May 



:89o] 



NATURE 



87 



heaviest specimen weighing 466 pounds. Mr. Snow himself 

 shortly afterwards visited the place several times, and obtained 

 five specimens, one of them being the meteorite which had been 

 used as an ornament of a side-walk. The total number of 

 masses included in the fall was at least twenty ; and Mr. Snow 

 says that the total weight of all the masses must have exceeded 

 two thousand pounds. They fell within an oval area about one 

 mile in length. "Some of the specimens were only partially 

 buried in the ground ; others were struck by the breaking plough 

 at a depth of from three to four inches ; others at the second 

 ploughing, five or six inches deep ; others yet, by the stirring 

 plough at the third ploughing in a subsequent season." A 

 specimen retained for the museum of the University of Kansas 

 weighed 54 '96 pounds. "It is," says Mr. Snow, "an 

 irr^ular plum-shaped mass, much pitted, and covered with 

 a burned and weathered crust. Its extreme length is about 

 eleven inches, and its breadth is seven inches. This specimen, 

 as well as the others mentioned above, so far as examined by 

 the writer, belongs to that class of meteoric iron known as ' pal- 

 lasite.' It is composed of nickeliferous iron, including many 

 cavities throughout the entire interior. These cavities are filled 

 with troilite and a yellowish, glassy mineral, which is probably 

 olivine. Some of the latter is very dark and less transparent. 

 The specific gravity, determined by Mr. E. C. Franklin, our 

 assistant in chemistry, and obtained by weighing the whole mass, 

 is 476. Two hundred and ninety-three grams have been re- 

 moved from the larger end of the specimen, and a polished 

 surface of about fifteen square inches has been obtained, which 

 shows very well the structure. The Wiedmanstaeten figures, 

 rather coarse in outline, were developed readily upon the polished 

 iron surface by the application of nitric acid. The portion 

 removed from the specimen is being used for analysis by Prof. 

 E. H. S. Bailey and Mr. E. C. Franklin, and the results of the 

 analysis will appear later. " 



M. V. Fayod, of Nervi, near Genoa, has been appointed 

 assistant in the bacteriological laboratory of the Faculty of 

 Medicine in Paris. 



The post of Director of the Botanic Garden at Hambui^, 

 vacant by the death of the late Prof. H. G. Reichenbach, will 

 not at present be filled up : the Garden will remain under the 

 care of the present Inspector, assisted by the botanists Sadebeck 

 and Dingier. 



Notarisia is no longer the only botanical journal in Italy de- 

 voted to the interests of algology. The first number has been 

 issued of La Nuova Notarisia, a. quarterly journal with a similar 

 scope, published at Padua, under the editorship of Dr. G, B. 

 De Toni, Director of the Botanic Garden at that University. 



The Canadian Record of Science for April records the opening 

 of a botanical laboratory in connection with the McGill Uni- 

 versity, Montreal, under the control of Prof. D. P. Penhallow. 

 The course of study to be pursued at the laboratory, which is 

 furnished with microtomes, embedding baths, &c., embraces a 

 thorough grounding in vegetable h istology, and carries on those 

 students who may desire it to a study of tissues and their con- 

 stituent elements, and to the complete histology and life-history 

 of plants. 



The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club records that 

 Miss Mary E. Banning has presented to the New York State 

 Museum of Natural History a magnificent volume of illustrations 

 in water-colour, accompanied by manuscript descriptions of about 

 175 species of the Fungi of Maryland, belonging mostly to the 

 Hymenomycetes and Gasteroraycetes. 



The trustees of Columbia College, New York, have adopted 

 a report which, according to the Nation, completely reorganizes 

 the College, and puts it definitively on the footing of a University, 

 with faculties of philosophy, political science, mines, and law, 

 each independent in its own sphere, but working under a Uni- 



Nu 1073, '^'OL- 4^] 



versity Council, made up of representatives of each faculty, and 

 of some selections made by the President. The University will 

 give the Master's and Doctor's degrees, and the Council will 

 ' * advise the President as to all matters affecting these degrees, 

 the correlation of courses, the extension of University work in 

 new and in old fields, and generally as to such matters as the 

 President may bring before it." The Nation attributes much 

 importance to this change, which, it thinks, " must have the 

 effect of stimulating the love of culture among the undergraduates, 

 of making the University, nY>re than ever, what all our colleges 

 ought to be, but what only a few really are, a seat of learning." 



Great efforts are being made in the United States to secure 

 that American industrial products shall be well represented at 

 the forthcoming Jamaica International Exhibition. A Com- 

 mittee has been appointed to make all necessary arrangements ; 

 and one of the advantages already obtained for exhibitors is 

 that 1 ow freight rates will be charged for exhibits. 



The Smithsonian Institution has issued the tenth of the Toner 

 Lectures, which have been established at Washington by Dr 

 Joseph M. Toner, of that city, for the promotion of medical 

 science. The new lecture is by Dr. Harrison Allen, and is 

 entitled " A Clinical Study of the Skull." It is described by 

 the author as " a contribution to the morphological study of 

 diseased action." He expresses a hope that the results he has 

 expounded may excite increasing interest in the proposition that 

 "medicine for the most part is a science based on biology." 

 " The study of biology," he says, " should not be the preparatory 

 work of the tiro only, but should be the subject of increasing 

 assiduity in every phase of medical work. The study of ana- 

 tomical variation in the human frame is a phase of biology, and 

 it is held in this connection to be a subject as important as any 

 other which may claim the attention of the student of etiology of 

 disease." 



The United States Hydrographic Office has called attention 

 to the fact that the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce has offered 

 a series of prizes in order to induce masters and officers of ves- 

 sels to test thoroughly the use of oil at sea. There are three 

 sets of prizes, each set consisting of a first prize of 200 francs 

 and a second prize of 100 francs. These prizes will be awarded 

 for the best reports received by January 31, 189 1, based upon 

 actual experience. 



On Monday evening last, at the Surveyors' Institution, Lon- 

 don, Mr. R. F. Grantham, M.Inst.C.E., read a paper entitled 

 "The Encroachment of the Sea on some parts of the English 

 Coast, and the best means of arresting it." After bringing for- 

 ward evidence to show the rate of erosion on various parts of the 

 coast, the author referred to several works for defending the 

 coast-line from encroachment, best adapted for various situations, 

 and described a system of groyning which had been successful 

 for the past twelve years at Shoreham, Sussex, in protecting some 

 land lying below the level of high-water of the tides, and in 

 driving high-water mark further seawards. He suggested that in 

 some instances where shingle travelled along the coast, inasmuch 

 as groynes were necessary to protect sea-walls, the sea-walls 

 might be omitted, and thus a substantial saving in the first cost 

 of protection might be effected. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean shows the 

 tracks of nine cyclones during the month of April ; only five of 

 these were of noteworthy severity : one, moving between Scot- 

 land and Iceland on the ist and 2nd was the same great storm 

 that gave birth to the tornado which wrecked Louisville on 

 March 27. Another noteworthy cyclone originated north of 

 Bermuda on the ist, moved north-easterly at the high velocity 

 of about 1080 miles a day, causing terrific gales along the trans- 

 atlantic routes, and disappeared near Iceland on the 4th. A 

 new feature during the month was the very unusual easterly 



