By aly 28, 1870] 
NATURE 
263 
has been 152,706,120/., and that diamonds, rubies, sapphires, 
topaz, &c., zre now being found. 
WE learn from the British Aledical Fournal that M. Duruy 
(late Minister of Public Instruction), M. Nélaton (the great 
_ surgical celebrity of Paris), M. Husson (commonly called Sa 
Majesté l’Assistance Publique), and M. Milne-Edwards (the 
well-known semi-English Frenchman and philosopher), are at 
the head of a movement to found an Zcole de Afédecine specially 
or women. ‘The programme has been submitted to the Empress, 
accompanied by a request that she should become patron of the 
projected school. In France it is argued that there really is scope 
-or something of this kind. It is alleged that the practice of 
edicine, from the present dull level of all being competent 
practitioners, is in a bad state; that it is necessary to institute a 
new body of practitioners, competent for drudgery and ordinary 
emergencies, but not competent for consulting practice, It is 
said that the mass of the profession are far too well educated, 
and that it is only by having a dash of the charlatan that even a 
good man can rise above the ranks. 
~ new light on the question. 
This surely is throwing a 
Tue Abbé Moigno announces in the last number of Zes 
Afondes that the stone knives with which Joshua performed the 
tite of circumcision have been found in his tomb by the Abbé 
Richard. The account, which concludes as follows, we com- 
mend to the spécial attention of Mr. John Evans and Mr. Sorby : 
—‘* Voici done qu’un des faits historiques les plus singuliers de la 
Bible a recu la confirmation la plus éclatante, et que nous entrons 
en possession de silex taillés il y a 3,550 ans, plus vieux bien cer- 
tainement, nous le prouverons jusqu’a l’évidence, (!) que les silex 
taillés de la vallée de la Somme ou des grottes d’Aurignac. Qui 
sait méme si le spectroscope manié par des mains aussi habiles 
gue celles de M. Sorby ne nous démontrera pas la présence, sur 
quelques-uns de ces silex, du sang de la circoncision.” (! !) 
Our readers will recollect the important part played by the 
telegraph in the Seven Days’ War, the introduction of this 
new arm, so to speak, enabling von Moltke to control all the 
strategical combinations with unerring accuracy, from a small 
room in Berlin. To the telegraph the Prussians have now 
added the balloon, and already we hear that the French army 
encamped in the environs of Metz have been surveyed with the 
greatest care. Surely if strategy is to play the part it did in 
former times in future battles, given two armies, one of which is, 
by means of a balloon, in electric communication with the Head- 
quarter Staff, in perfect knowledge of the numbers, at any one 
point, and the movements of the other, its success must be 
assured. 
PERSONS wanting chemical and philosophical materials and 
apparatus from Germany, already experience a delay from the 
interrupted communications even in this beginning of hostilities. 
THE heat has been so great at Dowlashéram, in the Madras 
Presidency, in June, that the Indian papers report many birds 
have died of sun-stroke. 
AMONG the scientific labours of the Government in India in the 
departments of agriculture and horticulture, which have given 
such good results in tea and cinchona, may be recorded a garden 
at Raneekhet, the new hill station above Simla, for supplying 
vegetables to the troops, and an experimental cotton garden in the 
Boolundshur district. One chief object of the latter is to test the 
application of irrigation to various descriptions of cotton seed. 
Some appear to require water, and some to be injured, but 
there is no scientific record. 
In the progress of public opinion the public of Madras have 
come to the conclusion that the monkeys of that city, formerly 
held sacred, are a nuisance, and the municipality has taken 
measures to deport them. This requires—first, that they. shall 
be caught. When caught they are to be tenderly treated ; but for 
fear of their early return the aid of modern science is to he 
called in, and they are to be conveyed by railway trains to 
Tiruputty. In the distribution of animals the naturalist ,has 
thought fit to make little account of the railway, which may effect 
a displacement of the monkeys of India. 
THE necessary operations for the construction of the sea-wall 
of the New Brighton Aquarium are progressing, It is expected 
that the aquarium will be completed and furnished by the spring 
of next year. 
“* SPONTANEOUS Generation and the Hypothesis of Physiologi- 
cal Units,” by Herbert Spencer, is a reprint of a paper intended 
for the North American Review, in reply to an article that 
appeared in that journal entitled ‘‘ Philosophical Biology,” in 
which Mr. Spencer thinks that his views on the origin of life are 
not correctly represented. 
TuHeE Sectsman describes a Mirage in the Firth of Forth, the 
most extraordinary instance which can be remembered, which 
occurred on Friday afternoon. The day was very hot and sul- 
try, and there was a peculiarity about the atmosphere which is 
seldom observed in this country. About midday a thin, clear, 
and transparent kind of vapour, through which the surrounding 
objects began to make their appearance in the most fantastic 
and grotesque shapes imaginable, settled over the sea. ‘The 
phan’asmagoria were principally confined to the mouth of the 
firth; but at one time they embraced the whole of the Fife 
coast as far as the eye could reach, town, village, and hamlet 
being depicted high up on the horizon with remarkable dis- 
tinctness. Though the whole coast seemed at least hal@way up 
the horizon, the appearances presented by the towns were very 
different, some of them having the houses inverted, while others 
appeared in the natural position. The Bass Rock, the Isle of 
May, and the-rocks around Dunbar harbour, however, attracted 
most attention, both from their proximity and from the extra- 
ordinary forms which they assumed. The Bass, which at one 
time seemed to lie flat upon the sea, suddenly shot up into a tall 
spiral column, apparently ten times its usual height, surroun led 
by battlements rising tier on tier, and presenting a most imposing 
spectacle. As usual, however, the most fantastic appearances 
were presented by the May, which, in the course of the after- 
noon, underwent an almost innumerable series of phantasmagoric 
transformations. At one time it was apparently as round as a 
circle, at another seemingly draw out for miles against the hori- 
zon ; now flat upon the water, then rising to ten times its usual 
height ; occasionally portions appeared to break off and sail 
away, then to return and unite again—all within the space of a 
few minutes. Vessel in the offing appeared double—one on 
the water, and another inverted ‘n the air; and in one instance 
three figures of one vessel were distinctly visible—one in- 
verted, another on the sea, and a third in its natural position 
between the two. The fishing boats proceeding tv sea in the 
evening underwent the same transformations when only a few 
yards off the shore, the double appearance being distinctly 
visible within a certain distance. The rocks at the harbour also 
seemed to play fantastic tricks, opening and shutting, rising 
and falling, with apparent regularity. These extraordinary il- 
lusions lasted from midday till night-fall, and excited great in- 
terest among the inhabitants of Dunbar, numbers of whom 
collected in the Castle Park and at the harbcur for the pur- 
pose of witnessing the phenomena. 
WE have received from M. J. L. Soubeiran an interesting ac- 
count which he has communicated to the Société Imperiale 
d’Acclimatation, of the progress of pisciculture in the Neil- 
gherries, based on Mr. Day’s paper in the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society. 
