*: ar ia that Pelt. of « Reliquiz Aquitanice ” is in the 
press. This "serial work, descriptive of the Caves of Perigord 
and their contents, has been interrupted of late by the death of 
M. E. Lartet and the disturbances in France. The executors 
and friends of the late Henry Christy are proceeding with the 
work as expeditiously as possible, but do not expect to produce 
quite as many parts as originally contemplated. 
THE School Board Chronicle tells us that an international 
college such as appears to have been the ideal of Mr. Stuart 
Mill has existed for some time in the Canton of Zurich. This is 
the Institution Breidenstein, in which there are at present as 
many as eighty-eight pupils, representing fourteen different 
nations from the two hemispheres. These scholars speak nine 
_ different languages between them. 
_ WE have received the last three numbers of the Horological 
Journal, and, judging from its contents, it seems well calculated 
to accomplish one of its chief purposes, to spreada knowledge 
_of the scientific principles upon which the art of watch and 
clock making is founded. It well deserves the support of all 
_ those for whose benefit it is intended. 
CONSIDERABLE changes, says the Quarterly Meteorological 
| Fournal, are in progress in the meteorological organisations of 
_ yarious countries. In France, M. Jules Simon has reversed 
the action of the Imperial Government, and placed the entire 
_ meteorological system under the Observatory of Paris. The 
Observatory of Montsouris, which C. Ste.-Claire Deville had 
" established with much care, has been placed under the Observa- 
tory, and most of the meteorological work“of the latter establish- 
ment has been transferred to it. The Bulletin International is 
now dated from Montsouris, but the series of observations at the 
Paris Observatory has not been suspended. M. C. Ste.-Claire 
‘Deville has been appointed Inspector-General of all the French 
' Meteorological Stations, except those in connection with the 
_ telezraphic system. In Denmark, Captain N. Hoffmeyer has 
been placed at the head of the newly organised Institute. In 
Sweden, the intention of the Government to establish a central 
Institute in Stockholm in the year 1873 is announced, and the 
_ Observatory at Upsala is to be the central station. In Berlin 
‘arrangements are reported to be in progress for the founding of 
_@ morecomplete meteorological organisation than that now ex- 
isting, whichis of old date, and is in connection with the Statis- 
tical Bureau. 
Harper's Weekly announces the death, at Reading, Pennsyl- 
_ yania, at the age of fifty-six, of Mr. William M. Baird, a gentle- 
man who was much interested in natural history, and especially 
in ornithology. Mr. Baird, while residing at Carlisle, Pennsyl- 
yania, commenced in 1838 a collection of the birds of the 
county, in which he was assisted by his younger brother, Prof. 
§. F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution ; and the two carried 
on their labours in common for many years, during which time 
they published conjointly descriptions of two new species of 
‘small fly-catchers discovered by them in the vicinity of Carlisle, 
as also a list of the birds of Cumberland County. Having 
adopted the profession of the law, Mr. William Baird was 
obliged to give up his active labours in ornithology, and the 
‘work was continued by his brother, who, on receiving an ap- 
pointment in connection with the Smithsonian Institution at 
_ Washington, carried to it the conjoint collection, which formed, 
' in a measure, the basis of the magnificent series of North Ame- 
rican birds in the institution, and which has served as the 
“material for so much research on the part of naturalists in 
_ America and other countries. 
_ On November 26, the first Annual General Meeting of the 
_ National Union for improving the Education of Women of all 
_ ¢lasses was held at the rooms of the Society of Arts, Lord Lyttel- 
fon in the chair, The two principal resplutions were that “the 
meeting, feeling the inadequacy of the supply of good schools for 
girls, pledges itself to promote the establishment of such schools, 
andalso to aid all measures for extending to women the means 
of higher education beyond the school period of life; and that 
the meeting, feeling the necessity of thorough training for teachers, 
and of some recognised test of their efficiency, pledges itself to 
promote measures for the attainment of those objects.” The 
grand principle upon which the Union is founded, is ‘‘ that the 
human faculties and intellect have been impartially given, and 
belong in equal degree to both men and women.” 
WE notice that a new method of lighting gas has been invented 
by Mr. J. Billington Booth, of Preston, the working of which 
was shown by him the other night in that town. By this 
method the whole of the street lamps can be lighted simul- 
taneously from any distance. The apparatus constituting the 
invention, the Preston Chronicle tells us, looks like a mod- 
erately-sized globular inkstand of glass, surmounted by a tube of 
the same material, with a metallic top; by screwing off the 
burner it can be very easily attached to any lamp, chandelier 
pipe, or ordinary gas-jet. The base or globular portion is filled 
with a deep red-coloured liquid, so cheap that three pennyworth 
will serve the lamp for a year. Over the liquid and within the 
glass tube there is a plate of zinc, with a piece of graphite or 
gas coal, and between these and a thin coiled platinum wire, 
fixed over the cup of the general vessel, into which a gas-burner 
is inserted, galvanic communication is obtained. Ignition is thus 
effected : A pipe is screwed to the top of the gaspipe ; pressure 
on the gas in this pipe causes a simultaneous depression upon 
the chemical solution which occupies a lower level in two side 
tubes; the gas occupies the vacuum caused by the displaced 
liquid, and then ascends toa chamber connected with the burner, 
while the displaced liquid is pressed into two side-tubes effecting 
contact with the zinc and graphite, and generating galvanic 
activity. This is communicated to the platinum wire, and 
excites its catalytic power ; the wire being then exposed to the 
ascending jet of gas, immediate ignition takes place. 
AN invention by Mr. J. A. H. Ellis, of Boston, U.S., is described 
in the Zndustrial Monthly, by means of which, it is said, 
enormous amount of heat wasted in exhaust steam is profitabl 
utilised. The method consists in passing the exhaust steam from 
an ordinary steam-engine through the tube of a boiler filled with 
the bisulphide of carbon (which boils at 110° Fah.), in the same 
way that smoke and the products of combustion are passed 
through a steam-boiler filled with water. The result is, according 
to our authority, that the bisulphide boiler will be rapidly heated 
up to 212° Fah., the resulting vapour being able to keep an 
engine going, and do a large amount of work, if the supply of 
exhaust steam is sufficient. By this means one large steam-engine 
might keep not only itself going, but supply the necessary power 
to a number of neighbouring small ones, the latter being thus 
able to dispense with fire and all attendance. The Judustrial 
says the method.is actually at work at Fitchburg, Massachussetts. 
From the British Medical Fournal we learn that at the last 
examination in anatomy held at the University of Berlin, two 
candidates alone, amongst the thirteen who presented themselves, 
obtained the notice “‘good.” Ouse of these was a Japanese 
medical student called Sasumi Satoo. The intellectual labour 
and the amount of perseverance necessary to gain this success 
will be appreciated when it is known that in November 1869, 
the time when Sasumi Satoo was sent by his father to Berlin, he 
did not even know the German characters. The first five months | 
he applied himself exclusively to the study of German, and he 
acquired in the remaining six months the knowledge of all the 
subjects, including Latin, which were required for the first exami- 
nation. The father of Sasumi is the principal physician to the 
| Mikado, and enjoys in Japan great celebrity as an operator, 
