October i6, 1890] 



NATURE 



597 



if light weight and large capacity, and their effect upon the 

 \ orking expenses of railways, by Mr. M. R. Jefferds, of London 

 communicated through Mr. Henry J. Marten). In connection 

 with this paper the members are invited to inspect one of the 

 50ns which will be on view at any time during daylight on 

 :tober 29 and 30, at the Victoria passenger station of the 

 >ndon, Chatham, and Dover Railway, where it will be stand- 

 in the siding behind the main arrival platform, by permission 

 the railway company. On milling cutters, by Mr. George 

 Lddy, of Sheffield. On the mechanical treatment of moulding 

 ad, by Mr. Walter Bagshaw, of Batley. 



The annual general meeting of the Mineralogical Society will 

 held in the apartments of the Geological Society, Bnrlington 

 3use, Piccadilly, on Tuesday, November ir, at 8 p.m. 



[^An Exhibition, for the most part national, will be held at 

 )ns in 1892. With r^ard to electricity it will be inter- 

 tional. 



M. Flahault, the eminent algologist and Professor of Botany 

 Montpellier, has been sent by the Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion in France on a mission to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, 

 for the purpose of endeavouring to establish permanent relations 

 between the Scandinavian Universities and the centres of higher 

 instruction in France, 



The municipality of Verona gave a cordial reception to the 

 Italian Botanical Society, which held its third annual Congress 

 in that city from September 1-8. Prof. Arcangeli was elected 

 President of the Society in the place of Prof. Caruel. 



The Vienna Academy commissioned Dr. G. Bukowski to 

 make some geological investigations in Western Asia Minor at 

 the beginning of the present year. After leaving the Khonas- 

 Dagh, Dr. Bukowski made an excursion from Denisli to 

 Tshoekelez-Dagh, the district lying to the north of the Tshur- 

 uksu Valley ; from thence he proceeded over the Tshukur Pass 

 to Jorengume, and over the Davas Ovassi; table-land to the foot 

 of the Baba-Dagh. At the end of June his researches were 

 interrupted by ill-health. 



The Geologists' Association will open its winter session with 

 a conversazione, which will be held in the Library of University 

 College, Gower Street, on Friday, November 7. Many objects 

 of geological interest will be exhibited on the occasion. 



Mr. John Hancock, the well-known naturalist, died at 

 his residence at Newcastle-on-Tyne on Saturday, at the age of 

 84. Mr. Hancock was an admirable observer of bird-life, and 

 the Museum of the Natural History Society at Newcastle has 

 profited largely by his knowledge and enthusiasm as an 

 ornithologist. 



The death is announced, at the age of seventy-six, of Dr. 

 Wenzel Leopold Graber, the eminent Professor of Anatomy at 

 the University of St. Petersburg. 



The first series of lectures provided by the Sunday Lecture 

 Society begins on Sunday afternoon, October 19, in St. George's 

 Hall, Langham Place, at 4 p.m., when Prof. Silvanus P. 

 Thompson will lecture on "Waves of Light," with illustrations 

 and experiments. Lectures will subsequently be given by Dr. 

 B. W. Richardson, Mr. A. Elley Finch, Dr. Andrew Wilson, 

 Mr. Willmott Dixon, Mr. Arthur Nicols, and Sir A. C. 

 Lyall. 



A scientific expedition, under the auspices of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club of Victoria, will start on or about November 

 15 for the Eastern Islands. Its work will occupy from ten to 

 fourteen days. The expedition will be divided into two parties, 

 one of which will land on Deal Island, the other on Flinders 

 Island. A sub-committee appointed to make the necessary 

 NO. 1094, VOL. 42] 



arrangements has reported that while there is little information 

 with regard to Deal Island, the utility of visiting one of the 

 Kent group, which are small, lies in the possible opportunity of 

 determining the limits of the strictly Tasmanian and Australian 

 fauna and flora, since the islands lie considerably nearer the 

 Victorian than the Tasmanian coast. The greater number of 

 members will probably proceed to Flinders Island. They will* 

 in all probability, be able to visit Barren Island, which lies close 

 to the southern portion of Flinders Island. Two varieties of 

 wallaby, waterfowl, and game of various kinds appear to be 

 plentiful, and the nature of the country seems favourable for the 

 pursuit of different branches of natural history. 



The October number of the Kew Bulletin begins with a paper 

 on an edible fungus of New Zealand (Hirneola polytricka, 

 Montagne). In order that the value of this fungus as an article 

 of food might be tested, a supply of it was recently obtained for 

 Kew. A portion of this supply was submitted for analysis to 

 Prof. Church, F.R.S., and a note by him on the subject is 

 printed in the Bulletin. Other subjects dealt with are Mexican 

 Fibre or Istle, a forest plague in Bavaria {Liparis Monacha), 

 okro fibre (Hibiscus esculentus, L.), cocoa-nut butter, and soil 

 and cultivation in Yoruba-land. 



In the one hundred and third Annual Report of the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, Calcutta, Dr. King says that the attention of 

 the staff during the past year was devoted chiefly to the main- 

 tenance, in as high a state of efficiency as possible, of the various 

 departments of the garden. Special attention was given to the 

 herbarium, and a considerable number of new species were 

 described. The sum of looo rupees having been granted in 

 order that specimens might be obtained in Burma and Assam, 

 Dr. King was enabled to do more than usual in these provinces. 

 Under a recent order of the Government of India this explora- 

 tion will be extended. An official document relating to Dr. 

 King's Report, and issued by order of the Lieutenant-Governor 

 of Bengal, contains the following passage: — "The control of 

 Indian botanical operations has been centralized in the Calcutta 

 Gardens, and the Superintendent has been appointed Director 

 of the Botanical Survey of India. The grants promised by the 

 Administrations of Burma and Assam will enable collections to 

 be made on a larger scale and more continuously. As this work 

 will constitute a separate Department, it has been ordered that 

 in future years a separate Report should be submitted on the 

 subject." 



The twenty-eighth Annual Report of the Government cin- 

 chona plantation and factory in British Sikkim, by Dr. Kiflg, 

 has been issued. At the end of the financial year 1889-90 the 

 plantation consisted of 4,682,401 trees of various ages, and of a 

 nursery stock amounting to 264,000 seedlings. The crop col- 

 lected during the year amounted to 304,705 pounds. The pro- 

 ducts of the factory were 1833I pounds of sulphate of quinine, 

 and 6578 pounds of febrifuge. The whole of the quinine and 

 the greater part of the febrifuge were manufactured by the new 

 fusel-oil process ; and, as the arrangements for working this 

 process were quite completed during the year, the old acid 

 and alkali method of manufacture has now been definitively 

 abandoned. An additional year's experience of the fusel-oil 

 process confirms Dr. King's previously expressed opinion of its 

 complete success. The quinine turned out by it is of excellent 

 appearance and great purity, in the latter respect comparing 

 favourably with most of the brands of the drug of European 

 manufacture. 



The National Association for the Promotion of Technical 

 and Secondary Education have issued some valuable " notes " 

 on the working of the Technical Instruction Act ; and a series 

 of "suggestions" to County Councils and other local authori- 

 ties on the use of the new fund allocated to County Councils for 

 the purposes of technical and secondary education. 



