Oct. 13, 1887] 



tno one who reads what he has to say will be surprised that 

 many departments of industry our manufacturers are being 

 surpassed by their Teutonic rivals. The letter contains nothing 

 new ; but the essential facts connected with this vital subject 



IDQOt be too often pressed on the attention of the public. 

 We regret to announce the death of Mr. Joseph Baxendell, 

 K. S., of the Observatory, Birkdale, Southport. He died at 

 S a^e of seventy-two. 

 According to a report which appears in the Mouvement 

 OSographique, Kilimanjaro has at last been ascended to its 

 summit. This has been done by a German traveller, M. Meyer, 

 of Leipzig. We know that the mountain presents two great 

 peaks : — Kimawenzi, 4973 metres in height, and Kibo, estimated 

 by Mr. H. H. Johnston at 5745 metres. Mr. Johnston suc- 

 ceeded in ascending the latter to a height of 4950 metres. 

 M. Meyer, it is stated, has succeeded in reaching the crater summit 

 of Kibo, which he estimates at 6000 metres. Before giving 

 absolute credence to these statements, it will be well to await the 

 publication of details by M. Meyer. 



In an interesting article in the Times on Monday, on " The 

 British Race-Types of To-day," it was stated that "for a 

 generation or more the advocates of the view that the English 

 are almost unmixed Teutons pressed their ideas upon the 

 scientific and literary world with a persistence and learning 

 which went far to produce conviction." Prof. Huxley, writing 

 to the Times about this statement, maintains that, whatever 

 may have been the case with "the literary world," scientific 

 anthropologists were never misled by the "persistence and 

 learning" of those who contended that the Knglish are of 

 almost purely Teutonic origin. " A score of years a ^o," says 

 Prof. Huxley, " this question was hotly debated ; and I do not 

 think that, at that time, any of my anthropological colleagues 

 would have found much fault with the propositions laid down in 

 a paper 'On some Fixed Points of British ..Ethnology,' which 

 was published in 187 1, which propositions are in substance 

 corroborated by the writer of your article." 



Capt. Dickinson, who has been in charge of the Royal 

 Society's boring at Zagazig, in the delta of the Nile, reports 

 that a depth of 308 feet 6 inches has been reached. The soil 

 from 190 feet has been sand, varying in coarseness, and some- 

 times mixed with stones. At 308 feet, 4 inches of blue clay was 

 passed through. 



The Nation of September 22 prints a letter from Miss Mabel 

 LoomisTodd on the Eclipse Expedition in Japan. Miss Todd's 

 letter is dated Shirakawa, Japan, August 20. We regret to find 

 that the weather was not more favourable for observers in Japan 

 than for observers in Russ'a and Germany. 



We have received the fourth volume of the Proceedings and 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. It contains the 

 Proceedings and Transactions during the year i886. Most of 

 the papers are in English, but some are in French. Among the 

 more important papers we may note " The Right Hand and 

 Left-handedness," and "The Lost Atlantis," by Dr. Daniel 

 Wilson; "The Genetic History of Crystalline Rocks," and 

 "Supplement to 'A Natural System in Mineralogy,' &c.," by 

 Dr. T. Sterry Hunt ; " Some Points in which American Geo- 

 logical Science is indebted to Canada," and " On the Fossil 

 Plants of the Laramie Formation of Canada," by Sir J. William 

 Dawson ; and " On certain Borings in Manitoba and the North- 

 West Territory," by Dr. Geo. M. D ivson. 



