| Sept. 18, 1873] 
nA ASA a 
NATURE 
405 
THE recent number of Petermann’s Mittheilungen contains 
articles and maps on the American North Polar Expedition and 
Transcaspian Russia. The New Lybian Expedition and the 
Russian March on Khiva are the subjects of two of the articles. 
By the death of the last surviving porpoise the Brighton 
Aquarium has to lament the loss of one of its most attractive 
features. 
WE have received the Prospectus of anew club to be called 
“The Scientific Societies Club.” ‘The approaching concentra- 
tion of scientific societies, the Prospectus says, suggests that the 
present is a fitting time for the formation of a ‘‘ Scientific 
Societies Club,” {which would afford in the neighbourhood of 
Burlington House? conversation and reading rooms, as well as 
the usual facilities of a club for members of all scientific societies, 
In order to render(the club’generally available and as useful as 
possible to the scientific world, it is proposed that the entrance 
fee and the annual subscription shall each be small. 
AccokvInG to Dr. Fritsch, the discovery has Jately been made 
of lacustrine dwellings in the vicinity of Leipsic, as the result of 
certain engineering operations undertaken to regulate the course 
of the River Elster. After passing through a series of layers at 
a certain depth, the workmen found a series of oak piles pointed 
below and decomposed above, and supporting a certain num- 
ber of oak trunks placed horizontally ; and on the same level 
with these were found certain lower jaws’and teeth of oxen, 
fragments of antlers, broken bones of various mammifers, shells 
of an Anodon, fragments of pottery, two polished stone hatchets, 
&e. 
Pror. C. A. WHITE, of Iowa State University, and State 
geologist of Iowa, has been appointed to the new chair of 
Geology and Natural History at Bowdoin College. 
A COMMUNICATION has been made to the Academia dei Lincei 
of Rome, by M. Tarry, giving the results of his personal expe- 
rience and investigations into the connection between the cyclonic 
storms and the showers of sand that frequently visit Southern 
Europe. M. Tarry, after travelling as secretary to the French 
Meteorological Society into Northern Africa and the Desert of 
Sahara, and having consulted the files of the Daily Weather 
Bulletin of the Paris Observatory, believes himself to have 
established the fact that whenever a cyclone passes southward 
from Europe over the Mediterranean Sea into Africa (as some 
few of them do every season), it then returns northward or 
northwestward, and transports the sand which in the desert 
formed a sand-storm to the southern coasts of Europe as a sand- 
shower of greater or less duration. The satisfactory investi- 
gation of this subject is much impeded by the absence of 
barometric observations on the southern shores of the Medi- 
terranean ; and to remedy this defect, M. Tarry has recently 
established new meteorological statistics at Mogadore, Morocco, 
Terceira, Madeira, and even in the interior of the Sahara. 
“* GENERAL Remarks on the Climate of Bombay, with a brief 
description of the Peculiarities of the Weather of the year 1871,” 
is the title of a pamphlet which we have just received, written by 
Mr. Charles Chambers, F.R.S., Superintendent of the Kolaba 
Observatory. 
THE Zimes of India states that education is making rapid 
progress in Ceylon, and vernacular schools will soon be within 
the reach of every section of the native community. The same 
paper states that Ceylon will contribute a selectionYof colonial 
products to the next Exhibition at South Kensington. 
Tue Rey. Thos. Garnier, Dean of Winchester, who died 
recently at the age of 98, was the ‘‘father” of the Linnean 
Society, having been elected during the last century, in 1798, 
only ten years after the foundation of the Society. (Some of 
his contributions to botanical literature bore the} date of last 
century. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during tha 
past week include a Garnet’s |Galago (Ga/ago garnetli) from y 
East Africa, presented by Capt. Geo. Butchart ; a Manx Shear- 
water (Procellaria puffinus), British, presented by Dr. Bree; a 
Reeve’s Muntjac (Cerva/us reevesi), from China, presented by 
Mr. R. Swinhoe ; a Spotted Cayy (Ce/ogenys paca), from South 
America, presented by Mr, J. de Castro ; three Common Cha- 
meleons (Chameleon vulgaris), from Africa, presented by Mr. 
W. C. Hotham ; an Alligator (A//igator sp.), presented by Mr. 
W. Gillespie. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, Sept. 8.—M. Bertrand in the chair, 
—The following papers were read :—Fifth note on Guano, by - 
M. Chevreul.—Note on the observations of M. Lecoq de Bois- 
baudran, relative to the appearance of Phylloxera in the vine- 
yards of the Charente, by M. Milne-Edwards,—Note on the 
number of points of intersection which represent a multiple 
point common to two plane curves, &c., by M. de la Gournerie. 
—Researches on Crystalline Dissociation, continuation! by MM. 
P. A. Fayre and C. A. Valson. This portion of the paper 
dealt with the valuation and division of the work done in saline 
solutions.—Note on a New System of representing the con+ 
tinuous Meteorological Observations, made at the National Ob- 
servatory, Algiers, by M. Bulard.—-Note on Magnetism, third 
part, by M. J. M. Gaugain,—On the Spontaneous Motion of As- 
cension of Liquids in Capillary Tubes, by C. Decharme. This por- 
tion of the paper treated of the subject from a theoretical point 
of view.—On Pyrogallol in the presence of iron salts, by M. E. 
Jacquemin.—Researches on the Spectra of Chlorophyll, by M. 
J. Chautard. The author has found that this substance so easily 
changed as viewed from the physiological point of view, is very 
stable when subjected to chemical reagents.—On the state of the 
Volcano of Nisiros, in March, 1873, by M. H. Gorceix,—M. de 
Layal sent a note stating that he was the original proposer of the 
use of the carbonic disulphide against the Phylloxera.—The 
ephemerides of Brorsen’s Comet were received from Mr. Plummer, 
and a note on the same comet, and on that of Faye, from M. 
Stephan.—New observations on the presence of Magnesium on 
the Solar Limb, and an answer to certain points in M. Faye’s 
theory, by Father Tacchini. The author stated in his letter that 
the fact of the line 1474 K always appearing with 4, and even 
without it, induces him to think that the former is not due te 
iron which is much heavier than magnesium.—On the use of 
Chronometers at sea. by M. Magnac.—Reflections on Sponta- 
neous generation, in relation to a note by M. Gayon, cn the 
spontaneous changes of eggs, and a note of Mr. Grace Calvert 
on the power of preventing the development of Protoplasmic 
life, by M. A. Béchamp. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 
"ERE forty-third meeting of the Association was opened 
yesterday evening in Bradford, when Dr. Carpenter 
resigned the Presidency, and was succeeded by Prof. A. 
W. Williamson, who delivered the opening address in St. 
George’s Hall. 
Notwithstanding that Bradford is considerably larger 
than Brighton, its resources in the way of sleeping accom- 
modation have been considerably tried by the unusually 
large influx of visitors caused by the meeting of the Asso- 
ciation, All the hotels, we believe, are full, as well as 
most of the private houses on the lists of the secretaries. 
Arrangements have, however, been made with the railway 
companies for conveying members to and from neighbour- 
ing towns where hotel accommodation may be obtained. 
The local secretaries, Dr. Campbell, Mr. Goddard, and 
Mr. Piele Thompson, have spared no pains to make the 
