May 26, 1 881] 



NATURE 



79 



Florence, 5 Mars, 18S1 

 A propos du deplacement projete des coUeclions botauiqiies du 

 Musee d'Hi^toire Naturelle de Florence. 



Lorsqu'au mois de Mai de I'annee 1S74 un grand nombre de 

 botaniites de toates les parties du monde se trouv^rent reunis a 

 Florence, dans les ; alles des Collections botaniqucs fondees par feu 

 le professeur Parlatcre, M. le professeur Alphonse de CandoUe 

 fit observer " qu'unc des chose j les plus remarquables s'impo^ant 

 a I'attention des membres du Congees, etait le Musee botanique, 

 avec ses salles amples et cominodes, oil avaient lieu les seances 

 du Congres." ("Actes du Congres Botanique international, 

 tenu a Florence au moisde Mai 1874," pag. 220.) 



Personne, alors, n'eut soup9jnne que ce qui avait ete juge 

 digne d'admiration par les hommes les plus compelents, ;erait 

 declare mauvais et condamne a un bouleversement radical sept 

 ans a peine apres que ces paroles memorables avaient ete pro- 

 noncees. Poiu: justifier I'abandon du Musee actuel, on pretexte 

 I'inconvenient quHl y a pour les etudiants frequentant les cours 

 de I'Institut des Etudes superieures, place St. Marc, d'avoir a se 

 rendre, pour une autre partie de ces cours, au Musee de Via 

 Roraana ; et, afin de centraliser les edifices affectes aux etudes, 

 on ne pense i rien moins qua operer le demenagement des col- 

 lections botaniques et a abandonner le jardin du Musee, avec 

 toutes ses serres et annexes. En revanche, on parle de rendre a 

 son ancien usage lemodeste Jardin des Simples, situe a proximite 

 du nouvel emplacement destine aux herbiers. Mais a-t-on 

 examine si ce transport est realisable, avantageux, etsilenouveau 

 local de la place St. Marc, destine a la Botanique, est adapte ou 

 non a recevoir les herbiers et les aulres collections ? 



Or ce local n'est autre que le bdtiment des anciennes ecuries 

 des Grands Dues de Toscane, occupees plus tard par la cavalerie 

 italienne. Pendant une serie non interrompue de prcs de trois 

 cents annees, ces ecuries ont loge des chevaux en tres-grand 

 nombre, et c'est la que I'on se propose de coUoquer des collec- 

 tions de plantes, d'un prix inestimable, et si faciles a se deteriorer 

 sous I'influence de i'humidite ! II e.t vrai qu'en sacrifiant 

 d'enormes soJimes jour recouftruire I'edifice a peu pres de fond 

 en comble, on ferait peut-etre disparaitre les traces du long 

 usage auquel il a servi ; mais il est permis de se demander si, 

 meme dans ce cas, on obtiendrait jamais des salles comparables 

 a celles du Musee actuel, soil en beaute, soit en salubrite, soil 

 en solidite. 



Ce projet etant scutenu et sur le point d'etre mis a execution 

 par des personnes respectables, mais elrangeres a la Science et 

 par consequent incompetentes, nous Soussignes, amis de la 

 Botanique residents a Florence, croyons de notre devoir, dans 

 I'interet des collections, de protester conire ce deplacement, et, 

 afin de donner plus de poids a notre protestation, nous invitons 

 les Botanistes qui se sont trouves a Florence lors du Congres de 

 1874, ainsi que tous ceux qui connaissent les salles actuellement 

 affectees aux collections de plantes, a joindre leurs voix a la 

 notre pour empecher qu'on ne mette a execution un projet que 

 nous croyons hautement prejudiciable a nc s plus cheres etudes. 



Nous prions en consequence les Botanistes italiens et etrangers 

 de vouloir bien employer leur influence afin qus le projet en 

 question soit abai.donne, et que les sommes, des a-present 

 destinees a une a-uvre inopportune et risquee, soient de prefer- 

 ence employees a augmenter le materiel scientifique du Musee 

 actuel, par I'achat de collections de plantes vivantes et dessechees 

 (surtout de plantes cryptogames) et d'ouvrages manquant a notre 

 bibliotheque botanique et a acquerir les armoires et e'ageres, 

 necessaires pcur placer et mettre en ordre une immense quantite 

 de paquets d'herbier, actuellement sans emploi et inutiles aux 

 etudes, ainsi qu'a adapter les serres du Jardin botaniqe aux 

 exigences modernes, en commen^ant par y faire les reparations 

 reconnues de premiere neces^ite. 



