Oct. 1 6, 1879] 



NATURE 



585 



easy and low route is possible. Thus the first step in a 

 good and easy trade route out of India is secured, and 

 secured here alone. 



From Nongyang the usual route for traders is vid 

 Namyung, Songphii village in a level plain of same name, 

 thence vid the Turong villages and rolling slopes of the 

 upper part of the Dinoi valley and the low Kako hills 

 dividing it from the Irawadi. On crossing this latter two 

 routes are available, one up the Shoemai Kha and Sittang 

 flat country, the other more east, turning the southern 

 extremity of the Goulang si gong range, that coming 

 down from the north divides Burma from China. Such a 

 route would also pass round the heads of the Taeping, 

 Shueylf, and Salwi'n valleys, and leave but one large 

 stream, the Mikong, to cross ere reaching the Yangtse 

 Kiang, at a point near Li kiang fu, navigable at all 

 seasons — the main artery of China. The total distance 

 of such a route from the plains of Asam at the Namphuk 

 to the Yangtse I estimate at 300 miles to 350, including 

 windings, and to clear out a serviceable bridle path or 

 fair weather road on this I estimate would cost but 10,000/. 

 The present path for long distances is a mere jungle 

 track often obstructed by fallen trees ; small deep gullies 

 necessitate long detours. Were some of the jungle removed 

 and fallen trees, a few strong logs felled over the little 

 streams would make a good commencement. 



I need not say much regarding the advantages of such 

 a route, if available. For political reasons it was once 

 thought desirable to discourage direct intercourse between 

 India and China ; but that day has departed. England 

 is now one of the three great Asiatic powers, and the time 

 has arrived when we must not only examine our passes 

 west and east, but cultivate as far as possible a profitable 

 and peaceful intercourse with China. The state of Upper 

 Burma (once a Chinese province) simply renders this 

 question urgent. At a time also when Australia and 

 America are invaded by such hordes of cheap labourers, 

 labour paying heavily for its own transport to distant and 

 overstocked markets, we see Asam— close to the labour 

 source — suffering from a want of it, and planters paying 

 Rs. 80 and Rs. 100 per head ere they can employ labour 

 of a very inferior stamp. S. E. Peal 



KARL FRIEDRICH MOHR 



"DY the death of Dr. Mohr, of Bonn, which is just 

 -*-' announced, the science of chemistry has lost a worker 

 whose labours have extended over nearly half a century, 

 and have led to great and valuable results. 



Dr. Karl Friedrich IMohr was born at Coblenz in 

 November, 1806. His earliest work was devoted to the 

 continuation of the Pharmacopceia, established by Geiger. 

 The work by which he will be best remembered is the 

 " Lehrbuch der chemisch-analytische Titrirmethode," 

 which appeared in 185; and 1856, the second, and con- 

 siderably enlarged edition, appearing in 1862. His 

 published papers, which are very numerous, arrange 

 themselves in two classes mainly, those devoted to 

 meteorology and those having a bearing on volumetric 

 analysis. Ground-ice, the earliest information about 

 ozone, St. Ehiio's fire are among the subjects of his 

 earliest, and among his later the lower ends of lightning 

 conductors, hail and rain, and confirmation of his theory 

 of the formation of hail. The other more numerous class 

 of papers on an.ilysis extend over nearly fifty years. His 

 examination of the method of separating copper and 

 silver appeared in Liebig's ./J««(7/«« dcr Chcmie in 1832, 

 to be followed by others on the condens,-ition of chlorine, 

 on Marsh's method, preparation of barium hydrate, the 

 reduction of silver chloride, the action of the air on 

 arsenides, and thirty years later on the value of indirect 

 analysis, on nitrate determinations, the estimation of the 

 different oxides of manganese, analysis without the use of 

 weights, examination of a method of determining the 



specific gravity of liquids with a watch, phosphoric acid 

 determinations, &c. 



About ten years ago he published his "AUgemeine 

 Theorie der Bewegung und Kraft," and shortly afterwards 

 " Mechanische Theorie der chemischen Afifinitat." 



