6 4 



NA TURE 



\_Noi 



grew to such an extent under its author's hands that it became 

 too large for such a purpose, and this, as well as its independent 

 value, rendered it desirable to have a separate publication. 

 Mr. Colquhoun's volume, which is on the point of publication, 

 will, however, contain an introduction by Prof, de Lacouperie on 

 the cradle of the Shan race, which, curiously enough, he places 

 far away on the borders of Shensi. 



Prof. Enrico Cai>orai.i continues to develop the scheme 

 formulated in the first number of La Nuova Scienza with great 

 vigour and learning. The third number, for the quarter ending 

 September 1884, shows even greater energy and grasp of the 

 subject than its predecessors. The editor's views are now quite 

 clear — opposition alike to the two extremes of materialism and 

 dogmatism, and the establishment of a new philosophy recon- 

 ciling the subjective methods of the old schools with the objective 

 standpoint of the new. Evolution in the Darwinian sense is 

 accepted without reserve, and the germs of life are sought in the 

 very lowest forms of matter — the crystal, the molecule, and the 

 atom itself. Thus evolution receives its broadest expression, and 

 begins from the very first as well for the vital force as for crude 

 matter itself. The first genesis of psychis is in fact referred to a 

 unity arising out of the fusion of lower chemical species in a 

 higher chemical species, which forms the connecting link 

 between chemical and biological psychogenesis. In it indi- 

 viduals begin to react in such a way that the opposition be- 

 tween subject and object may almost be said to have already 

 begun. The theory is ingenious and skilfully worked out ; but 

 the unusual interest taken on the Continent in this periodical is 

 probably due mainly to the remarkable learning, clearness, and 

 consistency with which the editor's views are advocated. In the 

 present number the chief articles are : —Modern Italian Thought, 

 the Pythagoric Formula of Cosmic Evolution, and the French 

 Anti-Clerical Evolution. 



A high-level meteorological station has been recently esta- 

 blished by Mr. Wragge on Mount Lofty, about 2200 feet high, 

 and ten miles from Adelaide, South Australia. With Mr. 

 Wragge's grea' energy and ability valuable results will doubtless 

 be obtained from this new high-level station in connection with 

 the excellent meteorological service of the colony. 



In the Report on Weights and Measures presented to Parlia. 

 ment by the Board of Trade, under the Weights and Measures 

 Act, 1878, Sir T. H. Farrer remark s in reference to the metric 

 system, that an opinion has been expressed by the Board of 

 Trade that the time has now arrived when this country might 

 with advantage join the International Convention on Metric 

 Standards, under proper conditions ; provided such a course is 

 not to be taken as an adhesion, on the part of the United 

 Kingdom, to the metric system. These observations appear to 

 be intended as a reply to the eighth resolution of the Conference 

 of the International Geodetical Association, held in Rome in 

 October last, which expresses a hope that, if the rest of the world 

 accepts the meridian of Greenwich for the unification of longi- 

 tude, England will find in this agreement an additional motive 

 for taking a new step in favour of the unification of weights and 

 measures, by adhering to the Metrical Convention of May 20, 

 1875- 



Two years ago Prof. O. Sars, of Christiania, was given some 

 mud taken from the bottom of a lake in Australia by Dr. Lum- 

 holtz, a Norwegian geologist. Recently he has made experi- 

 ments with the same in small aquaria, and has succeeded in 

 producing from the dried mud quite a fauna of Australian fresh- 

 water invertebrates. 



According to V Exploration, Commander de Amezaga, of 

 the Italian navy, has handed to the Ministry of Marine at Rome 

 the collections made during the recent voyage of the corvette 



Carracciolo. The voyage lasted more than two years and a half, I 

 during which time she touched at Montevideo, Valparaiso, I 

 Callao, Guayaquil, Sydney, Singapore, and Aden. Important I 

 hydrographical investigations were made in the Straits of Magel- 

 Ian and on the coasts of Fiji, Tahiti, and among the islands of 

 the South Pacific. The collections relate principally to anthro- 

 pology, ethnology, the fauna and flora of Peru and Australia, 

 Peruvian pottery, mineralogy, and zoology. In the Anthropo- 

 logical Section there are three Peruvian mummies in perfect 

 preservation, although they probably date back a thousand years 

 before the Spanish Conquest. They are distinguished from the 

 Egyptian mummies by being in a crouching position instead 

 of at full length. In the Ethnological Section there is a 

 curious specimen of Carib art found at the summit of Mont 

 Cristi, near Guayaquil. 



The Times announces the death of the celebrated naturalist 

 and traveller, Dr. Alfred Brehm, in his fifty-fifth year. The 

 son of a Thuringian ornithologist, he devoted much of his own 

 attention to the study of birds, but all animal nature was his 

 province, and his observations and researches are recorded in 

 volumes of high importance and value. While still a very young 

 man he spent several years in the north-east districts of Africa, 

 and later in life undertook frequent scientific tours in distant 

 lands, including a visit to Siberia and Turkestan. In 1862 he 

 accompanied the Duke of Coburg-Gotha to Abyssinia, and in 

 1S77 acted as scientific guide to Prince Rudolph in the country 

 of the Danube. The deceased was for some years Director of 

 the Zoological Gardens at Hamburg. 



A magnificent meteor was observed at Mulheim, on the 

 Rhine, on the evening of October 30 last. Its direction was 

 from north-east to south-west, its duration two to three seconds. 

 While visible its progress was accompanied by a hissing sound, 

 and it finally exploded with a loud report and brilliant blue- 

 reddish light, leaving a bright trail behind which was still visible 

 half a minute later. 



Two prehistoric to_nbs have been recently opened near the 

 villages of Latdorf and Grona near Bernburg (Germany), under 

 the direction of Prof. Virchow. Three skeletons, an urn, a 

 comb, a bronze ring, a flint knife, and half a horseshoe were 

 found. The excavations have now been continued under 

 Dr. Fischer's direction, and more objects brought to light, 

 among others curious necklaces made of the teeth of bears, 

 wolves, and foxes. The age of the tombs is said to be over 

 3000 years. The objects found will be preserved in the museum 

 of the Bernburg Antiquarian Society. 



We have received from Mr. Henry Simon, of Manchester, a 

 copy of a pamphlet by Mr. Breckon, Mr. Simon's representative 

 for the Cleveland district, on the question of the manufacture of 

 metallurgical coke in connection with the saving of the by- 

 products. An account of the present position of the question in 

 England is added, as well as a reprint of papers on the subject 

 read by Mr. Simon, Mr. Dixon, and Mr. Smith before the 

 Iron and Steel Institute and the British Association. 



The tobacco plantations of Southern Hungary are threatened 

 by a terrible pest, viz. the so-called wire-worm, which differs 

 from the ordinary tobacco-worm, inasmuch as it enters the stem 

 of the plant just above the root and then works its destructive 

 way right up to the flowers. Plants thus attacked yield no 

 tobacco whateve-, as the leaves turn yellow and fall shortly 

 after the worm has attacked the stem. The tobacco-worm 

 merely attacks the root. The large plantations of Maslak, which 

 are celebrated for their excellent produce, have been nearly all 

 destroyed this year by the wire-worm, while in other districts 

 the tobacco-worm his done much damage. 



