May 28, 1891] 



NATURE 



87 



Sowerby and Sydenham Edwards ; but some of the finest of 

 their work was not reproduced in the plates. The collection 

 also includes some of the poorest work that ever appeared in the 

 magazine. In 1815 Sydenham Edwards seceded, and worked 

 for the rival Botanical Register ; Sowerby had ceased con- 

 tributing, and there seems to have been a lack of novelties for 

 illustration. Towards the end of Dr. Sims's editorship, in 1826, 

 the Botanical Magazine was doubtless supplanted in a great 

 measure by the Botanical Register then conducted by the vigorous 

 Lindley. Its circulation greatly decreased, and the impres- 

 sion was small ; hence this series is very rare. The following 

 year, however. Sir William Hooker became editor and speedily 

 raised both the artistic and botanical character of the magazine. 

 Many of the plates published during the latter half of Dr. Sims's 

 editorship are not signed, but all the drawings are, and we learn 

 that William Hooker, the artist of the Paradisus Londinensis, 

 was an occasional contributor. The collection aho contains a 

 number of unpublished drawings. 



A LETTER lately received from Emin Pasha by one of his 

 ornithological correspondents in Europe is datsd from one of 

 the larger islands on Lake Victoria Nyanza in November last. 

 It is full of details about birds, in which, as is well known, the 

 Pasha takes the keenest interest, and alludes especially to an 

 apparently new -Gralline form, with three toes, met with in that 

 district. Emin was on the point of starting southwards into the 

 territory near the north end of Lake Tanganyika, and is now 

 probably somewhere in that little-known country. He had 

 been joined by Dr. Stuhlman, a young naturalist of Hamburg. 

 Dr. G. Hartlaub, of Bremen, has just published a memoir on the 

 birds collected by Emin during his return to the coast with the 

 Stanley Expedition, and his subsequent sojourn at Bagamoyo. 

 The specimens are referred to 140 species, of which eight are 

 described as new to science. 



The Council of the Institution of Naval Architects has 

 resolved to award the gold medal of the Institution to Prof. 

 V. B. Lewes for his paper on boiler deposits, read at the 

 Institution's recent annual general meeting. 



The President of the Royal Society, who is Chairman of the 

 Board of Visitors, will hold the annual visitation of the Royal 

 Observatory at Greenwich on Saturday, June 6 next. The 

 Observatory will be open for inspection at 3 p.m. 



Mr. James E. Keeler, the Astronomer of the Lick Obser- 

 vatory, has lately been appointed Director of the Alleghany 

 Observatory, in succession to Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



A Czech Academy of Sciences was opened at Prague on the 

 iSth inst., by the Archduke Charles Louis. The Latin title of 

 the Academy is Bohemica Scientiarum, litterarum et artium 

 Academia Imperatoris Francisci Josephi ; the President is 

 Josef Hlavka, and the General Secretary Dr. F. J. StudniJika. 



An extra evening meeting of the Royal Institution will be 

 held on Tuesday, June 2, at nine o'clock, when Dr. Charles 

 Waldstein will give a discourse on the discovery of "The Tomb 

 of Aristotle." 



American papers announce the death of Prof, J. E. Hilgard, 

 late superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey. He was bom 

 at Zweibriicken in 1825, went to America with his father in 

 1835, and entered the service of the U.S. Coast Survey in 1845. 

 " His work," says the New York Nation, " lay directly in the 

 line of his profession, in the improvement of methods, the deter- 

 mination of weights and measures, and the novel method of 

 ascertaining the differences of longitude by telegraph. His 

 publications on these subjects are to be found chiefly in the 

 Coast Survey Reports. One of the most noteworthy relates to 

 NO. I 126, VOL. 44] 



the telegraphic determination of the differences of longitude 

 between Greenwich, Paris, and Washington. He was a dele- 

 gate to the International Metric Commission in 1872, and a 

 member of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, 

 of which he declined the directorship. He was an original 

 member of the National Academy of Sciences, and for some 

 years its Home Secretary. In 1874 he was elected President of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 He succeeded to the work of Bache in connection with the work 

 of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, and took a leading part 

 in preparing exact metric standards for distribution to the States 

 and Territories." 



The recent botanical mission of Mr. D. Morris to the West 

 Indies forms the subject of the /Tew Bulletin for May and June. 

 The Bulletin publishes the official correspondence recording the 

 circumstances under which the Imperial Government assented to 

 Mr. Morris's mission, and reproduces his report to the Secretary 

 of State for the Colonies. 



The Keiv Bulletin does good service by publishing lists of 

 garden plants annually described in botanical and horticultural 

 publications, both English and foreign. In Appendix II., 1891, 

 there is a list which comprises all the new introductions recorded 

 during 1890. "These lists," says ihc Bulletin, "are indispens- 

 able to the maintenance of a correct nomenclature, especially in 

 the smaller botanical establishments in correspondence with Kew, 

 which are, as a rule, only scantily provided with horticultural 

 periodicals. Such a list will also afford information respecting 

 new plants under cultivation at this establishment, many of which 

 will be distributed from it in the regular course of exchange 

 with other botanic gardens." 



On the 13th inst. the Council of the county borough of 

 Bootle decided to appropriate and set aside for the purpose of 

 technical education the whole of the portion of the Exchequer 

 contribution account which may so be used under the provision 

 of the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890. The 

 Free Library and Museum Committee were entrusted with the 

 carrying out of a scheme submitted by them to the Council ; 

 and they have appointed Mr. John J. Ogle to the office of 

 Organizing Secretary to the Bootle Technical School. Mr. 

 C. H. Hunt was also appointed Registrar. The sum available 

 is estimated at ^^1936 per annum. 



The following is an extract from the Times of last week 

 which may interest many of our readers : — Some months ago a 

 company, which had been formed at Wheeling, West Virginia, 

 for the purpose of "developing" that city, began to drill a well 

 in search of petroleum or natural gas. A depth of over 4100 

 feet was reached, and in this distance a dozen thick veins of 

 coal are said to have been passed, while petroleum and gas 

 have both been struck— though not in paying quantities— and 

 gold quartz, iron ore, and many other minerals have been 

 brought to the surface. The officers of the Geological Survey 

 at Washington, according to a Wheeling despatch, have become 

 very interested in the proceeding, and "the hole will be drilled 

 to a depth of one mile." After this the Government will take 

 up the work under the direction of two expert officers of the 

 Survey, and the drilling will be continued into the earth as far 

 as human skill can penetrate. The object is to ascertain the 

 thermometric and magnetic conditions as far as possible. 



The Transandine Railway across the Andes, connecting the 

 Argentine railway system with that of Chili, has been the subject 

 of an interesting article in Engineering. Our contemporary in 

 its issue of this week again deals with this fine piece of engineer- 

 ing, and describes the tunnelling plant used, as well as the 

 distribution by electrical means of the power available and 

 necessary for driving the air compressors for the Ferroux rock 



