December 19, 1895] 



NATURE 



59 



erected, at a cost of loo.ooo dollars, for the benefit of the 

 raniversity. Miss Helen Gould, daughter of the late Jay Gould, 

 -has purchased several acres on Loring and Oxford Avenues, 

 Jiorth-east of the university campus, which is supposed to be 

 intended as a site for residences of the professors, as Miss Gould 

 ^as already shown herself interested in the university by endow- 

 ing twelve scholarships of 5000 dollars each. 



The edipse expedition, briefly referred to in our notes last 

 «eek, left Brooklyn on December 5 for Aleeshi, on the island 

 of Yezo, the northernmost of the Japan group, to observe the 

 ■total eclipse of August 9, 1896. The schooner-yacht Coronet, 

 4he largest yacht in the New York Yacht Club, 133 feet long and 

 of 152 tons burden, was generously placed at the disposal of 

 Prof. David P. Todd, of Amherst, by her owners, Mr. D. Willis 

 James and Mr. Arthur C. James. The yacht has already become 

 famous as the winner of 10,000 dollars in a race across the ocean 

 with the yacht Dauntless, and she has also already once sailed 

 Jound Cape Horn, going from New York to San Francisco in 

 105 days. The same course will be taken now, and the time of 

 .the voyage may be shortened. On arrival at San Francisco, she 

 will be joined by Prot and Mrs. Todd, Mr. Arthur C. James and 

 *vife, and a corps of scientific workers, and will then proceed to 

 her destination, after a short stop at Honolulu. The equipment 

 w ill incJude about three tons of apparatus, comprising twenty- 

 tive or thirty telescopes, both refracting and reflecting, fitted with 

 automatic photographic cameras, which will be set to take 400 

 or 500 photographs of the corona during the totality of the 

 lipse. The exposures will be of varying length, from half a 

 . ond up to several seconds, and will be made with a series of 

 -,iaduated discs, so as to take, in some cases, the entire corona, 

 and in others, outer and fainter portions of it. Almost all the 

 s\ ork of observation will be thus photographic, and only a single 

 observer will note appearances through a telescope. Most of the 

 apparatus is already stowed in the yacht. The lenses, however, 

 will be taken overland in the spring, when the party go to 

 •embark at San Francisco. 



Another important scientific expedition set out on 

 December 5 ; for on that day Mr. Frank H. Gushing left 

 Washington for St. Augustine, Florida, where he will be 

 joined by a number of assistants, and the party will sail on a 

 schooner to Pine Island, below Punta Gorda and the southern 

 Florida keys, where a thorough investigation, which is expected 

 4o last several months, will be made into the recently discovered 

 mounds built by a remarkable people, who attained a high state 

 •of civilisation. Mr. Gushing has already discovered well-preserved 

 remains of the " Shell Age " of prehistoric man. Objects of art 

 made from shell, and shell implements, were found well-pre- 

 served, among the most remarkable being a shell pick, still 

 mounted on its original handle of mango wood. The expedition 

 as under the joint auspices of the Ethnographical Bureau of 

 the United States and the Archoeological Department of the 

 •University of Pennsylvania. 



A FURTHER example of the ^keen interest taken by the 

 "German Government in all that concerns the development of 

 4rade is reported by the Vienna correspondent of the Times as 

 follows : " A newspaper in the Japanese language has recently 

 3>een published at Yokohama under English auspices. The aim 

 ■of this journal, for which only a very moderate charge is made, 

 is to familiarise the people of Japan with British merchandise. 

 It appears that Germany has convinced herself of the efficacy of 

 the enterprise, for that Government has lately instructed the 

 Legation and the various Consulates to consider and report 

 iipon the methods best suited to ensure the success of a similar 

 undertaking on German lines. It is now stated on good 

 authority that the issue of a German newspaper has been 

 •definitely decided upon. It will be edited at the Academy of 

 NO. 1364, VOL. 53] 



Oriental Languages in Berlin, and will be printed in Germany and 

 forwarded to Japan for distribution among the inhabitants free of 

 charge." One wonders whether, under similar circumstances, 

 our own Government would have sought the assistance of a 

 learned Society or Academy to carry out its projects. 



From the same source, we learn that an expedition, fitted out at 

 considerable expense by the Lyons Chamber of Commerce, and 

 entrusted with the mission of thoroughly investigating the trade 

 and commerce of Eastern Asia, has arrived in China- The 

 expedition is exclusively composed of experts, who have under- 

 taken to study the means of developing the trade with the 

 interior, and to open up the wealth of the country to European 

 enterprise. Whatever measure of success may attend their 

 efforts, they will, at all events, traverse districts hitherto wholly 

 unexplored. Finally, it is reported that at the initiative of the 

 Blackburn Chamber of Commerce an English expedition will 

 start shortly to explore the western provinces of Szu-chuan and 

 Yun-nan. 



One thing after another has cropped up lately to call the 

 attention of the Government and the press to the need for an 

 inquiry into the reason why England is behind Germany and 

 other nations in the industrial applications of science. Mr. J. 

 Powell Williams, who is the Financial Secretary to the War 

 Office, has just had to confess that dried vegetables of various 

 kinds, prepared in a particular manner, and required for the 

 Ashanti Expedition, had to be procured from Germany, as they 

 cannot be obtained in this country. Possibly the Government 

 is under the impression that carrots, potatoes, and turnips cannot 

 be grown in England. For if not, why is not something done 

 to find out how they can be reduced to a dried condition suitable 

 for keeping and transportation ? There are dozens of chemists 

 who know the processes by which vegetables can be best pre- 

 pared for future consumption, and who would be glad to assist 

 in the development of a new British industry. 



On Monday, Lord Herschell gave an address on the work of 

 the Imperial Institute, in reply to some of the criticisms which 

 have been levelled against it. He showed that the collections 

 of economic products from India and the colonies had grown, 

 and had been of some use to merchants and manufacturers ; he 

 also mentioned a few investigations that had been carried on 

 under the auspices of the Institute, and described the work of 

 the commercial intelligence department. There is one point, 

 however, upon which we should like to say a word. Lord 

 Herschell remarked that, in accordance with the original scheme, 

 the buildings of the Institute had been applied to the reception 

 of Congresses, such as the International Geographical Congress. 

 This gives the idea that the Council of the Institute granted, 

 without payment, the use of their buildings to the Congress; and 

 if that had been done, we should regard the action as worthy of 

 an Institute which professes to encourage science. But we 

 understand that the International Geographical Committee had 

 to pay a sum of £\ 100 for the use of the Institute buildings for the 

 Congress, besides several hundreds more in incidental expenses, 

 and that the whole business connected with the hire of the build- 

 ings was conducted in a strictly commercial spirit. Lord Herschell 

 omitted this plain statement of fact from his address ; but a few 

 transactions of this character are more than sufficient to dispel the 

 belief that the Institute has the promotion of science at heart. 



The Russian correspondent of the Lancet has learnt from 

 Prof. Erisman, the general secretary to the Congress, that the 

 date fixed for the next International .Medical Congress is the 

 week beginning August 19 and ending August 26 (New Style), 

 1897. The ofificial announcement will very shortly be sent to 

 the English press. The Emperor has given his Imperial 

 sanction to the Congress, and the Grand Duke Sergi Alexandro- 



