NATURE 
980 
NOTES 
THE candidates for the chair of Geology held by the 
late Prof. Sedgwick now stand ‘as follows :—Mr. Morris, 
Lecturer on Geology at University College, London, and 
a Vice-President of the Geological Society; Mr. P. Martin 
Duncan, F.R.S., also a Vice-President of the Geological 
Society, Professor of Geology in King’s College, London, and 
Lecturer at the Indian College of Civil Engineering at Cooper’s 
Hill; the Rey. Osmond Fisher, formerly Fellow and Tutor of 
Jesus College, Cambridge ; the Rev. T. G. Bonney, Fellow and 
Tutor of St. John’s College, Cambridge ; Mr, Boyd Dawkins, 
F.R.S., formerly on the Geological Survey, and now Director 
of the Museum and Lecturer in Geology at Owens College, 
Manchester ; Mr. A. H. Green, of the Geological Survey, for- 
merly Fellow of Gonvillle and Caius College, and now Lecturer 
in Geology at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham ; 
and Mr. Hughes, of Trinity College, also on the Geological Sur- 
vey. Mr. Morris has acted for the last two years as deputy to 
the late professor. 
A CORRESPONDENT in Paris informs us that M. Janssen was 
to be nominated to a vacant place in the French Institute last 
_ Monday, and that there is every likelihood of his obtaining a 
_ majority of votes when the election takes place a few weeks 
hence. 
M. Janssen is to be sent to Pekinin December 1874, for 
the purpose of observing the transit of Venus. 
PROBABLY the first telegram transmitted by the Atlantic cable, 
under the generous arrangement mentioned in NATURE of 
January 30 last, was received by the Astronomer Royal on Feb- 
ruary 7, and forwarded to us the same day. It announced the 
discovery of a new planet, No. 129, of the 1oth magnitude, on 
the night of February6: R.A. g! 16™ north decl. 15° ,38’. 
Such an excellent arrangement is likely to save all disputes as 
to priority of discovery. 
4 
, 
Pror. FLowers’s Hunterian Lectures at the College ot Sur. 
geons for this year will treat of the Osteology and Dentition of 
Extinct Mammalia, with their geological and geographical distri- 
bution and relation to existing forms. The course commences 
on Monday next (the 17th) at four o’clock, and the lectures will 
be continued at the same hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and 
Fridays until March 28. It may not. be generally known that 
_ this course is open to all who wish to attend, without fee or any 
for mality. 
Dr. T. R. Lewis has made the ‘important discovery of a 
haematozoon, which he has provisionally named /i/aria sangui- 
nis hominis. In a paper lately published at Calcutta, he de- 
scribes its discovery last July in the blood of a patient suffering 
from a disease well known in tropical countries, Chyluria. The 
worms appear to be present in very large numbers in the blood 
and insome of the secretions ; indeed, they were first observed 
in the urine two years ago. They are evidently hematoids, but 
sexual distinctions have not been hitherto observed, nor is any- 
thing known of their ova or development, nor how they gain an 
entrance to the body. Each is inclosed in a hyaline sheath, in 
which it can contract and expand itself, so that they may be 
probably regarded as in an encysted form. The average length 
is °175 of an inch, the breadth about that of a red blood-disc ; 
they are therefore much smaller than the Guinea-worm or 777- 
china spiralis. The disease of which it is probable that they 
are the cause is not rare in tropical countries, and is sometimes 
fatal. This curious ‘‘ Filaria” was discovered independently in 
chylous urine, by Dr. Lewis and by Wucherer, in 1870. Dr. 
