About 250/. are still required to print the supplement. It is 

 expected that the work will be completed in September next, 

 and the Advocates' Library will then be the only great library 

 in the world possessing a complete printed catalogue. The 

 value of this work will consist not merely in its making known 

 the peculiar treasures of the library, but in its being the only 

 approximately conjplete catalogue of all works published in the 

 United Kingdom since the reign of Queen Anne, arranged not 

 merely in the alphabetical order of the authors' names, but to a 

 considerable extent also under leading subjects. Further, more 

 information will be found in it on anonymous and pseudonymous 

 English and Scotch literature than in any other catalogue ; and 

 a more extensive analysis of historical and other collections than 

 can be had anywhere else. As regards biographical information, 

 there will be found under each author's name cross-references to 

 all books in the Library written about him or his works. We 

 believe the Library has also a fair collection of scientific works. 

 A copy can be had by addressing " The Keeper of the Advo- 

 cates' Library, Edinburgh." 



It is with pleasure that we announce the completion of the 

 second edition of " Die Urwelt der Schweiz," by Oswald Heer. 

 Herr Schulthess, of Zurich, is the publisher. 



In its yahresiericht for 1878 the " Bienenwirthschaftliche 

 Hauptverein ini Konigreiche Sachsen " publishes the following 

 highly interesting statistical data referring to the indirect utility 

 of bees : — It has ever been one of the objects of all apicultural 

 societies to prove the great importance of bees to agriculture 

 generally. It appears that the Society named possesses 1 7,000 

 hives from each of which 10,000 bees fly out daily, which repre- 

 sents a total of 170 millions of bees. If we suppose that each 

 bee undertakes but four journeys per day and that this takes 

 place only on 100 days out of the 365, then we obtain a yearly 

 total of 68,000 millions of bee-journeys. It is not too much to 

 suppose that fifty flowers are visited on each journey, and we are 

 certainly justified in supposing that five out of these fifty are 

 fertilised ; then we get a grand total of 340,000 millions of fer- 

 tilised flowers per year. Let the value of fertilising 5,000 

 blossoms be but 1 pfennig (or 500,000 for \s.), then the work 

 done by bees of the society represents a value of 68 million 

 pfennige, or 34,000/. sterling. It results from these calculations 

 that each hive benefits agriculture to the amount of 2/. annually, 

 a value which hitherto has been totally overlooked. 



News from Moscow states that a kind of subterranean con- 

 flagration is raging upon the islands and the shore of the 

 Kurgaldschin lake in the district of Akmolinsk, province of 

 Atbosarsk. It began in April last, and in the middle of June 

 was still burning with unabated force. The fire spreads in the 

 foot-deep layers of dry reeds, and has penetrated as far as the 

 winter camps of the Kurgaldschin Wolostg, where some 120 

 Kirghise farms have perished through the flames. 



An international special exhibition of agricultural machinery, 

 &c., will be held at Prague from September 27 to October 5 

 next. 



The well-known geologist Prof. Credner, has recently proved 

 that in the western part of Saxony glaciers have formerly 

 existed, by the discovery of numerous polished and grooved 

 surfaces of porphyry rocks, now Imbedded in the inundation 

 deposits of more recent geological periods. From this discovery 



it seems that the Scandinavian ice at some epoch reached as far 

 as the neighbourhood of Leipzig, i.e., to the southern border of 

 the North German plains. 



Near Wildeshausen (Oldenburg) a so-called window-urn has 

 been found in a prehistoric sepulchral mound. The urn is of 

 elegant shape, perfectly smooth, only ten centimetres in height, 

 and consists of bright gray fine clay. In the body of the urn there 

 are three round holes of about two centimetres in diameter ; 

 into these holes green pieces of glass were let in when the clay 

 was still moist. Another piece of glass is in the foot of the urn. 

 Inside the urn stood a vase of the same material and almost 

 the same height. The contents were bones and charcoal. Up 

 to the present, as far as is known, only six window urn; have 

 been found ; tbe one described would therefore be the seventh. 



Mr. Morris's recipe for the cure of the coffee-leaf disease in 

 Ceylon appears to be the application of caustic lime in the pro- 

 portion of two or three parts to one of flowers of sulphur. He 

 maintains that the disease can only be successfully treated at one 

 of its three stages — the filamentary — when the mixture described 

 will kill the filaments. Mr. Morris is about to publish a hand- 

 book on the treatment < f this scourge of the island, and by latest 

 advices it appears probable that, at the earnest request of the 

 planters, his departure from Ceylon to Jamaica will be indefinitely 

 postponed. 



The Echo du Japan states that 'the works established at 

 Tsukudu-shima for making carbonate of lime are proving very 

 successful, and will, it is said, send a great quantity of the 

 product to China, 



Near the village of Eisenkappel (Carinthia), at the border ot 

 a forest, several new mineral springs have been discovered about 

 the end of July. They originate in the bed of syenite granite 

 which passes in the direction from Ebriach to Schn-arzenbach, 

 and are particularly rich in carbonate of soda, as well as in free 

 and dissolved carbonic acid. 



We notice a very useful Russian pamphlet by M. Lukashevich, 

 on arrangements for heating and ventilation, being a critical 

 description of the various heating and ventilating apparatus 

 exhibited at Cassel in 1877, during the first international exhibi- 

 tion of these apparatus. When we take into consideration hoiv 

 much remains to do in that branch of our knowledge, we cannot 

 but welcome every good work on the subject. 



The Report and Transactions of the CardifiT Naturalists' 

 Society for 1878, contains several scientific papers creditable to 

 the members. The Society's Museum has been much improved. 



A VOLUME of some interest in connection with progress in 

 Spain has been published by Prof. A. Calderon Arana, " Movi- 

 mento Novisimo de la Filosofia Natural en Espaiia." It is 

 publisked at the Casa editorial de Medina, Madrid. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Guinea Baboon {Cynocephalus sphinx) 

 from West Africa, presented by Mr. P. Lembery ; a Bush Dog 

 {Jcticyon venalicus) from British Guiana, presented by Mr. J. 

 Ernest Tinne ; a Ring-necked Parrakeet (Palceornis torquatus) 

 from India, presented by Mrs. Watson; a Common Cuckoo 

 (Cuculus cano!-us), British, presented by Mr. J. Sharpland ; a 

 Common Barn Owl (Strix Jlammea), British, presented by Mr. 

 H. Norris ; a Chacma Baboon {Cynocephalus porcarius) from 

 South Africa, deposited ; four Common Spoonbills (Platalea 

 leucorodia), European, eighteen Chestnut-breasted Ducks (Anas 

 castanea), an Adelaide Parrakeet {Palirornis adelaida) from 

 Australia, purchased ; a Cape Buffalo (Buialus caffer), born in 

 the Gardens. 



