20 



NA TURE 



[May i, 1884 



We are informed that tickets have been applied for as follows 

 for the Montreal meeting of the British Association : — Members 

 elected prior to October 1882, 379 ; Members elected since 

 October 1882, 181; Associates (relations of Members), 120; 

 total, 680. 



THE International Geological Congress will hold its meeting 

 in Berlin this year, towards the end of September. 



The International Polar Conference concluded its labours last 

 Thursday. 



In reference to the recent sunsets a correspondent writes that 

 Graham's Island was in eruption, throwing out vast quantities 

 of steam, ashes, and cinders from July 19 to August 16, 1S31, 

 and in connection therewith sends us the following extract from 

 a letter written from Malta, January 28, 1832 (see Phil. Trans. 

 1832): — "In the month of August a singular appearance was 

 witnessed in the heavens, many evenings successively, both here 

 and in Sicily. Soon after sunset the western sky became of a 

 dark, lurid red, which extended almost to the zenith, and con- 

 tinued gradually diminishing in extent and intensity even beyond 

 the limit of twilight. This phenomenon, too, was attributed to 

 the volcano, and was supposed by many people, whom it greatly 

 alarmed, to be portentous of some impending calamity." Our 

 correspondent also sends us the following old translation of 

 Virgil's " Georgics," Book i. line 542 : — ; 



" He, too, bewailing her unhappy doom 

 When fell her glorious Caesar, pitied Rome, 

 With dusky redness veiled his cheerful light, 

 And impious mortals feared eternal night ; 

 Then, too, the trembling earth and seas that raged. 

 And dogs and boding birds dire ill presaged ; 

 What globes of flame hath thundering Etna thrown, 

 What heaps of sulphur mixed with molten stone, 

 From her burst entrails did she oft expire, 

 And deluge the Cyclopean fields with fire." 



The Kew Committee of the Royal Society have affiliated to 

 the Department for the examination and verification of scientific 

 instruments a branch which will rate watches for either makers 

 or the public on very moderate terms. 



The Council of the Royal Geographical Society have decided 

 to appoint for one year an inspector, to inquire thoroughly into 

 and report on the state of geographical education at home and on 

 the Continent. In addition to studying the best methods of geo. 

 graphical teaching — chiefly probably in Germany and Switzerland 

 — he will be required to collect and report on the best text- 

 books, maps, models, and appliances. His honorarium will be 

 250/., to include travelling expenses, but not the purchase of 

 books, &c, which will be defrayed by the Society on the selection 

 being approved by the Council. 



Science in Japan has recently suffered a severe loss by the 

 death of Dr. A. J. C. Geerts, which took place at Yokohama 

 towards the end of last year at the early age of forty. He had 

 been for fifteen years in the employment of the Japanese 

 Government, and a few weeks before his death his services had 

 been recognised by the Emperor, who conferred on him the 

 Order of the Rising Sun. Dr. Geerts was originally Professor of 

 Chemistry in the School of Military Medicine at Utrecht, and in 

 1868 was offered by the Japanese Government the post of Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Science at the Medical School then recently 

 established at Nagasaki. After occupying this position for five 

 years he was nominated adviser to the Department of Hygiene 

 and Public Health in Tokio, and was also charged with the 

 establishment of a chemical laboratory at Kioto. In 1S77 he 

 established a similar institution in Yokohama, where his ditties 

 ■ consisted chiefly in the testing of foreign drugs imported for sale 

 amongst the Japanese, and this position he held at the time of 



his death. Like every other European in the Japanese Govern 

 ment service whose duty compels him to stand between his own ) 

 countrymen ami the natives, and to hold an even balance 

 between the claims of both, his work was frequently of a harass- 

 ing and unpleasant description ; nevertheless he found time to 

 write numerous works on Japan. His papers on Japanese 

 mineral products, communicated during a number of years to the 

 two learned societies in japan, are of much value. He also 

 published a Japanese Pharmacopoeia, an account of the 

 numerous mineral springs in Japan, and finally he commenced, . 

 and actually published, two volumes of an encyclopaedic work 

 entitled " Produits de la Nature Japonaise et Chinoise," in 

 which he intended to describe the names, history, and applica- 

 tion " to arts, industry, economy, medicine, &c, of substances 

 derived from the three kingdoms of nature, and which are em- 

 ployed by the Japanese and Chinese." The formidable nature 

 of this title is in no degree diminished when we come to exa- 

 mine the torso of the work itself. Ordinary men, who bear in 

 mind that human life and human powers are limited, can only 

 stand amazed at the conception of this work ; for the author not 

 only ransacked all that had ever been written on China and 

 Japan in Europe, but also examined the whole of Chinese and 

 Japanese literature before he sat clown to write even the most 

 insignificant article. In the section "Iron" alone one finds 

 about 200 references to works in all literatures and of all ages. 

 Each section contains the Japanese and Chinese legends respect- 

 in the origin and discovery of the production which formed its 

 subject, the places where it has been or is now found, the primi- 

 tive modes of obtaining it, the various qualities ascribed to it, its 

 employment in arts and industry, &c. From this method of 

 writing, it was inevitable that the work should bear the appear- 

 ance of a hotch-potch, an omnium gatherum of fact and myth ; 

 but we could at least feel sure that in each section all that had 

 ever been known of the subject was given. The work was really 

 beyond the power of any single individual, and, if it were to be 

 brought to an end at all, should have been executed on some 

 extensive plan of cooperation similar to that employed in Dr. 

 Murray's English Dictionary. As an example of the minute 

 care bestowed on each point, it may be mentioned that in 

 dealing with "Jade " the author gives two Latin synonyms, two 

 Chinese, thirteen Japanese, a Spanish, a Manchu, a Turkish, a 

 Persian, an Arab, and a Maori synonym ! 



Lieut. B. Baden-Powell, Scots Guards, made an ascent in 

 hisown balloon from Aldershot on Monday last week. The weather 

 at the time of starting (4.30) was threatening and the wind fresh 

 from the north-east. On rising to a height of 4000 feet, a lovely 

 cloudscape was seen, the sky overhead being clear and blue, 

 ami a sea of clouds stretching around with very distinct horizon. 

 Below, the earth could be seen through the haze, on which the 

 shadow of the balloon was thrown, a bright halo surrounding 

 the car. The descent was made at a quarter to six, about 

 twenty miles off. 



Mr. II. O. Forbes writes : — In a note received from the ex- 

 Governor of Timor (now in Lisbon) I learn that a violent earth- 

 quake was experienced in Dilly on November 11, which destroyed 

 the hospital and also damaged the church and other edifices, but 



without loss of life. 



Tin last number of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society (Singapore, 1SS3) has the continuation of; 

 Capt. Kelham's notes on the ornithology of the Straits Settle- 

 ments ami the western StaUs of the Malay Peninsula ; also a 

 collection of Malay proverbs, by Mr. Maxwell. Mr. Cameron 

 contributes a paper on the Patani, the most considerable river 

 of the peninsula, which flows northwards into the Gulf of Siam. 

 An article of extraordinary interest is that on latah, a nervous 

 disorder among Malays, or rather the native name applied to 



