March 22, 1894] 



NA TURE 



487 



was the fovinder of the Society, and acted as secretary for forty 

 years. 



It is stated that the Municipal Council of Bry-sur-Marne, 

 near Paris, has decided to erect a monument to Daguerre, the 

 inventor of photography. 



A CHAIR of Bacteriology is to be established at Erlangen, 

 and Dr. Hauser, now Privat-docent in that University, will, the 

 British Medical Journal states, probably be invited to occupy it. 



The legacy of 100,000 francs, placed at the disposal of the 

 French Government by M. Giffard, has been assigned by the 

 Minister of Public Instruction to the laboratory of the Inter- 

 national Society of Electricians. 



Mr. Scott Elliot, who left England for Uganda last 

 September, reached Usoga, on the northern shore of the Vic- 

 toria Nyanza, in December. He proposes to explore the botany, 

 geology, and natural history of the great mountain chain of 

 Ruwenzori. 



The Ceylon Obserz'tr reports that at the annual meeting of 

 the Planters' Association, held at the end of last month, it was 

 resolved "that the Government be asked to arrange for the 

 appointment of an entomologist to be attached to the Colombo 

 Museum." 



The tenth congress organised by the National Horticultural 

 Society of France will be held at Paris during the General 

 Horticultural Exhibition, between May 23 and 28. Among the 

 special questions to be discussed are the following : — Chloro- 

 phyll in relation to the vigour of cultivated plants ; capillarity 

 in relation to the preparation of the soil ; the means of pro- 

 moting the nitrification of nitrogenous substances, and of render- 

 ing the nitrogen more readily assimilable. 



A Reuter's telegram states that Mr. Theodore Bent and his 

 party, on their return from their archaeological expedition to 

 Hadramaut, had reached the coast at Sheher, east of Makalia, on 

 March 3. All were in good health, but the journey seems to 

 have been accompanied by considerable danger. They were 

 attacked on several occasions by hostile tribes, but appear to 

 have made good use of their time traversing and, doubtless, 

 mapping a large area of the interior. 



The annua! dinner of the Institution of Civil Engineers was 

 held on March 17, in Merchant Taylors' Hall. Mr. Alfred 

 Giles occupied the chair, and among those present were Lord 

 Kelvin, Sir F. Abel, Sir George Stokes, Sir F. Bramwell, Sir 

 Douglas Galton, Sir John Fowler, Prof. Kennedy, Mr. J. VV. 

 Hulke, Sir R. Rawlinson, I\Ir. Alex. Siemens, Dr. James Riley, 

 and Dr. Pole. The institution now numbers as many as 6000 

 members, and has offshoots in various branches of the engineering 

 profession — marine engineers, naval architects, iron and steel 

 founders, telegraph engineers, &c. 



The following are among the lecture arrangements at the 

 Royal Institution after Easter :— Prof. J. A. Fleming, four 

 lectures on " Electric Illumination"; Prof. J. W. Judd, three 

 lectures on "Rubies: their nature, origin, and metamor- 

 phoses" ; the Rev. W. H. Dallinger, three lectures on "The 

 Modern Microscope"; Prof. Dewar, three lectures on "The 

 Solid and Liquid States of Matter " ; Mr. John A. Gray, two 

 lectures on "Life among the Afghans"; Capt. Abney, three 

 lectures on "Colour Vision" (the Tyndall Lectures). The 

 Friday evening meetings will be resumed on April 6, when a 

 discourse will be given by Prof. Victor Horsley on "Destructive 

 Effects of Projectiles " ; succeeding discourses will probably be 

 given by Prof. J. J. Thomson, Dr. J. G. Garspn, Prof. H. 

 Marshall Ward, Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, Prof. A. M. Worthing- 

 NO. T273, VOL. 49] 



ton. Sir Howard Grubb, Prof. Oliver Lodge, Prof. C. V. Boys, 

 and others. 



The Committee appointed by the Secretary of State to in- 

 quire into the best means available for identifying habitual 

 criminals have issued their report. The system of identification 

 recommended for adoption embodies the practical results of Mr. 

 Galton's investigations, and M. Bertillon's system of classifica- 

 tion. It is proposed (i) to photograph prisoners as at present, 

 stress being laid on the necessity of obtaining a perfectly clear 

 side photograph showing distinctly the profile and the form of 

 the ear. (2) To take the five measurements required for pur- 

 poses of classification, namely, the length of the hand, the width 

 of the head, the length of the left middle finger, the length of 

 the left forearm, the length of the left foot. The measurements 

 should be taken with the same instruments as in France, and 

 should be stated in millimetres, so as to facilitate identificatioa 

 in international cases. (3) To take the finger-prints by Mr. 

 Galton's method. (4) A description should also be taken as at 

 present, but somewhat briefer, including the height in feet and 

 inches, colour of hair, eye and complexion, and the distinctive 

 marks. To carry out these suggestions the establishment of an 

 Anthropometrical Registry is proposed. The Committee are 

 strongly of opinion that it is essential to the complete success of 

 the registry to secure the services of an expert practised in the 

 methods of scientific anthropometry. It is certainly desirable 

 that the English Anthropometric Office should from the first 

 have the advantage of scientific guidance not inferior to that 

 enjoyed by the French Service d'Identification. 



M. Marcel Dubois, in a series of articles recently concluded 

 in the Annaies de Geograpliie, has investigated the classification 

 of rivers according to size. He points out the unscientific nature 

 of a classification by length or volume alone, and proposes, in 

 place of the uncertain methods hitherto employed, to 

 classify river-systems according to the ratio which the whole 

 annual discharge bears to the area of the drainage basins. This 

 permits of a sub-classification according to climatic zones and 

 varieties of vertical relief. Thus tropical islands have the 

 largest rivers of all, on account of the great rainfall and the 

 small area of the laud. Peninsulas in tropical regions come next, 

 but when great continents are considered the configuration of 

 the land comes very prominently into play. Thus in Africa 

 the plateau-structure lavours a storing-up of rainfall m lakes and 

 in the upper-courses of rivers barred by cataracts, while in South 

 America the vast plain of the Amazon presents on the graodes 

 scale a system of direct drainage, the whole water-supply flow- 

 ing without interruption to the sea. 



The Ilhistraled Archccologist for March retains the high 

 character of its predecessors as regards the number and 

 quality of the illustrations, Mr. Edward Lovett's article on 

 prehistoric man in Jersey contains figures of flake-knives, 

 scrapers, drills, piercers, spear-heads, and arrow-heads of flint 

 found in a cave in the high and rugged clifts near Plemont and 

 Greve-de-Lecq. The height of the cave-floor abjve the present 

 sea- level is sixty feet. Some exceedingly interesting objects 

 were obtained from a layer of very dark-coloured carbonaceous 

 matter found on the floor, and representing the remains of the 

 last fire used in this ancient dwelling-place. They consisted of 

 several calcined shells of the common limpet, some fragmentary 

 remains of bone, and a few molar teeth of a cervine animal. 

 The most interesting find in the ash, however, was a calcined 

 nodule of iron pyrites which had probably been used with a 

 flint flake for making the necessary spark to kindle the fire. 

 This carries the flint-and-steel back to a very remote period, and 

 gives a hoary antiquity to the tinder-box or its contents. In the 

 whitish clay on the floor of the cave more than a thousand flints 

 were found, every one of which bore, more or less, abundant- 



