250 



NATURE 



{Jan. 25. 1872 



model. Like some others of the most successful photographers, | 

 his education was that of an art student, and he was known as a 

 clever painter before he became a skilful photographer. 



It will be recollected what a warm discussion was raised in 

 the French Academy of Sciences before the late war by the 

 proposal to enrol Mr. Darwin among its corresponding members. 

 The proposal was at that time postponed, but his name has now 

 been placed first on the list for the forthcoming election of a 

 Corresponding Member in Zoology, and he will, therefore, no 

 doubt receive the honour. His supporters are MM. Milne- 

 Edwards, Quatrefages, and Lacaze-Duthiers. 



At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday 

 evening last, Lieutenant Dawson, R.N., was introduced as the 

 leader of the party organised to attempt the relief of Dr. Living- 

 stone. Mr. W. O. Livingstone, a son of the explorer, born in 

 the neighbourhood of Lake N'gami, is to accompany the 

 party. An application to the Treasury for a grant of money to 

 aid the expedition has been unsuccessful. Should this decision 

 be a final one, the undertaking must therefore depend entirely on 

 private subscriptions ; but we are happy to see tliat the subject 

 is already being warmly taken up in many of the larger towns 

 in the country, and the sum of 1,700/. was announced as 

 having been raised by Monday evening last. Since then a public 

 meeting iias been held at Glasgow, at which 200/. was subscribed, 

 and one will probably be held in London, under the auspices of 

 the Lord Mayor. 



The subscription raised as a Memorial Fund to the late Mr. 

 Alder of Newcastle now amounts to about 300/. This is con- 

 siderably less than the amount it was thought might have been 

 raised, though sufficient to cany out in a limited form the original 

 suggeslions as to its appropriation. The Committee recommend 

 that it should be invested in the names of trustees, and should 

 serve as the foundation of a Scholarship in Zoology, or other 

 branch of Biology, bearing Mr. Alder's name, in the New Col- 

 lege of Physical Science in Newcastle ; the transfer to be coupled 

 with such stipulations as to the teaching of Biological Science as 

 m^y be agreed upon. 



The editor of Les Mondcs calls attention to the manner in 

 which scientific chairs have been disposed of in France, not so 

 much with the object of " finding men to fill the vacant places 

 as places for the /r('/4"''-* or favourites of the moment." On the 

 death of M. d'Archiac, the chair of paleontology in the Mu- 

 seum of Natural History at Paris was given to M. Lartet, a 

 palceontologist of world-wide renown, but too advanced in years 

 and of too feeble health to permit him to give a single lesson. 

 On the death of M. Lartet, although there are a large number 

 of good palaiontologis s in France, it was all but decided, from 

 motives of private convenience and patronage, to abolish the chair, 

 its maintenance being secured by a majority of two votes only. 

 The appomtment has now been made to the professorship of M. 

 Albert Gaudry, late assistant to Prof. d'Archiac, and author of 

 "La Geologie et la Paleontologie de I'Attique," an appointment 

 which will give general satisfaction. 



The Engineer states that the French Government, impressed 

 by the want of thorough geographical instruction, have under con- 

 sideration a plan for a Geographical Institute, on a scale which has 

 never before been attempted. The proposed Institute is to include 

 all the means and accessories of geographical education in its widest 

 acceptation — books, maps, charts, globes, instruments, collec- 

 tions of natural objects, &c. — and to include a staff of professors 

 and teachers of the highest grades. The naval depot of charts 

 and plans will form one of the departments of the new Institute, 

 which promises to be of eminent service, not only to France, 

 but to the whole of Europe, for, should it be established on the 

 scale proposed, there is little doubt that it will give an impulse 

 to geographical study throughout the civilised world. 



The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture will 

 award on the 1st of March next two prizes of 300 dol?. and 

 200 dols. respectively to the two best establishments in the State 

 for the culture of fishes for food, all competitors for which must 

 send in their names and addresses to the secretary of the 

 Society, Edward N. Perkins, 42, Court Street, Boston. The 

 committee of award will consider the number of species of 

 fishes cultivated, the number of individuals, and their size and 

 condition, the number of eggs hatched in the establishment, and 

 of young reared from them, the neatness and economy of the 

 establishment, and the e.\ceUence of the fixtures. 



Dr. Stimpson, the secretary of the Academy of Sciences of 

 Chicago, left Baltimore in the steamer of the iSth of December 

 for Key West, for the purpose of making explorations and col- 

 lections in the Florida waters, partly with the object of replacing 

 that portion of the collection of the Chicago Academy lost by 

 the fire. It is expected that he will take charge of the dredging 

 operations of the United States Coast Survey steamer Bibb, 

 while she is employed in selecting a line for the submarine cable 

 which is to be laid for the International Cable Company between 

 Cape San Antonio, Cuba, and some point on the coast of 

 Yucatan. 



WE learn from the Gardeners' Chronicle that among the disas- 

 trous losses occasioned by the Chicago fire, the very valuable 

 Entomological Collection of the late Dr. Walsh was totally 

 destroyed. The Canada Farmer states that after the death of 

 the eminent entomologist, the collection became by purchase the 

 property of the State. It was not only very extensive, but the 

 specimens were arranged and labelled with great care and accu- 

 racy ; and it will be many years before another can be collected 

 to replace it. 



The first number of the Journal of the Anthropological 

 Institute of New York, an institution newly organised upon the 

 base of the former Ethnological Society of that city, is published. 

 In the change the scope of the society has been greatly enlarged, 

 and many of the difficulties attendant upon the maintenance of 

 the old organisation have been obviated. Several papers of more 

 or less mterest are to be found in this first number, and there is 

 little doubt that the new society will occupy a prominent place 

 in advancing knowledge in the world. 



Mr. Stephen T. Olnev, a well-known botanist, resident at 

 Providence, Rhode Island, has just published a list of the Algse 

 of Rhode Island, as collected and prepared by himself. In this 

 he enumerates twenty-four species of melanosperms, or olive- 

 coloured algae ; forty-four of rhodosperms, or red algs ; and 

 twenty-five of the clilorosperms, or green algcp, making ninety- 

 three species in all. The remaining forms, principally micro- 

 scopic, enumerated by him, and including zygnemacete, des- 

 midee, and diatoniace^e, bring the number up to 1S9. Of most 

 of these Mr. Olney possesses duplicates, which he will be happy 

 to dispose of in exchange. 



The second volume of the " Annals of the Dudley Observa- 

 tory," edited by its director, G. W. Hough, has just made its 

 appearance, and consists of a report of the meteorological ob- 

 servations made at the observatory from 1862 to 1871. Its 

 value is enhanced by its embracing the hourly records of the ba- 

 rometer (automatically printed) for a continuous period of five 

 years, made by means of a very efficient apparatus invented by 

 the director, and now used in numerous places, among others, in 

 the office of the Signal Service at Washington. An appendix to 

 the report contains miscellaneous communications upon the gal- 

 vanic battery, the total eclipse of the sun of August 2, 1869. and 

 the meteoric showers of 1867, &c. ; and the whole book must be 

 considered a very valuable contribution to physical science. 



Serious apprehensions have been excited at Nantwich in 



