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A'A TURJi 



The specimen of the Great Auk, to which we referred in these 

 columns last week, has been sold to the Edinburgh Museum for 



Dr. (Iokijon E. Moore, well-known as a chemist, died al 

 New York on April l6. Prof. Gustav Hirschfeld, a distinguished 

 archaeologist, has just died at Wiesbaden. We also notice the 

 death of Prof. K. Thiersch, Professor of .Surgery in Lei]W,ig 

 University. 



Prof. Li.oyh Morcan will lecture on " Habits of Birds,'' at 

 the Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Bridge Road, on May 7. 

 Other science lectures to be given during this month are : 

 " Electric Tram Cars," by Dr. J. \. Fleming, K.R.S. ; " The 

 History of a Myth," by Prof Sollas. K.R.S. ; and "The Life 

 of a Star," by Dr. .\. Fison. 



Gilbert WHiTE'soriginal manuscript of the " Natural History 

 of Selborne," in the form of letters to Thomas Pennant and Daines 

 Harrington, first printed in 1789, was soldby auction last week by 

 Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge. The manuscript con- 

 tains many passiiges not printed in the several editic.is of the 

 book, and ha.s never been out of the possession of the lineal 

 descendanis of the author. It was bought by Mr. Pearson for 



The Weekly Weather Report of .\pril 27 shows that some 

 Yery heavy falls of rain occurred during the week ; in nearly all 

 districts amounts of an inch or upwards were measured, while 

 over the greater part of England the fall was more than double 

 the mean. But the amount of rainfall since the beginning of the 

 year is still below the average, except in the north-east of 

 England. The greatest deficiency is in the west of Scotland, 

 where it amounts to about seven and a half inches. 



The startling advance in market price of petroleum gives 

 interest to the (jucstion of exhaustihility of the supply, follow- 

 ing close upon the great decrease in supply of natural gas. In 

 the height of the natural gas excitement, the warning of science 

 was too little heeded, and lavish Wiiste h.astened the collapse. 

 In 1887 the atmosphere of Pittsburgh was wonderhilly clear, 

 owing lo ihe use of this new fuel : but Pittsburgh is again be- 

 grimed and sooty. 



-At the annual meeling of ihe National .\cademy of Sciences, 

 recently held at Washington, Prof. Marsh, who has been pre- 

 sident for several terms, was succeeded by Prof Wolcott Gihbs, 

 of Cambridge, who was elected for the ensuing term of six years, 

 while Prof, .'\saph Hall was re-elected home secretary. Prof 

 Alexander Agassiz is foreign secretary, and the members of the 

 Council elected are Profs. George J. Brush, Othniel C. Marsh, 

 Benjamin A. Gould, George H. Goodale, .Simon Newcomb. and 

 Ira Remsen. 



.\ THREE ilays' conference on .sanitary progress and reforni 

 was held at Manchester last week. .\ meeting introductory to 

 :he conference was held in the uuiseum of Owens College, al 

 which Prof. Boyd Dawkins delivered an address on prehistoric 

 ir.ices of sanitation. At the annual meeting of the Manchester 

 and .Salford .Sanitary Association, in connection with which the 

 . onfercnce was held, it was resolveil that a Smoke Abatement 

 l.e.igue should be formed. Sir H. Roscoe, who afterwards took 

 ihe chair al the conference session, pointed out that though 

 titention was paid to the smoke from factory chimneys ami from 

 manufacturing o|ierations, the larger ipiestion of the smoke from 

 • Tclinary household fires was often neglected. 



.\ VERY serious disaster is reported from France. .\ dam 

 holding in check an innnense reservoir of the Eastern Canal at 

 Kousey, near E])inal, broke down on .Saturday morning for a 



NO. i3_^i , \()i,. 52] 



disUince of some 300 feet. The torrent of water thus set free 

 swept through Bousey, Aviere, Uxegney, and Sanchey, carrying 

 all before it, and washed away portions of the railway lines of 

 Jussey and Nancy. Many bridges were carried away, and a 

 great number of people were drowned. The Bousey reservoir 

 (says the Paris correspondent of the Times) contained seven 

 million cubic metres of water. The dam, which was constructed 

 between 1S79 and 1884, and was strengthened in 1888-89, '"^ 

 60 feet thick at the base, and the foundation is laid in sandstone. 

