330 



NATURE 



[August 2, 1883 



all the islands remained clouded. The captain did not experi- 

 ence any shower of ashes. The master of the steamer Conrad, 

 which arrived at Batavia on May 24, reports having passed 

 Krakatan on the north side the previous night, and met with 

 heavy rains of ashes, covering the decks, &c, with about 

 I J inch of ashes. He also had to cut his way through nearly 

 ij metres of pumice-stone, which occasioned a delay of almost 

 five hours. 



We have already referred in Nature to the excellent scien- 

 tific work being done by the French in the Indo-Chinese penin- 

 sula, as evinced by the large number of scientific missions 

 which have been despatched from France to those regions. As 

 a farther example of the pains taken in France to obtain a 

 thorough knowledge of the country in which she seems destined 

 to play so large a part, we may refer to a periodical published 

 by the Government of Saigun, entitled Cochin-chine Francaise : 

 Excursions et Reconnaissances. The fifteenth part is now 

 before us, and as each part contains about two hundred pages 

 the amount of information accumulated in these volumes is 

 considerable. Speaking broadly, and slightly altering a well- 

 known Latin maxim, it may be said that nothing relating to the 

 vast territory between the mouths of the Brahmaputra and the 

 Canton river, between the Bay of Bengil and the China Sea, is 

 outside the scope of this journal. As a rule the papers are of a 

 highly scholarly and scientific kind. Thus the last number con- 

 tains the second part of a long and richly illustrated paper on 

 the coins and medal-; of Annam and French Cochin China, by 

 M. Silvestre, inspector of native affairs in Saigon ; a short his- 

 tory of the Portuguese in Cambodia ; an account of the 

 typhoon of last November at Hue, the capital of Annam, 

 with barometrical tables, by the surgeon to the French 

 Legation there ; a long paper on the vegetation and forest ad- 

 ministration of British Burmah ; and finally one of a series 

 of very interesting papers on the customs and popular supersti- 

 tions of the Annamites. The present instalment deals with 

 marriage customs. The efforts of the Colonial Government to 

 sustain and encourage the study of Indo-China does not, how- 

 ever, close with the publication of this excellent journal, for we 

 observe the advertisements of a large number of works relating 

 to that country in the magazine under review. Among these 

 are a weekly journal for the natives, an annual summary of facts 

 relating to Cochin China, vai i ras maps, medical reports, &c. 

 Whatever may be thought from other points of view of the 

 action of France in Annam and Tonkin, there can be no doubt 

 that the increase of French power there carries with it a large 

 increase to knowledge, for the Colonial Government of France 

 appears to know how to organise and stimulate research in the 

 countries over which it exercises rule. 



The telegraph has made another step in advance in China. It 

 has had the honour of being mentioned in a memorial to the 

 throne. Li Hung Chang recently mentioned in a report to the 

 Emperor that he received certain information by telegraph. 

 And, more wonderful still, that mysterious and awe-inspiring 

 document, an Imperial decree, written with the vermilion pencil, 

 has actually been despatched by telegraph, for the Viceroy of 

 Canton reports recently in a memorial that a decree had been 

 conveyed to him in this way. 



The German system of privat docenten, or University teaching 

 by outsiders, is to be tried in Fr.mce. A decree provides that 

 any doctor of letters or sciences, or correspondent or member of 

 the Institute, may apply to the Minister of Education for per- 

 mi-sion to lecture on his respective subject, the license being 

 renewable annually. The lectures may be public or private, at 

 the professor's option, and the expense falls on him, while he 

 can charge the students what he plea-es. The same system is 

 applied to the medical school. 



