Oct. 4, 1877] 



NATURE 



487 



Aquarium last Wednesday week, unfortunately died on Satur- 

 day morning. In the course of the first few hours after 

 being put in the water the whole of the skin, piece by piece, 

 peeled off, and after this the whale appeared t ) be more com- 

 forlable, fed well, and adopted a less restless style of swim. 

 The change in its condition in two days was remarkable. In 

 consequence of its journey it had been for twelve days without 

 food, and it was on arrival so thin that the spinous processes 

 formed a ridge two or three inches high along ihe back. In 

 two days, however, feeding only on eels, it had regained its 

 normal appearance, but, as we say, expired on Saturday morninj. 

 A post mortem examination was made by Prof. Flower and Prof. 

 Garrod, assisted by Dr. Bond, of Westminster Hospital and Mr. 

 Henry Lee. Everything was in a healthy cordition except the 

 lungs, which had quite lost elasticity, and in winch inflammation 

 had evidently been set up some time. Plastic pneumonia was 

 the cause of death. The stomach, notnithstinding the twelve 

 days' fast, had been working naturally, and some partly-digested 

 eels were found. There was abundance of healthy-looking fl :th 

 iu all parts of the body, which w.is not expected. I'he skelet 'n 

 is to be exhibited at the Aquarium, end the viscera and brain 

 have been presented to the College of Surgeons. The specimen 

 was a partly-grown female Beluga or White Whale, nine feet six 

 inches long. Prof Wyman, of Harvard, published a descrip- 

 tion of one he dissected in the Boston yoiirnal of Natural History, 

 vol. vii. , giving it Lesson's name. Beluga borealis. In Europe it 

 is generally called Delphi itaf terns loiica! (Pallas), the generic 

 name being that given by Lacepede in 1S04. Some of the daily 

 papers have unfairly commented on the whale being put in fresh 

 water. If the writers had taken the trouble to turn to "White 

 Whale " in Bell, they would have found this statement : " It is 

 abundant in Hudson's Bay, Davis Straits, and the Arctic Ocean 

 generally. ... It seems partial to large rivers ; in America it 

 ascends the River St. Lawrence as far as Quebec, and in Asia 

 Schrenk and Nordmann state that it goes far up the River Amur. " 

 It is stated that one was kept in fresh water in New York for three 

 years, fed on eels. The weight of the brain of this Wes'minster 

 specimen has been ascertained by Prof Flower to be 63 oz., an 

 unusually high amount in proportion to the size of the animal. 

 One peculiarity of this whale is that all the cervical vertebra; are 

 separate. Several details of practical importance with reference 

 to the carriage of large cetaceans have been learnt from this ex- 

 periment, among the most important of which is the fact that 

 unless the water-tank, in which it seems most reasonable to sup- 

 pose that they would best travel, is sufficiently large to allow of 

 the tail beirg brought well into action the creature is certain to 

 be drowned from inability to reach the surface that it may 

 breathe. Considering the difficulties attending the enterprise it 

 is surprising how the animal arrived in this country without a 

 trace of injury ; and that inflammation of the lungs should have 

 been the cause of death in an aquatic species was equally little 

 to have been expected. 



Prof. Quinxke, the successor of Kirchhoff at Heidelberg, is 

 now in this country inspecting the various laboratories and 

 collections of apparatus. 



The long-talked of Conference of Librarians commenced its 

 nrcetings on Tuesday at the London Institution under the pre- 

 sidency of Mr. Winter Jones, librarian of the British Museum. 

 Several papers were read on 1 uesday and yesterday bearing on 

 the organisation and utility of libraries, and we trust that the 

 multitude who have for one purpose or another to deal with 

 books and libraries will reap much benefit and decrease of worry 

 by this congress of library officials. We would strongly com- 

 mend to the attention of the members of the congress the 

 letter published last w^eek, from Prof. Mallet, of Virginia, 

 advocating the organisation of a staff of searchers in connection 

 ■yvith all our great libraries. Even the most devoted laboratory- 



worker must sometimes consult books, and it is desirable that 

 this may be done with a minimum of waste of energy and time. 



