An^Hsi 23, 1877] 



NA TURE 



351 



NOTES 



The health of M. Leverrier is so far restored as to enable him 

 to stay at Dieppe during the bathing season. Learning that he 

 intended to travel for his health, the new Minister of Public 

 Instruction offered M. Leverrier a special credit for expenses, 

 on the ground that "it is the national interest to preserve a 

 man who is an honour to the nation." 



The programme of excursions of the French Association 

 has been published in the Havre papers. It includes visits to 

 Fe'camp, a town which is rich in memorials of William the 

 Conqueror ; to Villiers-sur.mer and Trouville, and to Balbec, 

 Tancarville, and Lillebonne, where a Roman circus has been 

 discovered ; a visit to Havre and vicinity, and an excursion 

 to Rouen and a visit to its manufactures and monuments. 

 In his inaugural speech M. Broca, the president, will deal 

 with the same subject as Prof. Allen Thomson at Plymouth. 

 We regret to state that M. Kuhleman, who had been elected 

 president for 187S at Clermont-Ferrand, has resigned. The 

 Association will have again to choose a president for 187S, and 

 also for 1S79; the latter will act as vice-president next year. 

 According to a decision agreed to last year, the 1S7S meeting 

 will take place at Versailles during the Internaiional Exhibition, 

 the rules not allowing any meeting to be held in Paris. The 

 organisation of that exceptional meeting, and the measures for 

 the reception of foreign members and associates, will require 

 much consideration. 



The Denver Tribune of August 2 announces the'arrival in that 

 city of the Hayden scientific party, of which Dr. Hayden, Sir J. 

 D. Hooker, Gen. Strachey, and Prof. Asa Gray form part. 

 Southern Colorado had been explored, and the mountains above 

 George-town and Berthoud's Pass, &c. , were then to be visited, 

 when the party were to move on to Utah, Nevada, and California. 



Prof. Wanklyn has been elected to the chair of Chemistry 

 and Physics of St. George's Hospital, vacated by the death of 

 Dr. Noad, F.R.S. 



The official paper of the French Republic has gazetted the 

 organisation of the jury and the scheme for distribution of awards 

 for. the forthcoming Universal Exhibition. Independently of works 

 of art 100 great prizes and exceptional allocations in silver will be 

 distributed by a special jury composed of the presidents of all 

 the juries ; 1,000 gold medals, 4,000 silver medals, 8,000 bronze 

 medals, and 8,000 honourable mentions will be distributed by a 

 number of class or sectional juries. The juries will be appointed 

 by the several Governments in proportion to the number of 

 exhibitors. 



The Fri^orifiqtte, fitted up for the transportation of meat on 

 the Tellier system with methylicacid, has arrived at Havre, from 

 Brazil, with its cargo in an excellent state of preservation. It is 

 stated that a banquet of the meat will be served during the 

 forthcoming session of the French Association at Havre. 



Mr. G. S. BouLGER, Professor of Natural History in the Ciren- 

 cester College, reprints from the Proceeding's of the Cotteswold 

 Naturalists' Field Club, a pamphlet entitled " Notes Preliminary 

 to a Proposed Flora of Gloucestershire." As the title implies, there 

 is no attempt to arrive at an estimate of the vegetable productions 

 of the county, and the publication would appear to have for its 

 main oVjject the inviting of information on the subject (addressed 

 to Mr. lloulger at the Scientific Club, Savile Row) from those 

 who have in any way worked at its flora. 



The last Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution 

 relating to the year 1875, contains much of great scientific im- 

 portance. The institution continues to carry on, with admirable 

 efficiency its two great classes of operations — ist, those relating 

 to the immediate objects of the bequest, viz., the increase and 



diffusion of knowledge through researches, publications, and 

 exchanges, and 2nd, those which pertain to the care and manage- 

 ment of the Government collection in natural history and 

 ethnology constituting the United States National Museum, of 

 which the Institution is the custi dian. Under the care of the 

 institution this museum bids fair to become one of the finest in 

 the world. During 1874 important meteorological researches 

 were undertaken by the Institution, and its publications embrace 

 valuable works in nearly all departments of science. Among 

 the papers printed as an Appendix to the present Report, are 

 Arago's Eulogy of Volta, De CandoUe's Probable Future of 

 the Human Race, Prof. Prestwich's inaugural lecture on the 

 Past and Future of Geology (which appeared in Nature at the 

 time), a paper on the Refraction of Sound, by Mr. W. B. 

 Taylor, a paper on an International Code of Ethnological 

 Symbols, and Dr. Abbott's elaborate memoir on the Stone-Age 

 in New Jersey. 



Some 'of our readers may be interested to know that the 

 Ipswich Museum, under the curatorship of Dr. Taylor, contains 

 a very fine collection of crag fossils. Prof. Ray Lankester, in a 

 letter to a local paper, states his conviction, founded upon wide 

 knowledge of such collection?, " That the combination of Mr. 

 Canham's collection with the valuable and unique specimens 

 already presented to the museum by Mr. Alderman Packard, 

 when mayor, and by other public-spirited men, has rendered the 

 collection of crag fossils, shells, teeth, bones, box-stones, and 

 clay nodules, by a^long way the most complete in existence. I 

 doubt," Prof. Lankester says, "if any other town possesses — 

 certainly no English town does— so complete and valuable a 

 series of specimens Illustrative of its local geology. " 



Petermann's Mittheilungcn for September will contain a map 

 of considerable interest at the present time, but also of the 

 highest permanent value, — is a map of the region between 

 and including Bulgaria, S.E. Servia, and the Balkans. This is 

 the result of many journeys made by the author, F. Kanitz, 

 between the years i860 and 1S75, and is accompanied with a 

 detailed account of the results obtained. This same number 

 will contain the conclusion of G\issfeldt's travels in the Arabian 

 Desert, and of Polakowsky's paper on the Vegetation of Costa 

 Rica. 



The Bulletin of the Paris Geographical Society for June con- 

 tains a long paper by M. J. Dupuis on his journey in Yunnan. 



CoL. Gordon, Governor-General of Upper Egypt, has made 

 a contract with Messrs. Yarrow and Co., of Poplar, for the con- 

 struction of four veryjight draft steel steamers, for use on Lake 

 Albert Nyanzi, and for opening up the navigation of the rivers 

 in Central Africa. These steamers vrill be carried on land on the 

 backs of negroes, and consequently Messrs. Yarrow and Co. 

 have to sub-divide the packages in such a manner that none shall 

 exceed 20olb. weight. It is estimated that no less than 4,000 

 men will be employed for the porterage of these vessels. 



We have received No. 3 of Appalachia, the journal of the 

 Appalachian Mountain Club, which contains several papers of 

 general interest. 



Stanford's Library Map of Africa, originally constructed by 

 the late A. Keith Johnston, and of which a new edition is just 

 out, is as fine a specimen of map construction as we have seen. 

 The scale is so large as to admit of exhibiting minute features, 

 and the map not too large to be hung on a wall. It is brought 

 up to the latest date, which is saying a great deal in respect of 

 Africa, and so far as we have tested it, shows everything that 

 such a map ought to do. 



Our agricultural readers would do well to procure a circular 

 issued by the Science and Art Department, South Ktnsington, 

 giving directions for the collection and forwarding c -U.c;!o, s of 



