526 



NATURE 



\_Sept. 29, 1887 



surveying and the lectures on the various branches of civil 

 engineering are given by Prof. L. F. Vernon Harcourt. The 

 general lectures on engineering and machine design, as well as 

 the work in the engineering laboratory, are in the hands of 

 Prof. Alex. W. Kennedy. In this laboratory, the arrangements 

 of which formed a principal subject of the paper on the use and 

 equipment of engineering laboratories read by Prof. Kennedy 

 before the Institute of Civil Engineers last winter, students go 

 through for themselves, during the session, a systematically 

 arranged course of experimental work in connexion with elas- 

 ticity and the strength of materials, the efficiency and economy 

 of steam-boilers and engines, the appliances for which have been 

 considerably extended during the last few months. Electrical 

 technology is under the care of Prof. Fleming, by whom (with 

 Prof. Carey Foster) a dynamo installation has lately been fitted 

 up for the purpose of practical experimentation in applied 

 electricity. Building construction forms the subject of lectures 

 by Prof. T. Roger Smith, as a part of his course on architec- 

 ture. Economic geology is treated as a special subject in a 

 short course of lectures by Prof. T. G. Bonney, and chemistry 

 as applied to engineering and architecture in a course by Prof. 

 Chas. Graham. In addition to these matters directly connected 

 with engineering, the College provides ample instruction in all 

 the sciences on which engineering is based — mathematics, 

 mechanics, physics, chemistry, geology, &c., and very special 

 attention is given to graphic methods of calculation as applied 

 to scientific and technical problems in the lectures and drawing 

 class of Prof. Karl Pearson. 



We have received the Calendar of the Glasgow and West of 

 Scotland Technical College for the ensuing session. It is pro- 

 posed, we observe, to make extensive additions to "Allan 

 Glen's School," especially by providing laboratories, rooms for 

 freehand and mechanical drawing, and a large workshop. These 

 will not be fully ready for use until the session of 1888-89. No 

 change will be made in the course of study pursued since its 

 reorganization in 1878. 



The session of the Science and Technical Classes at the 

 Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Bridge Road, begins on Tues- 

 day, October 4, when a lecture on "Museums for the People" 

 will be delivered by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. After the 

 lecture, prizes will be distributed, and Dr. J. A. Fleming will 

 give an address on the importance of scientific teaching. The 

 lecture arrangements for the remainder of the month are as 

 follows: — October 11, Prof. Kennedy, F.R.S. , " Camping out 

 in Wyoming"; October 18, Rev. Blomfield Jackson, "Rome 

 and its Ruins " ; October 25, Prof. A. W, Riicker, " A Ship's 

 Compass." From lectures such as these has sprung the desire 

 for systematic teaching which has resulted in the formation of 

 the classes. These are held in rooms at the back of the stage, 

 a new room having been built during the summer, to prevent 

 inconvenient crowding in some of the classes. The subjects 

 comprise arithmetic, mathematics, animal physiology, applied 

 mechanics, machine construction and drawing, electricity and 

 chemistry, with the possible addition of physics and astronomy_ 

 Many of the classes are in connexion with the Science and Art 

 Department, and the fees (ij'. (yd. per class per session, with an 

 entrance-fee of \s. for new students) are suited to the working- 

 class neighbourhood where the Hall is situated. 



A COURSE of about eighteen lectures on " Agriculture " will 

 be delivered during the ensuing winter session at King's College, 

 London, by Mr. Frederick James Lloyd. 



In the Bollettino of the Italian Geographical Society for July 

 Dr. G. A. Collini describes some important additions recently 

 made to the Prehistoric and Ethnological Museum of Rome. 

 These include a part of the collections made by Count Giacomo di 

 Brazzk Savorgnan and the Cavaliere Attilio Pecile during their 



late explorations in the Ogoway and Lower Congo basins. 

 Although most of the objects remain in Paris, enough was secured 

 for the Roman Museum to illustrate the arts and industries of 

 numerous African peoples about whom next to nothing was 

 known till quite recently. The objects are divided into two distinct 

 categories : the first comprising the industrial and artistic products 

 of the Fans, Adumas, Obambas, and Ondumbos of the Ogoway ; 

 the second those of the Bakongos, Bayanzi, and Batekes of the 

 Congo, the Apfurus and Mboshi of the Alima, the Mbokos ot 

 the Likwala, and even some tribes of the lately discovered 

 Ubanghi. Both classes contain personal ornaments, skins, 

 fabrics woven of the raphia fibre, shields, hunting and fishing 

 nets, musical instruments, earthenware remarkable for its cor- 

 rect forms, varied colours and artistic designs, besides a great 

 diversity of iron implements and weapons such as axes, hatchets, 

 spears, darts, hoes, knives, razors. The great skill possessed by 

 these natives in wood-carving is shown by the spoons, domestic 

 vessels, idols, stools, canoes, and other wooden objects included 

 in this valuable collection. 



Messrs. Marion and Co., of Soho Square, inform us that 

 they have just introduced a set of universal 10 per cent, develop- 

 ing solutions for the xise of photographers. The complicated 

 constructions which accompany the majority of dry plates 

 are made perfectly simple by them ; and what is of more im- 

 portance, the inconvenience of keeping different solutions for 

 each kind of plate used is also done away with. Nothing can 

 be simpler than their plan of first ascertaining the proportions of 

 each constituent in the developer required, and then mixing 

 solutions of known strengths in like proportions. The solutions 

 are contained in three bol ties, on each of which is given a list 

 of the plates in common use and the quantity of solution required 

 for each. 



Messrs. CasSell and Co. announce a new edition of 

 "Colour," by Prof. A. H. Church; a cheap edition of Prof. 

 H. G. Seeley's " History of the Fresh- water Fishes of Europe," 

 and of "Short Studies from Nature"; the completion of 

 "Familiar Garden Flowers," by Shirley Hibberd ; the third 

 series of "Familiar Wild Birds," by W. Swaysland. 



We understand that " A Quekett Club Man " is engaged 

 upon another microscopical manual, "The Student's Hand-book 

 to the Microscope," which will treat practically of the working 

 of the instrument. Another well-known microscopist, Mr. T. 

 Charters White, F.R.M.S., &c., is preparing a treatise on the 

 mounting of objects. Both works will be published shortly by 

 Messrs. Roper and Drowley. 



We have received an interesting little pamphlet on the 

 natural history of the coast of Lancashire by Dr. Thomas 

 Alcock (Heywood, Manchester). The portion of the coast 

 treated is that extending from the mouth of the Wyre nearly to 

 the estuary of the Mersey, including Fleetwood, Blackpool, St. 

 Anne's, Lytham, and Southport, although most attention i$ 

 devoted to the latter place. The work is written in a popuj 

 style, and we can imagine no more interesting guide for visit! 

 to Lancashire watering-places, even if their taste for nati 

 history studies is imperfectly developed. 



The September Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, issij 

 from the Royal Gardens, Kew, presents some facts al 

 annatto (to which attention was called in the Bulletin for Ju^ 

 and a number of valuable notes on articles contributed to 

 Museums at Kew from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, if 



The Signal Service of the United States lately ordered 

 abandonment of the following stations on the Pacific coast 

 Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, Modesto, Indio, 

 Bernardino, Carson, Yreka, Santa Rosa, and Mendocino Cj 

 Science says that as soon as this order was made known f 



