5.S 



NATURE 



[September 27. 1894 



The death is announced of Prof. Comm. Ariodante Fabretli, ■ 

 Director of the Historical and Philological Seclion of the Turin 

 Academy of Science. 



The fourteenth annual congress of the Sanitary Institute is 

 taking place this week at Liverpool, and was opened on Monday 

 last by the holding of a reception in the Town Hall by the 

 Lord Mayor of Liverpool, who is also chairman of the local 

 committee. The new president — Sir Francis S. Powell, >LP., 

 — afterwards delivered his inaugural address. In. the evening 

 the Lord Mayor opened an exhibition of sanitary appliances. 

 On Tuesday the congress, divided into five sections, resumed i 

 its sittings. | 



The programme for the sixty-sixth annual congress of the 

 German Naturalists and Physicians at Vienna, from Sep- 

 tember 24 to 30, contained arrangements for no fewer than 

 three addresses by the late Prof, von Helmholtz, all of which 

 were to have been delivered in the general meetings. Dr. 

 F. Klein, the Professor of Mathematics at Guttingen, has 

 undertaken to fill one of the gaps by reading a paper upon 

 Riemann's influence in the development of modern mathe- 

 matics. I 



A TELEGRAM from St. Paul, ;Mlnnesota, through Renter's 

 special service, on Monday gave notice of the occurrence, on 

 the evening of Friday, September 21, of a very disastrous 

 cyclone in America. -V strip of country in Iowa, Minnesota, 

 and Wisconsin, about 200 miles in length, is reported to have 

 been devastated, and not only was immense destruction done to 

 property, but serious loss of life occurred, the number of 

 persons who perished being variously estimated at figures 

 varying from fifiy-two to one hundred. The storm was 

 accompanied by hail and torrents of rain, as well as thunder 

 and lightning. Starting ten miles south of Spencer, North- 

 West Iowa, the cj'clone swept across the State to the north of 

 Emmetiburg and .Mgona, almost wiping out of existence the 

 town of Cylinder and laying waste the country districts in its 

 track. Parsing by .Mason City, it ravaged the country to the 

 north-west of Osage, and then changed its direction some- 

 what towards the north-east, crossing the Minnesota line and 

 working great havoc in Lcroy, where a fire broke out and a 

 whole block of houses was destroyed. The cyclone swe] t 

 down Spring Valley, and then turned again to the east, wrecking 

 the hamlets of Homer and Lowther. It next crossed the Missis- 

 sippi and destroyed many farm buildings near Marshland, 

 Wisconsin. Considerable damage w.-is also done at Dodge 

 Centre, though it was not in the path of the main cyclone. 



A Central News telegram of September 25 announces 

 that a deslniclive slorm has occurred in Japan, by which the 

 districts of Okita and Twate have been laid waste. Fifteen 

 thousand houses arc reported to have been destroyed, and 300 

 persons to have perished. Great havoc has also been wrought 

 among the shipping. 



University College, Dundee, has been benefited to the 

 extent of some /35,odo by the bequest of the late Mrs. 

 Margaret Harris, of Dundee. 



Dr. a. Zimmkkmann has been appointed Extraordinary 

 Professor of Botany at ihc University of Tiibingen ; and Dr. 

 Solereder Curator of the liolanical Institute at Munich. 



Accounts have been received from Prof. Stirling, F. R.S., 

 of the safe return to ,\delaide. South .Vustralia, of the 

 Horn Expedition for the exploration of the central portion 

 of that country, the departure of which was announced in these 

 columns some three months ago (p. 174)- We arc glad to say 

 that considerable success has attended the whole journey, no 



NO. 1 300, VOL. 50] 



doubt in consequence of the foresight with which preparations 

 had been made for it ; and though the work of the expedition 

 was at times sufficiently trying, nothing that could be called a 

 misadventure took place. .Miove all, there w.is no collisiot), 

 nor indeed any trouble with the natives ; aud there had been 

 good rains in the Macdonnell Ranges, the examination of the 

 western termination of which formed the chief work to be done. 

 The course of the expedition is briefly outlined by Prof. Siirling 

 as follows :^From Crown Point the party traversed the Finke 

 River to running w.iter ; thence the Palmer River to Tenipe 

 Downs, the Levi Range, Petermann Creek, and the George 

 Gilles Range, where one section diverged to Ayers's Rock and 

 Mount OIg.i, the rest proceeding westward to Lacorie's Creek 

 and northward to Glen Edith, along Carmichael Creek to 

 Mereenie Bluff, thence into the northern watershed following 

 D,irwent Creek to Haast's Bluff, and so eastward to Glen Helen. 

 The united party then travelledeastward to Mount Sonder, which 

 was ascended, and thence through the southern ranges of the Mac- 

 donnellstothe Finke Riverand Ilermannsburg. Here section one 

 again diverged to the Glen of Palms, and another to the North 

 Macdonnclls by way of Ellery's Creek and Brinkley's Bluff to 

 .\ine Springs, where it was met by the other members of the 

 expedition, some of whom h.ad journeyed thither by Owen's 

 Springs, and others by Stuart's Pass and Burt's Plains. The 

 zoological collections formed are said to be generally good, and 

 it has again been Prof. Stirling's good fortune to discover a new 

 type of Marsupial. This is stated to be about as big as a small 

 rat, with a shrew like aspect, and a very curious flattened and 

 fat tail. Its scientific description will probably be undertaken 

 by Prof. Baldwin Spencer. Prof. Siirling again met with his 

 old friend Nolorycles, but only obtained two examples, one oj 

 them being alive, though it soon died, notwithstanding all the 

 care that was taken of it. The rare Alexandra parakeet was 

 also met with ; but in one locality only. Some twenty new 

 species of terrestrial mollusks seem also to have been found, 

 and it is expected that about .seven or eight new species of 

 plants are contained in the botanical collection, which shows a 

 greatly] extended range of in.any kinds that had before been 

 supposed to be much restricted. An examination of the 

 geoiogic.^l formations is .adverse to the hope of metalliferous 

 developments to the southward of the Macdonnell Ranges. U 

 remains to be said that all the journeying was accomplished by 

 the aid of camel.s, which, as before, proved themselves to be 

 essential agents in the exploration of Central Australia. The 

 mode in which the scientific results of the expedition are to be 

 published is uncertain, and possibly will not be decided until 

 the return lo Adelaide of Mr. Horn, who defrayed all, or nearly 

 all, the cost, and is accordingly to be congratulated — together 

 with the several members of the expedition — on the success 

 which has attended an enterprise which has been conducted 

 with so much good spirit. 



We learn from the BotanUal Gaz.-tte that an expedition 

 ' through Eastern Africa for the collection of natural history spec - 

 mens, and to secure photographs, was intended to start fmm 

 Pretoria about August I. P.assing through Mataheleland, the 

 extreme western portion of the East African Portuguese posses- 

 sions, and along the western shore of Lake Nyassa, it expecieJ 

 ' to reach Zanzibar in about twelve months. The chief attention 

 will be paid to plants and insects. 



Dr. a. liAi.riACCi is at present eng.aged on a botanical expe- 

 dition in .the Balkan Peninsula, with the especial object ol 

 exploring the mountain-chains of .\lbania. 



Wf. learn, from the Amirkan Naliiraliit, that the Iniversily 

 of Illinois is about to open a permanent station on the Illinois 

 River, for th: biological study of the flora and fauna of the waters 



