March 12, 1885 J 



NA TURE 



441 



Turkestan. We are glad to see, however, from Messrs. Sampson 

 Low's catalogue the announcement of a book by Dr. Lansdell, 

 on Russian Central Asia, in which are promised the enumeration 

 of 4600 species of fauna and flora, in about 20 lists, with intro- 

 ductions to each. 



Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, of University College, 

 Bristol, has been appointed Principal and Professor of Physics 

 at the Finsbury Technical College. The duties of Principal 

 have hitherto been discharged by Mr. Philip Magnus, the 

 Director and Secretary of the Institute, who temporarily under- 

 took them pending the complete organisation of the College. 

 As Professor of Physics at Finsbury Prof. Thompson succeeds 

 Prof. Ayrton, F.R.S., who has now been appointed Professor 

 of Physics at the Central Institution. 



The gift to the nation by Messrs. Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., and 

 F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.S., of two valuable and highly in- 

 structive collections, is announced. One collection, presented 

 on certain conditions, comprises the entire series of American 

 birds brought together by those gentlemen, numbering upwards 

 of 20,000 specimens, and illustrating more than any other col- 

 lection in existence the life-history and geographical distribution 

 of the birds of tropical America. No labour or expense has 

 been spared in the formation of this splendid group of ornitho- 

 logical rarities. The other gift, which is unconditional, com- 

 prises a very fine collection of Central American Coleoptera of 

 the families of Cicindelida and Carabida. It contains 969 

 species, and, moreover, 7678 examples, of which more than 400 

 are types of new species described in the work entitled " Biologia 

 Centrali American," now in course of publication by Messrs. 

 Salvin and Godman. To this collection will be ultimately added, 

 by gift, the remaining families of Coleoptera, with other ento- 

 mological specimens. 



Prof. Jeffrey Bell has succeeded the late Mr. E. C. Rye 

 in the editorship of the Zoological Record. 



The French Minister of Education has appointed a Com- 

 mission, composed of astronomers and others, to report on the 

 opportuneness of extending the decimal system to astronomical 

 distances and time. 



M. Wolf having received a sum of money from M. Worms, 

 of Romilly, for the purpose, will begin at the Observatory of 

 Paris a series of experiments for redetermining the velocity of 

 light. 



A committee has been formed for organising the celebration 

 of the centenary of the birth of Arago, who was born in Per- 

 pignan on March 17, 1786. The younger brother of Arago, M. 

 Etienne, is director of the Luxembourg Museum. 



Mr. H. L. Bixby, of Chelsea, Vt., U.S., is taking steps, 

 Science states, to introduce a system of weather warnings 

 throughout his State by means of blasts from factory whistles. 

 The signals are as follows : after the first long, unbroken blast, 

 usually given at about 7 a.m., a single five-second blast indicates 

 fair or probably fair weather for the day ; two blasts, foul 

 weather ; three, fair, changing to foul ; four, foul, changing to 

 fair ; five, doubtful or irregularly variable. After any of these, 

 five short blasts signify a cold wave or unseasonable frosts. The 

 managers of the Free Press at Burlington undertake to send the 

 necessary telegrams on payment of a small fee. Randolph is 

 the first lown to adopt the system : the signals are regularly 

 given there now from a 10-inch steam-whistle. 



Ax experiment is being tried in the Jefferson physical labora- 

 tory, we learn from Science, which promises to be successful. 

 An ordinary seconds clock, with a wooden pendulum, is con- 

 trolled by the signals from the Harvard College Observatory. 



with no other mechanism than a fine spring connecting the pen- 

 dulum to the armature of a telegraph instrument in the circuit. 

 If the signals are interrupted during the day or night, the error 

 of the clock, which seldom exceeds half a second in that time, 

 will generally be rectified within an hour of their recurrence. 

 The rate is in no way affected by the irregular signals caused in 

 storms by the interference of the wires, and the regular impulses 

 conveyed at intervals of two seconds increase but slightly the 

 swing of the pendulum. The attachment can easily be made to 

 any seconds clock at the cost of a few dollars, and may be of 

 interest to those intolerant of the rates charged by companies for 

 the use of electric dials. 



From an article in the Boston jfourna! of February 7 we see 

 that preparations are being made in the United States to observe 

 the partial eclipse which will be visible there on March 16. 

 Nearly ir/l2ths of the sun's surface will be obscured at Wash- 

 ington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and 

 Portland. 



The University of Glasgow having accepted the resignation 

 of Dr. Bayley Balfour, the Chair of Botany in that University is 

 now vacant. The patronage belongs to the Crown. 



A parliamentary paper published during the week (Corea, 

 No. 1) contains, besides the trade report for Corea in the usual 

 form, the account of a journey made by the Consul-General of 

 Great Britain in the Peninsula. As for trade, the reports may 

 be summed up much like the chapter on the snakes of Ireland : 

 there is no trade, and there is no probability of there being any. 

 The journey was from Seoul, the capital, to Songdo, to the 

 north-east, the ancient capital of one of the three kingdoms into 

 which Corea was divided. Some interesting information is 

 given with regard to the production of the famous drug ginseng, 

 so prized is a tonic by the Chinese. It is grown from a seed 

 which is sown in March. The seedlings are planted out in beds 

 raised a foot above the level of the surrounding soil, bordered 

 with upright slates, and covered in from sun and rain by sheds 

 of reeds, well closed in except towards the north side, where 

 they are left to open. In the first or second year the ginseng 

 plant is only two or three inches high, and has only two leaves. 

 It is transplanted frequently during this period. In the fourth 

 year the stem is about six inches high, with four horizontal 

 leaves standing out from it at right angles, and in the fifth year 

 a strong healthy plant has reached maturity, though it is more 

 usual not to take it up until it has reached the sixth season. 

 Ordinary ginseng is prepared by simply drying the root in the 

 sun, or over a charcoal fire. To make red or clarified ginseng, 

 the root is placed in wicker baskets, which are put in a large 

 earthenware vessel with a closely-fitting cover, and pierced as 

 the bottom with holes. It is then placed over boiling water and 

 steamed for about four hours. Ginseng was for centuries regarded 

 as a very elixir of life all over the East ; and especially in China 

 and Japan. Its properties were supposed to be miraculous, but 

 they were generally supposed to be confined to the Corean 

 ginseng. But its enormous price put it out of the reach of the 

 poorer classes. The wild ginseng of Corea has frequently fetched 

 twenty times its weight in silver in China. The export from 

 Corea is a strict monopoly, which affords a considerable revenue, 

 and is said to be the king's personal perquisite. Death is the 

 punishment for smuggling it out of the country. The total 

 expert is only about 27,000 pounds avoirdupois. 



On February 8 died, near Hamburg, Johann Cresar Godeffroy, 

 until lately head of the great German firm of traders to the 

 South Sea Islands. He was, however, much more than a 

 merchant. Besides captains and supercargoes, he sent to Micron- 

 esia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and especially to Samoa, men of 

 science, whose duty it was to make collections and send them to 



