5IO 



NA TURE 



[September 21, 1893 



stony corals, Madreporaria, peculiar to the Western Australian 

 coast line. These specimens, added to the extensive series 

 indigenous to the northern and eastern districts of Australia 

 recently contributed by him to the National Natural History 

 Museum, and which were amassed in association with the 

 explorations that formed the basis of his recently published 

 work on the Australian Great Barrier Reef, will constitute the 

 most complete collection of Australasian Madreporaria that has 

 yet been brought together. This latest Western Australian 

 consignment includes several specimens of abnormally large 

 dimensions that should make an interesting display in the 

 Natural History galleries. Mr. Saville-Kent anticipates 

 completing his Australian engagements, and returning perma- 

 nently to England about twelve months from the present date. 



The Frenchy<7K?-«a/ Officiel has just published a decree for 

 the organisation of the proposed Paris Universal Exhibition of 

 1900. M. Alfred Picard, who, it will be remembered, filled the 

 office of Rapporteur Geniral for the 1889 Exhibition, has been 

 appointed Commissary-General. He will be assisted by a 

 consultative committee of 100 members. 



The next meeting of the Japan Society will be held at 20 

 Hanover-square, on Wednesday, September 27, when Prof. 

 John Milne will read " A Short Account of Volcanic and 

 Earthquake Phenomena of Japan." The paper will be illustrated 

 by photographic lantern slides, and will be followed by an exhi- 

 bition of photographic slides illustrating life, customs, and 

 scenery of Japan. The meeting would under ordinary circum- 

 stances have taken place in October ; it has, however, to be 

 held in September in consequence of Prof. Milne having to 

 return to Japan on September 29. 



The Congress of the Photographic Society of Great Britain 

 and affiliated societies for the present year will take place on 

 October 10, 11, and 12. The opening meeting, at which the 

 President's annual address will be delivered, is to be held at the 

 gallery of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. 

 The other meetings will be held in the theatre of the Society of 

 Arts. 



We hear that Mr. Max Muspratt has just gained the 

 diploma of Chemistry awarded annually by the Swiss Govern- 

 ment to a limited number of students for exceptional proficiency 

 in the scientific and technical knowledge of chemistry. Mr. 

 Muspratt, who went to Zurich direct from Clifton College, is 

 the first Englishman to gain this distinction. 



We learn from the Lancet that an interesting experiment is to 

 be made in connection with next year's meeting of the Nor- 

 wegian Medical Congress. At the meeting recently held in 

 Christiania it was decided that next year members shall assemble 

 on board a yacht, which will cruise during their deliberations. 

 Weather and other things being favourable, the experiment 

 should prove a very admirable mode of combining business with 

 pleasure. 



The Ceylon Observer for August 18 has a moderately worded 

 editorial urging the establishment of a zoological garden in 

 Colombo, especially for the purpose of giving the many visitors 

 who pass through Colombo an opportunity of seeing for them- 

 selves how rich and varied is the fauna of Ceylon. The Observer 

 is confident that the fees paid for viewing the collection would 

 suffice to pay the whole, or nearly the whole, of the expenses 

 which would be incurred. 



According to the Pharmaceutical Journal, the Kew Herb- 

 arium has recently been enriched by the addition of forty-six 

 dried specimens of ferns collected in Sarawak, including six 

 new species ; two hundred species of plants collected by Sintenis 

 in Kastamuni (the ancient Paphlagonia), Asia Minor ; twelve 

 hundred dried plants collected in Kashmir ; one hundred and 



NO. 1247, VOL. 48] 



thirty-nine specimens of Mexican plants ; and one hundred and 

 twenty-nine of the Greenland and Iceland flora. 



An artificial horizon invented and recently patented by Mr. 

 W. P. Shadbolt, possesses several advantages over other forms. 

 The surface of the mercury is never exposed to the air, hence it 

 does not easily become contaminatad,. and is also protected from 

 wind. Further, loss of mercury is entirely prevented, thus dis- 

 pensing with the necessity for taking any extra supply. The 

 instrument permits very small altitudes to be observed, and 

 after having it under trial for more than a year in tropical Africa, 

 under circumstances entailing a good deal of rough usage, Mr. 

 Shadbolt reports that its behaviour was most satisfactory. 



The general report of the operations of the survey of India 

 during the survey year ending September 30, 1892, has been 

 issued. From it we learn that the area surveyed in detail dur- 

 ing the year amounts to 80, lot square miles. In addition to 

 this, transverse operation? have been carried on over an area of 

 5921 miles. By the measurement of six arcs of longitude the 

 original scheme of differential longitude determination within 

 India proper has been completed. Colonel Waterhouse reports 

 upon a method he has been using to prepare a very sensitive 

 orthochromatic collodion-bromide emulsion. Plates coated with 

 this new emulsion require to be used in a moist state in order 

 to obtain maximum sensitiveness and clear negatives. But wet- 

 plates are inconvenient, and if some means could be found of 

 preparing equally sensitive dry- plates, the process would 

 possess consderable advantages. 



We learn from the Botanical Gazette that forty professed 

 botanists are now engaged in botanical research at the fifty-four 

 Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States. Of this 

 number ten are also working in entomology, three in horticul" 

 ture, one in arboriculture, and one in meteorology. 



No. 2 of the Illustrated Archaologist has just reached us. It 

 is, if possible, more tastefully got up than No. i, and archaeolo- 

 gists will indeed be hard to please if they cannot find some- 

 thing to interest them among the eight items which go to makeup 

 the present number. Among the articles we notice " Stone- 

 henge," by Edgar Barclay ; " Notes on some of the Sctilptured 

 Tombstones of Argyllshire," by R. C. Graham; and "The 

 Roman City of Silchester," by H. W. Young ; while Prof. A. 

 C. Haddon writes on "Wood-Carving in the Trobriands." 

 The magazine is published by Mr. C. J. Claik, 4 Lincoin's-inn- 

 fields. 



Prof. John Milne, F.R.S., has brought out, through Messrs. 

 Crosby Lockwood and Son, a little work of which he is the com- 

 piler, and which should be very serviceable to the class for which 

 it is intended, viz. students and others interested in mining 

 matters. The title of the book is "The Miner's Handbook," 

 and is a reprint, with corrections and additions, of a com- 

 pilation, the first part of which was printed at Tokio some 

 fourteen years ago. The little volume is of handy size, has 

 rounded corners, making it suitable for carrying in the pocket, 

 and, with the exception of the title-page, preface, and contents, 

 was printed (and printed well) in Japan. 



We have received from the Australian Museum, Sydney, 

 Part III. (Gasteropoda) of the " Catalogue of the Marine Shells 

 of Australia and Tasmania," by J. Brazier. The author, in a 

 prefatory note, says, " The present part contains only the genus 

 Murex. The remaining genera are not included, from causes 

 beyond my control." 



Mr. D. Forbes, 29, Victoria-street, Bristol, has sent us the 

 catalogue of a very interesting exhibit at the Bristol Industrial 

 and Fine Art Exhibition. It is that of the collection formed by 

 Mr. F. Mockler, of portraits, diplomas, freedoms, grants, pre- 

 sentations, addresses, visiting-books, correspondence, pamphlets, 



