Zz 
Nov. 2, 1882] 
NATURE 
19 
lations adopted at the time were altered by the several monarchical 
governments, but have gradually resumed their former provisions, 
so that the present Institute may be said practically to exist as it 
was at the end of the last century. The subject was treated with 
wonderful eloquence and expression. M. Dumas derived the 
origin of modern scientific societies from the Academia di Lincei ; 
he showed that the Academy of Sciences of Paris and the Royal 
Society of London came into existence about the same period, 
their meetings having been foreshadowed or instigated by 
the conversazioni held by the friends or followers of 
Descartes. M. Dumas insisted most on the grand spectacle 
exhibited by these institutions surviving monarchy, nobility, 
established churches, and finding in political revolutions a new 
field for their activity. He might have added, that even under the 
disorderly reign of the Commune, the sittings of the Academy 
“were unmolested, and the editor of the ¥ournal Officiel de la Com- 
mune did bis best to report the sittings. The Academy of 
Sciences was represented in the addresses delivered by M. 
Alphonse Milne-Edwards, who gave a graphic account of the 
really good work done by the 7vavai//eur in the Mediterranean 
and Atlantic. The large hall was crowded, and the whole 
proceedings were of high interest. 
THE anniversary meeting of the London Mathematical Society 
will be held on the evening of Thursday, November 9, at 8 p.m., 
at 22, Albemarle Street. Mr. S. Roberts, F.R.S., has chosen 
as the subject of his valedictory address, ‘‘Some Remarks on 
Mathematical Terminology and the Philosophical Bearing of 
Recent Mathematical Speculations concerning the Realities of 
Space” ; his principal aim will be to show that mathematics are 
neutral in philosophy. fer alia he will report to the Society 
the fact of the establishment of the De Morgan memorial medal 
and the conditions of its being awarded. The following changes 
are proposed to be made in the Council for the ensuing session : 
Prof. Henrici, F.R.S., President, Sir J. Cockle, F.R.S., and 
Mr. Roberts, F.R.S., Vice-Presidents, and Messrs. E. B. Elliott 
and Dr. J. Hopkinson, F.R.S., to be new members in the place 
of Prof. Rowe and Mr. H. W. Lloyd Tanner, who retire. 
THE Fapan Gazette of August 21 contains a long and curious 
description of a bear festival among the Ainos. The writer, 
Dr. B. Scheube, is, we believe, the only European who has ever 
been actually present at this ceremony, the descriptions of it 
given by Miss Bird and other writers being derived from hearsay. 
The bear receives the title of Ximui-Kamui, The true deriva- 
tion of this latter title—which is generally and incorrectly said 
to come from the Japanese Xavi, a divinity—has been explained 
by Mr. Keane in NATURE (vol. xxvi. p. 525). The festival is 
now rarely held, and there is small reason to regret this, as it 
has degenerated to a brutal orgy. It commences with drink, 
every change in ceremony begins and concludes with drink, until 
finally every one in the village is intoxicated, while their hands, 
faces, and clothes are smeared with the gore of the sacrifice. 
Dr. Scheube says: ‘‘I had much difficulty in keeping off the 
drunken crowd that wanted me to partake of the blood and liver 
(the latter is eaten raw) ; and I can say that though hardened in 
these things by the practice of my profession, the sight of these 
drunken people with their bodies smeared over with blood filled 
me with a loathing that made me feel glad that the day and the 
feast were coming to an end together.” Dances, many of them 
of an obscene nature, also form part of the ceremony. 
A very business-like Annual Report from the Sheffield Free 
Libraries and Mu-eum Committee has been sent us. 
complaint is made of the heavy cost of two of the branches, it is 
satisfactory to find that one of these rivals the Central Library 
in its number of volumes circulated. A new catalogue of the 
Central Library, which has been issued lately, we shall hope to 
notice more fully shortly. Besides the new branch of a mu-ical 
department we may call attention also to the Observatory and 
Though | 
the Museum of Natural History, with the hope that, in all our 
large towns eventually, the Free Library will become the centre 
of instruction in all knowledge. 
THE £éectrician learns that the improvements in the storage 
of electric energy and in electromotors have so far advanced, 
that tricycles can not only be lighted, but also propelled solely 
by electricity, as was seen from the tricycle ridden last week by 
Prof. Ayrton in the city. The Faure accumulators in which the 
energy was stored for the lighting and drawing, were placed on 
the footboard of the tricycle, and the motion was produced by 
one of Professors Ayrton and Perry’s newly-patented electro- 
motors placed under the seat of the rider. Using one of these 
specially-made tricycle electromotors and the newest type of the 
Faure accumulators, the total dead weight to be added to a 
tricycle to light and propel it electrically, is only one and a 
half hundredweight, a little more than that of one additional 
person. 
WE wish to call the attention of our readers to the “‘ Feuille 
des Jeunes Naturalistes,” published monthly in Paris, with a 
London agency at 110, Leadenhall Street. Founded at Mulhou-e 
in Alsace in 1870, the young journal was hardly launched before 
the national troubles began; the publication was removed 
to Paris, where the two first editors both perished during the 
war at the age of about twenty. The object of the journal is to 
establish a medium of communication between young nataralists, 
to encourage them to publish their earliest essays in a serial 
where they will be sure to find readers to be instructed and com- 
petent judges to guide them in their future studies. Every kind 
of trustworthy observation is welcomed ; and the editors under- 
take to translate communications sent to them in English. The 
Journal is believed to have been instrumental in the formation of 
several local natural history societies. 
THE St. Petersburg Society of Gardening is taking the neces- 
sary steps to prepare the International Botanical and Gardening 
Exhibition and Congress, which wiil take place in the Russian 
capital. Professors Beketoff, Borodin, Famintzin, Marklin, and 
Maximowitsch, and Messrs. Annenkoff, Gobi, Iversen, Semenoff, 
and Wolkenstein are elected members of the scientific committee ; 
three other committees—for the Exhibition, for the erection of 
buildings, and for the reception of guests—were appointed at 
the last meeting of the Society. 
WE have received a copy of the syllabus of the Yorkshire 
College Students’ Association. The society was founded in 
1877, and is now in its sixth session. The number of members 
is large, and the meetings have hitherto been very successful 
Attention is devoted to literature as well as to science. An 
excellent programme of papers is down for the present session 
which began on October 24 with an address by the president, 
Prof. Thorpe, on ‘‘The Story of the Origin of the Metric 
System.” 
THE German Ornithological Society held its annual meeting 
at Berlin recently under the presidency of Baron Homeyer. 
Mr. Schalow (Berlin) read a paper on the progress of ornithology 
during the last five years ; Prof. Landois (Miinster) on egg shells 
considered from a histological and a genetic point of view ; Mr. 
Miitzel (Berlin) on the call of the Tragopan ; and Prof. Blasius 
the report of the stations for observing the migrations of birds in 
Germany. 
TELEGRAMS frem the south-east of Europe report that there 
was an earthquake in the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula 
on October 25. At 1.26 p.m. the shocks were felt severely at 
Preboi, in Bosnia. They lasted fully three seconds, the direction 
| of the vibrations being from west to east. 
| THE first General Meeting of the Members of the Parkes 
Museum, since the incorporation of the Museum, was held on 
\ 
