586 



NA TURE 



{Oct. 20, 1887 



NOTES. 



One of the most illustrious men of science of the present 

 century, Prof. Gustav KirchhofF, died at Berlin on Monday. He 

 was sixty-three years of age. Next week we shall have some- 

 thing to say about his services to science. 



The Gartenjlora for October announces the death of Dr. 

 Robert Caspary, for many years Professor of Botany in the Uni- 

 versity of Konigsberg. He was a native of Konigsberg, whe-e 

 he was born in 181 8, and the immediate cause of his death was 

 a fall down stairs. The deceased was not a prolific writer, yet 

 he was well known to botanists as a critical authority on the 

 Nymphaeaceoe. Local botany and the investigation of abnormal 

 growths occupied much of his leisure time. 



Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R. S., died on Monday, at his resi- 

 dence in London. Mr. Hunt was born in 1807 at Devonport, 

 was the Keeper of Mining Records at the Museum of Practical 

 Geology, and was the first-appointed Professor of Mechanical 

 Science to the Government School of Mines. 



Prof. Johann Konrad Ullherr, a well-known mathema- 

 tician, died at Kaufbeuren on September 28, aged sixty-seven. 



The last number of the Journal of the China Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society (vol. xxi. new series, Nos. 5 and 6) con- 

 tains an obituary notice of the eminent Chinese scholar, 

 Alexander Wylie, who died early in the present year. He was 

 the author or translator of a considerable number of works of 

 elementary science into Chinese. Amongst them were treatises 

 on mechanics and arithmetic, translations of De Morgan's 

 " Algebra," Loomis's " Geometry," Herschel's "Astronomy," 

 "Euclid," and Main on the steam-engine. He also compiled a 

 list of stars and astronomical terms in Chinese and English, and 

 a paper on the Mongolian astronomical instruments in Pekin. 

 It may be interesting also to notice that the same number of the 

 Journal contains a sketch of the late Dr. Hance, of Canton and 

 Whampoa, who was well known in Europe by his botanical 

 writings, and whose death was noticed not long since in Nature. 

 The writer appends a complete list of Dr. Hance's papers on 

 botanical subjects, beginning with the year 1848. There are in 

 all 119 of these relating to Chinese botany. 



On the 9th inst. an interesting ceremony took place in the 

 town of Le Mans (Sirthe). It was the unveiling of a statue 

 erected to the memory of Pierre Belon, the celebrated zoologist 

 and traveller of the sixteenth century. Pierre Belon was born 

 in 1518. He was one of the first who established the homo- 

 logies between the skeletons of different vertebrates. Over a 

 century before the creation of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, he 

 had formed two botanical gardens. It was he who brought to 

 France the first cedar planted there. It is a common tradition 

 that the first specimen of this tree was brought by de Jussieu, 

 but Belon had anticipated him by a century. The monument is 

 very handsome. Belon is represented seated and holding a 

 book. The expenfes were covered by a public subscription. 



The Council of the Senate of the University of Cambridge 

 report, respecting the site for the Geological Museum, that, as 

 the price required by Downing College is p^539°> the Uni- 

 versity do not proceed further with the proposal. They recom- 

 mend that a syndicate be appointed to consider the plans, 

 and, if necessary, to procure fresh plans for the erection of the 

 Sedgwick Memorial Museum on the site to the east of the new 

 chemical laboratory, and to present plans to the Senate for their 

 approval before the division of the Lent Term, 1888. The plans 

 are to be so arranged that a part of the building sufficient for the 

 purposes of teaching and study might, with the consent of the 

 Sedgwick Memorial Committee, be erected with the money now 

 in their hands. 



