Sept. 15, 1870 | 
NATURE 
399 
from the Andes of Quito ; a fine set of pine cones from Cali- 
fornia; numerous specimens of plants and fruits, chiefly from 
Africa. The number of visits paid to the herbarium during the 
year for purposes of scientific research was 974. 
WE have already signs of the opening of the medical session 
on the 1st of October next. The number of the Chemical News for 
Sept. 9th is devoted to a very useful summary of the requirements 
of the various examining bodies in this country in chemistry and 
physics, and of the courses of lectures and laboratory instruction 
given at the different colleges and medical schools in London and 
the provinces. The British Medical Fournal for Sept. 10th also 
gives the regulations of the General Medical Council, and Medi- 
cal licensing bodies, and notes concerning the hospitals and 
medical schools. 
WITH reference to the paragraph in our last number respecting 
the use of ammonia in Victoria as a cure for snake-bite, we 
learn that the inhabitants of that colony are so deeply impressed 
with the great practical value of the discovery, that they are col- 
lecting subscriptions for a fitting testimonial to present to Dr 
Halford, who was the first to suggest and carry out this mode ot 
treatment. Any contributions for this object will be received by 
Dr. G. E. Day, of Furzewell House, Torquay, who states that 
it has been the means of saving a number of cases in an ap- 
parently hopeless state of collapse. 
Some important experiments are now been conducted with 
the new description of torpedo submitted to the Government by 
Mr. Whitehead. The Oderox yesterday floated out of dock at 
Chatham, and will be sent round to Shoeburyness, where the 
experiments, which are to be carried out under the superinten- 
dence of a commission, of which Lieutenant-Colonel Nugent, 
Royal Engineers, is the president, are to take place. The 
wooden vessel to be operated upon with the torpedoes, which are 
fired from the stem of the Oderor beneath the water, is Z’ Azg/e, 
which has been placed at the disposal of the committee by the 
Admiralty for that purpose. These torpedoes are /ocomotive, the 
motive power being compressed air, and already the results 
obtained are surprising. The minutes of evidence taken before 
the select committee on the Abyssinian expedition are published 
this morning. They fill a blue-book of 600 pages. 
A BOTTLE-NOSED whale, measuring eighteen feet in length 
by eight feet in girth, came ashore near Burntisland, on the 
Scotch coast, on Thursday afternoon last. It was drawn up on 
to the beach while still alive. It is to be hoped that some 
museum will see about securing the skeleton of this whale ; it 
would be a very welcome addition to many museums, and could, 
we should think, be obtained for a small cost. 
THE extreme rarity of well-authenticated examples of the 
parasitism of the mistletoe on the oak has induced Dr. Bull, of 
Hereford, to collect the known instances, which he finds to be 
eight in number, viz., three in Herefordshire, and one each in 
Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Devonshire, Hants, and Surrey. 
In the most recently-discovered instance, in the Forest of Deer- 
fold in Herefordshire, the mistletoe was found on an oak of the 
variety sessiliflora, some fifty or sixty years old; it isa female plant, 
growing high up on the main stem, and forming a large spread- 
ing branch with a diameter of three-and-a-half feet, and spring- 
ing from the oak in a single stem nearly four inches in circum- 
ference. The mistletoe also grows on a thorn close by, and has 
probably sprung from a seed dropped by a bird from above. 
A NEW process for making steel has been discovered in 
America, by means of which it is stated that American steel can 
be made equal to that usually imported into that country. $ It 
is manufactured from a peculiar iron ore found in Codorus 
township, Pennsylvania. The iron is mixed in a reverberatory 
furnace with middling pig-iron in the proportion of one to six. 
