Sept. 2 2, 1881] 



NATURE, 



503 



honoured by the presence of Messrs. W. Phillips, C. B. Plow- 

 right, G. Massee, and Rev. J. E. Vize. 



No less than ten observers are now engaged at the Observatory 

 of Paris in the completion of the catalogue of stars which was 

 begun by Leverrier. The work is progressing at an unprece- 

 dented rate, not less than 70,000 observations having been tabu- 

 lated, after having been duly reduced in a single year. Admiral 

 Mouchez has taken possession of the new Observatory grounds, 

 and the earthworks for the foundation of the great refractor 

 building, and the construction of the underground chambers in 

 which the magnetic observations are to be conducted, is being 

 continued. 



During the York session of the British Association a most 

 successful half-yearly meeting of the members of the Natural 

 History Society of the Friends' .School in Bootham was held in 

 the lecture-room of that establishment. Among those present 

 were Prof. S. P. Thompson, F R.A..S., J. G. Baker, F.R.S., 

 A. W. Bennett, F.L.S., J. Edmund Clark, F.G.S., Thomas 

 Gough, M.A. (of Elmfield College), Rev. T. A. Preston, M.A. 

 (Science Master of Marlborough College), Dr. W. \V. Newbould, 

 Langley Kitching, Ed. Grabb, M.A., Hugh Richardson, R. M. 

 Christy, A. J. Wigham, with J. F. Fryer, B.A. (the pre ent 

 head master), Fielden Thorp, B.A. (ihe former superintendent), 

 who presided, and many others. Dr. D. Hack Tuke delivered 

 an interesting address strongly advocating the btudy of science. 

 Mr. Baker of Kew said that a large measure of his success in 

 life was clue to the early scientific training he had received when 

 a member of this society. Many other interesting addresses were 

 given by those present. The Society is only three years 

 younger than the British Association itself, having been formed 

 on August 14, 1834. Since that time many ardent naturalists, 

 now well known to science, had pa-ssed through its ranks. 



A CORRESPONDENT from Kingussie, in Inverness-shire, writes : 

 " We had just (Sunday, iSth) been reading somewhat sceptically 

 the paragraph about the pink rainbow, when behold, to our 

 astonishment, there appeared just over Glen Feshy the most 

 lovely pink rainbow you can imagine, shaded from crimson to 

 pale pink, but no other colour. It was strange and beautiful, 

 and none of us had ever seen anything like it before." 



The just-issued volume of the Proceedings of the Natural 

 Hi-tory Society at Berne (Nos. 979-1003) contains, besides 

 minutes of proceedings and small notes, several valuable papers : 

 by Prof. Studer, on the segmentation of Madreporacea;, on 

 the corals of Singapore, and on the .-.tatistical researches as to 

 the coloiu" of eyes and hair of children in the canton of Berne ; 

 by Dr. Graf, on the specific heat of gases at constant volume ; 

 on glacial deposits at Berne, by M. Bachmann ; on the intrusion 

 of limestones into the crystalline rocks of the Finsteraarhorn, 

 on the dependence of organisms upon oxygen, and on the influ- 

 ence of poisons on invertebrata, by Dr. Arnold ; and several 

 anatomical notes by Prof. Luchsinger. 



We have received the Proceediiigs of the sixty-third annua] 

 meeting of the Swiss Society of Naturalists, which was held 

 in September last year at Brieg. They contain the address 

 of the president, M. Wolf, and minutes of proceedings of the 

 sections, among which we notice communications : — by Prof. 

