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cation in this country, and since the foundation of the University 
he has been one of its staunchest and most unwearied friends, 
WE observe that Miss Esther Greatbatch, who has just passed 
the second (special) examination for women at the University of 
London in French and in Harmony and Counterpoint, also took 
the second prize at the examination which followed Prof. Guth- 
rie’s Lectures on Physics at the London Institute, in February, 
1870, and out of seventy-four candidates, the first prize for 
the examination in Physical Geography, which followed Prof, 
Huxley’s lectures on that subject in 1869. In 1868 Miss 
Greatbatch passed as a Junior with first class honours, and gained 
a prize for Mathematics at the Cambridge Local Examination. 
In December, 1870, she passed asa Senior, with first class 
honours, gaining the Mill-Taylor Scholarship and a prize for 
Political Economy. Miss Greatbatch did not take up the Mill- 
Taylor Scholarship, which can only be held at Cambridge. 
She is a pupil of the North London Collegiate School for Girls, 
where she has received the whole of her education, The lady 
to whom we alluded last week is not the first who has gained a 
special distinction of proficiency in Natural Philosophy and 
Chemistry at the examinations of the University of London, 
that honour having been conferred on Miss Orme in 1870. 
Pror. Hux ey’s “Elementary Lessons in Physiology” are 
about to be translated into Hindostanee. 
THE Paris correspondent of the Dazly News states that the 
chateau of the Marquis Laplace at Arcueil Cachan, which 
escaped the Prussians, has been plundered by a band of house- 
breakers from the Mouffetaid district. The manuscripts of the 
celebrated astronomer were thrown into the Biévre, from which 
the original of ‘‘ The Mechanism of the Heavens,” in the author’s 
handwriting, has subsequently been fished out. The library, 
which was rich in rare books, souvenirs, and works of art, has 
been looted and devastated. 2 
THE medal given by the Royal Geographical Society to Dr, 
Keith Johnston is in acknowledgment of the services of the devo- 
tion of more than forty years of an unusually active life to purely 
geogiaphical pursuits. He has done more for popularising geo- 
graphy than almost any other living author. The publication 
of his ‘*Physical Atlas” in 1847 gave an unexampled impetus 
to the study of Physical Geography in Britain, and his publica- 
tions since then, of great utility and importance, have been very 
numerous. 
WE learn from the Yournal of Botany that the well-known 
cryptogamist Fries accompanies the Swedish Arctic expedition as 
botanist, and MM. Lindahl and Nauckhoff as zoologist and 
geologist. The expedition intends to visit Baliin’s Bay, and to 
return in October, 
A NeW botanical magazine has just appeared at Lund in 
Sweden, ‘‘ Botaniska Notiser,” edited by Otto Nordstedt. It 
will be specially devoted to Scandinavian botany, and to a review 
of all botanical papers published in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, 
and Finland. 
THE yearly part, just issued, of the Natural History Trans- 
actions of Northumberland and Durham contains, as usual, many 
valuable contributions to scientific literature. The first paper is 
a Revision of the Catalogue of Coleoptera of Northumberland 
and Durham, by Mr. T. J. Bold, including 1,520 species, about 
one half the number hitherto found in Great Britain. Dr. 
W. C. M‘Intosh contributes a short Report on the Collection of 
Annelids dredged off Northumberland and Durham, and Mr. 
George Hodge a Catalogue of the Echinodermata of the same 
counties, forty-three in number, accompanied by interesting 
remarks on each species, and illustrated by four plates. From 
Messrs. W. Kirby and J. Duff we have some elaborate Notes on 
the Geology of part of South Durham, the lower coal measures 
in the neighbourhood of the village of Etherley, embellished by 
NALOCRE 


[Fune 8, 1871 

diagrams showing the position of the coal-seams. Then follow 
five papers on remarkable fossils of the carboniferous series by 
Mr. Albany Hancock, in conjunction with Messrs. T. Atthey 
and R. Howse; viz., On the Labyrinthodont Amphibian, 
Loxomma Allmanni, being its first occurrence in the neighbour- 
hood ; On a new generic form of the same order, to which the 
name Batrachiderpeton lineatum is given ; On another new form 
from the magnesian limestone, Lepidolosaurus Duffit ; Adescription 
of a specimen from the marl-slate of the oldest known reptile, 
Proterosaurus Speneri, and of a new species, P. Huxleyi; and A 
description of four specimens from the same formation of Dory- 
plerus Floffmanni; these papers are illustrated with six well- 
executed plates. 
foraminifer from the carboniferous limestone of Northumberland 
(with one plate), by Mr. H. B. Brady; and the volume closes 
with an admirable address from the president of the Tyneside 
| Naturalists’ Field Club, Mr. G. S. Brady, in which he gives a 
sketch of the work of the society during the past year, and of 
the general additions to natural history literature during the same 
period, especially in the departments of “ Spontaneous Gene- 
ration” and the ‘‘ Origin of Species.” The president for the 
present year is Mr, G, C. Atkinson. 
THE last number of the “ Biicher-verzeichniss,” published by 
Friedlander and Son, of Berlin, is a valuable and copious cata- 
logue of astronomical literature in English, French, Ge:man, 
Latin, and the other European languages. 
A THIRD edition of Prof. Briimnow’s ‘‘ Lehrbuch der Sphiri- 
schen Astronomie” has just been published in Berlin, 
WE are favoured by Mr. Login with a photograph repre- 
senting the produce of one grain of wheat grown on the Egyptian 
system in India, which gave off 160 shoots, and has produced 
105 ears of corn; another, 4} ft. high, which produced 45 ears 
from 44in, to5 in. in length ; and another 3}f{t. high, with about 
50 ears. These are represented as about average results from 
this system, and are contrasted with a single plant grown on the 
native broad-cast system, assisted by irrigation, producing seven 
ears from each grain, and another without irrigation, producing 
from five to fifteen ears, and also represented as average results. 
We congratulate the Indian authorities upon having a man of 
Mr. Login’s wide grasp in their service. This is by no means 
the first time we haye referred to his labours. 
WirH reference to the alleged disappearance of Aurora 
Island, one of the New Hebrides group, to which we alluded 
; some weeks since on the authority of a paper read before the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, a correspondent 
of the Sipping and Mercantile Gazette affirms that the whole 
story is a fable. The original statement rested on a notice by 
Captain Plock, of the French ship Ado/phe, bound from Iquique 
to London, that he passed over the position of the Iles de Aurore, 
as marked on his French chart of the South Atlantic, and saw 
nothing of them, from which he concluded that they had dis- 
appeared. It appears, however, that the Iles de l’Aurore 
(Aurora Islands) never existed. They were formerly placed 
between lat. 52° 38’ and 53° 15’ S., and between long. 47° 43' 
and 47° 57’ W. of Greenwich. The first reporters of the islands 
probably saw icebergs inthe given locality, and mistook their 
character. Aurora Island, in the New Hebrides group, has been 
confounded with the Aurora Island in the Paumotu, Tuamotu, or 
Low Archipelago. Aurora, Makatea, or Metia Island, lat. 15° 
50’ S., long. 148° 13’ W., one of the Low Archipelago, has not 
been visited for some time, but its elevation would lead to the 
inference that it could not disappear suddenly ; it is fertile and 
inhabited. ‘This is the island visited by Wilkes, and on which 
the unique specimens of mollusca were found, It is upwards of 
| 2,500 miles eastward of the New Hebrides, 
The last paper is on Saccamina Carteri, a new 