It is hoped by means of this valuable discovery to manufacture 
steel rails at a cost of about sixty dollars per ton. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.—LIVERPOOL 
MEETING, 1870 
S we go to press the great annual scientific meeting has 
3 = already commenced ; and although the President is at the 
present moment actually delivering his opening address, we are 
able, through Prof. Huxley’s kindness, to give our readers a 
verbatim report. We believe it will be found to rank in interest 
and importance along with any of its predecessors. We are also 
able to give Prof. Roscoe’s Address to Section B; the Kew 
Report lack of space compels us to defer till next week. Wehave 
already given the particulars of the places of meeting and officers 
of the various sections. Not much remains to be added : by the 
time this is in the hands of our readers the meeting will be in full 
swing, and those who are attending it will already beat home in 
all the various arrangements. Among the most interesting occa- 
sions will doubtless be Sir John Lubbock’s lecture to working 
men. The Mayor’s reception at the Town Hall, continued for 
two successive evenings, though not open to all who show the 
ticket of the Association, is virtually so. All who have arrived in 
time will receive a formal invitation ; and any omission, if such 
occur, will rest with those who should promptly send forward 
the names. Another entertainment is that to be given in the Phil- 
harmonic Hall on Saturday evening, the 17th, by Dr. E. R. Bick- 
ersteth. Besides giving a subscription on the largest scale to the 
local fund, he will entertain about 700 strangers and 300 of our 
own townspeople. Eight excursions have been arranged for 
Thursday, September 22nd, in connection with the Association. 
The first of these is to Cefn Hall, near St. Asaph, where the 
party will be received at a luncheon by Mrs. Williams Wynne ; 
the excursionists will start from the George’s Landing Stage by 
the railway boat. An excursion party will also leave for Chester 
by the same boat. An excursion party to Crewe Works will 
leave the Lime Street Station by an early train. The guests, 
whose number is limited to one hundred, are invited to a luncheon 
at Crewe, provided by the London and North Western Railway 
Company. A fourth excursion will be to Llandudno, and will 
start from the Prince’s Landing Stage in the Zé/ara, kindly lent 
for the occasion by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. 
Dinner and tea will be provided on board the vessel at hours 
most convenient to the excursionists. Another party will leave 
the George’s Landing Stage for Llangollen, and have luncheon at 
the Hand Hotel, Llangollen. A sixth excursion will visit Widnes, 
where there will be a dinner in the public hall, by invitation of 
the Widnes committee of reception. There will likewise be an 
excursion to Wigan, and an excursion up and down the River 
Mersey. In Liverpool many of the chief works, manufactories, 
and public institutions will be open to the inspection of the 
members of the Association all through the week. Among the 
papers intended to be read, the titles of which have already 
reached us, the following are among the most interesting :— 
In Section A, Francis Galton, F.R.S., ‘‘ Barometric Predictions 
of Coming Weather.”—John J. Hall, ‘‘A new Electro-magnetic 
Electrometer. ”—A. W. Bickerton, ‘‘A new Heat Engine.” —W. 
Rowett, ‘‘ Ocean Telegraphy.”—Henry Hudson, Glenville, Fer- 
moy, Ireland, ‘‘On the Wave Theories of Light.”—Dr. Joseph 
Henry, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, U.S.A , who will be 
present at the meeting, ‘‘On the Rainfall of the United States. ”°— 
R. S. Ball, Royal College of Science, Dublin, ‘* The small Oscilla- 
tions of a Rigid Body.” —S. Hewett, Marlborough, Wilts, “‘ The 
Earth’s Centre of Gravity, Axis of Revolution, and Magnetic 
Axis or Centre.” —W. M. Watts, ‘‘ The Existence of two Spectra 
produced by Carbon incandescent at the same Temperature. ”’—In 
Section B, C. R. Tichborne, F.C.S., ‘‘ On the Action of Street 
Dust as a Ferment.”—W. H. Perkin, ‘‘On Artificial Aliza- 
rine.” —A. H. Church, ‘‘ Experiments on the Preservation of 
Stone,” ‘‘Contributions to Mineralogical Chemistry.”—John G. 
Macvicar, ‘‘ On the Structure and Form ofan Atom of Moisture” 
(illustrated by models).—J. H. Lloyd, M.D., Anglesea, ‘‘ On the 
Dry System of Sewage.’’—In Section C, J. Logan Lobley, 
“©On the Stratigraphical Distribution of the British Fossil Gas- 
