59« 



NA TURE 



[October 22^, 189: 



transferred to the Crystal Palace. The apparatus section will 

 include a complete set of Sir William Thomson's stanilard 

 electric instruments, new electro-medical and electro-thermic 

 apparatus, the latest improvements in telephony and telegraphy, 

 and also the most recent electrical appliances tor war purposes, 

 blasting, signalling, &c. Special buildings are now in course of 

 erection for boilers and other heavy machinery. 



The Municipality of Genoa has voted the sum of 15,000 lire 

 in aid of the International Botanical Congress which is to be 

 held in that city in September 1892 to celebrate the fourth 

 centenary of the discovery of America. 



The French Association for the Advancement of Science will 

 meet at Eesan^on in 1893. 



The Russian Geographical Socie'y has awarded its great 

 Constantine Medal to Prof. Sludsky for his researches into the 

 figure of the earth and his geodetical work generally. Another 

 Constantine Medal has been given to Prof. Pontehnya for his 

 researches into the ethnography and the languages of the Great 

 Russians, the Little Russians, and other Slavonians. His two 

 works on the Russian grammar far surpass all previous works of 

 the kind, not only in the number of examples but in the mvelty 

 and importance of his conclusions as to the structure of the 

 Russian and other Slavonian languages ; while his works on 

 Great and Little Russian folk lore are full of new and profound 

 observations. The Count Liitke's medal has been awarded to 

 S. D. Rylke for an elaborate work on the determinations of 

 longitudes in Russia by means of the telegraph ; the probable 

 error of the chief determinations does not exceed o"oi6 of a 

 second of time. Another work of the same geodesist deals with 

 the possible errors of levellings, as dependent upon temperature ; 

 they appear considerably to exceed those admitted in the best 

 treatises on this subject. We also learn from Mr. Rylke's re- 

 searches that the level of the Baltic Sea, as deduced from long 

 series of observations, regularly sinks in the direction from north 

 to south. Other gold medals have been awarded to Rovinsky, 

 for a work on the geography and history of Montenegro ; to NL 

 Filipoff, for researches into the changes of the level of the Caspian 

 Sea ; to M. Obrutcheff, for a geological and orographical sketch 

 of the Transcafpian region ; and to M. Priklonsky, for a work on 

 the Yakutes. Some silver medals have been awarded for works, 

 chiefly in ethnography, of minor importance. 



Dr. A. R. Forsyth, F.R.S., and Dr. M. J. M. Hill have 

 been nominated to fill up the vacancies caused by the retirement 

 of Dr. Hirst, F. R.S., ami Mr. Lachlan from the Council of the 

 London Mathematical Society. 



Mr. Joseph Thomson has returned to England from South 

 Africa, where he has been at work on behalf of the British 

 South Africa Company. Accompanied by Mr. Grant, a son 

 of Colonel Grant, he crossed the plateau between Lake Nyassa 

 and Lake Bangweolo, and we learn from the Times that he 

 has been able to make impoitant rectifications in the geography 

 of the Bangweolo region. The lake, as shown in our maps, is 

 incorrectly laid down, mainly because the one definite and 

 precise observation taken by Livingstone has not been adhered 

 to. The lake is re illy only a backwater of the Chambeze (the 

 source of the Congo), which enters from the east, and issues 

 from the west of the lake as the Luapula. The lake, in fact, 

 lies in a very slight depression of the plateau to the north of the 

 Chambeze- Luapula. Even in the rainy season Mr. Thomson 

 believes the lake does not exceed 10 feet at its deepest. The 

 southern shores are clothed with forests, and, as a matter of 

 fact, Mr. Thomson encamped far within the bed of the lake as 

 it is laid down in most maps. In the rainy season the water of 

 the lake .spreads out, and covers for some distance the ground 

 on which the forest stands. 



NO. I 147, VOL. 44] 



Mr. W. L. Sclater, the [Deputy Superintendent of the 

 Indian Museum, Calcutta, will proceed to Upper As?am in 

 December next, upon a collecting expedition for the benefit of 

 the Museum. From Makum he will ascend the Dibing river m 

 boats to the mouth of the Dapha, one of its confluents from the 

 north, and establish his camp at some convenient spot in the 

 Dapha valley. At the head of the Dapha valley rises Dapha 

 Bi'im, a mountain of some 15 000 feet in altitude, on the frontiers 

 of Chinese territory, so that there is a good prospect of the 

 occurrence of Chinese forjos in the district. The Dapha 

 valley has been described geographically by Mr. S. E. Peal, 

 who visited it in 1882 (see J.A.S.B , lii., pt. 2, p. 7), but has 

 not been much explored zoologically. Mr. Sclater will pay 

 special attention to mammals and birds. 



Mr. Frank H. Bigelow, who has been acting as assistant 

 in the U.S. Nautical Office, has been appointed to a newly- 

 created professorship in the American Weather Bureau. His 

 work will relate to terrestrial magnetism and solar physics, 

 especially in their relation to meteorology. 



News has been received of M. Paul Maury, who started in 

 March last year fo: a botanical expedition in Mexico, and of 

 whom nothing had been heard since his departure. He appears 

 to have made a successful exploration of the province of 

 Huasteca. 



Dr. S. Winogradsky, of ZUrich, has been appointed 

 director of the scientific bacteriological section of the new 

 Bacteriological Institute at St. Petersburg. 



A NOTic E which will be read with interest by owners of gems 

 has been issued by Dr. A. Brezina, the Director of the Mineral 

 Department of the Natural History Museum at Vienna. It 

 relates to the doings of a young man who, on September 26, 

 contrived to conceal himself in the Department just before the 

 time for the c'osing of the Museum. He was caught, and found 

 to be armeJ with a revolver, and to have in his possession files 

 and other implements. He had also in his possession nearly 

 600 gems, some of them cut, but the majority in their natural 

 state. He has a passport, in which he is described as Hugo 

 Kahn, of Berlin ; but he has also called himself Krony, Kronek, 

 Kornak, Kronicsalsky. His age is twenty-four ; he measures in 

 height 170 cm. ; he is slender, has a longish, handsome face, is 

 of a brownish complexion, has dark hair, grey eyes, and a light- 

 brown beard, which is of feeble growth. Upon the whole, he 

 is an attractive-looking person. He has made several journeys 

 in Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy ; and betiveen the 

 middle of July last and the beginning of September he travelled 

 through Pyrmont, Ems, Strasburg, Basel, Milan, Genoa, Nice, 

 Monaco, Genoa, Venice, to Vienna. Most of the gems (the 

 names of which, with the exception of a rock crystal, he does not 

 know) he professes to have bought from a barbar in Marseilles. 

 As it is important that the former owner or owners should be 

 known. Dr. Brezina prints a list of the gems, with the request 

 that anyone who has information about them will communicate 

 with him. 



On Monday the centenary of the Royal Veterinary College in 

 Great College Street, Camden Town, was celebrated by a 

 luncheon given in a tent which had been erected in front of the 

 new buildings. The Duke of Cambridge, President of the 

 College, took the chair, and the Prince of Wales was among the 

 guests. In proposing the toast, "Success and continued pros- 

 perity to the institution," the Prince of Wales contrasted the 

 important position of the College at the present day with its 

 humble beginnings a hundred years ago. 



We regret to record the death of the Rev. Percy W. Myles, 

 of Blight's disease, at the comparatively early age of forty- 



