s 
E Fuly 21, 1870] 
- wants the means for educating her two sons. 
were of equal importance to French and English photographers, 
agent at Zanzibar, had informed him that he had had a recent 
letter from Dr. Livingstone, who was quite well and about to 
proceed northwards, Sir Thomas Maclear had indeed (the 
president of the Geographical Society writes) ‘‘ communicated 
the same to me; but I at once saw that the story was false, for 
T had in my possession a letter from Dr. Kirk, of two months’ 
later date than the 14th of March, in which he could give me 
no information whatever respecting the great traveller. Since 
then I have again heard from Dr. Kirk at Zanzibar. I have for 
some time, and in concluding the geographical session, announced 
to all concerned that for at least eight months we did not expect 
to hear any definite news respecting Dr. Livingstone, inasmuch 
as the supplies and carriers to be sent to him and the answers to 
letters could not be obtained for a long period, I allude to those 
supplies which were obtained from Her Majesty’s Government, 
and which only left England a few weeks ago,” 
WE cull this note from the Pa// AZa// and commend it to Mr. 
Lowe :—‘‘To scientific English ears still tingling from Mr. 
Lowe’s famous declaration as to Government aid to science, part 
of the proceedings in the Corps Législatif on Thursday last must 
haye been yery tantalising. Chapter 29 of the Budget con- 
tained an item of S800/. to assist Captain Gustave Lambert's ex- 
pedition for the discovery of the North Pole. M. Stephen 
Liégeard moved that the grant should be 4,000/,, and with the 
help of a few words from M. Picard his amendment was carried. 
To be sure it was the day before war was declared. M. Liégeard 
pressed a good many points into a brief speech. Since 1818 it 
appears there have been forty-two expeditions in search of this 
famous mathematical entity, all of which have failed. The three 
modes of search now urged are—that of Captain Sherard Osborn, 
by sledges over the frozen ocean (but, says M. Liégeard, what 
was thought to be a crust of ice is an open sea) ; the proposal of 
Augustus Petermann, of Gotha, to follow the route between 
Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla; and Captain Lambert’s, to try 
the passage through Behring’s Straits, which Cook would 
have done, ‘‘had he not fallen under the hatchet of the 
savages of the Sandwich Islands.” It appears further that 
in the polar region, so fatal to explorers, ‘‘there are 
rich products to conquer—whale oil, fossil ivory, gold, 
copper, coal, and everything else that 800,000,0c0 of still 
unexplored polar hectares can conceal.” Captain Lambert has 
held 200 meetings on this subject, and collected 16,000/., be- 
sides subscriptions from chambers of commerce, learned societies, 
the Emperor (2,000/.), and others. The exploring vessel, the 
Boréal, is ready ; Captain Lambert, “an intelligent man, full of 
faith and courage, with a constitution of iron,” will leave Paris 
on the Ist of February next, and in the month of August, 1871, 
so M. Liégeard says, he will—perhaps to the cry of Ohe! 
Lambert—‘‘ plant the French flag on the prolongation of the 
terrestrial axis.” As for Captain Lambert, we do not wish to 
damp his courage or rust his constitution, but Voltaire wrote a 
curious prophetic sentence on the 30th of June, 1760, in a letter 
to Thiriot ;—‘‘Il vaut mieux attendre tout du temps en France 
que (aller chercher I’ennui et le malheur sous le péle.” 
AT a meeting of the Council of the Society of Arts, held on 
the 8th inst., M. de Lesseps received from the Prince of Wales 
the Albert gold medal for ‘‘services rendered to arts, manu- 
factures, and commerce by the realisation of the Suez Canal.” 
THE testimonial to Professor Morris was presented on Thursday 
last by Sir R. I, Murchison in the rooms of the Geological 
Society, Somerset House. 
