May 19, 1 881] 



NATURE 



57 



the same number of pages of an ordinary English work 

 in octavo, with small pica type. Of course the style of 

 the original as well as the style of translation may be 

 such as to render this approximate number rather wide 

 of the mark. 



The number of copies of works sold up to the end of 

 June, 1879, amounts to 31,111, representing 83,454 

 volumes. The number of maps and charts published 

 amounts to twenty- seven sheets. Most of them are adap- 

 tations of the charts of the British Admiralty, and were 

 printed from copper plates engraved at the Kiangnan 

 Arsenal. The number already sold is 4,774 sheets. 



The sum realised by the sale of books and charts may 

 be estimated at about 17,500 dollars, or roughly 3,500/. 



The numbers sold up to the present time, though con- 

 siderable, are nothing compared with what might have 

 been e.xpected among such an extensive population. But 

 with no regular means of communication, no postal or 

 railway arrangements, no agencies, and no advertisements 

 or other means of bringing them into general notice or 

 distributing them, it is easy to understand why more have 

 not already been disposed of. 



The various periodicals, such as summaries of foreign 

 news, political essays, &c., are not reckoned in the above 

 numbers. From three to five hundred copies of these 

 books are published and distributed gratuitously to 

 various officials both in the vicinity of Shanghai and in 

 distant provinces. 



Forty-four works, representing about 142 volumes, have 

 been translated, and are in various stages of preparation, 

 but the publication is not yet commenced. 



Thirteen works which are now in the course of transla- 

 tion and of which thirty-one volumes are already com- 

 pleted. 



Forty-three books are to be published by the Committee 

 of the ".School and Text-book Series." Most of these 

 works are nearly ready to be placed in the printer's 

 hands. 



Various treatises on scientific subjects have been 

 published by Protestant missionaries ; but about them it 

 has been impossible to obtain statistics as to the numbers 

 printed and sold. 



The following list will give some idea of the number 

 and class of scientific works that have been translated : — 



Subje 



Mathematics, Surveying, &c. 



Engineering, &c 



Chemistry. &c 



Geography, S:c 



Gcol igy. Mining. &c 



Astronomy, Navigation, &c 



Physical Science 



Medicine 



Arts and Manufactures 



Naval and Military Science 



Chron >logy. News. Periodicals, &c. 

 Naval Architecture 



International Law 



Mi! 



ellar 



THE WILL UGHB V SOCIETY 1 

 T T was a happy thought to found an association under 

 -•- the name of Francis Willughby, having for its object 

 the reprinting of scarce ornithological works, thus keeping 

 the name of the writer of "Ornithologise Libri Tres " in 

 remembrance and doing a service to the working ornitho- 



_' Dcsfontaines's " Mdmoire sur quelques Nouvelles Especes d'Oiseaux des 

 Cotes de Harbarie " (17S7). II. '* Ornithological Papers," by Sir Andrew 

 Smith (1830-34). 



legist. It is nearly nine years over two centuries since 

 Willughby died (July 3, 1672). About seven years younger 

 than John Ray, he studied at Trinity College. Cambridge, 

 under Kay ; but though at first the pupil, he was soon the 

 friend and afterwards the patron of our great English 

 botanist. lielonging to a family of wealth and influence, 

 Willughby soon married (1668), and settled at Middleton 

 Hall, Warwickshire. How hard he must have worked 

 the materials for his great work left at the time of 

 his untimely death amply prove. His second son 

 (the elder died) was created a peer by Queen Anne 

 (Viscount Middleton). An annuity was left to Ray, 

 who edited " The Ornithology," which was printed in 

 London (1676) at the expense of Willughby's widow. 

 Willughby has been called the "father of systematic 

 zoology in this country." The new Willughby Society 

 seems determined to follow in his footsteps. 



The reprint in fac-similc of M. Desfontaines's " M6- 

 moire " will be no doubt welcomed by the members, 

 and it is only by members that these reprints can be 

 obtained. Honoured by botanists in the beautiful genus 

 Desfontainea, this account of the birds met by him at 

 Barbary is very rare ; and we agree with Prof. Newton 

 that few papers are less accessible to ornithologists than 

 those published by the late Sir A. Smith in the SouiA 

 A/ricaii (Jr/ar/er/y Jnuriial. We trust the Willughby 

 Society will meet with the support it deserves from the 

 members of Ibis and from bird-lovers in general. 



ZOOLOGY OF THE DUTCH ARCTIC 

 EXPEDITION ' 

 A SUPPLEMENTARY number of the Nicderland- 

 **• isclics Afchi'i' fiir Znologic just issued is com- 

 posed of an instalment of five papers describing certain 

 of the animals collected or dredged during the two Arctic 

 voyages of the schooner William Baixnls, together with 

 a list of all the places dredged at, and a map with these 

 and the track marked on it. The ship visited the north of 

 Spitzbcrgen and the west co.ast of N'ovaia Zemlia, and 

 stretched northwards thence almost to Franz-Josef 

 Land. All the dredgings, except tw'o off' the north 

 coast of Spitzbergen, were made in the Barents Sea, 

 between Novaia Zemlia and the north of Norway and 

 Bear Island. Dr. R. Horst reports on the Annelids. 

 He found no new species amongst the fifty-one obtained 

 in the Barents Sea. Hjalmar Theel found in the Kara 

 Sea, on the east side of Novaia Zemlia, ninety species. 

 There can be little doubt that the fauna of the two seas, 

 which join in several places, must be nearly identical, 

 yet amongst the thirty-one species from the IJarents Sea 

 are fourteen not )et collected in the Kara Sea. The 

 Annelid collection seems to have been rather a meagre 

 one, and must not be taken as representative. The Pyc- 

 nogonids are described by Dr. P. P. C. Hoek. Examples 

 of these were obtained on fourteen out of ihe entire thirty 

 dredgings made. They are of eight species, one of which 

 is new. Amongst them is one species of the genus Colos- 

 sendeis, numerous forms of w-hich w-ere obtained by the 

 Challenger in southern latitudes, some attaining there 

 gigantic proportions. The Lamellibranchiata are de- 

 scribed by Dr. van Haren Noman, who appends to his 

 paper an important memoir, illustrated by three plates, 

 on the anatomy of the eyes, gills, and other parts of 

 Pccten Gra;nlan(iiais and other forms; Dr. A. A. W. 

 Hubrecht contributes a list of the fishes ; and Dr. F. A. 

 Jentink a few notes on the field-mouse of Novaia Zemlia, 

 Ciirriculiis tnrquatus, which, unlike all of its allies, turns 

 white in winter. The animal ranges over the whole of 

 Arctic America, Europe, and Asia, and in late geological 

 periods extended as far south as England, Germany, and 

 the basin of the Loire. 



I " zoological Eesults of the two Wiillam Barents Arctic Expeditions in 

 iS;S and 1879." 