Crevaux, of the French navy, published a memoir on the same 
subject a few months ago (‘ De I’Hematurie chyleuse ou grais- 
seuse des pays chauds;” A. Delahaye, Paris, 1872). In the 
Montpellier Revue des Sciences Naturelles, for September, 1872, 
Dr, A. Corre figures and describes some specimens as trans- 
parent, colourless, and varying in size from ‘2 to *265 of a milili- 
metre long, by ‘006 to ‘007 broad at the thickest part. This 
exactly corresponds with the diameter of a human red blood-disc, 
as given by Welker. He has sometimes observed a slight con- 
striction below the head, as has Dr. Crevaux, who also noticed 
the dark spot supposed by Dr. Lewis to be a mouth, “qui res- 
semble plut6t 4 un amas de granulations qu’ un orifice.” MM. 
Crevaux and Corre have been unable to distinguish any organs, 
only granulations forming a central Jine down the body, “ qui 
simule, au premier aspect, un canal étendu de la téteA la queue.” 
Wucherer regards the worm as probably a larval form. It is 
important to remark that the cases examined by their authors 
were all from tropical America. The descriptions and the draw- 
ing referred to abundantly confirm Dr. Lewis’s admirable obser- 
vations, though they a e not nearly so complete. To him belongs 
the undivided merit of discovering this parasite in its true /aditat, 
the living blood. 
THE Director of the Observatory of Harvard College purposes 
to publish a series of astronomical engravings, which shall repre - 
sent, as nearly as possible, the most interesting objects in the 
heavens, as they are seen with the powerful instruments of the 
observatory under his charge. The series will consist of at least 
thirty pictures, and will embrace the principal planets, moon- 
craters, sun-spots, solar prominences, nebula, and spectra of 
variable stars. To obtain some assistance towards defraying the 
expense of printing, as well as to secure for them a more general 
circulation than can be expected fo: volumes of annals of an 
observatory, they will be offered to subscribers at the rate of 
2/. tos. forthe set. The engravings will be delivered from time to 
time as they are completed, and they will be followed by some 
pages of notes and explanations. Messrs, Triibner and Co. are 
instructed to register the names of intending subscribers. 
Tue American Government has establishe] an Observatory at 
Fort Garry, Manitoba, which is, as nearly as possible, the cen- 
tral spot of the American continent. 
AMMONITES have been discovered by Dr. Waagen (‘‘ Memoirs 
of the Geological Survey of India, IX.”) in a carboniferous 
formation near Jabi, north of Shabpoor, in the N.E. of the Pun- 
jab. The form appears to be allied to some species found in the 
Whitby lias. The presence of this family in palzeozoic rocks is 
a new and important observation. 
SouTH AFRICAN sportsmen have got a bid name among 
many people, the increasing scarcity of the various kinds of so- 
called “‘ big game” being commonly attributed to their exploits. 
There are those, however, who think otherwise, and believe, as 
is doubtless the case, that the deeds of an occasional Gordon 
Cumming, who makes a shooting excursion up the country, had 
little lasting effect upon its animal and particularly its mammalian 
life, the decrease in which is mainly caused by the spread of 
settlements. The University of Cambridge seems to be of the 
latter opinion, and on Thursday last, by grace of the Senate, 
authorised the payment, from the Worts’ Travelling Bachelors’ 
Fund, of 200/, to Mr. T. E. Buckley, F.Z.S. and B.A. of 
Trinity College, who is about to make an expedition into the 
interior from Natal, for the purpose of forming natural history 
collections, and especially of obtaining skeletons of the larger 
animals, with the understanding that specimens be sent to the 
Museum of the University, accompanied by reports, Mr, 
Buckley has had much experience as a traveller, having visited 
some of the wildest parts of Lapland, explored Turkey, and 
braved the dangers of the Gold Coast : and he has contributed, 
in conjunction with his fellow-voyagers Captain Elwes and 
Captain Shelley, to the Zdis, good accounts of the ornithology 
of the two countries last mentioned. 
A SEVERE shock of earthquake was felt at Lahore on 
January 1, at 7.55 A.M. and at Suchin cn Decenber 31. The 
eS lal en, SPO a at re - 
4 aes ets aan aS iy 
We aay ote 
