August 28, 1890] 



NATURE 



427 



He was born at Silesia, in 1812, and after studying at Breslau, 

 Munich, and Berlin, became a professor at Liege, where he re- 

 mained during the greater part of his working life. He translated 

 the " Pentamerone " of Basile from the Italian in 1846, and in 

 the following year issued a version of the romance of Barlaam 

 and Josaphat from the Greek of Johannes Damascenus. In 1851 

 he translated Dunlop's "History of Fiction." A curious 

 treatise by Gervase of Tilbury attracted his notice as being a sort 

 of encyclopjEdia of mediaeval folk-lore, and he brought out an 

 edition of it in 1856 enriched with many valuable notes. A 

 selection of his contributions to periodical literature on his 

 special subject appeared in 1879, entitled "Zur Volkskunde." 



Prof. Flower and Mr. Lydekker are engaged in preparing 

 for publication a work entitled " An Introduction to the Study 

 of Mammals, Recent and Extinct." It is ba^^ed mainly upon the 

 articles contributed by the first-named author and Mr. G. E. 

 Dobson to the ninth edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica,'' 

 but much new matter will be added, and the whole brought up 

 to date. The publishers are Messrs. Black, of Edinburgh, and 

 the work is expected to appear before the end of the year. 



Messrs. D. C. Heath and Co., Boston, announce the 

 publication of a new number in the series of "Guides for 

 Science Teaching," issued under the auspices of the Bostonian 

 Society of Natural History. The book is entitled "Insecta," 

 and is written by Prof. Hyatt, Curator of the Natural History 

 Society. It is extensively illustrated. 



Mr. J. B. Marcou's "Bibliography of North American 

 Palaeontology in the year 1886" has been reprinted from the 

 Smithsonian Report for 1886-87. 



The City and Guilds of London Institute has issued its pro- 

 gramme of technological examinations for the session 1890-91. 

 In a special paper attention is called to various alterations and 



additions. 



The University Correspondence College has published, in its 

 Tutorial Series, a Directory containing all necessary information 

 as to London Intermediate Science and Preliminary Scientific 

 1 examinations. 



During the cruise of the U.S.S. Thetis in the Behring Sea 

 and Arctic Ocean, in 1889, several officers were directed to 

 prepare reports on subjects connected with the waters and 

 regions visited by the vessel. One of the reports drawn up in 

 accordance with instructions related to the Eskimos of north- 

 western Alaska, and was written by Mr. John W. Kelly, who 

 had spent three winters among the north-western Eskimos. 

 This report has now been published by the United States 

 Bureau of Education, and all students of ethnography will find 

 in it much that cannot fail to interest them. It is accompanied 

 by English-Eskimo and Eskimo- English vocabularies, prepared 

 by Ensign Roger Wells, chiefly from information furnished by 

 Mr. John W. Kelly. These vocabularies are primarily intended 

 f )r teachers in Alaska, but it is expected by the Bureau of 

 Education that they will also be of service to officers of the navy 

 and of the revenue marine service, to all Goverment officials in 

 Alaska, to committees of Congress visiting the country, and to 

 many others who for any reason may desire to study the Eskimo 

 language. 



The U.S. Bureau of Education has issued a Bulletin, by 

 Prof. C. F. Smith, of the Vanderbilt University, on "Honorary 

 Degrees as Conferred in American Colleges." The author pro- 

 tests vigorously against the lavish way in which various Am erican 

 institutions raise incompetent persons to the rank of "doctor." 



We have received from the Santiago Observatory (Chile) two 

 volumes comprising the meteorological observations for the 

 years 1882-87. This Observatory, which is furnished with the 

 NO. 1087, VOL. 42] 



best instruments, has published observations in the present form 

 since 1873, although they had been taken and partially published 

 for many years previously. The observations for three hours 

 daily are given in a tabular form, and the means for each day 

 are laid down in curves. Full particulars as to the instruments 

 and methods of observation are given in an earlier volume, and 

 the series presents most valuable materials for the study of the 

 climate in those distant parts. 



The Italian Meteorological Office has published its "Annals " 

 for 1 886, consisting of four folio volumes. The first volume 

 contains the Report of the Director of this extensive organization, 

 and shows that there were in that year 123 observatories and 

 stations at which complete observations were made, and 630 

 stations recording temperature and rainfall. This part also con- 

 tains some valuable memoirs, among which may be mentioned : 

 the climate of Massowah, by P. Tacchini ; the comparison of 

 anemometers, and evaporation, by Dr. Ragona ; the temperature 

 of snow at different depths, and of the air above it, by Dr. 

 Chistoni, &c. Vols. ii. and iii. contain the ten-day, monthly, 

 and annual means for the various stations, and the results 

 of evaporation and cloud observations. Vol. iv. deals more 

 especially with earthquake phenomena, and contains in- 

 vestigations on several shocks which have occurred in Italy, 

 together with memoirs on the various seismographs used in 

 different countries. 



The Archaeological Survey of India perseveres with its un- 

 ostentatious task of reclaiming from ruin and oblivion the countless 

 inscriptions which lie scattered about India, offering a clue to 

 many questions of ancient history and philology. These despised 

 or neglected records are found in all sorts of likely and unlikely 

 places. The EnoHshman of Calcutta refers to one which has 

 lately been recovered from obscurity, and which is just a thousand 

 years old. It was found incised on a stone slab partly fixed in the 

 wall of a house and used as a seat, in the bazaar of Pahoa or 

 Pihewa, in the Umballa district. Considerable difficulty was 

 experienced in inducing the owner of the house to allow the 

 stone to be removed, but the treasure was eventually acquired, 

 and now lies in the Lahore Museum. The inscription consists 

 of twenty-one stanzas of Sanskrit verse, and is an account of the 

 building and endowment of a temple of Vishnu, together with 

 a eulogy of the family who performed the meritorious deed. 

 Regarding one of the brothers we are told that " when suppliants 

 with rapture looked on his lotus face their mental anxiety com- 

 pletely vanished in an instant ; and the crowd of hostile trumpet- 

 ing elephants always shook before him in battle ready to disperse." 

 This may be taken as a characteristic Oriental rendering of the 

 sentiment of the familiar Scotch song, " His step is first in 

 peaceful hall, His sword in battle keen." For extravagance of 

 laudation, however, a higher place must be given to an inscription 

 found near Jubbulpore, in which it is said of a certain king, that 

 although the tread of his armies roused the apprehension of the 

 three worlds — heaven, earth, and hell — yet there was no dust 

 raised, as the road was flooded by the tears of the captive women 

 who followed in his train. 



The Photographic News concludes an interesting article on 

 the photographing of clouds with the following suggestions, 

 which are offered for the benefit of those who have not had 

 much experience in making cloud negatives : — If the sun is to 

 be included in the picture, films or ground-glass backed plates 

 should be used. Any lens which will take a good landscape 

 can be used, and its smallest stop should be employed. As a 

 rule, the exposure will be about one second on a slow plate, but 

 in the case of red sunrises and sunsets, this may often be in- 

 creased to as much as eight or even ten seconds unless iso- 

 chromatic plates are available. The development must be very 

 carefully watched, and not carried too far. 