L’AnsE Mor1Gno makes an appeal in Zes Afondes on behalf 
of the Ni¢pce de Saint-Victor subscription, which at present 
hardly exceeds 400 francs ; the widow is in great distress and 
As his inventions 
NATURE 
os ie elma ae laaeas 
241 
it seems fitting that England should bear her share in recognising 
his services. We shall be happy to receive subscriptions. 
THE editorial chair of the British Medical Journal is about to 
become vacant. Candidates are to forward their application to 
the President of the Council, W. D. Husband, Esq., York, on 
or before the 3oth inst. 
In reference to the recent appointment of Dr. A, R. Simpson 
to his late uncle’s chair of midwifery in the University of Edin- 
burgh, we have received a card with the following statements :— 
(1) That he had never given a course of lectures on midwifery, 
or on any other subject ; (2) That he had never had a pupil (in 
the proper sense of the word) ; (3) That he had never held an 
hospital appointment ; (4) That he had neyer sent in a single 
testimonial of his fitness for the chair to which he had been 
appointed ; (5) That he had never written or published any 
paper that attracted considerable notice. The correctness of 
these facts being assumed, we can well understand the indigna- 
tion of the faculty in London at the appointment, especially as 
one of the most eminent practitioners of this branch of surgery, 
Dr. Matthews Duncan, was a candidate. The time seems to 
have arrived when the appointment to Professorships in Scotch 
Universities should be placed in more competent hands than the 
Town Council. At the recent election the appointment rested 
with seven electors, four of them members of the Town Council, 
three men of distinguished literary and scientific position. The 
three latter voted for Dr. Duncan, the four baillies for Dr. Simp- 
son, thus carrying the election by a majority of one. 
M. Cx. LE Maour calls attention in two recent numbers of 
Cosmos, to the popular belief that constant firing of guns has a 
tendency to bring downa heavy fall of rain, a belief which appears 
to be supported by the experience of the last Austro-Prussian 
war, the siege of Antwerp, and the battle of Solferino. M. Le 
Maout suggests that a series of experiments to test the soundness 
of the theory should be tried at the fortifications of Cherbourg, 
and at Brest, under opposite hygrometrical conditions, in the one 
case during a moist south, in the other during a dry east wind. 
TuE Acclimatisation Gardens in the Bois de Boulogne have 
just received from Java a fine female Orang, three years old, and 
larger than any that has hitherto been brought to Europe, It is 
described as extremely docile, and possessed of such a strong 
sense of propriety as to wash its bust, arms, and shoulders with 
soap and water whenever it feels to need it. It is alloweda 
walk every morning in the gardens, when it displays great 
activity in climbing to the top of the tallest trees. Its height 
when standing upright is about that of a child five years old. 
THE Government of Nicaragua is trying to develop the 
waters of the Lake of Nejapa, which are reported to be effica- 
cious in syphilitic affections of the system. The official report 
on the specimens sent to Paris states that the water is turbid, and 
contains a quantity of matter in suspension, having the smell of 
rotten eggs, due to sulphuretted hydrogen. The taste is alka- 
line. Such is the condition of the specimens in Paris, but in 
its natural situation the water is inoffensive in odour. The pre- 
sent analysis is therefore considered as capable of modification. 
The qualitative analysis gives us Jases, magnesia, soda, potass, 
lime, iron, acids, sulphuric, hydrochloric, carbonic. The quanti- 
tative analysis states that 500 grains evaporated gavea residuum 
of 4°15 grains, which in treatment left, as the contents of each 
500 grains of water 
Bicarbondte ofsoda «os ¢ os nee ute 6 190 
potass wie) Vie so.) 6 Nees Sooner 2°40 
Sulphate Bianamnesia Woy eg ee ee OPES, 
Chloride of sodium. . core fet ae \¢ We BtOs 
Sulphurets of calcium, iron, Blk eae 1°25 
Although the analysis admits of correction with Better speci- 
mens, it places the Nejapa water in the alkaline class with those 
of Vichy and Vals, 
