12 



NATURE 



[November 7, 1895 



The Board of Agriculture have appointed a Departmental 

 Committee to consider and report upon the arrangements which 

 it is desirable to make for the sale and distribution of Ordnance 

 Survey maps. The committee consists of the following gentle- 

 men : — Mr. W. Hayes Fisher, M.P. (Chairman), Mr. H. Hob- 

 house, M.P., Mr. W. A. M 'Arthur, M.P., Mr. F. a'C. Bergne 

 (Treasury), and Mr. T. H. Elliott (Secretary to the Board). Mr. 

 J. J. Thomson, of the Board of Agriculture, will act as the 

 Secretary to the Committee. 



The new public museum which has lately been opened at 

 Kasan, well deserves the attention of archaeologists for its 

 beautiful collections, the gift of A. Th. Likhacheff. The 

 -collections comprise a considerable number of golden and silver 

 bracelets, earrings, rings, as well as of various arms and 

 implements from the once powerful kingdom of the Volga 

 Bulgars, on the seat of which Kasan now stands. The modern 

 decorative art of the Kasan Tartars, as well as the dress and 

 implements of the Chuvashes, Cheremisses, and Mordves, are 

 also very well represented ; while nearly 1500 stone implements 

 llustrate the Stone age on the Volga and the Kama. 



The Zoological Department of the British Museum (Nat. 

 Hist.) has recently acquired (by purchase) an important series of 

 British fossils from the cabinets of the Rev. P. B. Brodie, of 

 Rowington, Warwickshire. The specimens mainly illustrate the 

 fauna and flora of the Mesozoic period, among them being several 

 valuable types described by Owen, Egerton, Buckman, Wright, 

 Duncan, Carruthers, Woodward, and other palaeontologists. 

 Some of the rarer genera include remains of Hyperodapedon , 

 Mastodonsaurus, and Cladyodon from the Keuper sandstone 

 of Warwick, each of which will be now represented in the 

 National collection for the first time, from that locality. 



In September of next year, the Smithsonian Institution, which 

 has exerted an immense influence upon the development of 

 science in America, and which has done more than any institution 

 to make the results of scientific work known unto the ends of 

 the world, will celebrate its jubilee. It is stated by Dr. Brown 

 Coode, in a historical account of the Institution, that a special 

 volume will be published to commemorate the event, and two 

 memorial tablets will be erected in honour of the founder in the 

 city of Genoa, where he died June 26, 1829': one in the English 

 church, and one upon his tomb in the beautiful little English 

 cemetery on the heights of San Benigno. 



Reuter reports the occurrence of a severe and prolonged 

 •earthquake shock in Rome at 4. 30 on the morning of November i. 

 The Central Meteorological Bureau states that the movement of 

 the earth began with very slight tremors, lasting from four to 

 five seconds. Subsequently a series of strong shocks, which 

 continued for nearly eight seconds, occurred. After a calm of a 

 few seconds slight undulations were perceptible for about eight 

 seconds. Two clocks in the observatory stopped, and the old 

 tower of the Roman College was cracked a little. At Rocca di 

 Papa, near Rome, a violent undulatory shock was felt at 4.40. 

 It lasted seven seconds, but caused no damage. Shocks were 

 also felt at Anzio, Vellefri, Tivoli, Civita Vecchia and Fiumicino, 

 all in the vicinity of the capital. At the latter place the earth 

 movement was especially strong. 



We have received from Prof. G. Vicentini, of Padua, some 

 interesting copies of microseismographic records of a distant 

 earthquake on October 20. The instrument with which they 

 were obtained has been briefly described in a previous note 

 (vol. li. p. 540). The first movements, which Prof. Vicentini 

 attributes to longitudinal waves, began about gh. 30m., Green- 

 wich mean time (whether a.m. or p.m. is not stated), and lasted 

 about twenty minutes. The second series of pulsations, which 

 he regards as due to transversal vibrations, and each of which 

 NO. 1358, VOL. 53] 



had a period of about thirtyjseconds, attained their maximum in- 

 tensity about loh. iSm., and lasted until about iih. 30m. 

 Somewhat similar pulsations were also registered on October 4, 

 the longitudinal vibrations commencing between loh. 25m. and 

 loh. 30m., and the transversal vibrations (of long period) after 

 I oh. 50m. So far as we are aware, no great earthquakes are 

 known to have occurred on these days. If the disturbances are 

 of seismic origin, they must evidently be due to very violent 

 shocks taking place in some distant region of the globe. 



The death is announced of Dr. Albert E. Foote, of Phila- 

 delphia. Dr. Foote was born at Hamilton, in 1846. After 

 graduating at Courtland Academy, Homer, N.Y., he entered 

 the class of 1867 in the University of the State of Michi- 

 gan, where he ^took the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He 

 spent some time as an instructor at Ann Arbor, and also as 

 Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in the Iowa 

 State College. He removed to Philadelphia in 1875. He was 

 a life member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of the New 

 York Museum of Natural History, and the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Foote's wide corre- 

 spondence and extended travels made him well known, especially 

 among mineralogists. His exhibits and lectures at the American 

 Exhibition in London in 1887, and attendance at the meetings 

 of the British Association in several years, established lasting 

 relations with many English mineralogists. He was one of the 

 most enthusiastic and successful of collectors, and found much 

 of the enjoyment of life in the collection and study of minerals 

 and meteorites. 



The Pioneer Mail of Allahabad is always to the front when 

 the claims of science to a fuller recognition in India have to be 

 urged. A leading article, in its issue of October 10, calls atten- 

 tion to the need for a better recognition of scientific research 

 than at present exists there. "Buried in the archives of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal," remarks our spirited contemporary, 

 " in those of the kindred British societies, and in a few journals 

 of the elect, is a mass of scientific literature relating to the 

 Anglo-Indian Empire with which its Government professes to 

 have no concern. Most of this literally priceless work has 

 been done by Government officials in such leisure as they have 

 been able to snatch from the daily turn at the Government mill. 

 The Civil Service has been rich in amateur ' pandits,' but their 

 fame is not echoed from the rocks of Simla, though it resounds 

 in European halls of learning. In India such men were looked 

 at askance by the Bureaucracy, and relegated to desert places. 

 Years ago the State spoilt an excellent geologist by converting 

 him into a Government gardener, and did the same for another 

 by gazetting him an ornithologist. And all the while there is 

 that great mine of paiteontological wealth in the Sewaliks lying 

 fallow since the days of Falconer — the far-away time of Cautley 

 and the Ganges Canal. In a few cubic feet of worm-eaten 

 Government reports are to be found the bald details of measure- 

 ments which represent the Government knowledge of Indian 

 archaeology. No one has followed in the footsteps of Fergusson ; 

 his monumental work is a classic alongside with the unopen and 

 dust-laden works of Todd in Rajasthan and many another 

 amateur. Not very long ago Government nipped in the bud any 

 inclination on the part of their little Geological Department to 

 travel into regions other than those of purely economical geology. 

 Now that General Cunningham is no more, that sole key to the 

 history of ancient India — numismatics — would speedily rust and 

 be lost were it not for the enthusiasm of an amateur, who is left 

 to struggle along as best he can. A noble effort, but a lasting 

 reflection, nevertheless, upon an enlightened Government." 



Efforts are being made to obtain funds for the erection of a 

 memorial to the memory of the late Joseph Thomson, the 

 African explorer. Subscriptions may be sent to Mr. S. W. 



