496 



NATURE 



{March 2 1, 1889 



schools there is one at night for the benefit of persons who 

 are compelled to work during the day, the instruction given 

 relating chiefly to drawing and modelling. This institution is 

 now being taken as a model for other schools which are in 

 •course of establishment by the Russian Government. 



In the report, to the Foreign Office, of Sir A. Nicholson on 

 the agriculture of Hungary during the past year, it is said that 

 in November last a new agricultural school was opened in the 

 Torontaler country, and at the end of the year there existed an 

 academy of forestry at Chemnitz, a veterinary school at Buda- 

 Pesth, an agricultural school in Hungarian Altenburg, four other 

 agricultural academies in various parts of the country, and six 

 schools. There were eight institutions for giving instruction in 

 viticulture, three of which were in receipt of a fixed subvention. 

 A proposal made to establish a high school for forestry and 

 agriculture at Buda-Pesth has, for the present, fallen through. 

 A Director-General has been appointed for all the agricultural 

 schools ; and a staff of travelling teachers for certain branches of 

 agriculture has been formed. This staff, however, needs 

 organization similar to that in Austria and France. Up to the 

 present the niembers'of the staff seem to have devoted themselves 

 chiefly to instructing in agriculture and viticulture. Some years 

 ago a body of engineers was formed under the control of the 

 Ministry for Agriculture, with the object of assisting proprietors 

 and farmers in irrigation, drainage, and other similar works, and 

 of watching over water rights and fisheries. At present the 

 number of these engineers is too small for the needs of the 

 country. 



A NEW stalactite cave has lately been discovered by accident 

 near the little village of Eriach, in Lower Austria. It is about 

 60 metres long, and contains a shaft filled with water. The 

 floor and walls are covered with stalactites and stalagmites 

 picturesquely grouped, varying in colour from brown and green 

 to white. 



At the annual general meeting of the Linnean Society of 

 New South Wales, on January 30, Prof. W. J. Stephens, in his 

 Presidential Address, took occasion to discuss Dr. Waagen's 

 ideas as to the supposed Upper Carboniferous glacial period, 

 and its assumed bearing upon the correlation of various Upper 

 Palaeozoic and Alesozoic formations in India, South Africa, and 

 Australia. Prof. Stephens's object was to show that no general 

 glaciation had ever taken place in the temperate regions of the 

 southern hemisphere, and that evidences of local glaciation, as 

 ■of glaciers, floating ice, whether of icebergs or river icerafts, 

 cannot be regarded as of any value in the determination of the 

 question of the relative ages of members of geographically distant 

 formations. 



The new number of the Mintralogical Magazine contains, 

 besides Mr. L. Fletcher's address on the renaissance of British 

 ■mineralogy, the following papers : a mangano-magnesian mag- 

 jietite, by Prof. A. H. Chester ; on the zeolites of Rye Water, 

 Ayrshire, and the minerals of the Treshinish Islands, by Prof. 

 M, F. Heddle ; elaterite, a mineral-tar in Old Red Sandstone, 

 Ross-shire, by Mr. W. Morrison ; analyses of various mineral 

 substances, by Prof. I. Macadam ; on the supposed fall of a 

 meteoric stone at Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, France, in September 

 1810, by Mr. L. Fletcher ; calcites from the neighbourhood of 

 Egremont, Cumberland, by Mr. H. A. Miers ; on the large 

 porphyritic crystals of felspar in certain basalts of the Isle of 

 Mull, by Mr. T. H. Holland. Mr. Allan Dick has a paper in 

 which he describes a new form of microscope. 



The United Slates Geological Survey has published the fifth 

 •volume of the series entitled " Mineral Resources of the United 

 States," by David T. Hay, Chief of Division of Mining Sta- 

 tistics and Technology. This volume contains a summary 



statement of the mineral substances produced in the United 

 States in the year 1887, and chapters showing the features of 

 the principal mining industries during that period. 



Several valuable Bulletins of the United States Geological 

 Survey (Nos. 40-47) have just been issued. One of them (No. 

 44) consists of a bibliography of North American geology for 

 1886. 



Vol, III., Part i, oi \}!\& Folk- Lore Journal coxiizAXii,, amongst 

 other interesting matter, papers on African folk-lore, by Edward 

 Clodd ; on Wexford folk-lore ; and on superstitions of Scottish 

 fishermen, by E. E. Guthrie. This volume also contains the 

 Annual Report of the Council of the Folk-Lore Society, in 

 which it is said that many new members have joined the 

 Society. Amongst the losses by death during the past year 

 have been Sir H. S. Maine, Mr. J. C. Morison, Mr. R. Proctor, 

 and Mr. Gifford Palgrave. 



The Geneva Society of Physics and Natural History has 

 issued the first part of vol. xxx. of its Memoirs. It opens with 

 an address by the President, M. Victor Fatio, giving an account 

 of the work done by the members of the Society in the course 

 of the year 1887. 



Mr. John Anderson has compiled an interesting " History 

 of the Belfast Library and Society for promoting Knowledge, 

 commonly known as the Linen Hall Library" (Belfast : M'Caw, 

 Stevenson, and Orr). It has been published in connection with 

 the hundredth anniversary of the institution. Some valuable 

 old maps of Belfast are reproduced in the volume. 



Part 5 of Cassell's excellent "New Popular Educator" 

 has been issued. Like the preceding parts, it is carefully 

 illustrated. 



Dr. a. B. Griffiths's "Treatise on Manures" will be 

 published, in a few days, by Messrs. Whittaker and Co., of 

 Paternoster Square. 



Messrs. William Wesley and Son have issued No. 94 of 

 their " Natural History and Scientific Book Circular," It con- 

 tains a catalogue of works relating to the various branches of 

 physical science. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Fruit Bat {Cynonyderis, sp. inc.) from 

 India, presented by Mr. W. Jamrach ; two Pine Grosbeaks {Pini- 

 cola enucleator), two Waxwings {Arnpelis garrulus), a Nightin- 

 gale {Daulias luscinia), British, presented by Mr. J, Young ; a 

 Great Eagle Owl {Bubo maximus), European, presented by 

 Mrs. Morant ; a Cactus (Zoxiwx&{Conurus cactonim) from Brazil, 

 presented by Mr. W. H. St, Quintin ; a Common Moorhen 

 {Galiimda chloropus), British, presented by Mr. G. Hayward ; a 

 Rhesus Monkey {Macacus rhesus 9 ) from India, two Nicobar 

 Pigeons {Calmnas nicobarica) from the Indian Archipelago, 

 deposited ; a Buffon's Touracou (Corythaix buffoni) from West 

 Africa, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Rowland's Photographic Map of the Normal Solar 

 Spectrum. ^ — Prof. Rowland has been engaged since the publi- 

 cation in 1886 of his first photograph of the spectrum, in 

 endeavouring to perfect it, and has now completed a new 

 map, which he considers much superior to the former. The 

 entire work has been gone over again ; a new dividing-engine 

 has been constructed, and several concave gratings ruled by its 

 means, some of which give especially fine definition. Much 

 greater attention has been paid to the photographic manipula- 

 tion, and the prints are, it is said, much finer and more perfect 

 than those of the first series, which, however admirable as re- 

 presentations of the spectrum, as photographic works of art 