The October Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, issued 

 from the Royal Gardens, Kew, presents the results of a careful 

 inquiry made by Mr. Arthur Shipley, under the auspices of the 

 Royal Gardens, into a disease alTecting the onion crop at the 

 Bermudas. Mr. Shipley shows that the disease is caused by a 

 fungus, Peronospora SchleiJeniani, which lives parasitically upon 



NA TURE 



56; 



the leaf of the onion plant ; and that the atmospheric conditions 

 which favour the progress of the disease are heavy dews or 

 rains, followed by warm, moist, calm weather, and the absence 

 of direct sunshine and cold winds. In favo.irable weather the 

 progress of the disease is very rapid. The fungus lives in the 

 tissues of the leaf, choking up the air-passages and absorbing 

 the nutritive fluid formed in the cells. Its stem protrudes 

 through the stomata of the leaf into the air. Its branches bear 

 spores at their tips. The reproduction of the fungus is effected by 

 means of these spores, which float about through the air, and also 

 by means of certain special cells formed by the fungus and known 

 as resting-spores. These pass the winter in the earth, and are 

 capable of retaining the power of germination for two or three 

 years. It is by their means that the disease is carried on from 

 one season to another. Mr. Shipley offers various practical 

 suggestions, which will no doubt be of considerable service to 

 cultivators. 



Dr. Schweinfurth, in co-operation with Prof. Ratzel, is 

 about to publish through Brockhaus, of Leipzig, a collection of 

 all the letters and other writings of E-jain Pasha. Dr. Junker 

 also, in association with M. Richard Buchta, who visited the 

 Upper Nile region some years ago, is about to issue a work 

 dealing with the events of recent years in the Soudan. The 

 volume will be illustrated with two maps, and have portraits of 

 Gordon, Emin, Gessi, Lupton, and Slattin, Dr. Junker has 

 just finished his work of preparing at Gotha the great map of his 

 explorations in the basin of the Welle and the region of the 

 Upper Nile. It has been drawn by Dr. Hassenstein in four 

 sheets, which will appear in the beginning of next year in a 

 supplemental part of Petermann' s Mitteihmgen. 



An elaborate work on palaeontology ("Handbuch der Pala:- 

 ontologie ") is being issued at Munich and Leipzig by R. Olden- 

 bourg. The editor is Prof. Karl A. Zittel, of Munich, who is 

 aided by Dr. A. Schenck, of Leipzig, and Mr. S. H. Scudder, 

 of Boston. The work is divided into two parts, in the first of 

 which pal<Eontology is dealt with ; in the second, palaeophyto- 

 logy. The first part, when completed, will occupy three 

 volumes ; the second, one. The first two volumes have been 

 published, and we have just received the first "Lieferung" of 

 the third volume. The subject of this " Lieferung" (illustrated 

 by 266 woodcuts) is " Vertebrata : Pisces." The subjects of 

 the later " Lieferungen " of the same volume will be "Verte- 

 brata: Amphibia, Keptilia, Aves, Mammalia." We may men- 

 tion that a French translation, by Dr. Charles Barrois, is issued 

 simultaneously with the original German work. 



A WORK on " The Cultivated Oranges and Lemons, &c., of 

 India and Ceylon," by Brig\de-Surgeo;i E. Bjnavia, M. D., of the 

 Indian Medical Department, is about to be isiued. The writer's 

 object is mainly practical and economical, bat he deals also with 

 some questions of purely scientific interest. His researches have 

 brought him into ontact with every variety of Citrus in India 

 and Ceylon, and he claims that he has been able to dispose of, 

 or at any rate to throw new light on, certain disputed points, 

 both botanical and historical, in connexion with this genus. 

 Thj book will be accompanied by an atlas in foolscap size, con- 

 sisting of 259 plates of outline drawings of all the varieties of 

 Citrus to be found in India and Ceylon. 



Messrs. Dulau and Co. have now ready for publication 

 "A Chapter in the History of Meteorites," by the late Dr. 

 Walter Flight, F.R.S. 



A THIRD edition of "Weather Charts and Storm Warnings," 

 by Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., has just been issued. The writer's 

 object in preparing the work was to convey some idea of the 

 state of weather knowledge, so that readers might understand 

 what was to be learned from a careful study of the weather 

 charts in the newspapers and of the remarks appended to them. 



