450 



NATURE 



{April \, 1872 



Indian papers give the following additional accounts of the 

 aurora ot February 4 : — Such a phenomenon has not been 

 observed in the Punjab, or perhaps in India, writhin the memory 

 of man, and in consequence the remarlis made by the natives 

 and others born in the country were rather curious. A curious 

 circumstance took place at Raikote. About 100 Kooka families 

 turned out in the most excited state, and commenced those wild 

 demonstrations from which the name Kooka is derived. The men 

 tore off their turbans, unloosed their hair, and began dancing 

 and waving their arms about, and shouting that this was a token 

 that Ram Singh had returned to his home. They were much 

 disappointed to learn tliat they were mistalcen. At Sealkotc 

 many thought that the red in the sky was the reflection of the 

 blaze of some hill forest on fire, and one individual at Jhelum 

 suggested that it must be caused by some volcanic eruption in the 

 Himalayas. In another place a commissariat officer was thrown 

 into an agony of terror, thinking it was his haystacks on fire. 

 A correspondent, writing from Madhopore, says : — " On the 

 night of the 4th instant, between 11 and 12 o'clock, there 

 appeared in the sky a clear bright light, like fire, which lasted 

 about fourteen minutes. It was so bright that we were ableto 

 see even the minutest objects ; owing to its red colour the river 

 appeared as though it were blood. The atmosphere for days 

 has never been clear of clouds, and it seems as if a storm were 

 portending. The lightning injured some natives on the 5th inst." 



A COKRESPONDENT Suggests that the memory of Dr. Priestley 

 will not be so worthily honoured by a bad statue as by a thoroughly 

 well-appointed School of Science to be called " The Priestley 

 Institution," or whatever other name be thought fitting. Science 

 is much needed to supplement the technical skill employed in the 

 industries of the Black Country, and is not in that district so 

 well pro\'ided for as to render the establishment of such a school 

 unneedful. Or if that undertaking be thought too vast, he pro- 

 poses the endowment at the Newcastle College or elsewhere of a 

 scholarship of Physical Science, to provide young aspirants from 

 the Midland Counties with opportunities of scientific practice and 

 culture. Or if this suggestion do not find favour, possibly tlie 

 ingenuity of the committee can devise some scheme of a similar 

 sort, so that thus the funds subscribed for this memorial may be 

 used for science. 



We note the proposed formation of a National Swimming 

 Baths Company (Limited), to provide good and cheap swimming 

 baths in the Thames. 



According to a communication to the Geological Society of 

 Hungary, the remains of a man, associated with post-tertiary 

 remains of mammalia, together with a stone hammer, have lately 

 been discovered in the loess deposits of Hungary, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Brux, in Bohemia. These were in nearly a com- 

 plete condition. The cranium strongly resembles in its 

 characteristics the well-known fragment from the Neanderthal, 

 although differing in certain peculiarities mentioned in the article. 

 The skeleton was found lying with the head raised, in a sand-bed 

 of diluvial age, at a depth of two feet from the surface. 



In making an excavation on the banks of the Amoor River, 

 Harper's Weekly states that a stone axe of nephrite, or jade, and 

 beautifully finished, was found at a depth of about three feet. 

 This fact is the more interesting as it bears upon the question in 

 regard to the celebrated stone-tipped arrows which were used by 

 the primeval inhabitants of Mantchuria as late as the twelfth 

 century. It was with arrows winged with eagles' feathers and 

 tipped with nephrite points that this people paid their tribute to 

 China while they were under its dominion. The precise locality 

 of nephrite in Mantchuria is unknown, although it is stated by 

 some to have been on a mountain to the north-west of that 

 country. 



The Perthshire Society of Natural Science held its Annual 

 Meeting on March 7, when Colonel H. M. Drummond Hay was 

 elected president in the room of Dr. Buchanan White, who has 

 held the office for five years. This enterprising society must be 

 congratulated on the work it has done in the exploration of the 

 natural histoiy of the county, and in the commencement of the 

 pubUcation of so valuable a work as the Fauna Pcrthciisis, and 

 the promotion of so useful a periodical as the Scotluh Naturalist. 

 Botany seems, however, up to the present time, to have been 

 neglected by the Society, which is to be regretted in a county 

 with so rich and interesting a flora. The Society has also held "a 

 meeting for investigation into the qualities, as articles of food, ot 

 certain Perthshire animals," commonly known as a "Frog- 

 supper." Among the articles of the bill of fare were — Pate 

 d'Ecureuil, Matelot de Grenouille, Alouette .\ la Crapaudine, 

 Ecureuil au naturel. 



An Act passed by the Governor-General of India in Council 

 in October last, with a view to provide for the ultimate adoption 

 of a uniform system of weights and measures of capacity through- 

 out British India, has been laid before the House of Commons. 

 The Act directs that the unit of weight shall be a " ser," equal 

 to the French kilogramme, and the unit for measures of capacity, 

 a measure containing one such ser of water at its maximum 

 density, weighed in a vacuum. Other weights and measures of 

 capacity, to be authorised under this Act, are to be integral 

 multiples or sub-multiples of their units, the sub-divisions to be 

 expressed in decimal parts unless otherwise ordered. Wlien 

 proper standards have been provided for verification of these 

 weights and measures to be used by any Government office, 

 municipal body, or railway company, the Governor-General 

 in Council may direct that the weights and measures as 

 authorised shall be used in dealings by such olifice, body, or 

 company. The local Government may prepare tables of the 

 equivalents of other weights and measures in terms of the 

 weights and measures so authorised. 



Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay announces as in preparation, 

 "Mind in the Lower Animals," a popular exposition of those 

 traits in the habits of animals that illustrate their possession 

 of the higher as well as the lower faculties of mind, as it 

 exists in man. Dr. Lindsay has already written extensively on 

 the subject in the yonrnal of Mental Science and the British 

 and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Rez'iew, 



The second enlarged and improved edition is published of Dr. 

 O. W. Thome's " Lehrbuchder Botanik," intended especially for 

 elementary classes of botany in gymnasia and public schools. 

 Although some portions of the work, especially the systematic, 

 are open to exception, yet it presents the elements of the different 

 departments of botanical science in a more compact form, and 

 at a lower price {y.) than probably any other work. It is illus- 

 trated by nearly 900 woodcuts. 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd has in the press a volume entitled 

 "The Ivy, a Monograph, " which will shortly be published by 

 Messrs. Groombridge and Sons. 



A USEFUL catalogue is published at Ghent, entitled, 

 "Nomenclature usuelle de 550 Fibres Textiles, avec indication 

 de leur provenance, leurs usages," &c., by the conservator of 

 the commercial-industrial museum in that city. 



Messrs. Groombridge and Sons are preparing a new 

 edition, with coloured plates, of Mr. Lambton J. H. Young's 

 " Sea Fishing as a Sport." 



Mr. B. S. Lyman, mining engineer to the Public Works De- 

 partment of the Government of India, reprints from the " Trans- 

 actions of the American Philosophical Society" an account of the 

 Punjab Oil Region, accompanied by a geological and ,topo- 

 graphical map. 