 Riitimeyer, on the metamorphoses of skulls ; by Prof. Yun^, 

 on his physiological researches on cephalopods at the Naples 

 Zoological Station ; by M. Lory, on geological researches on 

 the Finsteraarhorn ; and by M. de la Harpe, on the nummulitic 

 formation in Switzerland. In the Reports of Commissions we 

 notice the report, by Prof. Riitimeyer, on the important work, 

 by M. Ph. Gosset, on the glacier of the Rhone, to which the 

 Schlafli Foundation was awarded. This immense work, which is 

 the result of six years' consecutive measurements of the positions of 



no less than 156 numbered and painted blocks, carefully chosen 

 on the surface of the glacier, as well as of surveys on the scale 

 of I : 5000, contains a thorough description of the glacier of 

 the Rhone, and is accompanied by a most elaborate map of 

 the glacier, numerous transverse and longitudinal sections, and 

 several sheets of drawings, which show the results of the 

 the measurements as to the motion of the glacier. 



Statistical researches as to the colour of the hair and eyes of 

 children had been made in all the cantons of Switzerland, with 

 the exception of Berne, Geneva, and Tessino. The investigation 

 as to the first of these cantons is now terminated, and the results 

 of the examination of 94,221 children are published by Prof. 

 Studer in the Proceedings of the Berne Society of Natural History 

 (No. 9S6), and are accompanied by four coloured maps, which 

 show graphically the results. It is seen from these researches 

 that in the canton of Berne the dark type prevails over the fair, 

 but that the pure types are not so numerous, especially in the 

 central parts, as the mixed ones. The pure fair type, which 

 makes 9 to II per cent, in the north-eastern parts of the 

 canton, increases to the south (11 to 14 per cent, in the middle 

 parts, and 15 to 20 per cent, in the Alps), and reaches its highest 

 percentage in the secluded valley of the Saanen (28 per cent.). 

 The dark type is most numerous in two regions — that of the 

 western lakes and Old Rhcetia (21 to 29 per cent.), whilst in the 

 middle parts it reaches only 21 to 25 per cent., and only 16 to 

 20 per cent, in some secluded valleys. After having shown the 

 distribution of mixed types, Prof. Studer considers these data in 

 connection with history, and comes to several interesting 

 conclusions. 



Messrs. Sonnenschein and Allen have i.ssued a .second 

 edition of Prantl's "Elementary Text-book of Botany," revised 

 by Dr. S. H. Vines, i^rho has made considerable alterations in 

 the book, with the view of increasing its usefulness. The most 

 important alteration, it is stated, is the adoption of a Classifica- 

 tion of Flowering Plants which will be more famiUar to 

 English students than that which was followed in the first 

 edition. 



A RECENT speech of the Governor of Hong-kong, Sir John 

 Pope Hennessy, contains an interesting account of the spread of 

 vaccination amongst the Chinese in the Colony and on the neigh- 

 bouring mainland. No port in the world is more liable to a 

 visitation of small-pox, yet it never spreads there. The health- 

 officer of the Colony also wa.s astonished to find tint nearly all 

 the young Chinese emigrants had vaccination or inoculation marks 

 upon their arms. He says he was often puzzled to know how this 

 vaccination came to be apparently so perfect among the Chinese. 

 On inquiry it turned out that the native doctors of the Tung-wa 

 Hospital— a charitable institution supported by the voluntary 

 contributions of Chinese — not oidy vaccinated their countrymen 

 in the Colony itse'f, but actually sent travelling vaccinators over 

 the adjoining provinces of China. In this way thousands of 

 people have been vaccinated during the last four years. The 

 lymph is supplied them by the Governor, who gets it every 

 mail in his despatch-bag from Dovraing-street. Three dentists 

 also appear in the census of the professions of the Colony. 

 "About eighteen months ago," adds his Excellency, "I visited 

 one, not professionally, but for the purpose of seein? the instru- 

 ments he used, and I then found he had the same ap].iaratus we 

 find in all dentists' establishments. In fact he did work for 

 the first-rate American dentists we have here, being fully capable 

 of making or repairing sets of teeth. He was a gentleman of 

 intelligence, and impressed me, I must say, as favourably as a 

 dentist could." 



The Congress of Orientalists has had a very successful meet- 

 ing at Berlin. Of the International Geographical Congress and 



