590 



NATURE 



\Oct. 16, 1879 



having meantime been declined. The president at the Boston 

 meeting will be Prof. Morgan, of Rochester. 



M. OttoStruve, as our readers probably know, was recently 

 in the United States, when he visited the works of Mr. Alvan 

 Clark, the celebrated optician, and ordered an object-gla«s of 

 80 cent, diameter for Pulkowa's Observatory. We are informed 

 that in consequence of that visit, Mr. Clark has gone to Paris in 

 order to have the glass cast at M. Feil's works, rue Lebrun. 



The opening of the Practical School of Astronomy, of which 

 we have already spoken, will take place very shortly at the Paris 

 Observatory. The delay which has occurred has been occasioned 

 merely by the absence of M. Ferry, who has been travelling 

 through the whole of the provinces advocating in favour of 

 Article 7 of his Education Law. 



A NUMBER of scientific men are organising a Geographical 

 Society in Algiers. The number of subscribers is not less than 

 200, and a general mftting has been convened for electing the 

 officers of the Association. The success of that movement has led 

 others to attempt the foundation of an Algerian Society for the 

 Advancement of Science ; but this is not likely to be successful, 

 the attempt being premature. 



Prof. Piazzi Smyth has been advocating the erection on one 

 of the heights of Cyprus of a sort of Imperial Observatory, for 

 which he thinks its clear atmosphere and sunny climate peculiarly 

 adapted. He wonders how the British astronomers can exist at 

 all in this cloudy and smoky climate. 



The following is the title of the essay to which the Howard 

 Medal of the Statistical Society will be awarded in November, 

 1880. The essays to be sent in on or before June 30, 1880 : — 

 " The Oriental Plague in its Social, Economical, Political, and 

 International Relations : Special Reference being made to the 

 Labours of Howard on the Subject." The Council have decided 

 to grant the sum of 20/. to the writer who may gain the " Howard 

 Medal" in November, 1880. 



The Trustees of the British Museum are making arrange- 

 ments to light the reading-room by means of the electric light. 

 Waterloo Bridge has been lit up by ten electric lamps on 

 the JablochkofT system. 



From a number of the Otago Witness which has been rent us 

 we are pleased to see that science has not a few enthusiastic 

 disciples in New Zealand. Prof. Black, of Dunedin, we are 

 told, delivered the fifth lecture of the course in the chemistry 

 lecture-room on July 12. For want of sufficient accommodation, 

 the lecture was delivered twice— to the far-distance teachers, 

 from 12.30 to 4 P.M. ; and to the teachers resident in Dunedin 

 and suburbs, from 5 to 9 P.M. As usual, the lecture-room was 

 full on each occasion, about 1 80 teachers — 80 of whom were 

 ladies — being in attendance. Many of these came from a great 

 distance. One gentleman came from Ngapara, 93 miles north 

 from Dunedin ; another from beyond Clinton, 75 miles south of 

 Dunedin — thus bringing together teachers whose schools are 168 

 miles apart. About 20 of the teachers who attend these classes 

 come more than 60 miles — from Lawrence, Oamaru, and beyond 

 Balclutha, Over 60 of them come more than 30 miles. " Alto- 

 gether, we believe," the Witness states, "the distances travelled 

 to attend a course of lectures is quite unprecedented in any 

 country, and our teachers are to be greatly commended for the 

 interest which they take in the subject." 



The first meeting of the session of the Society of Medical 

 Officers of Health will be held at l, Adam Street, Adelphi, to- 

 morrow at 8 P.M., when an inaugural address will be delivered 

 by the president. Dr. J. S. Bristowe. 



Prof. Cor field's Introductory Lecture to the Ladies' Class 

 of Hygiene and Public Health at University College will be 



delivered on Wednesday, October 22, at 3 P. M. The course will 

 be continued on succeeding Wednesdays at the same hour. 



In the Rci'ue Scientifique of September 27 is an interesting 

 paper by E. B. Renault on the Comparative Structure of s-jroe 

 Stems of the Carboniferous Flora, 



At Belgrade there were two shocks of earthquake on Friday 

 and one on Saturday; on Saturday a shock was felt at the 

 Roumanian town of Turn-Severin on the Danube. 



Dr. J. E. Taylor's Winter Course of Lectures in connection 

 with the Ipswich Museum will be on Flowers and Fruits. The 

 average attendance at these lectures is 500 people, chiefly of the 

 working class. 



The third part of Dr. Dodel- Port's excellent "Atlas der 

 Botanik " is to be published within a few days. It will contain : 

 (i) Ulothrix zonata ; the most important points in the whole 

 development of one of the lowest sexual chlorophyll Alga:. This 

 treatise is an abstract of a monograph which the author published 

 some years ago and which excited considerable interest at the 

 time. The original treatise was noticed in these columns (vol. 

 XV. p. 511). (2) Polysipkonia subulata ; the fertilisation of 

 a red seaweed by animalcules, of which we gave an abstract a 

 few numbers back (vol. xx. p. 463). (3) Sehizomycetes ; different 

 types of putrefaction- and infection-fungi (with Spiroehate Ol^cr 

 meieri, the contagium of a certain typhoid disease). (^) BacterHih. 

 anthracis ; the whole development of the carbuncle fungus 

 according to the researches of Prof. Nageli, of Munich, and 

 of the author himself. (5) The development of the prothallium 

 of the fern genus, Aspidiiim, from the spore to the formation of 

 embryos. (6) Cyeas cireinalis and C. rrjoluta ; female plant, 

 female flower, carpel and fruit of the lowest flowering plant. Be- 

 sides his " Atlas der Botanik," which involves years of hard work. 

 Dr. Dodel-Porl is about to publish a profusely illustrated work, 

 " Bilder aus dem Pflanzenleben," which is written in popular 

 language and is intended to bring the most interesting and most 

 important questions of scientific botany before a larger puKic. 

 The first part of this new book is to appear early in November. 



An interesting surgical case was recently reported by M. 

 Larrey to the French Academy of Medicine. A young carpenter 

 received a blow from an axe on his right foot. The big toe \.as 

 almost completely detached; it was held merely by a snail 

 thread of skin, and hung on the side of the foot. Dr. Gavey, 

 who was at once called in, detached the toe completely, then 

 after having washed it and the wound on the foot, he adapted 

 the two surfaces as well as possible one to the other, and m:;(!c 

 them hold together by means of strips of lint soaked with col in- 

 dion and placed along the toe. When the collodion had r<t 

 another strip was wound round. Further, an apparatus v as 

 used to keep all the parts of the foot in perfect immobility. 

 Twelve days after, the dressing gave no bad smell, the patiunt 

 was very well, and desired to go out, and twenty-four days after 

 the accident the cicatrisation was perfect. 



We are sure our readers would welcome the very simjile 

 scheme proposed by Mr. Clifibrd Eskellfor the giving of receipts 

 by the Post Office officials for the posting of letters or other docu- 

 ments, at the cost of one farthing each. Mr. Eskell has forwarded 

 us specimens of the " posting proofs " proposed by him, and they 

 seem to us both simple and well adapted for their purpose. 

 Some such arrangement as this would often save a world ef 

 trouble, and we trust that means will be taken to induce the 

 Post Office authorities to give it a fair trial. 



The Smithsonian Institution, we learn from Scienee NlWS, has 

 lately added to its series of Check-Lists, one by Prof. A. F. 

 Verrill, which originated in the useful purpose it would serve in 

 the scientific work of the U.S. Fish Commission. It is cntitlc'l 



