io8 



NA TURE 



[May 29, 1884 



by a laboratory on the cliff immediately behind the College. It 

 is proposed to prosecute the more purely scientific work within 

 the walls of the College itself. The College is so near the pro- 

 posed hatchery that the same pumping apparatus will serve for 

 both laboratories, and thus, when established, the working ex- 

 penses will be comparatively trifling. If the University and the 

 Fishery Board succeed in carrying out their plans, biology will 

 receive a mighty impulse at St. Andrew's, and the famous bay 

 once more be peopled with an abundant supply offish. 



The Clothworkers' Company have voted 2000/. towards the 

 fund of 20,000/. required for the complete equipment of the new 

 Central Institution of the City and Guilds of London Institute, 

 this being additional to their original building grant of 10,000/. 

 and their annual subscription of 3000/. 



We learn that orders have been given by the Inspector-General 

 of the Imperial Maritime Customs of China, that meteorological 

 observations made in the Treaty Ports and in the lighthouses are 

 in future to be sent to the Government Astronomer at the Hong 

 Kong Observatory, but that it is not at present the intention of 

 the Chinese Government to start a meteorological service in 

 China. With regard to observatories great progress has been 

 made of late years. Central Government observatories exist in 

 Japan, Peking (Russian), Hong Kong (British), and Batavia 

 (Dutch), while the different Australian colonies which are covered 

 with a network of minor meteorological stations, possess nume- 

 rous central observatories, and it is very likely that this row of 

 observatories will be extended further south, as steps are being 

 taken to found an observatory in New Zealand, while the Russian 

 Government is likely to extend its stations to the north of Vladi- 

 vostock. First-class observatories are also supported by the 

 Jesuit Order in Corea, China, and Manila, as well as elsewhere. 

 For the investigation of typhoons, the terrible scourges of the 

 China Sea, Father Faura, at Manila, has done most important 

 work, and the utility of his observatory cannot but be extended 

 when the Chinese Customs start self-recording meteorological 

 instruments at South Cape, Formosa. But while each observa- 

 tory is individually engaged in studying the peculiar features of 

 its local climate in all its vicissitudes, it is by a comparison of the 

 results exhibited in the different annual volumes published by 

 each of them that we gain an insight into the laws that govern 

 the general motions of the atmosphere and which underlie the 

 peculiar features of each local climate. Thus in the China Sea 

 the typhoons originate from local causes (heat and moisture), but 

 the form and direction of their tracks are determined by the 

 general laws of atmospheric motion in these regions. 



The first Circular of Information issued this year by the 

 United States Bureau of Education relates to the approaching 

 International Prison Congress at Rome in October next. The 

 Bureau considers that the work of education is by no means 

 limited to good children ; and certainly, if no other power takes 

 the reformation of the vicious in hand, their reform does become 

 by so much the most important part of the work overlooked by 

 this office, as they that are sick more need the physician than 

 they that are whole. Prison Congresses were held in Europe in 

 1845, 1846, and 1857, and after an interval were revived through 

 a paper by Count Sollohub of Russia, published in the Report of 

 the New York Prison Association in 1868. His suggestions were 

 adopted by Dr. E. C. Wines, the Secretary of that Society, and 

 a Prison Congress was brought together at Cincinnati in 1870. 

 Dr. Wines was elected Commissioner to act at an International 

 Congress, and he brought about such meetings, first in London, 

 then in Stockholm, and now at Rome. The questions for con- 

 sideration are : — ( 1 ) As to the advantages from a reformatory view 

 of imprisonment, and whether more useful and less degrading 

 labour, without forcible detention, or even simple admonitions, 

 might not be less mischievous and more effectual ; as to length of 



sentence ; as to finding the instigators to crime ; and the treat- 

 ment of juveniles. (2) Upon prison architecture, the keeping of 

 new away from old offenders, Prison Commissions, prison 

 hygiene, dietary and education, the rivalry between prison and 

 free labour, and the remuneration of the former, and the use to 

 be made of Sundays and holidays in the interest of education. 

 (3) International arrangements, repression of vagrancy, and the 

 desirability of societies for the help of discharged convicts. 



ANOTHER of the Bureau's publications is a Report of the 

 School of Classical Studies at Athens ; and although this hardly 

 falls under the head of Nature studies, yet a journal of science 

 may note with satisfaction the spread of a scientific spirit which 

 feels how far clearer is the knowledge of history after imbibing 

 such object lessons as must be gained from an acquaintance with 

 the climate and aspect of the country, and their natural influence 

 upon the race inhabiting it, from the scene of the philippic, the 

 fight, or the festival. 



"To expedite school business and diminish future con- 

 troversies " the United States Bureau of Education has published 

 a digest of 700 law decisions, which have been made since Col. 

 Eaton has been in office, upon all the details of education in that 

 country. The number of States, each independent of all the 

 rest, has added greatly to the labour of such a digest, and its 

 recommendation that, while variety of systems should be en- 

 couraged in different States, uniformity of system should be 

 enforced in each State seems to combine the greatest amount of 

 practical advantage. 



The following alterations have been made in the arrangements 

 for the Friday evening meetings at the Royal Institution : — Mr. 

 Willoughby Smith will give the discourse on June 6, on Experi- 

 ments in connection with Volta-Electric and Magneto-Electric 

 Induction ; and on June 13 (extra evening), Prof. Dewar will 

 give a discourse on Researches on Liquefied Gasi 5. 



Messrs. Chas. Griffin and Co. announce the publication 

 of a "Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of 

 Great Britain and Ireland.'' It will give some account of the 

 constitution and working of more than 600 societies, distributed 

 under the following heads: — (1) Science generally; (2) Mathe- 

 matics and Physics ; (3) Chemistry and Photography ; (4) 

 Geology and Mineralogy; (5) Biology, including Microscopy 

 and Anthropology; (6) Economic Science and Statistics; (7) 

 Mechanical Science and Architecture ; (8) Naval and Military 

 Science ; (9) Agriculture and Horticulture ; (10) Law ; (11) 

 Medicine; (12) Literature ; (13) Psychology; (14) Archaeology. 

 1 here will also Vie an appendix giving a list of the chief scientific 

 societies throughout the world. 



Messrs. W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. request us to 

 announce that the whole edition of Profs. Nageli and Schwen- 

 dener's work on the Microscope, which has been in the press for 

 so long a time, and which would have been ready for publica- 

 tion in a few days, was destroyed in the recent disastrous fire in 

 Paternoster Row. A new edition has been at once sent to press, 

 and it is hoped that the work will be in the hands of the public 

 very shortly, since the English editors of the book had already 

 completed their revision of the proof-sheets. 



Prof. A. E. Verrill, Science states, has in the press a very 

 important paper, entitled " Second Catalogue of Mollusca re- 

 cently added to the Fauna of the New England Coast and 

 adjacent parts of the Atlantic, consisting mainly of Deep-Sea 

 Species, witli Notes on others previously reported." These are 

 chiefly derived from the dredgings of the Fish Commission, are 

 well illustrated, and worked up in the full and careful manner 

 characteristic of the author. It appears in the Transactions of 

 the Connecticut Academy of Sciences, and is illustrated by 

 Emerton. 



