82 



NA TURE 



\Alay 22, 1884 



it. The following are the members of the Government Commission : 

 — Dr. Beclard, the Dean of the Paris Faculty ; M. Paul Bert, Pro- 

 fessor of General Physiology at the Faculty of Sciences ; M. Bouley, 

 Professor of Comparative Pathology at the Museum of Natural 

 History ; Dr. Villemin, Professor of Clinical Surgery at the 

 Military Pharmacy; Dr. Vulpian, Professor of Comparative and 

 Experimental Pathology at the Paris Faculty of Medicine ; and 

 M. Tisserand, Director of the Agricultural Department. 



Prof. Huxley has undertaken to be President of the Marine 

 Biological Association. It is stated that Plymouth will probably 

 be selected as the site of the fust laboratory and experimental 

 station erected by the Association. The Duke of Argyll, the 

 Duke of Sutherland, and Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., havegiven 

 their names as vice-presidents. Mr. Chamberlain has joined 

 the Association, and subscribed twenty guineas towards building 

 the sea-coast laboratory. Mr. Thomasson, M.P. for Bolton, has 

 subscribed 100/. 



We understand that the Scottish Fishery II. .aid have obtained 

 sufficient funds to enable Prof. Mcintosh to carry on a number 

 of important preliminary inquiries at St. Andrew's as to the pos- 

 sibility of increasing by artificial means the supply of flat-fish, 

 and also as to the spawning habits and life-history of food fishes 

 in general. This work is in the meantime being carried on in a 

 temporary building which for some time served as a hospital. It 

 is hoped, however, that when the importance of the work and 

 the many advantages which St. Andrew's offers for a marine 

 station are recognised, that both in the interest of science and 

 by way of developing further the great fishing industry, a well- 

 equipped laboratory and hatching station will be provided. Dr. 

 Mcintosh has already succeeded in hatching from artificially 

 fertilised eggs the flounder, whiting, haddock, ami cod, and in 

 determining the nature of the eggs of the gurnard and other fish. 

 Prof. Hubrecht of Utrecht is expected to work at the St. 

 Andrew's Marine Station during the autumn. 



I'm. Davis Lectures upon zoological subjects will be given in 

 the lecture-room in the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's 

 Park, on Thursdays, at 5 p.m., commencing June 5, as follows: — 

 June 5, Man, zoologically considered, by Prof. Flower, LL.D., 

 F.R.S. ; June ii. Hands and feet, by Prof. Mivart, F.R.S. ; 

 June 19, Instinct, by < i. J. Romanes, LL.D., F.R.S. ; [line 26, 

 Hedgehogs, moles, and shrews, by Prof. Parker, F.R.S.; My3> 

 Dogs, ancient and modern, bj J. E. Harting, F.L.S. ; July 10, 

 Birds' nests, by Henry Seeb dim, F.L.S. ; July 17, Reptiles, by 

 P. L. Sclater, F.R.S. 



THE Municipal Council of Paris lias, at the instigation of the 

 Societe d'Anthropologie, given its sanction to the projected 

 erection of a monument to Paul Broca. The spot chosen is a 

 triangular plot of ground on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, im- 

 mediately opposite the entrance gate of the new wing of the 

 Ecole de Mc ; deeine. A Commission has been appointed to 

 decide upon the terms and conditions to be observed by those 

 who desire to enter into the competition shortly to be opened for 

 the honour of executing the work. 



Tin. eighth meeting of the French National Congress of Geo- 

 graphy will open on August 8 at Toulouse, where the local 

 Geographical Society is organising an international exhibition, 

 to be held from June I to August 15. 



In reference to his " Prize Records oi Family Faculties" Mr. 

 F. Gallon writes to the Tim " Permit me, as the last day for 



sending in the records has just gone by, to send you a brief estimate 

 of the value of the response to my offer, so far as a very hast) in- 

 spection warrants. This value has far exceeded my expectations. 

