March 2, 1882 | 
NATURE 
419 
had not become hotbeds of disease. In addition to this, in | and Colonial Secretary. Although under its new organisation it ~ 
two-thirds of the houses inspected there were defects in the 
drainage arrangements, such as must fill any careful person with 
alarm, especially where children or delicate persons were among 
the occupan'g Prof, Fleeming Jenkin, one of the consulting 
engineers of the Association, spoke of the careful manner in 
which the business arrangements of the Association were con- 
-ducted, and expressed an opinion that the continued ¢xistence of 
such associations as this must necessarily result ina much more 
‘efficient official inspection of dwelling-houses in all parts of the 
country. Speaking from personal experience of Edinburgh, in 
which only a similar association exists, Prof. Jenkin said during 
the recent run of an epidemic of typhoid there had only been one 
case in any of the houses under the charge of the Association, 
and in that case the fever was shown to have been contracted by 
the lady of the house while visiting the sick poor in the vilest 
districts of the city. 
THE discovery of cesium and rubidium by Bunsen and 
Kirchhoff was, it is known, one of the first fruits of spectrum 
analysis. These are the most electro-positive of all known 
elements, and have a remarkable affinity for oxygen—so great in 
the case of czsium, that it has heretofore been found impossible 
to isolate the metal, The problem, however, has now been 
solved by Herr Setterberg (4x. der Chemie, Bd. 211, p. 100), 
by electrolysis of a fused mixture of cyanide of cesium and 
cyanide of barium (large quantities of these costly substances 
having been placed at his disposal). Czesium is quite like the 
other alkali metals ; it is silver white, and very sot and exten- 
sible. Its melting-point is abcut 26°°5 C.; and its specific 
gravity 1°88. In the air it ignites spontaneously, and when 
thrown on water behaves quite like sodium, potassium, and 
rubidium. Herr Setterberg has anew proved in his experiments 
that it is quite impossible to obtain cesium by the method 
adopted for rubidium and potassium, distilling the carbonate 
with charcoal at a white heat. 
AMONG the institutions for which Jamaica is indebted to the 
energy and intelligence of the present Governor, Sir Anthony 
Musgrave, the Institute of Jamaica is probably destined to prove 
one of the most valuable as a means of diffusing information 
and organising local effort in the cause of industrial science. 
The Institute was constituted by a recent Jaw which created a 
Board styled ‘‘The Board of Governors of the Institute of 
Jamaica,” consisting of seven members appointed by the 
Governor; their duties being to establish and maintain an 
institution comprising a library, reading-room, and museum ; to 
provide for the reading of papers, delivery of lectures, &c., and 
hoiding of examinations on subjects connected with literature, 
science, and art; to award premiums for the application of 
scientific and artistic methods to local industries ; and to provide 
for the holding of exhibitions illustrative of the industries of 
Jamaica. The Institute occupies a building known as Date 
Tree Hall, in Kingston. On the lower floor there is a small 
museum containing a good geological collection made by the 
members of the late Geological Survey, a very complete con- 
chological collection, and another of the birds of Jamaica. A 
beginning has also been made to form a collection of the 
fish of Jamaica, and about 150 duplicate specimens have been 
sent to the Smithsonian Institution to be named by Prof. 
Baird. On the upper floor is a library which contains a valuable 
collection of ok local prints and records, as well as some 
2000 volumes of standard European and American literary 
and scientific works. The Jamaica Institute in its present form 
is intended to occupy the position and take up the work of the 
late Royal Society of Arts and Agriculture, and it receives an 
annual vote from the Local Government. The present chair- 
man of the Institute is the Hon. Ed. Newton, Lieut.-Governor 
has only been in existence about three years, itappears to have al- 
ready made a good start. Branch associations have been established 
at Spanish Town, Falmouth, and Sav-la-Mar. Prizes have been 
offered and awarded for several local industries, and an annual 
Flower and Horticultural Show has been started with the view 
of encouraging the cultivation of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. 
The Governors have recently published in a combined form six 
lectures delivered under their auspices last year in the Town 
Hall, Kingston, on local industries. They consist of ‘‘ Objects: 
of the Jamaica Institute,” by the chairman, the Rey. John Rad- 
cliff ; ‘‘ Root-Food Growth in Jamaica,” by the Rev. Josias 
Cork, Rector of St. Anne’s; ‘‘Some Objects of Productive 
Industry,” Part I. Coffee; Part II. Cinchona, by D. Morris, 
M.A., F.G.S., Director of Public Gardens and -Plantations ; 
‘©The Timbers of Jamaica,” by W. Bancroft Espent, F.L.S. ; 
‘Stock snd Stock-raising,” by Archibald Roxburgh; and 
“The Mineral Springs of Jamaica,” by Dr. J. Cecil Phillips. 
These lectures are of an essentially practical character, and their 
publication in a handy and compact form must tend to develop 
the numerous resources of the island. 
WE have received a prospectus of the Yournal of the Royal 
Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, edited 
by Mr. Everard F, im Thurn, M.A., Oxford, and Curator of 
the British Guiana Museum. This journal, which is to be 
published half-yearly, on the 3oth of June and the 31st of 
December, is intended to contain not only or chiefly a record of 
the procedings of the Society of which it is to be the organ, but 
also papers and occasional notes on agricultural, commercial, 
geographical, meteorological, chemical, botanical ornithological, 
entomological, anthropological, and literary subjects connected 
with British Guiana. A meteorological record will, as soon as 
it can be organised, form a regular feature in the journal. Lists 
of the known flora and fauna of the country will be given from 
time to time, as they can be prepared. A series of vocabularies 
of the Indian languages of Guiana is also in preparation, Folk- 
lore, collected from the Negroes and Indians, will occasionally 
be given, and many other kindred subjects will be treated. 
The importance of such a journal must be evident, and we hope 
Mr. im Thurn will receive adequate encouragement. 
UnpeEr the title of ‘‘ The Natural History of Leeds, Wharfe- 
dale, and Nidderdale,” it is the intention of the Council of the 
Leeds Naturalists’ Club and Scientific Association to publi-h 
during the forthcoming summer a summary of what is at present 
known of the animals inhabiting the districts marked out for 
special investigation by the Club. The Club has now been in 
existence for twelve years, during which time its members have 
—with more or less assiduity—collected and studied the local 
fauna, the result being the accumulation of a considerable mass 
of information, and the time has now arvived at which—if further 
progress is to be achieved—an epitome of what is already known 
should be ; ublished. The chief hindrance to progress now felt 
is the acknowledged want of an account of the work already 
accomplished, as a starting point for fresh investigations and 
new discoveries. Not only will the work comprise lists of the 
more important and well-investigated groups of animals, but it 
will include a notice of every group, however meagrely or 
imperfectly some of the more obscure ones may have been 
studied. 
At Angleur, close to Liége, an important archeological dis- 
covery has been made. At a depth of only 50 to 60 centimetres 
about twenty antique bronzes, some of remarkably fine workman- 
ship, have been found. Amongst them are two female statuettes, 
one statuette of a youth, two female heads, three bearded Mer- 
cury heads, two tiger’s heads, a lion with raised claw, &c, All 
