i6 



NA rURE 



\May 3, 1877 



Flrira," he added largely to our knowledge of the vegetation of 

 New Zealand, on which he also wrote an instructive essay that 

 is published in the first volume of the 1 ransactions of the New 

 Zealand Institute. 



We learn with the greatest pleasure that the Health Com- 

 mittee of the Police Board of Glasgow has agreed to carry out 

 at eight stations in that city the system of continuous automatic 

 observation of the constituents of the air, special attemion being 

 given to its impurities arising from manufactures and other causes 

 which has been devised and worked out since March, 1876, by Mr. 

 E. M. Dixon, in connection with Dr. Russell, Medical Officer 

 of Health. The Committee has already expended fully 200/. in 

 fitting up a laboratory and the observing stations with the in- 

 struments required, and are prepared to expend a sum of 300/. 

 per annum in carrying out this very important practical investi- 

 gation. The results, including meteorological observations made 

 in connection with the scheme, will be published monthly, the 

 first number appearing in June next. 



Gay.Lussac, the great French physicist and chemist, was 

 born ill 1 778, and his centenary will be celebrated by a festival 

 and the erection of a statue either in Limoges or Paris. 



A SERIES of lectures upon zoological subjects will be given in 

 the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, on Thursdays at 5 r. M., 

 after Whitsuntide. The first lecture [will be delivered in the 

 Lion House, and others in the lecture-room near the Reptile 

 House. May 24: "The Lion House and its Inhabitants," 

 P. L. Sclater, F.R.S ; May 31 : " Sea-urchins and Star-fishes," 

 Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. ; June 7 : " Sloths and Ant-eaters," Prof. 

 Flower, F.R.S.; June 14: "Whales and Porpoises," Prof. 

 Flower, F.R.S. ; June 21 : "Man-like Apes," Prof. Garrod, 

 F.R.S. ; June 28: "Variation in Domestic Animals," W. B. 

 Tegetmeier, F.Z. S. ; July 5: "Hornbills and their Habits," 

 Dr. Murie, F.Z.S. ; July 12 : "Birds of Prey," R. B. Sharpe, 

 F.Z.S. ; July 19: "Frogs and Toads," Prof. Mivart, F.R.S. ; 

 July 26 : "The Ornithorhynchus," Prof. Garrod, F.R.S. These 

 lectures will be free to Fellows of the Society and their friends, 

 and to other visitors to the Gardens. 



The annual conversazione of the Royal Society was held at 

 Burlington House on Wednesday week, ,'and was numerously 

 attended. There was a large collection of instruments brought 

 together, among the principal of which were the following : — 

 An Automatic Spectroscope, which can be used with 2, 4, 

 or 6 prisms, solar eye-piece arrangement, and new split 

 slit, whereby any lines in the spectrum can be measured ; 

 a Heliostat, with large crown-glass prisms, to be employed 

 with the spectroscope ; Governor for 18-inch reflector, which 

 will keep time with a variation of rate of five seconds per 

 minute, at pleasure ; all designed and exhibited by Lieut. - 

 Colonel Campbell, of Blythswood, and constructed by A. 

 Hilger. — Prof. W. G. Adams exhibited an Apparatus for 

 producing interference of light by means of thick plates, 

 and Apparatus for the reflection and refraction of radiant 

 heat and light, fitted to Clifton's optical bench, and con- 

 structed by Messrs. Elliott Brothers. The half-prism 

 direct-vision spectroscope made for Greenwich, about which 

 there has recently been a correspondence in Nature, was 

 also shown. Then there was a Hydroclinometer, an instru- 

 ment for taking ranges, without any calculation, from coast bat- 

 teries over 100 feet in height ; a small hydroclinometer, a modi- 

 fied form of the above, for giving the inclination of slopes, 

 &c., without any adjustment, and for larger guns ; an electric 

 position- and range-finder for coast batteries ; a Field-ArtiUery 

 range-finder ; an Infantry range-finder ; a patent self-ailju^ting 

 optical square, which by a simple adjustment can immediately 

 be corrected to the true right angle, without the aid of any 

 other instrument ; an electric chronograph, for the measure- 

 ment of minute portions of time, velocities of shot, &c., by the 



free fall of a weight ; these were exhibited by Capt. Watkin, 

 R.A. — Lieut. G. S. Clarke and Prof Herbert M'Leod showed 

 an instrument called the Cycloscope, an apparatus for determin- 

 ing the speed of machinery by means of a tuning-fork or reed of 

 known period ; also for ascertaining the pitch of a tuning-fork 

 by means of a cylinder rotating at a known speed. There 

 were also Telephone and (patent) Thermo-electric Pile (in 

 action), with specimens of Gray's telephone, exhibited by Messrs. 

