88 



NATURE 



[November 26, 1891 



Thomson, engaged on atoms and molecules, piercing the secrets 

 of the smallest entities, brooding over the mystic dance of 

 ethereal vortices, while his magic wand summons elemental 

 forces to reveal the nature of their powers to his scientific gaze, 

 I forget the disciplined accuracy of the man of science, while 

 lost in wonder at the imaginative inspiration of the poet." 



The trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden have issued 

 their third announcement concerning garden pupils. The object 

 of the trustees, as we have already stated, is to provide adequate 

 theoretical and practical instruction for young men desirous of 

 becoming gardeners. It is not intended at present that many 

 persons shall be trained at the same time, nor that the instruction 

 shall resemble exactly that given by many State Colleges, but that 

 U shall be quite distinct, and limited to what is thought to be 

 necessary for training practical gardeners. Three scholarships 

 will be awarded by the Director of the Garden before April i 

 next. The course extends over six years, so the trustees are 

 particularly anxious that scholarships shall be won by boys 

 who are not much over fourteen years of age. 



The Bulletin of the Botanical Department of Jamaica, for 

 September, contains a report, by Mr. W. Fawcett, Director of 

 Public Gardens and Plantations, on a disease causing the death, 

 on a large scale, of the cocoa-nut palms in the neighbourhood of 

 Montego Bay. The disease first attacks the tissues of the 

 youngest parts. There is no evidence that it is produced by 

 an insect, and Mr. Fawcett considers it is due to an "organized 

 ferment," In the supplement of \he Jamaica GazeUe (or Sep- 

 tember is the remark that the disease is " rapidly destroying the 

 cocoa-nut walks in the parish of St. James, and that, if not 

 checked, in a very few years the cocoa-nut will cease to be a 

 product of this parish, indeed if not of the island." 



The Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences publishes in its 

 Proceedings (Part 46) a list of the chief relics of the Hindu 

 period in Java, and along with it an archaeological map indicat- 

 ing the sites of the ruins of temples, statues, and other anti- 

 quities. Both list and map are the work of Dr. R. D. M. 

 Verbeek, a well-known engineer. 



A PAPER on water and water-supply, with special reference to 

 the supply of London from the chalk of Hertfordshire, by Mr. 

 John Hopkinson, appears in the Transactions of the Hertford- 

 shire Natural History Society (vol. vi., Part 5, October 1891) 

 and has now been published separately. Mr. Hopkinson insists 

 that instead of more waterbeing taken from Hertfordshire for the 

 supply of London the amount at present taken should be reduced. 

 London, he thinks, must sooner or later follow the example of 

 other and much less wealthy towns by obtaining a supplementary 

 supply from a distant source. Liverpool obtains its water from 

 the Vyrnwy, Manchester from Thirlmere, Glasgow from Loch 

 Katrine, and there is a project on foot for Birmingham to obtain 

 a supply from Central Wales. The most feasible scheme for 

 London appears to Mr. Hopkinson to be to obtain a supple- 

 mentary supply from Bala Lake, or some other lake or lakes in 

 North Wales, or from Central Wales or Dartmoor. 



The White Star liner Teutonic, which arrived the other 

 day from New York, after a rapid passage, brought particu- 

 lars of a collision between the Anchor Line steamer Ethiopia 

 and a large whale, eight hundred miles east of Sandy Hook, 

 on the 15th inst., on the passage to New York from Glas- 

 gow. At 10.45 a-m. Captain Wilson and Second Officer 

 Fife were on the bridge keeping a close watch ahead. Sud- 

 denly a whale came to the surface directly in the path of 

 the ship, and only a few feet ahead. The ship was rushing 

 towards the whale at the rate of sixteen miles an hour. There 

 was no time to check the speed of the vessel, and almost 

 NO. II 52, VOL. 45] 



before the astonished officers realized it, the ship's sharp 

 iron prow crashed into the monster. The blow was 

 a square, incisive one. The ship seemed to sail right 

 through the whale, which disappeared almost immediately, 

 leaving a trail of crimson as far as the eye could see. Shortly 

 afterwards the whale was sighted astern, floating lifelessly. 

 When the ship came into collision with the whale the shock 

 caused the vessel to tremble from stem to stern, and startled 

 the passengers for a moment. The passengers who were below 

 rushed on deck, and a panic seemed to be imminent. Captain 

 Wilson hurriedly left the bridge and appeared on deck. "Have 

 no fear," he said, " we have only killed a whale. The ship is 

 not hurt." His words allayed the fears of the passengers. 



In his recent Presidential address to the Royal Society of 

 New South Wales, Dr. A. Leibius referred with satisfaction to 

 the progress made by the cause of scientific and technical educa- 

 tion in New South Wales. In addition to the opportunities 

 given by the University of Sydney for the study of science, the 

 Government, by the establishment of a technical college and 

 technological museum at Sydney, with branches in different 

 parts of the colony, have brought within the reach of all who 

 desire it the means of acquiring scientific and technical know- 

 ledge. As an illustration of the extent to which the colony is 

 developing this part of its educational system. Dr. Leibius men- 

 tioned that contracts already let in connection with the Sydney 

 College alone amount to close upon ^^48,000, while ^^20,000 

 have been voted by Parliament for technical colleges and tech- 

 nological museums at Bathurst, Broken Hill, Maitland, and 

 Newcastle. 



The. Michigan Mining School, at Houghton, sends us its 

 " Catalogue " for 1890-91. The course of instruction for the 

 regular students at this institution extends over a period of three 

 years, the work continuing through most of the year. The 

 authorities of the school express an earnest desire to secure as 

 students young men who, before beginning their professional 

 studies, have obtained " an education of the broadest and most 

 liberal character." Every regular student is required "to spend 

 seven hours a day for five days each week in the laboratory or 

 field work, or in recitation or lecture." His "recitations" are 

 prepared " in time taken outside of the seven hours a day." On 

 Saturdays, or on other days, as occasion may require, excursions 

 are made to the mines, mills, and smelting-works in the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



At a meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society at Edinburgh on 

 November 11, a capital address was delivered by Prof. I. 

 Bayley Balfour, on botanical enterprise in relation to pharma- 

 cology. Prof. Balfour devoted himself especially to the task of 

 showing how vast are the obligations of pharmacologists to the 

 Royal Gardens, Kew. The address is printed in the current 

 number of the Pharmaceutical Jotirnal. 



Mr. J. E, Dixon records, in the Victoria Naturalist for 

 October, a curious fact which came under his own observation. 

 During a ramble along the Kooyong CreeTc, Oakleigh, on 

 August 15, he was somewhat surprised to see a specimen of 

 the ring-tailed opossum, hanging, as he thought, by her claws, 

 to a sharp-pointed limb of a gum-tree, about twenty feet from 

 the ground. Upon closer observation he found that the creature 

 was dead, and that death was due to the fact that in her flight 

 she had become impaled by her pouch. In the pouch were two 

 young ones almost old enough to leave her. 



Mr. Angelo Heilprin contributes to the New York Nation 

 of November 12 an interesting paper in which he describes the 

 charms of a summer tour to Greenland. \ A journey to the 

 7Sth parallel of latitude, or thereabouts, could, he says, be 

 arranged annually with much of the certainty of a trans- 