{Signi) A. B. Archibald E. Marcucci 



D. Bargellini Ugolino Martelh 



Odoardo Beccari Vincenzo Ricasoli 



Antonio Biondi Riccardo Ricci 



Emanuele G. Fenzi Niccolu Ridolfi 



Enrico Groves S. So.mmier 



Emilio Levier p. de Tchihatchei- 



Barometer Pumps 



Communications from Mr. Sprengel have been pub- 

 lished, in which he has defended his claim to be the inven- 

 tor of the mercury barometer-pump. As long as he confined 

 himself to this claim I had no right to interfere, but by his letter 



in your previous number (vol. xxiv. p. 53) he claims to be the 

 inventor or father of all kinds of barometer-pumps. His right 

 to this claim I dispute ; for in May, 1S47, 1 obtained a patent for 

 improvements in sugar-refining, one of which is the conversion of 

 a vacuum-pan into a large barometer by placing under a common 

 vacuum-pan a long pipe in a perpendicular position, which acts 

 as a pump whereby the sugar is taken out of the pan by its own 

 weight in the long pipe, and thereby the vacuum in the pan is 

 not destroyed, and the process of sugar-boiling is carried on 

 continuously. The syrup to be boiled is added in the pan 

 above, while the boiled :ugar is taken out below through the 

 barometer-pump. The specification of my patent was published 

 in patent journals in London iu 1847, and it is po.-sible that Mr. 

 Sprengel took the idea of his mercury barometer-pump from my 

 sugar barometer-pump. But at all events Mr. Sprengel was not 

 the first inventor of a barometer-pump. I claim that honour. 

 James Johnstone 

 Experiment Rooms, No. i, James Square, Edinburgh, 

 May 21 



The Hutton Collection of Fossil Plants 



It has only within the last few days come to my knowlei'f « 

 (indeed only to-day authoritatively) that the Hutton Collection c. 

 Fossil Plants, at present deposited in the -Museum of the Natural 

 History Society of Norlhumberland and Durham, at Newcastle, 

 had been nan.ed by the curator, Mr. Richard Ilovse, prior to 

 the compiling by myself of a Cal.ilogue of the Collection, pub- 

 lished in 1878 by the North of England Institute of Mining and 

 Mechanical Engineers. The labels on the specimens, referred to 

 in the Catalogue, were therefore Mr. Howse s, and not, as I until 

 now imagined, either William Ilutton's original ones, or mere 

 copies of them. 



Moreover an unsigned MS. list of the specimens in the Collec- 

 tion, agreeing with the labels, with which I was furnished by 

 the Mining Institute, and which was used freely by me in draw- 

 ing up the Catalogue, nmst now be regai ded as the result of much 

 time and labour spent by Mr. Howse iu identifying and naming 

 the whole of the Hutton Collection. 



I trust you will allow me space in your paper to acknowledge 

 now what 1 should have made a point of acknowledging in the 

 preface to the "Catalogue," bad I been made acquainted with 

 the facts of the case at the time. G. A. Lebour 



College of Physical .Science, Newcastlenpon-Tyne, May 18 



"How to Prevent Drowning" 



Mr. Ma'"Cormac's valuable article induces me to call atten- 

 tion to a prevalent error. 



Almost every treatise on swimming tells the beginner that 

 every one can float without exertion. Even Mr. MacCormac 

 seems to imply that " lying quite still with the mouth shut and 

 the head thrown well back in the v ater " is enough to insure any 

 one against sinking. Now this may possibly be true for most 

 men, tut certainly not for all. I am a practised swimmer, fond 

 of the water, and have often tried. Going through all the 

 orthodox motions of the deep breath, the folded arms, and the 

 head thrown back, I go down instantly. This is in fresh water ; 

 in salt I believe I can just float, but have seldom had a good 

 opportunity of trying. The fact is that men ai e very different 

 in buoyancy. I have seen a man float motionless with head and 

 shoulders out of the water. Others may be even denser than I 

 am. Most men believe themselves capable of coolness and 

 presence of mind. They-should remember that these will neither 

 supersede the art of swimming nor alter the laws of gravity. 



St. John's College, Cambridge E. Hill 



The Effects of Pressure on the Germination and Growth 

 of Plants 

 The foUowmg experiments may be of intere. t to vegetable 

 physiologists:— On April 7, at 11 p.m., two .ets of mustard- 

 seeds — five in each set — were sown on pieces . f moist cotton- 

 wool, arranged as follows :— One piece was placed m a small 

 bottle, which was then secured to the ciu-ved ex'remity of a glass 

 tube, into the long arm of which mercury was poured till a height of 

 forty-five inches was reached above the level of the metal m the 

 shorter arm. The secc nd piece, with its seeds, was placed in an 

 exactly similar bottle, the neck of which was then made to dip 

 beneath mercury, the bottle, of course, like the one soldered on 

 to the tube, being inverted. This bottle was then placed beside 

 the first. 



