54 r ' 



NA TURE 



{Oct. 2, 1884 



ignorance of law exhibited by both advocates and judges. The 

 Viceroy himself complained of the slowness of the official de- 

 partment in respect to female education. A change, however, 

 appears to have been made by the Government of India, which 

 has authorised the establishment of a College, though not yet of 

 a University. Until 1881 the control of education in British 

 Burmah was purely administrative, being vested in a Govern- 

 ment department ; but Lord Ripon decided to create a con rol- 

 ling body something like the London School Board, except that 

 its members will be nominated, not elected. The rights of the 

 missionaries, who appear to have been the pioneers of education 

 in the province, as well as of the Burmese themselves, were recog- 

 nised, and they are represented on the new governing body. The 

 labours of the Board so far have been very successful. It created 

 a law school and a free library ; it has organised and simplified 

 all public examinations, and has promoted a movement amongst 

 the wealthy natives for endowing scholarships for the higher 

 branches of education and for the promotion of learning gene- 

 rally. This is all very promising ; but, according to the corre- 

 spondent whom we have quoted, there is a slight rift in the lute 

 in the shape of the hostility of the local officials to the acts and 

 even to the existence of the Board. Bureaucratic prejudice, 

 however, can hardly hinder effectually the work of a council 

 established on such a broad basis as this one is, backed as it also 

 is by the authority of the Government of India. 



The Health Exhibition in connection with the Autumn Con- 

 gress of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain was opened at 

 Dublin on Tuesday by the Lord Mayor. The inaugural address 

 to the members of the Institute was delivered in the evening by 

 the President, Sir Robert Rawlinson. He observed that in our 

 own days one of the greatest works to be accomplished is 

 to stem the torrent of sanitary ignorance now working so much 

 mischief. Quarantine, as now practised, works at enormous 

 money cost as well as incalculable inconvenience, and produces 

 much misery without preventing the effects intended to be 

 warded off. Sir Robert Rawlinson referred to the conditions 

 under which cholera has so long afflicted India and China, 

 partly arising from bad or insufficient food, impure water, and 

 defective sanitary arrangements. Turning to England, he spoke 

 of its temperate climate, pure atmosphere, and soil almost en- 

 tirely free from malaria ; but we have much to be ashamed of, 

 and much to amend, in our social economy. Commenting on 

 cholera generally, he said that occasionally it is epidemic we 

 know. That it is contagious in the sense imagined by the 

 ignorant experience does not prove. The President then pointed 

 out the connection between disease and the want of good sanitary 

 arrangements in various countries, and showed the importance 

 of pure air, good food, pure water supply, and efficient 

 drainage and sewerage, putting forward practical suggestions for 

 sanitary engineers. 



Major Serpa Pinto, the Portuguese traveller, will leave 

 Mozambique very shortly at the head of an expedition in order 

 to explore the country between Mozambique and Lake Nyassa. 

 The route to be taken is kept secret, but it is rumoured that he 

 will proceed to the Congo, via Lake Tanganyika. The expe- 

 dition, which is now being fitted out, will be on a large scale. 

 It will comprise one hundred InhambaneZulus as a body-guard, 

 and two hundred and fifty carriers, and will be accompanied by 

 a Portuguese naval lieutenant and an English photographic 

 artist. 



The death is announced from Bangkok of Mr. Henry 

 Alabaster, the most eminent European servant of the Siamese 

 Government. Besides various political services, Mr. Alabaster, 

 who had been at one time in the British Consular Service, 

 played an important part in the great advances recently made by 



Siam. He introduced and established the telegraph and tele- 

 phone in the country, collected a valuable European library for 

 the palace, and originated the museum and the botanic gardens 

 at Bangkok. 



Intelligence has been received at Mozambique of the 

 death, on August 16, of Capt. Foot, British Consul in the dis- 

 tricts adjacent to Lake Nyassa. Capt. Foot has done some 

 good exploring work in the Nyassa region. 



The Annual Exhibition of the Photographic Society opens at 

 the Gallery in Pall Mall on Monday next. 



A RED glow, similar to those of last year, was seen in the 

 western sky at Berlin on September 13 at 6.45 p.m., viz. half an 

 hour after sunset. It reached to a height of about 20 above the 

 horizon, the colour being red to violet, which changed into a 

 deep yellow near the horizon. Some measurements of the 

 visible diameter was made by an observer, who discovered that 

 the glow was limited by a spherical segment 20 in height, and 

 with an extension towards the horizon of 35°. The centre of 

 the segment coincided exactly with that of the sun below the 

 horizon, which was then 78° west of the true north. 



The first news has been received from Lieut. Wissmann, 

 leader of the expedition for the exploration of the Kasai. In a 

 letter from Malange, dated August 25, he writes : " I am at last 

 so far that I can say I leave this place to-morrow." Till then 

 he had been merely making preparations. 



A recent issue of the Ceylon Government Gazette contains a 

 correspondence on the "grub" which ravages the coffee planta- 

 tions of the island. The. principal, and in fact only important, 

 document in the publication is a lengthy report by Mr. R, 

 McLachlan on the subject. Some forty species of beetles were 

 submitted to him, but specia interest centred in twenty of these, 

 all or nearly all of which were allied to the Melolontha vulgaris, or 

 common European cockchafer. Mr. McLachlan assumes that no 

 undergrowth of grass or other herbaceous plants is allowed in the 

 plantations, for the grubs of the European cockchafer and its allies 

 feed on the roots of such plants, and not as a rale on those of trees 

 and shrubs. But the larva' Would make their way from the roots of 

 the weeds to those of the coffee plant. Whether hardening the 

 surface of the ground around the plant so as to render it difficult 

 for the female to deposit her eggs would be of any efficacy, is 

 a point for the planters to decide for themselves in view of the 

 welfare of the plant at the time. Mr. McLachlan professes him- 

 self unable to suggest any chemical poison for the grub, although 

 he think, that dilute kerosene oil might be tried. He advises, 

 " above all things, "to encourage insectivorous birds to the fullest 

 possible extent, and adds that a flock of crows probably destroy 

 more grubs in an hour than would be possible by any artificial 

 means in a week ; the systematic catching of the perfect insect 

 "I larva is also suggested as beneficial, and hand-picking 

 should be resorted to where labour is cheap. Finally, he 

 thinks it highly desirable that the Planters' Association or the 

 Ceylon Government should establish an experimental plantation 

 of a few acres, in which the natural history of the various kinds 

 of grub, and the effect of the various supposed or real remedies, 

 could be carefully watched. 



A NEW develop nent of telegraphy has been instituted by 

 Michela in Italy : he has constructed a machine by which signs 

 c irresponding to various sounds can be telegraphed ; thus we 

 have practically a telegraphic shorthand to which the name 

 " steno-telegraphy " is given. Michela's apparatus has now been 

 in regular use for some period in telegraphing the debates of the 

 Italian Senate. The transmitting apparatus briefly consists of 

 two series of ten keys, each of which corresponds to some par- 

 ticular sound. Each key acts in reality like a Morse key, and 

 thus transmits a current to the receiving instrument. The 