We have received the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society for 1882-83. I" 'he first paper, on the scenery 

 of Norfolk, Mr. Horace Woodward gives a history of the geo- 

 logical strata of the county, shows how the scenery was influenced 

 by the action of water and the introduction of various forms of 

 life, and how affected by the artificial changes brought about by 

 man. There is also an interesting paper by Mr. Stevenson on the 

 dusky petrel, and a paper by Mr. Southwell on the bottle-nosed 

 whale and the history of the seal fishery. Mr. Clement Reed's 

 paper on the discovery of Lithoglyphus in the Weybourn Crag 

 is very interesting, from the fact that this freshwater shell is 

 found now in Europe only in the Danube. Mr. Young gives 

 his observations on the habits of the bearded tit, which birds he 

 had kept in confinement for twelve years. Mr. Bidwell's list of 

 British birds in whose nest the egg of the cuckoo has been found 

 is the most complete yet published. The President contributes 

 part x. of the fauna and ft )ra of Norfolk, a list of the marine 

 alga?. 



The exhibition of the Society of Agriculture and Insectology 

 of Paris has just come to an end with a ministerial visit and dis- 

 tribution of prizes at the Palais de 1' Industrie. Thousands of 

 visitors have flocked to this hall in order to visit the interesting 

 collection. A special building will be erected for the Society in 

 the Park de Montsouris, and a sum of 32,000 francs has been 

 already voted for this purpose by the city of Paris. A menagerie 

 of living insects is to be established. 



Accormng to the Austrian Monatschrift fur den Orient the 

 production of tin in the protected state of Perak, in the Malay 

 Peninsula, for the year 1882 was 7000 tons, about equivalent to 

 that of Cornwall. Forty thousand Chinese are employed in the 

 Malacca tin mines. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Macaque Monkey {Macacus cynomolgus £ ) 

 from India, presented by Mr. J. W. Lucking ; a White-thr. ated 

 Capuchin (Cebus hypoleucus £ ) from Central America, presented 

 by Mr. F. Hoey ; a Leopard (Felis pardus) from Somali Land, 

 East Africa, presented by Mr. Frederick HolmwoDd ; four 

 Bibiroussas [Babirussa alfurus £ £ 9 9 ) from Celebes, pre- 

 sented by Dr. F. H. Bauer, C.M.Z.S. ; a Two-spotted Para- 

 doxus (Nandinia binotata £ ), a Royal Python (Python regim) 

 from West Africa, presented by Dr. D. Hume Hart ; two Short- 

 headed Phalangers (Bel ideas brrvicips £ 9 ), two Crested Pigeons 

 (Ocyphaps lophotes £ 9), a Modest Grass Finch (Amadina 

 medesta) from Australia, two Bicheno's Finches (Eslrelda 

 bichenovii) from Queensland, a Funereal Cockatoo (Calypto- 

 rhynchus funereus) from New South Wales, a Saisset's Parra- 

 keet [Cyanorhamphus saisseii) from New Caledonia, a New 

 Zealand Parrakeet (Cyanorhamphus >iov,e-zealandue) from New 

 Zealand, presented by Mr. T. H. Bo wyer Bower, F.Z.S. ; an 

 Australian Cassowary (Casuarius australis) from Australia, pre- 

 sented by Capt. Mann ; four Black Guillemots (Uria grylle) 

 from Ireland, presented by Mr. H. Becher ; a South American 

 Rat Snake (Spilotes variabilis) from Brazil, presented by Mr. C. 

 A. Craven, C.M.Z.S.; two Peacock Pheasants (Polypltctron 

 chinqiiis £ £ ) from British Burmah, deposited. 



WEATHER PROGNOSTICS AND WEATHER 

 TYPES 1 



THE object of the first paper was to explain the best known 

 popular prognostics by means of the most recent discoveries 

 in meteorological science. 



A great advance has been made in meteorology during the 

 last twenty years owing to the introduction of daily synoptic 

 charts of the distribution of atmospheric pressure, temperature, 



1 Abstract of two papers read before the Meteorological Society : "On 

 Weather Prognostics." by Hon. Ralph Abercomby and W -Marriott : On 

 certain Types of British Weather," by Hon. R. Abercromby. (Quarterly 

 Journal of the Meteorological Society, vol. ix. No. 45-) 



