3^ 



NATURE 



[November 9, 1899 



are printed in italics : — President : Lord Lister. Treasurer : 

 Alfred Bray Kempe. Secretaries : Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., 

 Prof, Arthur William Rlicker. Foreign Secretary : Dr. Thomas 

 Edward Thorpe. Other members of the Council : Horace T. 

 Brown, Captain Ettrick William Creak, R.N., Prof. James 

 Dewar, Prof. Edwin Bailey Elliott, Dr. Hans Friedrich Gadow, 

 Prof. William Dobinson Halliburton, Prof. William Abbott 

 lierdman. Sir John Murray, K.C.B., Sir Andrew Noble, 

 K.C.B., Prof. Arnold William Reinold, Dr. George John- 

 stone Stoney, George James Syinons, J. J. H. Teall, Prof. 

 Joseph John Thomson, Prof Edward Burnett Tylor, Sir 

 Samuel Wilks, Bart. 



The gold medal of the Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland has been awarded to Prof. Cossar Ewart in recognition 

 of his intercrossing and other experiments. Seeing that the 

 Scottish Agricultural Society has a reserve fund of well nigh 

 100,000/., and that there was a clear profit of over 4000/. at 

 the last show— the show at which Prof. Ewart's zebra hybrids 

 attracted so much attention — it is a matter of some surprise 

 that the directors of the Society have not ere this voted a sub- 

 stantial sum in aid of the extremely costly experiments which 

 for some years have been steadily carried on in the vicinity of 

 Edinburgh. 



Dr. W. H. Corfield, professor of hygiene and public 

 health in University College, London, has been appointed to 

 the newly-created post of consulting sanitary adviser to Her 

 Majesty's Office of Works, for the Royal Palaces and Public 

 Buildings in charge of the Department. 



At the recent annual meeting of the Royal Academy of 

 Medicine in Ireland, the following distinguished men of science 

 were elected honorary Fellows of the Academy : Sir J. Burdon- 

 Sanderson, Bart., F.R.S. ; Prof. Howard Kelly, Baltimore; 

 Prof. Koch, Berlin; Prof. Kocher, Bern; Prof. Th. Leber, 

 Heidelberg; Sir W. MacCormac, Bart., K.C.V.O., London; 

 Prof. Martin, Berlin ; Prof. Nothnagel, Vienna ; Prof. Osier, 

 Baltimore ; and Sir W. Turner, F.R.S., Edinburgh. 



An egg of Aepyornis maxinius, measuring nearly a yard in 

 circumference, was sold at Mr. J. C. Stevens's auction rooms on 

 Tuesday, the price realised being forty-two guineas. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Dr. 

 Edward Orton, the distinguished geologist, and president of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 



Six public lectures on " England in South Africa," illus- 

 trated by maps and lantern slides, will be given at the Imperial 

 Institute on Thursday evenings during this month and next, by 

 Mr. Basil Worsfold. The first lecture will be delivered this 

 evening. 



We learn from Science that Mr. J. B. Hatcher, and his 

 assistant Mr. O. A. Peterson, have returned from their third 

 exploration of Patagonia, where they were sent by the Geo- 

 logical Department of Princeton University. Very extensive 

 collections have been made of both vertebrate and invertebrate 

 fossils of Patagonia, and much material illustrating the zoology 

 and botany of that region has been obtained. 



The leases of the auriferous deposits of the north-western 

 shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, in Siberia, recently dis- 

 covered and explored by a special commission sent into the 

 region referred to by the Russian Imperial Government, are to 

 be put up for auction at St. Petersburg in February 1900. The 

 conditions of the leases may be seen on application at the 

 Intelligence Branch of the Commercial Department of the 

 Board of Trade. 



NO. 1567, VOL. 61] 



It is stated by the Daily News that Prof. Starr, of Chicago, 

 who for many years has made a study of the ethnographical 

 aspects of the interior of Mexico, has presented his valuable col- 

 lection of objects, gathered during various expeditions into the 

 heart of Mexico, to the Folk Lore Society, and the latter have, 

 through the medium of their president, Mr. E. Sidney Hart- 

 land, offered to place the collection on permanent deposit in the 

 Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge. 



The new session of the Society of Arts will be opened on 

 November 15 with an address from the chairman of the 

 Council, Sir John Wolfe Barry, K.C.B., F.R.S. In it it is 

 probable that he will develop the subject of his address last 

 year, " London Communications," and will make some sugges- 

 tions as to the practical means of carrying his proposals into 

 effect. The first paper after the opening meeting will be by 

 Mr. D. E. Hutchins, who will draw attention to the want in 

 this country of measures for the proper conservation of woods 

 and forests. At the next meeting Mr. Allan Wyon will give a 

 paper, principally of an antiquarian nature, on the Great Seals 

 of England. At the other meetings before Christmas it is 

 probable that Mr. Joseph Cash will describe the substitutes 

 which have recently been introduced to replace silk, and the 

 methods of their production. Mr. F. G. Aflalo will draw atten- 

 tion to the necessity for some legislation to restrict sea anglers 

 from catching immature and undersized fish ; and Mr. H. 

 Bloomfield Bare will describe and illustrate the methods, which 

 have recently achieved considerable success in America, of 

 teaching drawing by the use of the blackboard, both hands 

 being employed. Mr. H. H. Cunynghame, who has devoted a 

 great deal of attention to the subject, will give a course of 

 Cantor Lectures before Christmas on the art of enamelling. It 

 is intended to demonstrate practically the whole process of 

 enamel-making during the course. The Juvenile Lectures will 

 be by Mr. Herbert Jackson, of King's College, who will lecture 

 on phosphorescence. 



An important article on Mangabeira rubber appears in the 

 current number of the Kew Bulletin. Partly in consequence 

 of an improvement in the purity of the rubber, the price has 

 recently advanced and the price of the best sorts is not much 

 less than that obtained for Para rubber. The chief centres for 

 export of Mangabeira rubber are Bahia and Pernambuco. 

 Although but little is known so far of the cultivation of Manga- 

 beira, it may be said that there is a considerable probability of 

 its becoming an important tree in rubber-culture. The ap- 

 parently easy accommodation of the tree to soil and climate, 

 its early and considerable yield, together with the fact that even 

 under the rough treatment of the Indians it preserves its fruit- 

 fulness, and also the facility with which it can be cultivated, 

 promise a future. And, taking a wide view of its possibilities, 

 from its presence in the red coffee-growing soils of the west of 

 the Province of Sao Paulo, it appears suitable for the red earths 

 of the German colonies of Africa, Usambara and Togoland 

 alike, such, for instance, as occur at Misahohe in the latter 

 Colony. For these soils it promises to be considerably better 

 suited than the Ceara rubber plant and the Para rubbers, and 

 will probably give better results than Castilioa, than which it is 

 more hardy, earlier maturing, and smaller. 



The information at present available on the subject of injurious 

 insects in India forests is brought together in an illustrated 

 pamphlet (pp. 152) by Mr. E. P. Stebbing, which has been 

 issued from the office of the superintendent of Government 

 printing, Calcutta. Locusts and white ants or termites 

 are among the most destructive pests of the insect kingdom. 

 The former invades the fertile plains of India from its home 

 in the sandy deserts of Rajputana, Sind, and the Punjab, 



