5i8 



NATURE 



[Sept. 29, 1 88 1 



found in a finished state, as well as some chapters on Current 

 Electricity. The book has been completed so as to cover the 

 subjects included in the first volume of the larger Treatise on 

 Electricity and Magnetism by a selection of some of the simpler 

 articles from the last-mentioned work. As in the larger treatise, 

 the " method of Faraday " has been followed throughout; but 

 no knowledge of the higher mathematics has been assumed, and 

 geometrical methods have been almost everywhere adopted. 

 Very much of the matler contained in the work will, we are in- 

 formed, be new tj readers who had not the advantage of attend- 

 ing Prof. Maxwell's lectures at Cambridge, and the whole bo.jk 

 bears indelibly the stamp of Prof. Maxwell's originality. It is 

 as much unlike any other book on electricity as the "Theory of 

 Heat" or "Matter and Motion" is unlike other books on 

 thermodynamics or mechanics. The Clarendon Press likew ise 

 have nearly ready for publication a second edition of Prof. Clerl; 

 Maxwell's " Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism," edited by 

 Mr. W. D. Niven, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 



We regret to announce the death, at the age of forty years, of 

 Dr. Gustaf Linnarsson, the able pateontologist to the Swedish 

 Geological Survey ; he died, in consequence of a severe attack of 

 disease of the chest, at the house of his brother, in the town 

 of Skofde. Even when at school he occupied himself with the 

 geology and palcuontology of his native province, Westrogothia. 

 He took his degree as M. A. in 1866 with high honours, and was 

 nominated " Decent " in Geology at the University of Upsala. 

 In 1870 he joined the Geological Survey of Sweden as palceon- 

 tologist, and since that time has worked at the classification of the 

 Cambrian and Silurian rocks of Sw eden. He has expounded 

 his views in a numerous series of geological and pala;ontological 

 papers, which all prove his accuracy and caution in drawing 

 conclusions. The now adopted classification of the oldest 

 Palajozoic rocks of Sweden is chiefly his worlj. The fossil 

 groups in which he made his researches are the Trilobites and 

 the Graptolites. His premature decease is a heavy loss to 

 science, the more so as he has left behind him several important 

 works unfinished. 



The death, resulting from a fall from a horse, is announced 

 of Frederick Joy Pirani, lecturer on Natural Philosophy and 

 Logic at Melbourne University. Mr. Pirani was born in Bir- 

 mingham in 1S50, but went to Victoria when a boy, and was 

 there educated. He was an accompUshed mathematician, and 

 gave promise of future eminence. He was active in the pro- 

 motion of science in the Cobuy. Mr. Pirani was an occasional 

 contributor to our pages. 



At the last general assembly of the Swiss Alpine Club Mr. 

 Whymper was elected honorai-y member, " in recognition of his 

 having contributed, as few other travellers have done, to the 

 exploi-ation and renown of the Alps." 



The introductory lectm-e for the present Session at University 

 College in the Faculty of Science and Arts will be given by 

 Prof. Bonuey, F.R.S., on Tuesday, October 4, at 3 p.m., in the 

 Botanical Theatre. The subject will be " A Chapter in the Life- 

 history of an Old University," or a sketch of the chief changes, 

 educational and social, at Cambridge during about the last 

 hundred years. The lecture is open to the public without 

 tickets. 



Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. announce the following 

 books for the forthcoming season; — "The Head Hunters of 

 Borneo : Up the Mahakkam and Down the Barita ; also Jour- 

 neyings in Sumatra," by Carl Bock ; " Uganda and the Egyp- 

 tian Soudan : an Account of Travel in Eastern and Equaiorial 

 Africa ; including a Residence of Two Years at the Court of 

 King Mtesa, and a De.,cription of the Slave Disti-icts of Bahr- 

 ei-Ghazel and Darfour. With a new Map of 1200 miles in these 



Provinces, numerous Illustrations, and Anthropological, Me- 

 teorological, and Geographical Notes," by R. W. Felkin, 

 F.R.G.S., and the Rev. C. T. Wilson, M.A. Oxon., F.R.G.S. ; 