 C. and L. Wray ; improved Holtz electrical machine with four 

 plates and self-charging arrangement, in glass case, ready for 

 use in any condition of the atmosphere, and Manometric appara- 

 tus, for showing effects of sound on a sensitive flame, e.xhibited 

 by Mr. Ladd ; teeth, bones, and ancient works of art lately 

 found in caves in Derbyshire, exhibited by Mr. Boyd Dawkins, 

 F.R.S. ; specimens of cast and wrought iron treated by Prof. 

 Barff's process for the prevention of corrosion, which consists in 

 acting on iron at suitable temperatures with dry steam, ex- 

 hibited by Prof. Barff; specimens of the core of well, from 

 Meux's Brewery ; the large induction-coil, with secondary wire of 

 280 miles, constructed for Mr. W. Spottiswoode by Mr. Apps 

 (in operation), was shown in the meeting room, and Mr. 

 Crookes's Otheoscope, of which we give an account this week. 



On Monday Prof. Boyd Dawkins commenced a series of 

 eight Field Lectures on Geology at Owens College. Six of the 

 lectures will be in connection with excursions to vaiious places 

 from Manchester. 



Mr. William Gossage, F.C.S., the inventor of several im- 

 portant processes in practical chemistry, died at Earlsleigh, 

 Bowdon, Cheshire, on April 9, in his seventy-eighth year. 



The Council of the Royal Geographical Society have awarded 

 the Royal medal to Capt. Sir George S. Nares, R.N., for 

 having commanded the Arctic Expedition of 1S75-6, and to 

 Pundit Nain Singh, for having added a greater amount to our 

 positive knowledge of the map of Asia than any individual of 

 our time. In his first great journey he for the first time deter- 

 mined the position of Lhassa, the cipital of Tibet, besides 

 surveying the course of the great river Tsanpo, or Bramaputra, 

 from near its source to near its entrance into the Himalayan 

 region ; in his last he traversed and surveyed the high Plateau 

 of Tibet from its extreme north-west to Lhassa, a line of 1,200 

 or 1,400 miles of entirely new country. No reward was ever 

 better earned than that bestowed by the Society on Nain Singh, 

 who, indeed, deserves to be ranked among the first of explorers. 

 While pursuing his arduous and dangerous work he was paid at 

 the rate of 7/. per month, and now retires, satisfied we believe, 

 on a pension of 50/. a year. Through his labours we have now 

 for the first time a scientific basis on which to construct a map 

 of Tibet. A gold watch, with an appropriate inscription, was 

 at the same time awarded to Capt. Albert Markham, R.N., for 

 having commanded the northern division of sledges in the Arctic 

 Expedition of 1S75-6, and lor having planted the Union Jack in 

 83 deg. 20 min. 26 sec. N., a higher latitude than had ever been 

 reached by any previous expedition. 



It is but a poor set-ofT to the horrors of war that it is a means 

 of speading a real knowledge of geography ; but that it does do 

 so was shown in this country during the last Oriental war — the 

 Crimean. As might have been expected, numerous war-maps 

 have already appeared. The most satisfactory of these maps is 

 a large one published by Mr. Stanford on the scale of fifty miles 

 to an inch, including Turkey in Europe and her tributary states, 

 together with such parts of neighbouring countries in Europe 

 and Asia as are more immediately connected with the settlement 

 of the Eastern Question. Any one wishing to follow the move- 

 ments of the two armies could not obtain a better guide. All 

 the physical and political features, including the railways up to 

 date, are shown with great clearness. Mr, Stanford publishes 



