246 



NATURE 



\yuiy 14, 1 88 1 



" and the examination"during this period of 1127 samples, enable 

 us to state that as an excellent drinking supply it \i.e. the water 

 supplied to London] leaves nothing to be desired." 



The Royal Archjeological Institute, of which Lord Talbot de 

 Malahide is president, holds its annual congress at Bedford this 

 year from Tuesday, July 26, to Monday, August i. Elstow 

 Church, Wobum Abbey, the Roman camp and amphitheatre 

 near Horbury and Sandy, St. Alban's Abbey, and the ruins of 

 Old Verulam, are among the places set out in the programme to 

 be visited. 



In the Archives of the Observatory of Stockholm the assistant, 

 M. Lindhagen, has made a highly interesting discovery. It con- 

 sists of a copy of a treatise by Copernicus which is more complete 

 than all those known hitherto, and which thus fills a gap in the 

 works left by the great astronomer. The treatise bears the title, 

 " Nicolai Copernici de hypothesibus motunm ccelestium a se 

 constitutis commentariolus." It is bound with a copy of Coper- 

 nicus' " De revolutionibus orbium coslestium," which foruierly 

 belonged to Hevelius, the Danzig astronomer. The treatise, 

 with an introduction by Lindhagen, will shortly be published in 

 the Transactions of the Stockholm Academy of Sciences. 



The Annual Report of the Royal Society of New South 

 Wales for 1880 states that thirty-six new members were elected 

 during the year ; the actual increase is twenty-two, and the 

 present number of members 452. One honorary member. Sir J. 

 D. Hooker, was elected ; and Mr. Hyde Clarke, Major-General 

 Sir E. Ward, and Mr. F. B. Miller were elected corresponding 

 members. The Clarke Medal for iSSi has been awarded to 

 Prof. McCoy of Melbourne University, for his distinguished 

 researches in the Palseoutology of Europe and Australia ; (Prof. 

 Owen, Mr. G. Bentham, and Prof. Huxley have been the three 

 previous recipients). The finances of the Society are in a satis- 

 factory condition. At the annual meeting on May 4, Prof. 

 Smith, the retiring president, gave an address, in which he 

 reviewed the twenty-five years of the Society's existence (eleven 

 years of which it had the name of the Philosophical Society). 

 Up to 1875 the Society had a somewhat chequered career. It 

 entered the new building that year, and the tide of prosperity 

 still enjoyed is largely due to the zeal and energy of Prof. Liver- 

 sidge and Dr. Leibius, the secretaries then appointed. During 

 the past year twenty-eight papers were read by thirteen members, 

 many of them involving much laborious research. Mr. H. C. 

 Russell was elected president for the coming year. 



Considerable progress has been made with the building for 

 the zoological station at Watson's Bay, near Sydney, due to the 

 initiative of Baron Maclay. The building is a neat cottage pro- 

 viding five workrooms and two bedrooms, besides storeroom and 

 bathroom in the basement. It is not intended to make a charge 

 for each table or workroom as at Naples ; but every naturalist 

 will be expected to contribute a small sum (say five shillings a 

 week) towards paying a caretaker. Other current expenses will 

 have to be met by subscriptions. The Government has agreed 

 to double the subscriptions for establishing the station up to 300/. 

 The Royal Society of New South Wales may be expected to 

 carry forward the enterprise with spirit, and assistance has been 

 promised by the Royal Society of Victoria and other bodies 

 there. 



The French Government have sent a scientific expedition to 

 Mesopotamia and Assyria. An architect and an engineer 

 accompany the expedition. 



An Astronomical Congress « ill be held at Strassburg during 

 September next, and will be visited by many eminent astro- 

 nomers from all parts of the civilised world. Strassburg was 

 chosen because in its new observatory the best and most modern 

 astronomical apparatus are to be found. 



It is said that MM. Siemens have renounced the idea of con- 

 structing an electrical railway in Paris, as the Municipal Council 

 has not granted to them the concession they required. We 

 believe that the railway which is to be made will be worked with 

 Faure accumulators. 



With reference to Mr. Newberry's letter on American creta- 

 ceous flora, in our issue of 30th ult., we are requested to state 

 that Mr. J. Starkie Gardner is at present travelling in Iceland, 

 and his silence may be thus accounted for. 



The meeting of Austrian Anthropologists and Antiquaries 

 will be held at Salzburg on August 12 and 13 next. 



The Committee of the Liebig Institution at Munich has made 

 an award of two gold medals for iSSi : one to Prof. G. Hanssen 

 of Gotlingen, the other to Prof. H. Settegast of Berlin, in 

 recognition of their great merit in the furtherance of German 

 agriculture. 



The Berlin Medical Society are now making preparations for 

 celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Dr. von Virchou's 

 professorship. The celebration will probably take place on 

 October 13 next, Virchow's sixty-first birthday. 



An International Alpine Congress will be held at Salzburg in 

 the latter half of August, upon the occasion of the ninth annual 

 meeting of the German .and Austrian Alpine Club. The follow- 

 ing subjects will probably be discussed : — (l) On the method of 

 sur\'eying Alpine tenitory and the multiphcation of Alpine maps, 

 with an exhibition of maps executed in Bavaria, England, 

 France, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. (2) On glaciers and 

 the various methods of studying the same, with special reference 

 to the observations at the Rhone glacier and to the glacier-book 

 of the SvAiss Alpine Club. (3) On the construction of shelter- 

 huts and their interior arrangeinent, with an exhibition of 

 models and plans. 



At Ilermannstadt a Transsylvanian Carpathian Club has just 

 been formed after the model of the German and Austrian Alpine 

 Clubs. Its object is the scientific investigation of the Trans- 

 sylvanian Alps with their glens and caves. The new club 

 numbers a good many members already, and branches 

 have been established at Broos, Kronstadt, Miihlbach, and 

 Schiissburg. 



At Leipzig a new Ornithological Society has been formed, 

 which numbers amongst its objects the general protection of 

 birds. 



During the last days of May the whole neighbourhood of 

 Kamenz was visited by strange guests. Enormous swarms of 

 Libdlnla quadtimaculata passed over the valley, here and there 

 in dense masses, and extending from five to ten miles in breadth. 

 The first swarm arrived .about noon on May 30, its passage occu- 

 pied two hours; in the evening a second swarm came from the 

 direction of Weisswasser. The third swarm arrived on the 

 morning of the 31st. Swarms of this description have not been 

 observed since June, 1825. At Dresden the strange phenomenon 

 was also observed. 



A BURIALPLACE has been discovered in the neighbour- 

 hood of Naumburg, which proves to be a rich store of anti- 

 quities. Up to the present some ninety clay vessels and bronze 

 objects have been excavated, amongst which is a very large 

 ashurn. 



In a peat bog near Triebsee (Stralsund district) a dis- 

 covery of flint implements has been recently made. Some four 

 or four and a half feet below the surface eight lance-points and 

 fourteen edge tools were found lying in a heap together. Although 

 the whole neighbourhood and the Island of Riigen are rich in 

 objecis of the kind, the large size of the present specimens and 



