402 



NATURE 



[February 25, 1892 



College, such fund to be administered in such a manner as the 

 Masters and Fellows may from time to time determine." 



At a meeting of the electors to the Lowndsean Professorship 

 of Astronomy at Cambridge, held on February 20, Sir Robert b. 

 Ball, Astronomer-Royal for Ireland, was elected to succeed the 

 late Prof. Couch Adams. Sir Robert Ball is fifty-one years of age. 

 He is a native of Dublin, and was educated at Trinity College. 

 When twenty-five years old, he was appointed Lord Rosse's 

 astronomer at Parsonstown. He became Professor of Applied 

 Mathematics and Mechanism at the Royal College of Science of 

 Ireland in 1867, and Professor of Astronomy at the Dublin 

 University, and Astronomer- Royal for Ireland, in 1874. In 1873, 

 he had been made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has done 

 much by his writings and lectures to create and foster a popular 

 interest in astronomical study. In relation to this appointment 

 we give the following extract from the Cambridge University 

 Reporter of February 23 : — The Council of the Senate beg 

 leave to report to the Senate as follows: "The arrange- 

 ment by which 'the superintendence and management of the 

 Observatory' were intrusted to the late Lowndsean Profes- 

 sor (Grace, May 2, 1861, Ordinances, p. 239) has now ter- 

 minated, and as no provision has been made for the future 

 direction of the Observatory, the Council think it desirable 

 that a special Syndicate should be appointed to consider the 

 question." The Council therefore recommend : " That a 

 Syndicate be appointed to consider what provision should be 

 made for the future superintendence and management of the 

 Observatory, and to report to the Senate before the end of 

 the present Lent Term." "That the Vice-Chancellor, Dn 

 Ferrers, Master of Gonville and Caius College, Prof. Sir 

 G. G. Stokes, Dr. Glaisher, Prof. Liveing, Prof. Thomson, 

 and F. Whitting, M.A., of King's College, be appointed a 

 Syndicate to consider what provision should be made for the 

 future superintendence and management of the Observatory, 

 and to report to the Senate before the end of the present Lent 

 Term." 



The Queen has approved the appointment of Dr. Thomas 

 Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., to be Regius Professor of Physic in 

 the University of Cambridge, in the room of the late Sir George 

 Paget. 



Mr. J. Scott Keltie has been appointed to succeed the 

 late Mr. H. W. Bates, F.R.S., as Assistant Secretary of the 

 Royal Geographical Society. 



At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Mon- 

 day, Mr. Theodore Bent read before a large audience a paper 

 on his recent exploration among the Zimbabwe and other ruins. 

 The paper was one of great interest. Mr. Bent said that, with 

 his wife and Mr. Robert Swan, he went to Mashonaland pri- 

 marily to examine the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe. These 

 ruins, so named to distinguish them from the numerous minor 

 Zimbabwes scattered over the country, were situated in south 

 latitude 20° 16' 30", and eas't longitude 31° 10' 10", at an elevation 

 of 3300 feet above the sea-level, and formed the capital of a 

 long series of such ruins stretching up the whole length of the 

 west side of the Sabse River. They covered a vast area of ground, 

 and consisted of the large circular building on a gentle rise with 

 a network of inferior buildings extending into the valley below, 

 and the labyrinthine fortress on the hill, about 400 feet above, 

 naturally protected by huge granite boulders and a precipice 

 running round a considerable portion of it. Mr. Bent gave a 

 minute description of the ruins, drawing attention to evidence 

 that their ancient inhabitants must have been given to the 

 grosser forms of native worship. Perhaps the most interesting 

 of their finds in one portion were those in connection with the 

 manufacture of gold. Mr. Bent held that the ruins and the 

 NO. II 65. VOL. 45] 



things in them were not in any way connected with any known 

 African race ; the objects of art and the special cult were foreign 

 to the country altogether, where the only recognized form of 

 religion was, and had been since the days when the early Portu- 

 guese explorers penetrated into it and El Masoudi wrote, that 

 of ancestor worship. It was also obvious that the ruins 

 formed a garrison for the protection of a gold-producing 

 race in remote antiquity. So we must look around for 

 such a race outside the limits of Africa, and it was 

 in Arabia that we found the object of our search. All 

 ancient authorities speak of Arabian gold in terms of extra- 

 vagant praise. Little, if any, gold came from Arabia itself ; 

 and here in Africa gold was produced in large quantities, both 

 from alluvial and from quartz, from the remotest ages. A cult 

 practised in Arabia in early times was also practised here ; hence 

 there was little room for doubt that the builders and workers of 

 the Great Zimbabwe came from the Arabian peninsula. He had 

 no hesitation in assigning this enterprise to Arabian origin, and 

 to a pre-Mahomedan period. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Geological Society, held at 

 Burlington House on Friday last, the following officers were 

 elected :— President : W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S. Vice-Presi- 

 dents: Prof T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., L. Fletcher, F.R.S., G. 

 J. Hinde, Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S. Secretaries: Dr. H. Hicks, 

 F.R.S., J. E. Marr, F.R.S. Foreign Secretary : J. W. Hulke, 

 F.R.S. Treasurer : Prof. T. Wiltshire. The following are the 

 members of the Council : Prof. J. F. Blake, Prof T. G. Bonney, 

 F.R.S., James W. Davis, R. Etheridge, F.R.S., L. Fletcher, 

 F.R.S., Prof. C. Le Neve Foster, Siir A. Geikie, F.R.S., A. 

 Har.ker, H. Hicks, F.R.S., G. J. Hinde, W. H. Hudleston, 

 F.R.S., Prof. T. McKenny Hughes, F.R.S., J. W\ Hulke, 

 F.R.S., Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., J. E. Marr, F.R.S., H. 

 W. Monckton, Clement Reid, J. J. H. Teall, F.R.S., W. 

 Topley, F.R.S., Prof T. Wiltshire, Rev. H. H. Winwood, 

 H. Woodward, F.R.S., H. B. Woodward. 



In the February number of the Kew Bulletin much useful in- 

 formation on sisal hemp {Agave rigida. Mill.) is presented. The 

 cultivation of sisal hemp has lately been developed to so re- 

 markable an extent in the Bahamas that hemp-growing has 

 become, for the moment, one of the most prominent of the new 

 industries of the tropics. The Bulletin mentions most of the 

 localities where plants of sisal hemp are now found, and the 

 material it has collected will be of great service to all who may 

 think of embarking in a fibre industry at the present time. 



Among the other contents of the A'rw Btilhtin is an interesting 

 correspondence between Mr. Thiselton-Dyer and the Vice- 

 Chairman of the Middlesex County Council on the question of 

 instruction in horticulture. There is so much vague talk 

 nowadays about technical education that all who wish the words 

 to be used in the right sense will read with pleasure Mr. 

 Thiselton- Dyer's remarks on the proper way of learning the art 

 of cultivating plants. *' The cultivation of plants," he says, "is 

 an art which can only be acquired by practice, and therefore, it 

 appears to me, cannot be taught in the lecture-room any more 

 than painting or shoe-making. I know of no royal or theoretical 

 road to the acquisition of a competent or even useful knowledge 

 of the gardener's art except by beginning at the bottom and 

 going through every operation, from the most elementary to the 

 most difficult and refined. If an intelligent young man does 

 that, and keeps his eyes open, he may become a successful 

 gardener. But the mere reading of books and attendance on 

 lectures will never, in my judgment, make anyone even a 

 moderately competent gardener." 



A REPORT on the botanical collections made by Dr. Brown 

 Lester, Medical Officer to the Gambia Delimitation Commission, 