 .\ccording to a report sent out by the Minister of Public Works, 

 there have never been any signs of weakness in the structure. 

 Attempts are being made to throw the responsibility for the 

 accident upon the engineers who superintended the strengthening 

 of the dam .six years ago. 



A .NUMBER of interesting objects obtained during the excava- 

 tions of the Roman city at Silchester are on view at the Society 

 of Antiquaries. During the past five years, the excavations have 

 been carried on by Messrs. St. John Hope, Fox, Jones, and 

 Stephenson, and some very valuable results were obtained last 

 year. Twelve rectangular enclosures or buildings were found, all 

 of the same type, and containing fiirnaces obviously of an in- 

 dustrial character and of various sizes, some of them being circular 

 and others oblong. It is believed that these buildings and their 

 adjuncts were devoted to the dyeing industry, and this conjecture 

 is made probable by the large number of wells discovered, one 

 of which was of peculiar and unusual construction. The circular 

 furnaces correspond exactly with a dyeing fiirnace at Pompeii. 

 They were, there is every reason to believe, used for dyeing. 

 But there are a number of other furnaces with a straight flue, 

 which are supposed to have been intended for drying. There are 

 also traceable several rooms which, it is presumed, were intended 

 for the storage of goods and materials, and open S|>aces with no 

 remains of flues which may have been used for bleaching 

 grounds. A number of querns for hand-grinding the madiler- 

 roots used for dyeing purposes haxe also been discovered. 



The sixty-sixth anniversary meeting of the Zoological Society 

 was held on Tuesday, with the President, Sir William H. 

 Flower, K.C.B., F.R.S., in the chair. Dr. P. L. Sclater. 

 F.R..S., read the report of the Council, in which it was announced 

 that the silver medal of the Society had been awarded to Mr. 

 Henry H. Johnston, C.B., H.M. Commissioner for British Central 

 .'\frica, for his distinguished services to all branches of natural 

 history by his collections made in Nyasaland, which had been 

 described in the Society's Proceedings. The total receipts of the 

 Society for 1S94 amounted 10^25,107 ox. ^d. The number 

 of visitors to the Gardens during the year was 625,538, the corre- 

 .sponding number in 1893 having been 662,649; the decrease in 

 the number of entrances (37,111) being due to the unfavourable 

 weather of 1S94. The number of animals in the -Society's col- 

 lection on December 31 last was 2563, of which 669 were mam- 

 mals, 1427 birds, and 467 reptiles, .\mongst the additions nia<le 

 during the past year, eleven were specially commented upon as 

 of remarkable interest, and in most cases rei)resenting species new 

 to the .Society's collection. Among the.se were two remarkably 

 fine specimens of the Hamadrjad snake, a young white-tailed 

 gnu (born in the Ganlens), an eland of the striped form from 

 the Transvaal (obtained by jjurchase), two giant tortoises, a 

 young male Pleasant antelojie, 2 .Somali ostriches of the blue- 

 skiimed variety, 10 Surinam water-toads, a Pel's owl, and 2 tree 

 kangaroos. .About 30 species of mammals, 12 of birds, and I of 

 reptiles had bred in the Society's (gardens during the .sum- 

 mer of 1894. The Right Hon. (jeorge Denman, F. I)u 

 Cano Godman, F.K.S., Sir Hugh Low, G.C.M.G.-, Dr. 

 St. George .Mivart, F.R.S., and tJsbert Salvin, F.R.S.. 

 were elected into the Council in the place of the retiring mem- 

 bers, and .Sir William H. Flower was re-elected President, 



