Sept. II, 1879] 



NATURE 



475 



Captain Gerald Martin had sent home, from the seat of war, 

 a paper On the Afghan War — ike Kurum f^//^-. —Captain 

 Martin wrote from the Peiwar Kotal, and he reported on the 

 sarvey operations conducted by officers of the Indian Survey 

 Department attached to the " Kuram Column " of the Afghan- 

 istan expeditionary force. The area comprised the whole of the 

 Kuram Valley and the district of Khost to the south, represent- 

 ing an addition to our geographical knowledge of 4,500 square 

 miles. The paper concluded with a very interesting account of 

 the botany of the Kuram Valley and of its forest-clad 'slopes 

 (which was furnished by Dr. Aitchison), and with a detailed 

 account of the Hill tribes. The inhabitants of the Kuram 

 Valley are agriculturists and their irrigation works gave 

 evidence of immense labour. A paper by Captain R. Beavan 

 was read describing the country between Kandahar and Girishk. 



Lieutenant St. George .C. Gore described the Pishin 

 Valley, which is now to be annexed by the British Government. 

 Its extreme length is about 48 miles, and its average width 

 including the hill ranges on either side, from 25 to 30 miles. It 

 is a perfectly open, nearly flat, alluvial plain, with a very 

 barren aspect owing to the absence of trees, except fruit trees in 

 a few gardens. 



SECTION F — Economic Science and Statistics 



Prof. Leone Levi delivered an address upon The Scienlific 

 Sccieties in Relation to the Advancement of Science in thi 

 United Kingdom, — The importance of the subject, and the 

 renewed effort to rear a building in the Metropolis for several 

 scientific societies, now insufficiently accommodated, had in- 

 duced him to submit the paper. In the seventeenth cen- 

 tury there were only two scientific societies in this country ; 

 but at the present time, in an age often described as wholly 

 given to the ignoble occupation of money-making, the calen- 

 dar exhibited an amount of activity quite unknown at former 

 periods. The membership of the three Royal Societies was 

 then mentioned, and Prof. Levi gave many interesting par- 

 ticulars of societies instituted for the promotion of the physical 

 and mathematical sciences, natural history and biology, archjEO- 

 logy and geography, the applied sciences, and instanced a large 

 number of miscellaneous societies. Altogether, including local 

 scientific societies, the number of members of scientific societies 

 in the United Kingdom is about 60,000, or deducting ten per 

 cent, representing those belonging to several societies, about 

 S4,O0O individual members. But even that could be scarcely 

 considered as representing men of science, and probably about 

 25,000 persons was the number of people who had any recog- 

 nised status in the world of science, or who were actually 

 engaged in the pursuit of science within the British isles. Some 

 facts were then given as to the income of scientific societies. 



Eliminating from the total vote the amount expended for 

 elementary education, the proportion devoted to science and art 

 has been considerably diminished. In 1835, the Government of 

 the day voted 65,000/. for elementary education, and 70,000/. for 

 science and art, or a proportion of 52 per cent, for science and 

 art. In 1S78, the vote for elementary education amounted 

 103,624,000/., and that for science and art to 529,000/., or a 

 proportion of 12 per cent, for science and art. Further, Govern- 

 ment aid was principally given to physical and natural science, 

 leaving a wide range of scientific exploration altogether un- 

 assisted. Great had been the achievements of science in modern 

 times, and t ngland owed to its cultivators a profound debt of 

 gratitude. Our manufactures and industry, our productive power 

 nnd means of locomotion, all depended for their development on 

 the advance of science, and these scientific societies had a high 

 economic value. Much more, however, remained to be accom- 

 plished, and England's hope to maintain her high position in 

 jx-oductive industry must depend on the success which men of 

 science might attain in fathoming the inexhaustible secrets of 

 nature, on the increase in the number of patient yet ardent 

 Totaries of science, and still more on the diffusion of education 

 JUid scientific knowledge among the great body of the people. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical 

 Survey of the Territories (vol. v. No. i. Washington, Feb- 

 ruary 28). — Notes on the Aphidida: of the United States, 

 '' with descriptions of species occurring west of the Mississippi, 

 by Chas. V. Riley and J. Moaell. — The relations of the 



horizons of extinct vertebrata of Europe and North America 

 by E. D. Cope. — Observations on the faunos of the miocene 

 tertiaries of Oregon, by E. D. Cope. — Notes on the birds 

 of Fort Sisseton, Dakota territory, by Chas. E. McChesney. 

 — Palasontological papers. No. 9. — Fos-iis of the Jura-trias 

 of South-eastern Idaho, by C. A. White, M.D. — Jura-trias 

 Section of South-eastern Idaho and Western Wyoming, by 

 A. C. Peale, M.D. — Fossil forests of the volcanic tertiary for- 

 mations of the Yellowstone National Park, by W. H. Holmes. 

