July 24, 1884J 



NA TURE 



! 9 9 



discussions will be arranged under the following heads : — I. 

 Sources of Supply. 2. Quality of Water ; Filtration and Soften- 

 ing. 3. Methods of Distribution ; modes of giving pressure, 

 house fittings, discovery and prevention of waste, &c. , &c. The 

 proceedings will be continued on Friday, and if necessary on 

 Saturday. The readers of papers will be restricted to twenty- 

 five minutes. Speakers will be restricted to ten minutes. The 

 papers to be read will, in most instances, be printed and distri- 

 buted in the room. 



Lord Reay has received additional names of foreign dele- 

 gates to the International Conference on Education from Austria, 

 Baden, Belgium, France, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Prus- 

 sia and Denmark contribute reports on the state of education in 

 those countries. Lord Carlingford will preside at the opening 

 meeting on August 4, at 11 a.m. 



At the request of the Council of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney, 

 C.B., F.R. S., has consented to act as Treasurer during the 

 meeting at Montreal, Canada. We learn that Prof. W. G. Adams 

 of King's College will be unable to give the Friday evening 

 lecture at Montreal, and that Prof. O. J. Lodge will take his 

 place. The subject of Prof. Lodge's lecture will be "Dust." 

 Prof. Bonney sails for Montreal to-day. 



The death is announced of the Swedish chemist, Prof. Sten 

 Stenberg, born in 1825. 



According to a note contributed to a recent number of the 

 China Review by M. A. Fauvel of Hankow, the Foreign Office 

 and the authorities at Kew are anxious to know the name of the 

 tree from which the well-known tea-chests are manufactured. The 

 Chinese name is of little use for classification, as it applies to the 

 Acer, Liquidambar, and perhaps to other species. A branch of 

 the tree and some old leaves and fruits were submitted to M. 

 Fauvel, but the fruits had lost their seeds, and the leaves were 

 too old and decayed to be considered as good specimens for 

 identification. But at first sight he recognised the fruits as those 

 of a Liquidambar ; the leaves were all trifid, palmately nerved, 

 some slightly serrated, some with a smooth edge. But they 

 were too old to show any signs of gland in the serration. They 

 differ from those given to the Liquidambars in general, and from 

 the L. Oriental? and L. Chinensis varieties. M. Fauvel thinks 

 the wood may belong to the L. Formosana, but must defer any 

 definite opinion until the leaves and flowers are out. It is some- 

 what curious that there should be any mystery at this time of the 

 day about so common a substance as the wood of a Chinese 

 tea-chest. 



The last number (16) of the Excursions et Recon 

 the official publication of the Colonial Government of Cochin ' 

 China, contains as usual several papers of scientific interest on 

 that region. The first is a report by two engineers, MM. 

 Vienot and Schrceder, of a survey undertaken for railway pur- 

 poses of the country from Haiphong to Hanoi. The first part of 

 the line from Haiphong to Haidong is about 45 km. in length, 

 and the writers of this report describe the physical features of the 

 district, the courses of the rivers, the villages, towns, and cities, 

 the various productions — in short, everything bearing on the 

 question of the construction of a line through the place. This 

 is followed by a translation of a Chinese work on the mines of 

 Cochin China, from which it appears that useful and precious 

 metals are to be found there, and were at one time worked with 

 success, although owing to the defective native methods the 

 work had to be given up. M. Aymonier also contributes some 

 interesting notes on the customs and superstitious beliefs of the 

 Cambodians. 



According to the Japan Weekly Mail, the meteorological 

 system of Japan now comprises twenty-three observatories in the 



most important places throughout the country. Reports are 

 sent from each district to the central observatory in Tokio three 

 times a day, and are there thrown into suitable form for publica- 

 tion by the leading journals in the capital and the open ports. 

 To a German, Dr. E. Knipping, belongs the credit of elaborating 

 and perfecting the whole system. In China, the Shanghai 

 Chamber of Commerce has also assisted Pere Dechevrens in his 

 meteorological work by making him an annual grant of about 

 300/. 



A recent writer in the North China Herald discusses the 

 part played by mercury in the alchemy and materia medico, of 

 the Chinese. Cinnabar was known to them in the seventh 

 century before the Christian era, and its occurrence on the surface 

 of the earth was said to indicate gold beneath. Their views on 

 the transformation of metals into ores and ores into metals by 

 heat and other means took the form of a chemical doctrine about 

 a century before Christ, and there is now no reasonable doubt 

 that the Arabian Geber and others (as stated by Dr. Gladstone 

 in his inaugural address to the Chemical Society) derived their 

 ideas on the transmutation of metals into gold and the belief in 

 immunity from death by the use of the philosopher's stone from 

 China. Among all the metals with which the alchemist worked, 

 mercury was pre-eminent, and this is stated to be really the 

 philosopher's stone, of which Geber, Kalid, and others spoke in 

 the times of the early Caliphs. In China it was employed exces- 

 sively as a medicine. On nights when dew was falling, a suffi- 

 cient amount was collected to mix with the powder of cinnabar, 

 and this was taken habitually till it led to serious disturbance of 

 the bodily functions. In the ninth century an Emperor, and in 

 the tenth a Prime Minister, died from overdoses of mercury. 

 Chinese medical books say it takes two hundred years to produce 

 cinnabar ; in three hundred years it becomes lead ; in two 

 hundred years more it becomes silver, and then by obtaining a 

 transforming substance called "vapour of harmony" it becomes 

 gold. This doctrine of the transformation of mercury into other 

 metals is 2000 years old in China. The Chinese hold that it not 

 only prolongs life, but expels bad vapours, poison, and the 

 gloom of an uneasy mind. 



The Peabocly Institute of the City of Baltimore is an edu- 

 cational institution founded in his native city by the rich philan- 

 thropist, and worked for the advantage of a rather higher class 

 of students than those of the ordinary free library. It com- 

 bines under one government, as we have before urged the 

 advantage of combining, the library, the lecture-room, music, 

 and art, besides an annual expenditure in prizes for certain 

 schools in Baltimore ; and each department is managed by a 

 sub-committee so small as to make every member of it probably 

 feel himself greatly responsible for its success. The lecture 

 committee provided six lectures each upon " The Sun and Stars," 

 and "The Yosemite Valley," &c, and four lectures each upon 

 "The Crusades," "The Minds of Animals," and "Shake- 

 speare's Plays," all except the last assisted by illustrations. These 

 formed a series of two lectures weekly during the four winter 

 months, and season tickets were sold at a price not much 

 exceeding threepence a lecture, the expense to the Institute 

 being about 100/. The Conservatory of Music sets itself a high 

 ideal, and claims considerable success. It employs five profes- 

 sors of music, who have had 160 pupils under them, but no 

 pupil reached the level of earning their diploma. A series 

 of fifty-one lectures, concerts, and rehearsals were given, to 

 all of which annual subscribers are free at a small cost 

 similar to that of the lectures, with a charge upon the Institute 

 of about one-seventh of the entire amount spent in the cultivation 

 of music. Upon a Gallery of Art open for eight months during 

 the year, and helped by a loan of pictures, the Trustees were 

 unable to spend any capital sum, and the expenses were limited 

 to the care-takers. Over 1200 dollars were spent according to 



