December 29, 1892J 



NA TORE 



207 



and the basia explored. About 25,000 specimens of dried plants 

 were collected, representing nearly looo species, many of them 

 undescribed forms. Valuable facts concerning general distribu- 

 tion of plants were obtained, since the area explored is one 

 where the Rocky Mountain flora meets and intermingles with 

 the Pacific coast flora in a very interesting manner, while the 

 opportunity afforded by numerous mountain slopes for the 

 furthering of some problems of vertical distribution was not 

 neglected. 



An important paper on fossil mammals of the Wahsatch and 

 Wind River Beds, by H. F. Osborn and J. L. Wortman, has 

 been issued as a bulletin by the American Museum of Natural 

 History, and has also been published separately. It includes a 

 plate and eighteen figures in the text, and is devoted principally 

 to a description of a collection made by Dr. Wortman during 

 the summer of 1 89 1. The authors claim that many new facts 

 of great interest are brought out by the material in the collec- 

 tion. In a preliminary note it is stated that the department of 

 mammalian palaeontology in the American Museum of Natural 

 History was established in May, 1891, and that the purpose of 

 the trustees is to procure a representative collection of the 

 American fossil mammals from the successive geological hori- 

 zons of the West for purposes of exhibition, study and publica- 

 tion. The staff consists of Prof. H. F. Osborn, of Columbia 

 College, Curator, and of Dr. J. L. Wortman, assistant in 

 Palaeontology. Mr. Charles Earle and Mr. O. A. Peterson are 

 also engayjed as assistants, and Mr. Rudolph Weber as draughts- 

 man. The collections are to be made readily accessible to 

 students, and exhibited as rapidly as they can be put together 

 and mounted. A list of such duplicate specimens as are avail- 

 able for purposes of exchange is to be prepared. A series of 

 casts of the best preserved types is also in preparation for 

 exchange. 



Last week we printed an account of the ceremonies connected 

 with the Tercentenary of Galileo at Padua. In addition to 

 what was then stated we may say that after Prof. Favaro's 

 oration the delegates were invited to present the addresses of 

 which they were the bearers ; whereupon, the English delega- 

 tion having by lot been placed first in order of precedence, at 

 the request of his colleagues, Profs. Darwin and Stone of 

 Cambridge and Oxford, Sir Joseph Fayrer spoke first, on pre- 

 senting the addresses of the Royal College of Physicians of 

 London and the University of Kdinburgh, with which he was 

 entrusted. He spoke in Italian to the following effect : — 



" Profondamente commosso aH'onore accordatomi dal Reale 

 Collegio dei Medici di Londra, ed anche dall Uiiiversila di 

 Edinburgo, nel nominarmi il loro delegato, io mi presento 

 davanti a questa insegne adunanza, per far onore alia memoria 

 di uno dei piii grandi uomini e dei piii illustri sapienti del 

 mondo, e per render omaggio da parte del detto Collegio, cosi 

 bene come dell' illustre centro di scienza e di filosofia in Scozia, 

 air inclito scienzato, nonche a felicitare di cuore colla massima 

 riverenza, questo antico seggio di scienza e di filosofia in cosi 

 beta e fausta occasione, nella quale si commemorano le scoperte 

 gloriose del celebre e rinomato filosofo, col nonie del quale e 

 intimamente collegata la sua storia passata ed anche la sua rino- 

 manza atiuale. La scienza di tutto il mondoe senza dubbio in questo 

 luogo ora rappresentata. Da ogni parte sono venuti messaggi di 

 simpatia, ma da nessuno forse, con maggiore premura e zelo che 

 dei compatrioti di Harvey e Newton. Questi, impugnando la 

 facciola caduta dalla mano murta di Galileo, la innalzo e la 

 sostenne per illuminare le tenebre e rischiarare di vera luce i 

 luoghi finallora oscuri anche al gran filosofo stesso ; I'altro 

 avendo terminato i suoi studi ed essendo laureato in questa 

 universita, divcnne dipoi, come socio del Collegio di Londra, 

 famoso per le sue scoperte sulla circolazione del sangue. I suoi 

 studi anatomici che fece a Padova svilupparono in lui quel genio 

 al quale il mondo iniero e debitore. Signori miei, non h solo 

 alio scopritore del termometro, e, come si pu6 dire, all' in- 

 ventore del telescopic ; non e neppure all' astronomo famoso 



NO. 1209, VOL. 47] 



