278 



NA TURE 



[January 19, 1893 



Charity Comtnissionei s, representing the Charity Commission ; 

 Mr. Kekewich, C.B., Secretary to the Committee of Council 

 on Education, and the Rev. T. W. Sharpe, her Majesty's Senior 

 Chief Inspector of Schools, representing the Education Depart- 

 ment ; and Major-General Donnelly, C.B., Secretary of the 

 Department of Science and Art, Captain Abney, C.B., F.R.S,, 

 Assistant-Director for Science, and Mr. Armstrong, Director 

 for Art, representing the Department of Science and Art, Mr. 

 H. W. Simpkinson, Examiner in the Education Department, 

 acts as Secretary to the Committee. 



On the 25th inst. an influential deputation will wait upon the 

 President of the Board of Trade to urge the adoption of the 

 decimal system of coinage and weights and measures in Great 

 Britain. Among those who propose to form part of the depu- 

 tation are the Agents-General for Victoria, Queensland, and the 

 Cape, and several prominent members of the various chambers 

 of commerce. 



The Infant University of Chicago seems to be resolved to 

 arrange its staff of teachers on a scale commensurate with the 

 size of the North American Continent. Thus, the Department 

 of Geology is placed in the hands of no fewer than seven dis- 

 tinct professors and two assistant professors, each taking some 

 special branch of this wide science under the competent leader- 

 ship of Prof. T. C. Chamberlin. Three of the professors are 

 non-resident, but they will probably give occasional lectures, 

 and will at least direct the studies in their own branches of 

 research. 



Mr. John D. Rockefeller, who had already presented the 

 University of Chicago with 2,600,000 dollars, has now given it 

 another million. The university owns land, buildings, and 

 other property valued at ;(f 1,400,000 sterling, and the principal 

 is ambitious enough to hope that in course of time it may have 

 "such an array of magnificent buildings as one sees at Oxford 

 or Cambridge." 



A BOTANICAL laboratory has been established at Eustis, Lake 

 CO., Florida, chiefly for the investigation of diseases of the 

 orange and other species of Citrus, under the direction of Prof. 

 W. T, Swingle. The anatomy, physiology, and pathology of 

 other subtropical economic plants will also be investigated. 



On Saturday last Prof. Flinders Petrie delivered his first 

 lecture as professor of Egyptology at University College, 

 Gower Street. In the course of the lecture he said that, 

 besides more than a thousand photographs and various impres- 

 sions or "squeezes" of sculpture, a collection of original 

 objects would be exhibited for the close examination of students. 

 Miss Edwards had formed a collection with much care — as 

 complete and typical as possible. He hoped also to place on 

 loan his own collection, and to have a series of annual loan 

 exhibitions drawn from the many valuable private collections in 

 England. There would thus be found a collection of deities, 

 the most complete collection of scarabs, the only chronological 

 collection of beads, a dated series of pottery, the largest collec- 

 tion of funeral cones, and also of Egyptian weights. In certain 

 lines of study their museum would not be merely supplemental, 

 but would be in advance of any historical museums. He pro- 

 posed to give a series of lectures in the autumn and spring, and 

 would prepare students who might wish to undertake practical 

 work in Egypt, where he wonld spend the time before Christmas 

 to Easter. 



Mr. Rowland Ward is exhibiting in his studio a valuable 

 collection of African trophies and curiosities, most of which 

 have been brought to England by Captain Lugard and Mr. F. 

 C. Selous. Besides natural history specimens, the collection 

 includes many weapons and products of native art. 

 NO. 12 I 2, VOL. 47] 



Another severe loss has been sustained by science in Russi» 

 through the death of the well-known mineralogist, Nikolai- 

 Ivanovitch Koksharoff. He died at St. Petersburg on January 2. 

 He was born on December 2, 1818, in West Siberia, in a village 

 near which at that time was the fort of Ust-Kamenogorsk, 

 and he made his studies in the Mining Institute at St. Peters- 

 burg. In 1 84 1, when he was a mining engineer in the Urals, 

 he accompanied Murchison on his journey to Russia and to the 

 Urals, and the intercourse with the great geologist led him to 

 adopt a scientific career. He spent the next three years study- 

 ing in Western Europe, and on his return he devoted himself 

 entirely to minerology, and especially to goniometric measure- 

 ments of minerals, in which he was so much aided by his wife 

 that his numerous writings on this subject are as much her work 

 as his. He lectured in his early years on geology and physical 

 geography, but later on devoted himself almost entirely to the 

 description of Russian minerals, of which he discovered and 

 described many new ones. His chief works are embodied in 

 eleven largre quarto volumes of " Beitrage zur Mineralogie 

 Russlands," illustrated with numerous plates. The twelfth 

 volume was in type when he died. In 1866 he was made a 

 member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and many 

 scientific bodies of Western Europe elected him corresponding: 

 or honorary member. 



During the past week the weather has been of a very un- 

 settled character ; at first an anticyclone lay over the greater 

 part of these islands, while areas of low pressure were situated 

 over the North Sea and to the west of Norway. With these 

 conditions the weather became warmer in this country, the daily 

 maxima varying from 40° to 46", but over the Continent very 

 low temperatures continued to be registered, the minima ii>> 

 Sweden varying from 60° to 65° below the freezing point, while 

 exceptionally severe weather also prevailed over France and 

 Germany. On Sunday a depression was passing to the souths 

 ward of these islands, and under its influence north-easterly 

 gales were experienced in the eastern and southern parts of 

 England ; a sharp frost occurred over this country, accom- 

 panied by snow in most parts, while a thaw set in over Scot- 

 land and rapdidly spread southwards, accompanied by rain, 

 the maximum temperatures reaching from 45° to 50. Subse- 

 quently the conditions were again becoming anti-cyclonic, ac- 

 companied by a return of colder weather, but they were not at 

 all settled ; snow was falling on Tuesday in the south of Eng- 

 land. For the week ending the 14th instant the temperature 

 was everywhere below the mean, the deficit ranging from 2" to 

 5°. The amount of bright sunshine exceeded the average in the 

 north and west of Scotland and in the south-west of England ; 

 elsewhere the amount recorded was very small, being only 3 per 

 cent, in the north-west of England. 



Das Wetter of December last contains an account of a 

 heavy thunderstorm which occurred at Paderborn on August 9, 

 1892, in which a number of living pond mussels were mixed 

 with the rain. The observer who is in connection with the 

 Berlin Metereological Office sent a detailed account of the 

 strange occurrence, and a specimen was forwarded to the 

 Museum at Berlin, which stated that it was the Anodonta. 

 anatina (L.). A yellowish cloud attracted the attention of 

 several people, both from its colour and the rapidity of its 

 motion, when suddenly it burst, a torrential rain fell with a 

 rattling sound, and immediately afterwards the pavement was 

 found to be covered with hundreds of the mussels. Further 

 details will be published in the reports of the Berlin Office, but 

 the only possible explanation seems to be that the water of a 

 river in the neighbourhood was drawn up by a passing tornado,, 

 and afterwards deposited its living burden at the place in ques- 

 tion. 



