208 
NATURE 
[Dec. 29, 1881 
important data will be collected of no little practical and scientific 
value. 
* Tue Perthshire Natural History Society has had a most suc* 
cessful bazaar in aid of its Natural History Museum, for which 
it has now secured in all 3300/. As they already have a building, 
the Society ought soon to be able to show an excellent local 
museum, and make a fair startjin the educational enterprise which 
they have in view. Did ‘‘ John Stewart’s Wines and Spirits,” 
“*B. Smith’s Sparkling Burgundy,” ‘‘ Peter McIntyre’s Buns and 
Shortbread,” ‘Donald Laing’s 2s. Tea of Extraordinary 
Quality,” and such like articles, form part of the exhibits at 
the bazaar? We would infer as much from the style in which 
the programme is printed. 
THE fifth associated sofrée of the Literary, Scientific, and Art 
Societies of Liverpool took place on the 21st inst. at St. 
George’s Hall, under the presidency of the Mayor of Liverpool. 
Of the societies represented, no less than nineteen have dis- 
tinetly scientific objects, and number 2700 members, In the 
objects exhibited in the Great Hall were many of considerable 
biological and geological interest, especially entomological speci- 
mens from the neighbourhood of Liverpool, collected by the 
Rey. H. H. Higgins, and a set of types of the genus Nassa, 
arranged and named by Mr, F. P. Marrat, of the Free Museum, 
who has done much to elucidate this group of Mollusca. Nume- 
rous lectures were given during the soirée; those of scientific 
interest were—‘‘On the Storage and Transmission of Electric 
Force,” by Mr. Fletcher, H.M. Inspector of Alkali Works ; 
‘On the Mersey Tunnel, and its Geological Aspects,” by Mr. 
De Rance, H.M. Geological Survey ; ‘‘On Life at Great Depths 
in the Ocean,” by Prof. Herdman ; ‘‘On the Life-History of 
Shell-Fish,” by Dr. Hicks. Prof. Herdman described severa] 
new forms of life obtained by the Challenger, while Mr. De 
Rance foretold a probably successful termination to the Mersey 
Tunnel, now one-quarter completed. Nearly 4000 people 
attended the sozré. 
WE are glad to see that a Natural History Society has been 
established in North London, under the name of the ‘‘ North 
Middlesex Natural History Association.” A Society of this 
description was much needed in the neighbourhood, and 
there is, therefore, every prospect of its doing useful work, 
The objects of the Association will be the formation of a 
natural history museum, and a library for reference and 
circulation among members: also the diffusion of natural 
history knowledge by means of lectures, papers, discussions, 
&e, It is also proposed to organise field excursions during the 
summer months. The meetings are held every Tuesday evening 
between the hours of eight and eleven o’clock p.m. The 
Secretary is Charles M. Allen, 26, Ingleby Road, Grove Road, 
Holloway, N. 
THE President of the Royal College of Physicians has 
appointed Dr. George Johnson, F.R.S., to deliver the Harveian 
Oration. 
THE balloon which was seen in the neighbourhood of San- 
tander in Spain, and which was conjectured to be that in which 
Mr. Powell was carried off, was probably, according to M. W. 
de Fonvielle, a French meteorological balloon, sent up by the 
Paris aéronauts equipped to register the phenomena of the 
upper atmosphere, and with a polyglot request that it be for- 
warded by the finder to the address given, 
Two earthquake shocks were felt on the 18th inst. in Switzer- 
land, at Bers, Vevey, Lausanne. A few days previously oscilla- 
tions were observed in Neuchatel, the Valais, and other parts of 
Switzerland, 
Tue long-continued eruption of Mount Vesuvius has within 
the last few days assumed large proportions. Copious streams 
of lava have been flowing in an easterly direction. It is note- 
worthy that this increased activity was preceded by sensible 
seismic agitation of the soil in the neighbouring provinces. 
THE new number of the Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists’ 
Society (vol. iii. part ii., Bristol, Fawn and Son) contains some 
useful papers. We may mention the following :—On the 
breathing of aquatic larvae, by W. J. Fuller ; On the preparation 
of a local flora, by J. Walter White; The boulders of the 
Bromsgrove district, by Oliver Giles ; Catalogue of the Lepi- 
doptera of the Bristol district, by A. E. Hudd; Fungi of the 
Bristol district, by Cedric Bucknall; A naturalist’s rambles in 
Guernsey, by Adolph Leipner; Recent investigations on the 
cause of storms, by G. F. Burder ; papers on Binaural Andition 
and the Phenautograph, by Prof. S. P. Thompson ; and the 
flora of the Bristol coal-field, by J. Walter White, Part I. 
Thalamiflore. 
A REPORT from the German Fisheries Union states that 
during the season 1880-81 no less than 6,151,036 fish ova were 
artificially hatched, and with the young brood various German 
rivers were stocked. Amongst them were 1,792,000 salmon, all 
from the Rhine (with the exception of 18,000 from Pomerania), 
295,000 Californian salmon (imported direct from America), 
183,500 sea trout (Z7u/ta trutta), 6000 Trutta lacustris, 46,000 
Trutta fario, 270,000 Salmo salvelinus, 48,536 American trout, 
152,000 Vhymallus vulgaris, 657,000 Gymnothorax murena, 
1,810,000 Coregonus Wartmanni, 335,000 eels, 151,000 Ameri- 
can eels, and 720,000 carp. The results of the Society’s efforts 
become more and more apparent every day in the largely 
augmented receipts of German fisheries generally. 
ON Wednesday, December 21, diplomas of the Royal Agri” 
cultural College, Cirencester, were granted to four candidates, 
and the sessional certificates and prizes distributed. 
On April 10, 1882, the second International Congress for 
Ethnographical Sciences will be opened at Geneva. The 
organisation of the Congress is in the hands of M, G, Becker at 
Lancy (Geneva), the delegate of the Swiss Ethnographical Insti- 
tute. All who wish to participate in the Congress must send 
their names to him or to the delegates of the countries they may 
reside in. The Congress will be divided into seven sections :— 
(1) Origin and migrations of peoples ; (2) Ethnology; (3) De- 
scriptive ethnography; (4) Theoretical ethnography; (5) Manners 
and customs ; (6) Political ethnography ; (7) International law. 
Delegates have already been announced from the following 
countries :—France, Belgium, England, Luxemburg, Sweden 
and Norway, Russia, Germany, Roumania, Greece, Italy, Spain, 
Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, Egypt, British India, Japan, 
Canada, the United States, Peru, Australia, and the Argentine 
Republic. 
THE 7Zransactions of the Epping Forest Field Club contain 
some unusually interesting papers. In parts 4 and 5, for 
exainple, vol. ii., we have, among others, the following papers : 
“Is Vanessa folychloros the prototype of Vanessa urtice?” by 
W. White; ‘The Evolution of Fruit,” by Prof. Boulger ; 
“The Developmental Character of the Zarve of the Noctuz, as 
Determining the Position of that Group,” by Raphael Meldola ; 
“«Tnfusoria, what are They?” by W. Saville Kent; ‘* Report on 
the Excavation of the Earthwork known as Ambresbury Banks, 
Epping Forest, by Gen. Pitt-Rivers.” Evidently this young 
Society is doing good work, 
THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 
past week include a Malbrouck Monkey @ (Cercopithecus cyno- 
surus) from West Africa, presented by Mr. C. A. Rose; a 
Chilian Teal 6 (Querguedula creccoides) from Chili, presented 
by M. J. M. Cornely ; a Kite (Afilous tctimus), European, pre- 
