go 



NA TURK 



\_Nov. 27, i ! 



and works. lie died at Langenberg on the 5th inst., aged fifty- 

 four years. 



We regret to announce the death, at Paris, of M. Lartigue, 

 aged fifty-four, a French electrician well known for his system 

 of railway-signalling, which is largely in use on the French 

 lines, and who had latterly held the post of General Director of 

 the French Telephonic Company. 



We regret to learn of the death, at the early age of thirty-four, 

 of M. Henninger, one of the editors of Science et Nature. 

 After a brilliant career as a medical student, he was appointed 

 assistant to M. Wurtz in the chair of medical chemistry, as well 

 as profe-sor in I'Ecole municipale de Chimie. He was the 

 author of numerous articles in periodicals and encyclopaedias, 

 chiefly on chemistry. 



The permanent Committee appointed by the International 

 Ornithological Congress at Vienna for the purpose, among other 

 tasks, of erecting ornithological stations of observation ail over 

 the globe, has addressed the Imperial Academy of Sciences in 

 Vienna with the request that, so far as its sphere of action extends, 

 it would seek out and appoint men, able and willing to under- 

 take that office, to make regular observations, each within his 

 own particular district, respecting the birds he finds there, their 

 flight, incubation, mode of life, &c, and report them yearly (in 

 the first quarter of the calendar year) to the Secretary of the 

 Committee. The observations so collected will appear, each con- 

 tribution being under the name and responsibility of the contribu- 

 tor, and will be scientifically digested and embodied by eminent 

 experts. It is hoped that by these means many points hitherto 

 dark in our knowledge of birds will be cleared up, and science 

 generally be extended and enriched. 



Admiral von Schleinitz has resigned the presidency of the 

 Berlin Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde, and has been replaced by Dr. 

 W. Reiss. At the last meeting of this Society it was stated that 

 there are now four Polar expeditions in preparation, of which 

 one will start for the Antarctic regions. The African traveller, 

 Dr. Aurel Schulz, has started on a journey across Africa from 

 east to west, by way of the Zambesi River and the Victoria Falls. 

 Lieut. Schulz, the leader of the German African expedition, 

 reports from Cameroon that the joy of the German colonists 

 there is most intense in consequence of recent political events. 



The speeches delivered at the sittings of the Universal Prime 

 Meridian Congress at Washingti n wid be published in extenso 

 in French, having been translated under the - uperintendence of 

 M. Janssen, who was specially appointed by the Congress for 

 that task. 



The collections made by the Polar traveller, Capt. Jacobsen, 

 by order of the Berlin Museum, on his American tour, are now 

 on view at the Royal Ethnographical Museum at Berlin. That 

 part of the collections which was obtained from Alaska territory, 

 consists of some 4000 objects, collected among various Esquimaux 

 tribes and among the Ingalik Indians living on the Yukon River. 

 Most of the objects in question closely resemble those dating 

 from the Stone Age, consisting principally of stone, bone, horn, 

 shell, or wood. 



The expedition of the German travellers, Dr. Gauss and Herr 

 von den Steinen, wdio undertook to investigate the. tributaries on 

 the upper right bank of the Amazon and Xingu Rivers, starting 

 from Paraguay and Cuyaba, have successfully accomplished this 

 task, and safely arrived at Para at the end of October. The 

 Brazilian Government, and especially Senhor Batovi, the Prefect 

 of the province of Matto Grosso, have supported this scientific 

 undertaking in a praiseworthy manner. 



The Commission of the Centennial Exhibition for 1SS0 have 

 already held several meetings with the object of determining 

 upon a site for the Exhibition. As many as four places are 



competing for this honour, exclusive of the Bois de Boulogne, 

 which was mentioned in connection with this matter some months 

 ago. 



The excellent " Monthly Reference-Lists," which are printed 

 by Mr. W. E. Foster of the Providence Public Library, should 

 be watched, says Science, by scientific men as well as by literary 

 readers. I he August number (vol. iv. No. 8) contains a handy 

 index to articles on earthquakes— theories and observations— 

 which was suggested by the shock of August 10, 18S4. In 

 judging of the list of memoirs and articles which are cited, the 

 reader should remember that it is prepared for popular reading, 

 and not as an index for the seismologist, nor even for the 

 physicist. The second part of the same number is devoted to 

 the early English explorations of America. 



Telephonic service between Brussels and Antwerp was 

 opened on October 20, the wires being used both for telegraph- 

 ing and telephoning. The Belgian Government intends esta- 

 blishing telephonic connection between Brussels and Liege, 

 Venders, Mons, Ghent, Charleroi, and Louvain. 



Among the awards given by the jurors at the National 

 Italian Exhibition we notice a gold medal granted to Signor 

 Ragona, Director of the Modena Observatory, for a complete 

 set of astronomical, meteorological, and magnetical instruments 

 designed by him and executed under his personal supervision. 



In a recent number of the Revue Scieniifique General Faid- 

 lerbe draws the boundaries of the large section in the north-west 

 cf Africa in part already fallen, in part about to fall, under 

 French control. In the beginning of April this year the French 

 flag was floating from the fort of Bammakoo on the banks of the 

 Niger, and on September II a French steamer had made a run 

 down that river from Bammakoo to Koulikoro, bound for Tim 

 buctoo, 300 miles lower down. Altogether, the French have at 

 present the command of the Niger from Bourre to Boussa, some 

 700 leagues of water-course. From the North of Africa, again, 

 a French railway runs from Arzen to Mecheria, and in a few 

 years more will be continued to Imsalah. But Imsalah is already 

 connected with Timbuctoo by the caravan routes which, mid. 1 

 French protection, must become much more important. From 

 Porto Novo on theGulf of Guinea, moreover, the French cannot 

 Inn push to Boussa on the Niger, and so complete their >m 

 mercial route from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Guinea. 



We have received the Catalogue of the Natural History Col- 

 lections of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, Cape of Good 

 Hope, and have much pleasure in observing how considerable 

 the collection already is in specimens both native anil foreign, 

 especially birds. For the rest we can only join heartily in the 

 hope expressed by the zealous curator in the preface, that the 

 present inventory of natural history treasures in the young 

 colony will stimulate able friends, at once of the colony and of 

 natural science, to add to the stock and so promote the benign 

 study of Nature ill a part of the world not without its share of 

 political troubles. We expect that the promised list of-botanical 

 specimens in the herbarium will do justice to the botany, at least, 

 of the South of Afi ica. 



On the eastern coa t of Schleswig the experiments to establish 

 oyster beds are being actively pursued, under the direction of 

 Prof. Mobius, who is an authority on the subject. Quantitie 

 of young American and Canadian oysters have been brought 

 over, and are being "sown out" during favourable weather. 

 The experiments made last year have, so far, not been attended 

 with satisfactory results. 



The organisation of the Pneumatic Postal Service will be 

 completed on December 15 next for the whole of Paris. This 

 great work, costing more than a million francs and involving 

 over 60,000 metres' length of pipes, was inaugurated by M. de 



