February 4, 1892] 



NATURE 



323 



the Sandwich Islands have amalgamated, and at a meeting held 

 one day last month selected, from among the gentlemen who 

 offered their services, Mr. Robert C. L. Perkins, B.A., of Jesus 

 College, Oxford. Mr. Perkins will accordingly leave England 

 in a few days, proceeding vid New York and San Francisco to 

 Honolulu, where he will at once commence his researches into 

 the fauna of the islands, and especially that part of it which is 

 believed to be threatened with extinction ; aided, it is hoped, 

 by the Hawaiian Government, and some of the principal resi- 

 dents. Dr. David Sharp, F.R.S., Curator in Zoology in the 

 Museum of the University of Cambridge, is the Secretary of the 

 Joint Committee. 



The annual general meeting of the Geological Society will be 

 held on Friday, February 19, at 3 p.m., and the Fellows and 

 their friends will dine together at the Hotel Metropole, White- 

 hall Place, at 7.30 p.m. 



The new law on French Universities is soon to be discussed 

 by the French Senate. The Committee appointed to report upon 

 the Government's plan disapproves of many of its provisions. 



M. Pierre Laffitte, the head of the "orthodox" 

 Positivists, has been appointed professor, at the College de 

 France, of the history of science. 



Dr. Fridthof Nansen is now in England, his object being 

 to fulfil a series of lecture engagements. The proceeds are to 

 be devoted to the expedition to the North Pole on which he 

 hopes to start next year. 



The Joint Grand Gresham Committee has decided to co- 

 operate with University and King's Colleges and the Medical 

 Colleges of the great hospitals of London in the establishment 

 of the proposed University in and for London, on the under- 

 standing that it be called the Gresham University. 



Dr. Alfred Carpe.nter, the well-known advocate of 

 sanitary reform, died at Ventnor on January 27. He was the 

 author of many works on sanitary subjects. In 1879 he was 

 elected President of the Council of the British Medical Associa- 

 tion, having been in the previous year orator of the Medical 

 Society of London. 



Prof. E. Ray Lankester will on Thursday next (February 

 11), at the Royal Institution, begin a] course of three lectures 

 on " Recent Biological Discoveries " ; and Lord Rayleigh will 

 on Saturday (February 13) begin a course of six lectures on 

 " Matter : at Rest and in Motion." 



Dr. Noetling, of the India Geological Survey, is now 

 engaged in superintending the sinking of shafts at the amber 

 mines on the Upper Irrawaddy. 



An index to the five yearly volumes of the Keiv Bulletin, 

 already published, has now been issued as ** Appendix IV,, 

 1 89 1." In an introductory note some interesting statements are 

 made as to the history of the /•'m//^/'««. It was originally in- 

 tended that a number should be issued only occasionally ; but 

 monthly publication was immediately found to be necessary, 

 and further space has since been obtained by the printing of 

 information of a purely formal kind in appendices. The 

 subjects treated have related almost entirely to economic 

 botany. The results of investigations made by members of the 

 staff at Kew and of kindred institutions at home and abroad on 

 vegetable products and the plants producing them, have been 

 carefully summarized and presented in as concise and clear a 

 manner as possible. In many cases the articles have been 

 illustrated by plates from original drawings or by those placed 

 at the disposal of the Director by the Bentham Trustees from the 

 "Icones Plantarum." The Bulletin has become a most con- 

 NO. TT62. VOL. 45] 



venient mode of communicating information to persons at home, 

 to the numerous correspondents officially connected with 

 colonial and Indian botanical establishments, and to private 

 persons interested in plant products in distant parts of the 

 Empire. It has also been of service to members of the general 

 public engaged in planting or agricultural business in India and 

 the colonies. 



The fourth part of the first volume (xxi. of the whole work) 

 of the fourth series of Hooker's " Icones Plantarum " has ap- 

 peared, completing this volume, which is devoted to the illus- 

 tration, by Sir Joseph^ Hooker, of Indian orchids of a less 

 conspicuous character than those commonly cultivated. The 

 work is now published for the Bentham Trustees, and sold at 

 four shillings per part by Dulau and Co., of London. The 

 third series, consisting of ten volumes, containing 1000 figures 

 of interesting plants, is on sale by the same firm, at £,<^ the set. 

 Only a limited issue is printed, and when exhausted it will not 

 be reproduced. 



Mr. Ellsworth has offered to lend for exhibition at the 

 "World's Fair," Chicago, a collection of orchids, including 

 between 1500 and 2000 varieties. 



The Chemical Institute of the Royal University, Rome, has 

 printed a volume of reports on the researches carried on by its 

 workers during the scholastic year 1890-91. Excellent service 

 might be done to science if this example were followed by the 

 laboratories connected with our own Universities. 



The Director of the Colonial Museum at Haarlem has issued 

 a circular notice to the effect that it is of the highest importance 

 for the Museum to have in its library all recent treatises on 

 tropical botany, zoology, products, and cultivation. He begs 

 therefore that authors will send to the Museum a printed copy 

 of their writings on these subjects in the publications of scientific 

 Societies. 



The Times of Tuesday, February 2, contains an account of a 

 very peculiar case of prolonged sleep which, on January 31, 

 was occupying the attention of medical circles in Germany. 

 It seems that a miner named Johann Latus, an inmate of the 

 hospital at Myslowitz, in Silesia, has been there 4^ months, 

 and during that time all attempts that have been made to 

 wake him have been fruitless. The doctor attending him, 

 Dr. Albers, thinks that catalepsy is the real cause of his 

 condition, although no previous record of so prolonged a sleep 

 has ever been made in medicrl science. The fact which has 

 led Dr. Albers to this conclusion is that all the limbs are 

 absolutely rigid. In other respects the appearance of the man 

 betrays no sign of this. The body remains quite still, breathing 

 takes place regularly, and the appearance of the face is quite 

 normal, the cheeks being of a healthy colour. Lately the body 

 has been less rigid and the patient has even made some slight 

 movement, but the eyes have still been kept closed, and the 

 condition of apparent sleep in no way disturbed. During 

 this long sleep the hair on the head has increased in length, 

 but the beatd has remained stationary. In order to supply the 

 patient with food a tube has been inserted into the throat, and 

 by means of it two or three litres of milk have been administered 

 daily. 



M. KoEBELK, who has been for the second time searching in 

 Australia and New Zealand for " beneficial insects," has dis- 

 covered that Onus chalyheus, a steel-blue ladybird, is a most 

 important enemy of the red scale. According to Insect Life, 

 he has found them by the hundred, and has observed the mature 

 insects eating the scales. The trees were " full of eggs," anj 

 the larvae were swarming on all the orange and lemon trees 

 infested with the red scale. M. Koebele has sent to America 

 a large quantity of the eggs and many of the adult beetles. 



