442 



NA TURE 



{March 12, 1S85 



Hamburg, to form there an exhaustive museum of natural 

 history. The first whom he sent out on a mission of this kind 

 was Dr. Graefe, of Zurich, now inspector of the zoological 

 station at Trieste, who went to Samoa in 1861, and torn this as 

 a centre visited the Fiji, Tonga, and other groups in the region. 

 He returned to Europe after eleven years, bringing with him 

 important collections, and he undertook the editorship of a 

 "Journal of the Godeftroy Museum." Amongst others thus 

 despatched to the South Seas was a lady who spent ten years 

 studying the botany of Northern Queensland, and a Polish 

 surgeon, who lived for five years in the Marshall and Caroline 

 Islands, then returned to Europe ; returning again to the Caro- 

 lines, where he is at present. A list of the men employed by 

 Herr Godeftroy to travel in the South Seas to study the various 

 islands, make collections for his museum, and report to him 

 would embrace all nationalities, all departments of study, and 

 every portion of the Southern Pacific. Eight catalogues of the 

 Museum were published between 1S64 and 1SS1, several of 

 them containing zoological and geographical monographs as 

 well. The Journal, which co umenced in 1871, contained not 

 only papers on the Museum and its contents, but was open to the 

 discussion of any scientific subject connected with the South 

 Sea Islands. Its most important feature was formed by the 

 papers by specialists on sections of the collections sent home for 

 the Museum. Fourteen parts were published in all, the most 

 remarkable being on the fishes, which contained 140 plates and 

 312 illustrations. Through financial reverses this princely 

 merchant died poor, and no purchaser was found for his museum, 

 which will probably be broken up. 



According to a writer in the North China Herald on Chinese 

 worship, it is certain that a great amount of fetichism prevails in 

 that country. Near Peking, a few miles from the walls, on the 

 east, is an enormous tree which fell more than two centuries 

 ago, and which has been there ever since. It is called the 

 Divine tree, and a temple has been erected for its worship. 

 The people believe that a spirit lives in or near the tree, and 

 should be worshipped from motives of prudence. The immense 

 size of the tree is the result of the spirit's energy. It is believed 

 it could not have grown so large without a present divinity. At 

 Hantan, five or six days south from Peking, there are some iron 

 bars in a well. In times of drought they are taken all the way 

 to Peking to be prayed to for rain. They are placed in one 

 temple after another, and prayers are offered to them till the 

 showers fall. The bars are then reverently escorted back to 

 Hantan, and placed jin the well till they are again needed. In 

 such a case the Chinese believe that there is a powerful spirit or 

 genius in the well and in the bars, and that this spirit accom- 

 panies the bars to Peking and back again. This is Chinese 

 contemporary fetichism, but in the ancient books there is no 

 trace of fetichism. The objects of worship were either indi- 

 vidual spirits or parts of nature. The ruling powers of the uni- 

 verse, from the highest to the lowest, were divided into four great 

 classes — God, the subordinate heavenly powers, the higher 

 earthly powers, and the numberless spirits that people earth and 

 air. The subordinate heavenly powers were the seasons, the 

 sun, moon, stars, cold and heat, floods and drought. The 

 earthly powers were the gods of the mountains and rivers, and 

 the last named are the spirits still remaining. Nothing is said 

 of human spirits, though these were worshipped, then, as now, 

 in the ancestral temples. But the worship in this instance con- 

 sisted only of kneeling, prayer, and offerings. 



During the late Health Exhibition at South Kensington the 

 building and grounds were overrun with rats, food being plentiful 

 and access to it comparatively easy. When the Exhibition 

 closed, however, this ample source of provisions ceased to 

 exist, and starvation seized upon the hosts of rodents who 



had for six months increased and multiplied upon the fat of the 

 land. For a long time they were to be observed scampering 

 here and there for food with abnormal temerity, often fighting 

 fiercely over fragments of refuse, which evidenced their extreme 

 voracity ; and the officials on duty in the building have stated 

 that the rats abounded in such large numbers that the noise of 

 their movements resembled the "sound of wind." By degrees, 

 however, they disappeared, some dying of starvation, whilst the 

 majority emigrated to the houses in the neighbourhood ; and at 

 the present time there is scarcely one in the building. 



In connection with the Italian occupation of Massowah, 

 materials for a meteorological station are being sent to that 

 place. 



In the report of the Berlin Physiological Society for February 

 26 (Nature, vol. xxxi. p. 404) the name of Dr. Kossel appears 

 as Dr. Rossel. 



In the corrections in Sir William Thomson's Baltimore lec- 

 ture given in last week's Nature (p. 407), that for p. 296 

 should be ir and tt instead of a and S. Sir William Thomson 

 also asks us to state that in his Bangor address (p. 410, 2nd col. 

 line 12 from bottom) he has inadvertently given the date of his 

 coming to Glasgow as 1845 instead of 1846. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Dwarf Common Ass [Equus minus S ) from 

 Tripoli, presented by Mr. J. Skelding ; a Bonnet Monkey 

 [Macacus sinicus S), a Macaque Monkey [Macacus eyno- 

 molgus 9 ) from India, presented by Mrs. M. Strachan 

 Carnegie ;. an Alexandrine Parrakeet {Palaomis alexandri i ) 

 from India, presented by Mrs. Abbott ; two Common Gulls 

 (Larus cauus), two Black-headed Gulls (Larus ridibuudus), 

 British, presented by Mr. F. S. Mosely, F.Z.S. ; a Roan 

 Kangaroo {Macropus erubescens ? ) from South Australia, three 

 Coal Tits {Pants ater), British, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Variable Stars. — Prof. Schonfeld, in the notes to his second 

 catalogue of variable stars, which was published in 1875, refers 

 to the singular circumstance that R Serpentis had not been ob- 

 served at its minimum, though he doubted if it descended below 

 the twelfth magnitude. Considering that the variability of this 

 star was detected by Harding in 1S26, the want of satisfactory 

 determinations of the times of minima might hardly have been 

 expected ; it does not appear that our knowledge in this direc- 

 tion has advanced during the last ten years. Schonfeld's 

 formula assigns for dates of maxima January 27, 1885, and 

 January 19, 18S6 ; the middle date is July 25, somewhere about 

 which we may look for a minimum, though it is to be remarked 

 that the increase of light has been observed to be more rapid 

 than the decrease, especially near maximum. Observations 

 made during the approaching summer, and continued as long 

 as practicable, may perhaps lead to a well-determined minimum 

 being put on record. The position of R Serpentis for the com- 

 mencement of the present year is in right ascension 15I1. 45m. 

 23'6s., declination +15° 29' 3". 



A star in R.A. 14b. 8m. os., decl. — II I5'"2 for 18S5TJ is 

 probably variable from at least 7'5m. to 10m. On April iS, 

 1854, it was estimated a tenth magnitude, at a subsequent date 

 S'5, and on March 18, 1S74, it was as bright as 7'5- It is not 

 in Lalande, Bessel, Santini, Lamont, nor in the Bonn Observa- 

 vations, vol. vi. It is entered on Harding's Atlas as a seventh 

 magnitude. 



The Occultation of Aldebarax on March 21. — The 

 disappearance of Aldebaran at its next occultation by the moon 

 takes place while the star is yet above the horizon at Greenwich, 

 but its altitude there will be less than 2i°. At Exeter the star 

 disappears at nh. 45m. 19s., Greenwich time, at an altitude of 

 4i°, so that there is a possibility of observations in the west of 

 England. 



The Naval Observatory, Washington. — In accordance 

 with an intention notified several months since, Commodore 



