“* : 
Aug. 17, 1871] 
NATURE 
307 

and mounds of the north of Italy; 4. Analogies between the 
Terrawaris and the Kjoekenmoeddings ; 5. The chronology of 
the first substitution of iron for bronze ; 6. Craniological ques- 
tions relative to the different races which have inhabited the 
various districts of Italy. 
Dr. BENJAMIN T, LOWNE has been elected Lecturer on 
Physiology at the Middlesex Hospital School of Medicine. 
THE Society of Civil Engineers of Paris has just elected as its 
president for the coming year, M. Yvan de Villarceau, the chief 
astronomer of the Observatory, and has conferred the title of 
honorary president on M. Tresca, vice-director of the Conser- 
vatoire des Arts et Métiers, as a testimony of high admiration for 
his conduct during the siege of Paris, and under the reign of the 
Commune. 
WE understand that it has been decided to erect astatue to Sir 
Humphrey Davy in his native place, Penzance. By the exertions of 
a working committee, a sum of 500/. has been raisedinsubscriptions 
A very eligible site has been obtained from the Town Council 
immediately in front of the Market-house and facing the main 
entrance of the town. The Messrs. Wills, of 172, Euston Road, 
have been commissioned to execute the statue. The statue is 
designed after Sir Thomas Lawrence’s portrait, painted for the 
Royal Society. The total cost of the statue and of erecting it 
on the site provided is estimated at 600/, 
A PporRTION of the surplus funds from the International Horti- 
cultural Exhibition of 1866 was invested in trustees and applied 
to the purchase of the botanical library of the late Prof. Lindley, 
to be called the Lindley Library, and to serve as a nucleus of a 
consulting library for the use of gardeners and others. Con- 
siderable additions were made to the library by gift, a catalogue 
was prepared, and the books deposited in the rooms of the Royal 
Horticultural Society at South Kensington, but here the matter 
was allowed to lie dormant for a considerable time. The trustees 
have now just issued a circular, stating that the library is now 
open for the use of the public under certain regulations. Fellows 
and officers of the Horticultural Society have access to the 
library at all times when it is open, gardeners and others not 
fellows or officers of the society by application to one of the 
trustees, or to the assistant-secretary of the society. Under certain 
restrictions those using the library can have the books out on 
loan ; and, as it contains a very large number of standard botanical 
and horticultural works, it is hoped it may be of great practical 
service, The trustees will be very glad of assistance in com- 
pleting imperfect sets of periodicals and works published in 
parts, and in adding recently published treatises, for which the 
funds at their disposal are quite inadequate. 
THE American Naturalist states that among the signs of the 
scientific life of the present day in that country, one of the most 
encouraging is the increasing frequency and enthusiasm of those 
delightful occasions of scientific study, intercourse, and recreation, 
called field meetings. 
AT a meeting of the Faculty of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology of New York, held May 6, 1871, the Humboldt Scholar- 
ship was awarded to J. A. Allen, in consideration of his paper 
upon the ‘*Mammals and Winter Birds of East Florida,” and 
the proceeds of the Humboldt Fund for one year were granted to 
him in aid of his exploration of the Fauna of the Rocky 
Mountains, 
HERE is a transatlantic hint to our scientific colleges and 
schools :—Mr, Albert H. Tuttle has been appointed instructor 
in the use of the microscope at Harvard University. 
WE find in the American Fournal of Science for July a more 
detailed statement of the result of the Williams College expedi- 
tion than has heretofore been published. This consisted of five 
members of the present senior class, under the leadership of Mr. 
H. M. Myers, who gained much experience in the line of explora- 
tion in connection with the Venezuelan branch of Professor 
Orton’s expedition of some years back. We have already re- 
ferred to the movements of this party, and it is only necessary to 
add that large numbers of birds were obtained by the expedition 
at Comayagua, as well as two statues, exhumed at Chorozal, 
south of Belize. The collections made by the party will go to 
enrich the Williams College Lyceum of Natural History, and 
will add much to its already extensive treasures. 
THE late Mr. James Yates, M.A., F.R.S., has left 2007, to 
the Geological Society, and 50/7, to the Linnean, and 100/, to 
Prof. Levi towards the adoption of a universal decimal system 
of weights, measures, and coins, in addition to the large 
sums of money devised to University College, London, 
towards the foundation or augmentation of professorships in 
mineralogy and geology and of archeology. To the same 
College he leaves all his books on mineralogy and geology, to- 
gether with his specimens and his collection of ancient coins and 
other antiquities. ; 
THE Sub-Committee appointed by the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal to consider the desirability of undertaking Deep Sea 
Dredging in Indian waters, have presented a memorandum on this 
subject, signed by Thomas Oldham, Ferd. Stoliczka, and James 
Wood-Mason. After recapitulating the important results which 
have accrued from European Dredging Expeditions, the Sub- 
Committee state that they are confident that explorations of the 
Deep Sea in Indian waters will not only furnish data which will 
illustrate the modification of certain supposed laws regulating 
animal and vegetable life in countries geographically and clima- 
tologically different, but that they will undoubtedly supply much 
and most important material for the study and explanation of 
many yet obscure facts in zoology, geology, physics, and the 
collateral branches of science. They, therefore, earnestly hope 
that Government may be led to regard the undertaking of Deep 
Sea Dredging in Indian waters as the most important source 
whence great progress to natural history and physical science will 
result. The Committee suggest the examination of the Bay of 
Bengal by a line of dredging right across from new Juggurnath 
Black Temple to Cape Nagrais, to be followed by another trans- 
verse from near Madras to the Andamans or the Nicobars, and 
again by a line from Ceylon to the coast of Sumatra. It would 
be necessary that, say three persons acquainted with the mode of 
inquiry should accompany each expedition, and it is hoped that 
sufficient accommodation could readily be found for them on 
boar|. They then describe the apparatus that would be required, 
and state their belief that an annual grant of 2,000 Rs., placed 
at the disposal of the Dredging Committee, would be sufficient 
for the objects desired. 
Mr. THomas BLAND, who has long studied the land shells 
of the West Indies, is now endeavouring to elucidate their dis- 
tribution by the help of the depth of the sea between the diffe- 
rent islands. The materials are as yet imperfect, but in a paper 
read before the American Philosophical Society in March 1871, 
he announces that the depths so far as known agree with the 
distribution of the various groups of shells. He finds that the 
whole West Indies may be divided by a line south of Santa 
Cruz and St. Bartholomew, and north of St. Christopher and 
Barbuda, and that all islands south and east of the line show an 
affinity to Venezuela and Guiana in their shell fauna, while those 
to the north and west of it are similarly allied to Mexico. All 
the southern islands, as far as St. Vincent, are situated on a 
submerged bank of about 2,000 feet deep, extending from the 
main land of South America, and these all possess shells of a 
more especially continental character than any other part of the 
West Indies. Some very interesting results may be expected 