About four years ago he sent to Liebig's Annalen der 

 Chcmie a curious paper on the nature and mode of origin 

 of meteorites. He finds that all the silicates present in 

 meteorites contain a little water, and when heated strongly 

 or fused hare a decreased specific gravity ; that some 

 meteorites contain organic compounds like certain terres- 

 trial carbon compounds, but that meteoric iron contains 

 no combined carbon. 



THE INTERNATIO.YAL ASTRONOMICAL 

 SOCIETY 



THE eighth Annual Meeting of this Association was 

 held at Berlin on September 5 to 8. The sixth and 

 seventh meetings of the Society were held at Leyden 

 (1875) and at Stockholm (1877). At the latter place 

 i5erlin was selected for the next general meeting, to be 

 held in the present year. This city being more cen- 

 trally situated for the greater part of the members than 

 Leyden or Stockholm, it was expected that a rather 

 large proportion of the Fellows of the Society would 

 meet there ; and so it has proved. There were present 

 the following sixty-one astronomers, mechanicians, and 

 opticians : — Abbe (Jena), Auwers (Beriin), Baeker 

 (Nauen), de Ball (Gotha), H. G. van de Sande Bak- 

 huyzen (Leyden), Bamberg (Berlin), Bansa (Frankfort), 

 Becker (Berlin), Behrmann (Elsfleth), Bergmann (Berlin), 

 Boguslawski (Berlin), Bruhns (Leipzig), Bruns (Berlin), 

 Denker (Hamburg), Drechsler (Dresden), Elkin (New 

 Orleans), Engelmann (Leipzig), Forster (Berlin), Franz 

 (Konigsberg), Friesach (Graz), Fuess (Berlin), Galle 

 (Breslau), Gyldfen (Stockholm), Hasselberg (Pulkowa), 

 Huggins (London), Kempf (Potsdam), v. Knorre (Berlin), 

 Kreutz (Bonn), Kriiger (Gotha), Kiistner (Strassburg), 

 Lehmann (Berlin), Lehman-Filhes (Berlin), Lohse (Pots- 

 dam), Maywald (Berlin), Merz (Munich), Moller (Lund), 

 Miiller (Potsdam), Neumeyer (Hamburg), Oppenheim 

 (Berlin), Oudcmans (Utrecht), Palisa (Pola), Pechiile 

 (Copenhagen), v. Plaenckner (Gotha), Pihl (Christiania), 

 Reichel (Berlin), O. Repsold (Hamburg), Romberg (Pul- 

 kowa), Ros&n (Stockholm), Riimker (Hamburg), Safarik 

 (Prag), Schonfeld (Bonn), Sporer (Potsdam), Tiede (Ber- 

 lin), Tiele (Copenhagen), Tietjen (Berlin), Valentiner 

 (Mannheim), Vogel (Potsdam), Wanschaffe (Berlin), 

 Winkler (Leipzig), Winnecke (Strassburg), Wittstein 

 (Leipzig). Hence, besides forty-six Germans, there were 

 present three Fellows from Austria, three from Sweden, 

 two from Holland, two from Denmark, two from Russia, 

 and one each from America, England, and Norway. 



The Council, composed of Prof. Kriiger, President, Prof. 

 Forster, Prof. G)lden, Prof, van de Sande Bakhuyzen, 

 Vice-presidents ; Prof. Bruhns, Librarian, Director Auer- 

 bach. Treasurer ; Secretaries, Professors Schonfeld and 

 Winnecke, met on September i, to consider the matters 

 to be submitted to the meeting. 



The day before the opening of the general meeting 

 there was unveiled at the Berlin Observatory, in the 

 presence of Encke's son and daughter, surrounded by 

 many distinguished guests, the bust of the distinguished 

 astronomer, who founded the new observatory at Berlin, 

 and rendered it famous by incessant labour. The bust 

 was made by the celebrated artist, Afinger. Prof. Forster, 

 to whose exertions this acknowledgment of his prede- 

 cessor is due, recalled to the assembled guests in spirited 

 words the great astronomer's principal merits. 



On September 5 the general meeting was opened at 

 ten o'clock in the morning by Prof. Kriiger, in the lecture 

 hall of the Royal Academy of Sciences. The Minister 

 for Public Instruction, Hcrr vo.i Puttk.ammer, welcomed 