The Birmingham and Midland Institute was opjned for this 

 session, on Monday, by Prof. Tyndall, who gave an interesting 

 address which we are glad to see is printed at full length in the 

 Times. 



Advices have been received from the Howgate Arctic 

 schooner Florence, dated Cape Breton, August S, up to which 

 time the vessel had had a very comfortable and satisfactory 

 passage. The arrangements for the accommodation of the 

 naturalist and meteorologist prove to be quite ample and satis- 

 factory, and already collections of natural history of some interest 

 hive been made. 



Our Paris correspondent writes that important news has been 

 received from M. de Brazza, the leader of the expedition to the 

 Ogove, West Africa. Brazza writes from Doume, a village beside 

 one of the numerous cataracts of the river, in o' 16' S , and 

 13° 20' E. The river is stated to flow from the south for a 

 considerable distance, when it turns southward at or across the 

 equator. The natives inform Brazza that the Ogove stretches a 

 long way eastwards, and it is thought possible that it may cjme 

 from some interior lake. Brazza seems to think that the 

 Libumba, an afllaent of the right bank of the Congo, may be 

 also connected with the Ogove. As we hinted last week, it 

 seems probable, since Stanley's discovery, thrt the Congo and 

 Ogove are connected in some way. 



The sea coast branch of the United States Fish Commission 

 his been at work for some time. The steam tug Spetdwcll, a 

 powerful vessel of 300 tons, commenced operations at Salem, 

 Massachusetts, about August I. Unexpectedly rich results were 

 obtained in that vicinity, embracing not only many rare forms of 

 animal life, but much of practical importance to the ftAeries. 

 Several places were found abounding in fi-h previously unknown 

 to the fishermen of Gloucester an 1 Marblehead. Flounlers of 

 marketable size in immense numbers were taken of a fpecies 

 (Glyftoeephaltis cynoglossiis) i)Tev\o\\s\y entirely unknown on the 

 American coast. Leaving Salem on August 19, it arrived at Hali- 

 fax on Wednesday the 22nd, trawling and dredging the greater 

 part of the way. In the course of this journey many new animals 

 were collected of much interest to naturalists, among them 

 several species of Greenland fi h hitherto never detec'ed south 

 of that country. 



In Guido Cora's Cosmos, vol. iv. No. vi , we have an 

 original chart of the Bay of Assab, accompanied by an elaborate 

 description of the bay, the islands, and the adjacent continent, 

 together with sailing directions. It apjicars to be somewhat 

 better than Ih ■ Red Sea Cliart issued by the English Admiralty, 

 but probably a drawing on a larger scale by Moresby or others 

 IS lying at the Ilydrcgraphical Office. The bay is on the African 

 Coast, and is about forty miles from Perim Island, at the mouth 

 of the Red Sea, and the same distince frcm Mocha. The most 

 interesting point of this chart is that an area of some four miles 

 by one mile and a-half is claimed for Italy. 



M. Herpin, an old professor of mathematics and cosmo- 

 graphy, is about to publish, through Baudry of Paris, an astro- 

 nomical dictionary, quite a novelty in French scientific literature, 

 since the astronomical part of the great Encyclopaedia was 

 published at the end of the last century. 



An International Congress of Botany and Horticulture will be 

 held at Paris during the International Exhibition next year. 

 The Congress will open on Aujust 16, 187S, and will last a 

 week. 



The Cunard steamer Aoyssiiiia, which arrived at Queenstown 

 on Sunday, experienced fearful weather from the 22nd to 27th 

 ult.— gales from west, north-west, to north. On the 25th, lat. 

 45-38 N., long. 4rs6 W., she met a cyclone from north, and 