The thirty-fourth annual meeting of the German Geological 

 Society was held at Bonn on September 26, under the 



Presidency of Prof. Romer (Breslau). The following were 

 among the papers read : on the dolerites of Londorf, near 

 Giessen, by Prof. Streng (Gic^sen) ; on the basaltic rocks of 

 the Vogelsberg, by the same ; on the chalk of Umlamfuna, in 

 Natal, the Upper Silurian Eurypterus dolomite of Gaaden, 

 near Kiel, and on the mollusk fauna (fifty- four species) in the 

 Central Oligocene of Itzehoe, by Dr. Goltsche (Hamburg) ; and 

 on fossil footprints in the New Red Sandstone in Thuringia, 

 by Dr. J. G. Bornemann (Eisenach). 



A correspondent in Trinidad writes : — " We have a Com- 

 mittee appointed here for the purpose of endeavouring to deter- 

 mine the influence the moon has upon vegetation. It arose in 

 this way : I found that in cutting timber, bamboo, pruning 

 cacao, sowing seeds, planting provisions, the phase of the moon 

 was always considered, and in consequence much time was l>st. 

 In England, years ago, I heard the same idea and disproved it 

 by experiment. Here it has such a hold upon the Spanish 

 section of the community that it is no use endeavouring to com- 

 bat it by speaking or writing, and theref )re experiment has been 

 authorized. The superstition is so infectious that the Hon, 

 Director of Public Works, after many years' experience, was 

 inclined to believe in it. But after perusing the works of Arago 

 which I lent him, and Lardner's ' Astronomy,' he has refrained 

 from asserting anything, but has devoted himself to the experi- 

 ments to prove the truth or falsity of the theory. When you 

 aver that no notice is taken of the moon in agricultural opera- 

 tions in England, you are met by the reply, ' Oh, the moon has 

 more influence in the equatorial districts,' &c., &c." 



An Imperial Decree has been issued by the Mikado of Japan 

 sanctioning regulations for the establishment of meteorological 

 observatories, at the public expense, in the country. The regu- 

 lations provide that the Central Observatory shall be situated in 

 Tokio, and local observatories at such convenient places as may 

 be designated by the Home Minister, without whose consent the 

 local authorities may not establish observatories. The Central 

 Observatory is to be under the Home Minister, while the local 

 observatories are to be under the respective local Governments. 

 The cost of maintaining local observatories is to be defrayed out 

 of local taxation ; they are to communicate and correspond with 

 the Central Observatory according to departmental regulations 

 which shall be made by the Home Minister. 



The Aristotelian Society has decided to print, at the close of 

 each session, an abstract of its proceedings. The first number, 

 edited by Prof. Dunstan, has just appeared. It represents the 

 work done during the eighth session, which terminated last 

 June, and contains lengthy abstracts of many papers of interest, 

 among them being : the ultimate questions of philosophy, Iqr 

 Prof. Bain ; the re-organisation of philosophy, by Mr. Shad- 

 worth Hodgson ; Neo-Kanlism in its relation to science, by Mr. 

 Romanes and Mr. Bernard Bosanquet ; recent psycho-physical 

 researches, by Dr. Cattell. The ninth session will open on 

 November 7 with an address by the President. Among the 

 papers to be read is one by Mr. Romanes, on Darwinism 

 relation to design ; and one by Prof. Bain, on the demari 

 tions and definitions of the subject sciences. 



A book on tattooing, by Wilhelm Joest, will shortly be p^ 

 lished by Messrs. A. Asher and Co., at Berlin. In this elaborate 

 work, which will be fully illustrated, the author will present 

 much information which he has collected during his extensi 

 travels. He will also thoroughly discuss the question as to fi 

 motives which have led to the practice of tattooing. 



A new periodical is being issued by Julius Springer, 

 Berlin, who has sent us a copy of the first number. The period- 

 ical is called Zeitschrift Jiir den Physikalischen und Chemisclun 

 Unterrkht, and is edited by Dr, Fritz Poske, with the aid of 

 Dr. E. Mach and Dr. B, Schwalbe, The editor's principal 

 object will be to provide an adequate exposition of 



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