Feb. 1, 1883] 
NATURE 
373 
Fish; ” J. Cotter Morison, M.A., on ‘‘A Glimpse of England 
in the Fifteenth Century ;” Dr. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., on 
‘*Metamorphosis of Insects,’’ and J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., 
on ‘‘ The Recent Eclipse of the Sun,” The meetings are held 
in the Working Men’s College, Great Ormond Street. 
THE Report of the Commissioner of the Imperial Japanese 
Mint, Osaka, for the year ending June, 1882, being the twelfth 
report of the Japanese Mint, shows that the high standard of 
excellence of the work done at this establishment is still kept up. 
Rather more gold was coined than during the previous year, viz. 
803,645 yen, all in 5 yen pieces ; the silver coined during this 
year was all 1 yen pieces, and amounted to 3,294,988 yen ; 
whilst the nominal value of the copper coins, in 2 sen, I sen, and 
half sen pieces was 1,130,548 yen. The total nominal value of 
the coins of all denominations struck since the commencement of 
the Mint to the end of the last financial year is 102,888,478 yen, 
of which more than one-half is gold and two-fifths silver, Besides 
this a large number of medals have been struck and refined 
ingots produced. This year a large number of old bronze guns 
and field pieces have been melted down, refined, and converted 
into copper coins, and also additional improvements and econo- 
mies have been made in the treatment of old Japanese silver 
coins prior to their re-coinage. The sulphuric acid works in 
connection with the Mint have been more busy than last year, 
and nearly a million pounds of acid have been exported to China 
in addition to that produced for home consumption. The soda 
works are now in working order, and a considerable outturn of 
sulphate, black ash, white ash, and crystallised soda has been 
made ; caustic and bicarbonate of soda will shortly be produced, 
and it is proposed to add works for the production of bleaching 
powder so as to utilise the whole of the hydrochloric acid formed. 
There was a considerable increase in the amount of Corean gold 
dust received during the year, but it was not generally of a high 
standard. The curve showing the variation in weight of the 
silver yen issued, as also the report of the trial of the pyx and 
the reports of the assays on the pyx pieces made by Prof, Chandler 
Roberts of the Mint in this country, and by Mr, Lawner, of the 
American Mint, show that the greatest care and attention is 
given to every department, both by the foreign employés, Mr, 
Wm. Gowland, chemist, assayer, and technical adviser, and Mr, 
R. MacLagan, engineer, and also by the native officials, The 
report affords abundant evidence that excellent work is being 
done by the above-named European technical advisers of the 
Japanese Government. 
WE have received an excellent little pamphlet on ‘‘ The 
Rudiments of Cookery, with some Account of Food and its 
Uses.” It is called a manual for the use of schools and homes, 
is written by ‘fA, C. M.,”’ examiner to the Northern Union of 
Training Schools for Cookery, dedicated to the Countess of 
Derby, and published by Simpkin and Marshall, Besides con- 
veying practical information on plain cookery, the writer is 
careful throughout to explain the why and the wherefore of 
every point by briefly stating the principles of elementary science 
which bear upon the subject. We can recommend the pamphlet 
to the ‘schools and homes ”’ for whose use it is designed. 
AT the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday 
evening, Sir Henry Rawlinson, who presided, stated that Mr, 
Leigh Smith, in acknowledgment of the assistance which the 
Royal Geographical Society had afforded him in fitting out his 
expedition, and also to mark the extent of the interest he takes 
in Arctic discovery, had presented 1000/7. for the purpose of 
extended Arctic exploration. Sir Henry referred briefly, also, 
to the recent services of one of the native explorers which the 
Indian Government are in the habit of sending beyond the 
Himalayas, which are closed to Europeans by the jealousy of 
the natives. The paper from which he quoted said: ‘‘ One of 
General Walker’s native explorers has returned to India after an 
absence of four years through Thibet, in which he has obtained 
a large amount of new geographical information, and has finally 
disposed of the question of the Sanpo River, which does not, 
according to him, fall into the Irawaddy, as was generally sup- 
posed. The traveller got as far north as Santu, lat. 40° N,, 
92° E., which is supposed to be the Sorchia of Marco Polo, 
Returning, he proceeded to Batang, and tried to reach Assam 
by the direct route, but was stopped at the frontier of the 
Mishmi country by the assurance that the natives were savages, 
who would murder him, He, therefore, took a circuitous route 
to Lhassa, va Alanto and Gjamda, But from the latter place 
he turned and made for Chetang, on the Sanpo, thence by 
Giangze, Leng, and Phari, to Darjeeling. He reports that 
Sama is the place where two Europeans coming from Assam 
were murdered some thirty years ago. If so, it must be 
Wilcox’s Simé, where the priests Kirch and Bsury were 
murdered in 1854. He is positive he only crossed the Sanpo 
once at Chetang. He says that on the road from Sama to 
Gjamda there is a great range of hills to the west, separating the 
basin of the afflaents of the Sanpo, from that of the affluents of 
the Irawaddy to the east.” 
LizutT.-CoL, BERESFORD Lovett, her Majesty’s Consul at 
Astrabad, read at the same meeting a paper, which was illus- 
trated by an itinerary map from his plane table survey of four 
inches to the mile. The route from Teheran northwards to 
Asolat is well known, but new ground was traversed between 
Asolat and the Lur Valley, on the south of Mount Damavand, 
and again between the Horas River and Firnshuh, and onward 
to Kurrand, and also between Fulhad Mahala and Shu Kuh. 
The survey throws considerable light on the untrodden parts of 
the Elburz Mountains, and on the entire route no part of which 
had been previously delineated with any approach to accuracy. 
The author’s route was from Teheran to Astrabad, vzé Ahar to 
Sarak, thence to Husan Ikdir, Gutchisir, Wohbad, Towar, and 
Arsmkern, The route was along the ridge of the Shamran 
mountain country, which runs south of the Caspian, the author 
desiring, as the journey was made in the middle of the summer 
heats, not to descend below 5000 feet, while on the journey an 
altitude of over 9000 feet was attained, and one mountain 12,500 
feet was measured and ascended. The author found in one 
position a plateau of considerable height full of oyster shells, 
while in his paper and in the discussion which followed, it was 
shown that at one geological period the Caspian must have been 
a sea of very large extent to the north and east. 
Unper the presidency of the Marquis of Exeter, a National 
Fish Culture Association has been established, its object being 
to increase the supply of food by increasing the supply of fish of 
all kinds. 
FroM the preliminary report of the Princeton Scientific Expe- 
dition (the third of its kind), whose ground was Wyoming, 
Colorado, and the west, it would seem that the students who 
formed the party covered a very considerable field, did some 
good work in geology and natural history, and endured just 
enough of hardship to give them the feeling of real explorers. 
Tue trial of the electro-magnetic engine, aérial screw, and 
bichromate elements constructed by MM. Tissandier for their 
directing balloon took place in their aéronautical work-shop at 
Point du Tour, on January 26, before a large number of elec- 
tricians and aéronauts. It was shown that the twenty-four 
elements, each of which weighs about six kilogrammes, give 
during almost three hours a current which rotates a screw of 
2°8sm, diameter, and about 5 metres of path, with a velocity of 
150 turns ina minute. The motive power really developed may 
be estimated at that of four horses per hour. The weight of all 
