il 17, 1873] 
logical demonstrations in the Museum of Zoology and Compara- 
tive Anatomy, on May 12. The Demonstrator of Comparative 
Anatomy will resume his class for practical work on May 1, and 
continue the same on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Courses 
of lectures on History, Languages, and the various sciences, 
will be delivered at Cambridge to women during the Easter 
Term. The fee for each course is one guinea, but a reduc- 
tion of one-half may be obtained on application by persons 
engaged in or preparing for the profession of education. 
WE hear that a Natural History Society and Field Club is 
about to be formed among the members of the Working Men’s 
- College, Great Ormond Street. The list of classes in the Col- 
lege for the term commencing April 21, announces a series of 
Saturday afternoon geological excursions, under the guidance of 
Mr. Logan Lobley, F.G.S. A course of lectures in Physiology 
is to be begun by Mr. S. D. Darbishire, M.A., Ball. Coll. Oxf. 
Mr. T. Hughes, M.P., who is now the Principal, will preside 
at the meeting with which the term opens on Monday evening 
next, and to which the public are admitted. 
WE have received from Prof. Cope several photographs of the 
cranium of theShugh horned Proboscidians of Wyoming, named 
by him Zoxolophodon cornutus. This geaus differs from Dino- 
ceras of Marsh, which it very closely resembles in all respects, 
in having the nasal horn cores flat and horizontal, overhanging 
the apices of the nasal bones. The maxillary horn cores are also 
proportionately longer, and are not a continuation in direction of 
the enormous canine teeth, but are turned somewhat forward. 
Prof. Cope divides the short-footed Ungulates, or Proboscidians 
of the North American Eocene, into two families, the Eobasi- 
liidze and the Bathmodontidz, the former possessing no incisors 
and no third trochanter to the femur, the latter having the fall 
complement of incisors and a rudimental third femoral tro- 
chanter. He further divides up the Eobasiliidz: into the genera 
Loxolophodon, Eobasileus, Uintatherium, and Megaceratops, 
and the Bathmodontide into Bathmodon and Metalophodon. 
From a comparison of the photographs above mentioned with 
Prof. Marsh’s drawing of Dinoceras mirabilis, we fail to see any 
points sufficient to justify their generic separation. On pho. 
tograph shows clearly that in the molar teeth the outer wall was 
not present, and that the transverse ridges were fully developed, 
being straight but; not parallel, meeting on the inner border 
of the tooth to form a >-shaped surface. 
THE Museum of Comparative Zoology, of Cambridge, U.S.,in 
addition to the Bulletin of its proceedings, issues a series of 
“Tilustrated Catalogues,” in small folio form. In this several 
valuable papers have already appeared ; but by far the finest and 
most important is one just out of press entitled “A Revision of 
the Echini,” by Alexander Agassiz. This embraces an exhaustive 
account of the bibliography of the subject, as well as its 
synonymy, followed by detailed descriptions of the genera and 
species, both as regards the external form and internal anatomy. 
It is illustrated by forty-nine plates, of which seven represent the 
geographical distribution of the various groups of Echini, the 
remainder being devoted to representations of the species. A 
very important experiment has been made in this work as to the 
availability of different methods of photographic printing for 
natural history work, and, we may indeed say, with complete 
success. About one-third of the illustrations of species are 
crayon drawings on stone, one-third are Albert-types, prepared 
under the direction of Mr. E. Bierstadt, of New York, and the 
remainder are Woodbury-types, executed by Mr. John Carbutt, 
of Philadelphia. Nothing can exceed the perfection of finish 
and detail of the plates prepared by both these methods, and we 
are sure the work will mark an era in the history of scientific 
publications, The expense of even an approximation to the 
“accuracy of these figures, on stone or metal, would have been 
enormous. 
NATURE 
471 
THE Special Correspondent of the Daz/y News on board the 
Challenger, writing from St. Thomas on the 24th ult., states that 
the vessel was to proceed on her voyage that afternoon. All 
the scientific staff had been busy, and a large collection of inte- 
resting and beautiful objects had been mate. On the previous 
Saturday morning the Chad/enger stood out to sea for the purpose 
of making magnetic observations, returning in th: afternoon, and 
mooring in the inner harbour in readiaess to sail the next day. 
Late in the evening, however, the Cha/lenger acted the Good 
Samaritan to a dilapidated ship and her crew, lying fifteen 
miles off. 
ProFEssoR AGASSIZ sends us part of the correspondence which 
took place between himself and Mr. Anderson, the gentleman 
who made the princely gift of a beautiful island and 50,000 
dollars to Prof. Agassiz, referred to in the Jetter from a New 
York correspondent in last week’s Nature. The whole affair 
has been gone about in the most simple and modest way by 
Mr. Anderson, who, in a letter to the Professor, hopes the 
school to be established on Penikese Island ‘‘may be des- 
tined in future ages not only to afford the required in- 
struction to the youth of our own country, bat may be the 
means of attracting to our shores nimerous candidates from 
the Old World, who may find here, in the school to be esta- 
blishe 1 by you, those means of fitting themselves for the teaching 
of Natural History by Nature herself, which, by a strange over- 
sight, appear to have been overlooked in the schemes (generally 
so well conceived and executed) of education there.” 
THE course of twenty-four lectures on Zoology, given during 
the past winter by Mr. J. E. Taylor, F.G.S., in the Museum, 
Ipswich, has been a great success. Every Friday night the 
great hall and galleries have been crowded, the audiences in- 
creasing as the lectures advanced, so that latterly upwards of 
500 people have been in the habit of attending—a very satis- 
factory audience for a town of the size of Ipswich. 
M. FAYE has written to contradict a report in the Revue 
Scientifique that he had demitted his post of President of the 
Commission on the Transit of Venus, because he saw that the 
necessary instruments would not be ready in time. He was com- 
pelled to take this step on account of his many other public 
duties, and declares that he has no doubt whatever of the suc- 
cess of the French preparations. 
M. BorLtot, in making some experiments with ozone, has 
discovered that a litre of pure oxygen yields only 7 milligrammes 
of ozone, while the sam2 quantity of air gives 37 milligrammes. 
Thus, Zes Mondes says, oxygen mixed with air is in a condition 
more favourable to its being converted into ozone. 
AccorDING to the American Artisan, measures are pending 
at Washington seeking to secure an international coinage of 
silver, tor tae immediate use of nations in America and Europe, 
now embracing a population of more than ene hundred and 
sixty millions, and for the even‘ual use of all the civilised 
countries of the world. 
Mr. W. F. Denninc of Bristol sends us the following 
meteorological notes. A correspondent writes him that, on No- 
vember 27, 1872, he was in la itude 43° 24’ north, and longitude 
13° 55’ west, when at about 54 30™ to 64 he witnessed a magni- 
ficent shower of meteors, which continued without intermission 
till nearly $4, Most of them were colourless, but some were 
tinted with a pale bluish hue. The seeming directions were 
from about N.E. by E., true, to S.W. by W., but the sky ap- 
peared so full that ir was hard to tell. On April 6, at 9h 8", a 
meteor nearly as bright as Venus was observed by Mr. Denning 
at Bristol. Beginning of observed path=R.A. 83°, D. 43°+, 
end of ditto = R.A. 56°, D. 31°+, length of path = 24°, 
Duration 1°5 sec. Mr. Denning observed displays of aurora 