 I have received very little trash, and upwards of 150 good records 

 of different families. Many of these are admirably drawn up ; 

 concise, full of information, and offering numerous opportunities 

 of verification. As each of these returns refers to fourteen direct 



ancestors of the children of the family, and to many of the 

 brothers and sisters of each of them, the mass of anthropological 

 material may be inferred. It certainly refers to more than 5000 

 persons, and as the data are all entered in my bound tamrlar 

 forms, the records form a long row of thin quarto volumes, seve- 

 rally labelled, and easily accessible. It is a unique anthropo- 

 logical collection. The writers are chiefly persons of the upper 

 and middle classes of society ; they are male and female in nearly 

 equal proportions, and the two sexes write equally well, so far as 

 I can thus far judge. The letters that accompanied the records 

 are full and friendly, expressing a trust that I can assure them 

 will not be misplaced of my treating the information as strictly 

 confidential. In many cases they express the great interest that 

 the inquiry into their own family history has been to them. 

 Permit me to add that I do not think it possible to determine the 

 prizes in much less than two months, and that besides publishing 

 the awards I propose to send a copy of them to the private 

 Idn 1 1 .very substantial competitor." 



No. 16 of the Bibliographical Contributions of the Library of 

 Harvard University consists of a classified index to the maps in 

 Petermann 's Geographische Mittheilungen, 1855-81, by Mr. 

 Richard llliss. The index consists of 1340 entries, and has 

 evidently been made with the greatest care. Mr. Bliss has done 

 a work of great utility. 



In two papers entitled " l.e Cciicri dei Volcani di Giava 

 supposta Causa dei Bagliori Crepuscolari," and " LTsola di 

 Giava ed i Crepuscoli del Novembree Decembre 1S83," recently 

 published at Vicenza, Alvise G. Moeenigo discusses the various 

 theories pvit forward to explain the late remarkable crepuscular 

 lights that have been observed in every part of the world. He 

 thinks the phenomena should probably lie attributed to extra- 

 telluric, interplanetary, or cosmic conditions naturally recurring 

 only at long intervals, and which may possibly have never before 

 arisen since the appearance of man on the earth. 



The Mitchell Library ai Glasgow still labours under that most 

 satisfactory of difficulties — want of room in which to carry on the 

 amount of work it could otherwise do. Seldom has this want 

 been more heavily felt than here, where not one-tenth of its 

 founder's bequest of 70,000/. has yet been expended, while an 

 additional legacy of [1,500/., exceeding the entire expenditure 

 in books hitherto, lies unused lor sheer want of space to make 

 available any such treasures as it would secure. The moderate 

 ini rease of between 4 and 5 per cent, in its total issues of books 

 is reasonably attributed to this limitation. Glasgow has not yet 

 adopted the Free Libraries Act, but the Corporation has placed 

 the complete publications of the Patent ( Iffice at another library 

 founded by Walter Stirling, a merchant of that city, in 1791. As 

 a reference library this also is free, and a recent reorganisation 

 lias reduced the subscription to its circulating department to 

 IOJ-. 6</. a year, or half that where four members of a firm enter 

 together. This arrangement has led to a large increase of 

 readers at both branches of this library, but that has not interfered 

 with the use made of the Mitchell Library, and it is satisfactory to 

 find in the Report of the latter a notice in large type referring all 

 pi 1 on who wish to take books home to the moderate terms of 

 the sister establishment. Still the subscribers to the latter form 

 but a small fraction of the numbers who would be sure to avail 

 themselves of rate-supported libraries in a great town like 

 Glasgow, and the Mitchell Report strongly and wisely urges the 

 adoption of the Act. 



Visitors to Canada during the forthcoming meeting of the 

 British Association will find many useful hints and considerable 

 practical guidance in Mr. T. Greenwood's " Tour in the United 

 States and Canada." Mr. Greenwood went out and back in six 

 weeks, and evidently made good use of his time. 



The demonstration by Dr. Herbert Carpenter of some points 

 in the minute anatomy of Crinoids at the last meeting of the 



