;h 



NATURE 



\August 4, 1 88] 



Department of Agriculture, which has been tendered him by the 

 new Commissioner, Dr. Geo. B. Loring. The appointment is 

 to take effect on August i. It will be remembered that, owing to 

 differences with the retiring Commissioner of Agriculture, Prof. 

 Riley resigned this same position two years ago, and we under- 

 stand that he accepts it again at a salary less than that which the 

 Members of the Entomological Commission get, because his rein- 

 statement has been so generally demanded by scientific and agri- 

 cultural associations, and because there is a near prospect, under 

 the new administration, of the department being enlarged in 

 scope and usefulness. Prof. J. H. Comstoclc, the retiring ento- 

 mologist, was formerly an assistant under Prof. Riley, and w ill 

 continue his connection with the department, pursuing the special 

 work on the Coccidse, which he has more particularly been 

 engaged in. The reappointment of Prof. Riley will meet with 

 approval not only in America, but here, where he has many 

 riends and his work is well known and appreciated. 



The opening of the Exhibition of Electricity at Paris has been 

 postponed as we anticipated. The ceremony will take place on 

 August II, and numerous speeches will be delivered by the 

 public authorities. The electrical railway is being constructed 

 from the Place de la Concorde to the Porte de I'Est of the Palais 

 de rindustrie. The posts required for supporting the copper 

 wire required are attracting considerable public notice. 



The steamer Travailleiir of the French Navy is now engaged 

 in the Mediterranean Sea for dredging purposes, with a regular 

 staff of scientific workers on board. 



One of the results in Paris of the advent of two comets has 

 been to infuse life into the popular Trocadero Observatory, 

 which is visited by a large number of members, and where a 

 course of lectures on several astronomical subjects is going on. 



The seventh annual conference of the Cryptogamic Society of 

 Scotland will commence at Salen, Island of Mull, on Tuesday, 

 August 30, iSSi. 



The arrangements connected with the unveiling of the statue 

 of Harvey at Folkestone on Saturday next, August 6, by Prof. 

 Owen, are now nearly completed. It is expected that there will 

 be a large concourse of doctors and others on the occasion. A 

 small bust of the much-admired head of the statue is now on 

 view in the western gallery of the Sanitary Exhibition at South 

 Kensington, and can be had either in terra-cotta or imitation 

 br jnze. A reduction of the whole statue is also contemplated 

 by the sculptor, Mr. A. B. Joy, and will be completed if a 

 sufficient number of subscribers should order it. 



In a Gazette covering 250 pages have been published the new 

 Statutes which have been promulgated by the University of 

 Oxford Commissioners. 



We have received Anthony s Photographic Bulletin (New 

 York) for June, containing an enlarged copy of Dr. Henry 

 Draper's photograph of the nebula in Orion. The enlargement 

 shows we have very little to hope for in this direction, still the 

 result is a tour de force which reflects credit on Dr. Draper. 

 The same number contains an excellent photograph of the Doctor 

 himself. 



We regret to learn that the Committee, formed more than 

 twelve months ago, to raise and present to Dr. William Farr, 

 C.B., F.R.S., a testimonial on his retirement from the public 

 service, have only succeeded in obtaining 930/. This sum has 

 been temporarily invested in the names of trustees ; and, disap- 

 pointed as the Committee feel at the comparatively small success 

 of their efforts, they have decided to close the fund so S3on as 

 they are able to obtain the small balance now required to raise 

 the amount of the testimonial to loco/. We trust there will at 



least be no difficulty in obtaining the small sum still required to 

 complete the testimonial. 



Philologists will be glad to learn that Prof. G. Behrame's 

 valuable papers on the Denka language have at last been pub- 

 lished in full. They occupy the whole of the current volume of 

 the Italian Geographical Society's Memoirs, and consist of three 

 parts, a very complete grammar, an Italian-Denka and a 

 Denka-Italian vocabulary, the former of nearly 4000, the latter 

 of 2000 words. The grammar had already appeared in previous 

 bulletins of the society ; but these are now mostly out of print, 

 and in any case the directors rightly considered that students 

 would find it convenient to have all the documents collected in 

 one volume. The Denka is one of the most widespread as well 

 as one of the most interesting of all the Negro tongues current 

 in the White Nile region, being spoken wiih great uniformity by 

 all the tribes between 5°-l2° N. along the main stream and its 

 tributaries, who are collectively known to the Arabs as the 

 Denka nation, but who call themselves Jot, a derivative form of 

 Jan — race, people. They lie mainly between the Nuer and 

 Shilluks on the north, and the powerful Bari nation on the 

 south, stretching westwards as far as Dar-Fertit, and south- 

 westwards to the Nyam-Nyam country. There are altogether 

 twenty-five chief tribes, but the comnion speech presents scarcely 

 any dialectic variety except amongst the Shir in the extreme 

 south, and amongst the Abuyo and others in the Sobat valley. 

 The language itself is quite distinct from any of the other Upper 

 Nilotic idijms, and is characterised by remarkable regularity and 

 clearness in its structure. It is entirely destitute of grammatical 

 endings, and most of the w-ords are monosyllabic. Prof. 

 Beltrame belongs to a somewhat obsolete school of philologists ; 

 hence still speaks of six cases, moods, and other verbal forms. 

 But it is sufficiently evident from his otherwise lucid exposition, 

 and especially from his copious example^, that there are neither 

 cases, moods, tenses, nor, strictly speaking, verbs at all in the 

 language. It need scarcely be remarked that the Denka has 

 nothing in common either with Galla, Ki-Ganda, or other 

 members of the surrounding Hamitic and Bantu linguistic 

 families. It forms one of the numerous independent groups 

 that have been developed during the course of ages amongst the 

 true negro tribes of Sudan and the Upper Nile Valley. Prof. 

 Beltrame's papers must be regarded as a valuable addition to our 

 knowledge of Afiican forms of speech, and will prove of j er- 

 manent value when the time comes for a more exhaustive study 

 of this ethnical domain. 



The International Pharmaceutical Conference is holding its 

 meetings in London during the present week ; one 'of the ques- 

 tions engaging its attention is an Internatioual Pharmacopoeia, 

 the desirability of which is generally admitted. 



A SLIGHT shock of earthquake was felt at Bangor, Maine, 

 U.S., on July 31. 



At the last m.eeting of the Natural History Class of the Uni- 

 versity of Edinl urgh, held on Monday, July 25, an illuminated 

 address was presented to Prof. AUeyne Nicholson, of St. 

 Andrews, who has been lecturing on behalf of Sir Wyville 

 Thompson for the past three sessions. The address was signed 

 by about 500 of the students who have attended Prof. Nichol- 

 son's lectures during the past three years. 



Shortly before midnight on July 20 a splendid meteor was 

 observed at Munich. It resembled a fiery ball of 30 centi- 

 metres diameter, and it passed slowly from south to north in an 

 almost horizontal direction. 



At the distance of twenty-seven miles north- east from Padang 

 (on the western coast of Sumatra) and some fifteen miles east 

 from Lake Singkarah, we find a high land very similar to the 

 Saxon highlands, and reaching a height of 2400 feet above 