che ha stabilito il sistema eliocentrico, ed ha quasi anticipate le 

 scoperte di Kepler, e che ha dimostrato i satelliii di Giove, le 

 fasi del pianeta Venere, i movimenti diurni e mensili della luna 

 e le macchie solari ; non e infine all' autore del ' Saggiatore,' 

 del ' Sidereus Nuncius ' e del ' Dialogo dei due Massimi 

 sisiemi del Mondo,'— ma e piuttosto al fondatore della 

 filosofia sperimentale che noi rendiamo adesso omaggio ed 

 onore. tgli, osando, pensare ed invesiigari da se stesso, 

 rigettando gli assiomi degli antichi sistemi di filosofia, anche 

 quello di Aristolile stesso, e rifiutando gl' insegnamenti della 

 teologia dogmatica, stabill il sistema del libero esame, affer- 

 mando che la scoperta della veriia dev' essere il primo motivo, 

 e che si deve ccrcai la per via di sperimenti e non sulT altrui 

 auiorita, e che la verua e unica, tanto in respelto alle scienze 

 divine come alle umane. Ardisco dire che nessun migliore 

 tributo si pu6 fare al gran maestro adesso commemorate, che 

 questa riconoscenza festiva dopo trecento anni, dell' assiduo e 

 instancabile lavoro che ha rovesciato non soltanto il sistema 

 Tolomaico, ma ha dato un nuovo impulso vitale ad ogni ricerca 

 scien ificae filosofica. Signori, con quesiepoche parole ho tentato 

 d'esprimere i seniimenti dell' illu tre Collegio e dell' inclita 

 Universita dei quali io sono il modesto interpret e, e ho I'onore 

 di sommettere queste indirizzi, e con esse, i voti piu sinceri dei 

 miei coliejihi per la prosperita futura di questa venerabile 

 Universiti, la quale, molto avanti a Galileo e stata un primo 

 centro della vita intellettuale in Europa, e che anche adesso e 

 famosa per la sua propria eccellenza e pei suoi rapporti col gran 

 savio di cui si puo dire, come ha detto Dante di Aristotile : 

 ' Tutti I'ammiron, tutti onor gli fanno.' " 



Prof. Darwin of Cambridge followed Sir Joseph Fayrer 

 with an interesting and eloquent address, also in Italian. He 

 was succeeded by other delegates. We may note that every 

 attention was shown to the foreign delegates, and the great 

 success of the commemoration was courteously assigned by the 

 University authorities in large measure to the sympathy and 

 interest evinced by other nations. It is satisfactory that no in- 

 considerable sbare of this was attributed to the English ; their 

 addresses being delivered in Italian evidently afforded much 

 pleasure. 



The Mediterranean Naturalist, noting the fact that new and 

 spacious buildings are about to take the place of the old bio- 

 logical station at Cette, expresses regret that no institution of 

 this kind has yet been established in connection with the Mal- 

 tese Islands. It points out that the marine fauna and flora of 

 Maltese waters offer themselves as a rich and practically un- 

 touched field of research, the careful working out of which 

 would be attended with scientific and economic results of the 

 greatest importance. 



The same journal mentions that a petition is to be presented 

 to the Governor of Malta praying that the Maltese fisheries may 

 be more efficiently protected. At present considerable latitude 

 is allowed both as regards the methods practised and as regards 

 the times at which the fishing is carried on. " This," says our 

 contemporary, " is not as it should be. No other food supply 

 can take the place of fish, and the fisheries of the islands 

 under adequate protection and judicious management will 

 alwa>s be an unfailing and increasing source of wealth." 



The Department of Public Instruction in New South Wales 

 has published in its Technical Education Series (No. 10) the 

 first part of what promises to be a most valuable " Bibliography 

 ol Australian Economic Botany," by J. H. Maiden, curator of 

 the Technological Museum, Sydney. Much information on 

 the properties and uses of Australian plants, and on the products 

 obtained from them is embodied in books of travel, in exhibi- 

 tion literature, pamphlets, proceedings of learned societies, 

 professional journals, and newspapers. It is the author's 

 object to render this scattered information convenient for refer- 

 ence. 



A German translation, by Count Goertz-Wrisberg, of Dr. 

 W. Fream's " Elements of Agriculture," has been published by 