 " Magyarland : A Narrative of Travels through the Snowy 

 Carpathians, and Great Alfbld of the M.agyar," by a Fellow of 

 the Carpathian Society (Diploma of 18S1), and author of "The 

 Indi.an Alps"; "Through Siberia": illustrated with about 

 thirty engi-avings, two route maps, and photograph of the author, 

 in fishskin costume of the Gilyaks on the Lower Amur, by 

 Henry Lansdell ; " Nordenskjold's Voyage around Asia and 

 Europe : a Popular Account of the North-East Passage of the 

 Vega,''' by Lieut. A. Hovgaard, of the Royal Danish Navy, and 

 Member of the Vega Expedition; "South by East: a Descrip- 

 tive Record of Four Years of Travel in the Less Known Coun- 

 tries and Lslands of the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres," 

 by Walter Coote ; " Upolu ; or, A Paiadise of the Gods : beinij 

 a Description of the Antiquities of the Chief Island of the 

 Samoan Group, with Remarks on the Topography, Ethnology, 

 and History of the Polynesian Islands in general," by the late 

 Handley Bathurst Sterndale, edited and annotated by his 

 brother. 



Among Messrs. Macmillan and Co.'s announcements of forth- 

 coming books are the following :—" Voyage of the Vega,'' by 

 Adolf Erik Nordenskjbld (with five steel portraits, numerous 

 illustrations, and maps); "Science and Culture, and other 

 Essays," by Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. ; Charles Kingsley's "Water 

 Babies" (a new edition, with illu-trations by Linley Sambourne) ; 

 "Origines Celticse," by Dr. Guest (with maps); " Physics of 

 the Earth's Crust," by Rev. O. Fisher, M.A., F.G.S. ; "A 

 Course of Instruction in Zootomy (Vertebrata)," by T. Jeffrey 

 Parker, B.Sc. Lond., Professor of Biology in the University of 

 Otago; "Elementary Lessons in the Science of Agricultural 

 Practice," by Piof. H. Tanner; "Mathematical Papers," by the 

 late W. K. Clifl'ord, M.A., F.R.S. , Professor of Applied 

 Mathematics and Mechanics at University College, London ; 

 " Text-Book of Geology," by Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., Pro- 

 fessor of Geology, &c., in the University of Edinburgh (with 

 illustrations) ; " A Treatise on Chemistry," by H. E. Roscoe, 

 F.R.S., and C. Schorlemmer, F.R.S., Professors of Chemistry 

 in the Victoria University, Owens College, Manchester (with 

 illustrations) : Vol. III. "The Chemistry of the Hydrocarbons 

 and their Derivatives, or Organic Chemistry," Part I. ; " Further 

 Steps in the Principles of Agriculture," by Prof. Tanner ; " The 

 Organic Methoil of Studying Languages," by G. Eugene-Fas- 

 nacht ; "Electricity and Magnetism," by Prof. Silvanus P. 

 Th , mpson (illustrated). 



Mr. B. Samuelson, M.P., F.R.S., the chaurman of the 

 Royal Commission on Technical Instruction, has returned from 

 a visit to Berlin, w here, through the courtesy of our Ambassador, 

 Lord Ampthill, he has secured the assistance and co-operation 

 of the German authorities in the collection of preliminary infor- 

 mation bearing on the subject of the inquiry. He has also made 

 arrangements for the forthcoming visit of the Commissioners to 

 the manufacturing districts of Westphalia. At the first meeting 

 of the Royal Commission it was resolved that among the points 

 to be examined should be the instruction afforded on the Con- 

 tinent to the proprietors aid superior managers, the foremen, 

 and the workpeople engaged in industrial pm-suits, and that 

 investigation should also be made into the connection between 

 general and technical instruction, and the sources of the funds 

 from which such instruction is defrayed. 



The last field meeting of the year of the Woolhope Natu- 

 ralists' Field Club, we learn from the Gardeners' Chronicle, will 

 be held at Hereford, on Thiu-sday, October 6, for a foray among 

 the funguses. There %\ ill be an exhibition of funguses in the 

 museum room at the Free Library, and an evening meeting will 