 — Palaiontological Papers, No. 10. — Conditions of preservation 

 of invertebrate fossils, by C. A. White, M.D. — Supplement to 

 the bibliography of North American invertebrate palaeontology, 

 by C. A. White, M.D., and H. Allcyne Nicholson. This 

 supplement embraces publications which have been made during 

 the year 187S, and also all the omissions pertaining to the first 

 list issued as No. 10 of the Miscellaneous Publications of the 

 U.S. Geological Survey. The year 1878 was not productive of 

 many memoirs on North American invertebrate palaeontology. 

 Dr. White records the publications made in the United States, 

 Prof. Nicholson those made in British North America, West 

 Indies, and Europe. 



The Verhandlungen der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt, Wien 

 (No. 10, 1879) contain the following papers : — On a new occur- 

 rence of celestine in the Banat Mountains, by Fr. von Hauer. — 

 On the distribution of Silurian deposits in the Eastern Alps, by 

 G. Stache. — On a pecuUar variety of the greenstone of Dob- 

 schau, by S. Roth. The peculiarity of this rock consists in its 

 copious tenor of calcspar, beside felspar and hornblende. Apart 

 from these principal constituents, augite, diallage, and secondary 

 quartz are represented in the mixture. Here and there the horn- 

 blende incloses small crystals of pyrites and of nickeline. — On 

 Cyclocladia major, Lindl. andHutt., by Karl Feistmantel. — On a 

 collection of petrifactions from the Silurian deposits made by Herr 

 M. Dusl at Beraun, by Prof. G. Laube.— On the recent eruption 

 of Mount Etna, by Ad. Pereira. The author gives a somewhat 

 scanty description of an ascent he made during the last eruption, 

 during which he actually reached the active crater. — The last 

 paper in the number is a valuable account cf an excursion into 

 the district between the Bosna and Drina Rivers (Bosnia), by Dr. 

 E. Tietze. 



The Rendiconto delle Session! deW Accadcmia delle Scienze dell" 

 Istituto di Bologna (1878-79). — From this part we note the fol- 

 lowing papers : — Observations on some habits of Vespertilio 

 murinus, L., and on some studies in comparative anatomy con- 

 nected with this animal, by Sig. Ercolani. — Notes on an ancient 

 Phoenician skull found in Sardinia, compared to similar skulls 

 of the present time, by Sig. Calori.— On the decomposition of 

 salts of a volatile base and its importance in toxicological 

 operations, by Sig. Selmi.— Note on certain fermentations at 

 low temperatures, by the same. — Researches on the principal 

 phases of the annular eclipse of the sun of July 19 last, partially 

 visible at Bologna, by Prof. Saporeti. — On the ossification of 

 the humor vitreus of the human eye, and on some other strange 

 modifications of the same, by Sig. Ciaccio. —On the equilibrium 

 of plane polygons of variable form, by Sig. Ruffini. — On a new 

 hydrotacchimeter, by Sig. CesareRazzaboni. — On some researches 

 in analytical geometry, by Sig. Beltrami. — On the thermical and 

 galvanometrical laws governing the formation of the electric 

 spark in gases, by Sig. Villari. — Contributions to the fossil 

 conchology of Italy, by Sig. Foresti. — On the excreting 

 apparatus of Janus cristatus by Sig. Trinchese. — On the ossi- 

 ferous breccia of the S. Teresa cave, by Sig. Capellini. — On the 

 flora of the province of Bologna (third paper), by Sig. Cocconi. 

 — On the history of geodesy in Italy, by Sig. Riccardi.— On a 

 Holtz's machine of special construction, by Sig. Righi. — Chemi- 

 cal researches on the metamorphoses of the marbles of Carrara 

 and of Monte Pisano, by Prof. Santagata. — On the deposits and 

 genesis of phosphates generally and their use in agriculture, by 

 Sig. Predieri. — On the motion of water in vessels communicatin.y; 

 by long tubes, by Sig. Cesare Razzaboni. — On the quantitative 

 analysis of mixtures containing alcaline sulphides, carbonate-, 

 sulphates, and hyposulphates, by Sig. Cavazzi. — On the origin 

 of the optical nerve in the brain of fishes, by Sig. Bellonci. — 

 On the structure of so-called cellular and parenchymatosecartil- 

 ^6^1 by Sig. Ciaccio. — On some products of arsenical putrefac- 

 tion, by Sig. Selmi. — On the thermical and galvanometric laws 

 of the induction spark, by Sig. Villari. 



The Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society of St. 

 Petersburg (tome xi. No. 6) contains the following papers of 



