56 



NATURE 



[Nov. 19, 1874 



researches on slaty cleavage and on the minute structure of mi- 

 nerals and rocks, for the construction of the micro-spectroscope, 

 and for his researches on colouring matters. 



We are very glad to be able to announce that Prof. Maske- 

 lyne's lectures on Crystallography to the Chemical Society are 

 likely to be well attended. The first lecture will be given on 

 Monday evening next, at 8.30, at BarUngton House. 



Last week some engineers visited the National Library, Paris, 

 on behalf of the Japanese Government, to take measurements for 

 the purpose of building a large public library in Japan on the 

 same plan. The magazine and reading-rooms of Paris have, 

 with soaie improve.nents, b°en built on the system of the 

 British Museum. 



The report of the Potato Disease Committee of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society has been recently published. It will be 

 recollected that three years ago Earl Cathcart offered a prize of 

 loo/, for essays on the prevention of the disease. Alihough no 

 fre^h practical information was elicited, and it may perhaps be 

 said no direct good came from this well-meant offer, the Society 

 took the subject up and offered prizes for potatoes reputed to be 

 proof against disease. Two prizes were offered for the com- 

 mencement of this year, for potatoes of varieties already known, 

 and two are to be awarded five years hence forvadeties that may 

 be produced by cultivation before that period. Six different 

 varieties were sent in, i ton (twenty bags of I cwt.) of eacli. The 

 Society arranged to have these practically tested. Twelve stations 

 in England, lour in Scotland, and four in Ireland were selected, 

 and I cwt. of each variety sent for planting, of ihese so-called 

 disease-proof potatoes. During the summer the botanic referee 

 of the Society visited all the localides, and in all cases disease 

 was found. Much valuable information is bkely to arise from 

 the statistics that have been collected, for although it seems that 

 no indication is given of how the disease can be prevented, yet 

 under certain conditions, principally influenced by moisture, its 

 effect is but small. Prof, de Lary has worked out the scientific 

 questions that occur as to the origin of the disease. It is owing 

 to a fungus [Peronospora in/cstans), which attacks the leaves firs', 

 and after absorbing the nutriment of them, utilises the petiole, 

 and thus reaches the tubes. A further report oi the Committee, 

 based on the statislios sent in, is shortly to be expected. 



We greatly regret to announce the death of lUrs. Hooker, 

 the wife of the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, and Pr>.-si- 

 dcnt of the Royal Society, which took place on Friday, Nov. 13, 

 very suddenly. She was the translator of Le Maout and 

 Decaisnc's " Traite general de Botauique. She will be missed by 

 a large circle of scientific friends. 



The death of Dr. Archibald Campbell wdl be regarded as a 

 severe los^ by his colleagues in scientific societies and by many 

 of the Indian public. He wa> sixty-niue years of age, and till 

 lately appeared hale and hearty. As Superintendent of Dar- 

 jeeling, he became a leading authority of reference on the natural 

 history, geography, and ethnography of Thibet, Nepaul, Sikkim, 

 and Bhootan. He was distinguished as an administrator, and 

 under his government and auspices Darjeeling has risen from an 

 obscure sanitarium for invalid soldiers to be a settlement of same 

 consideration. He was the author of several memoirs and 

 notes. 



We have to record the death, on Monday last, in his fifty- 

 sixth year, of Dr. Edward Smith, F.R.S., Assistant Medical 

 Officer, for Poor-law purposes, to the Local Government Board. 

 Dr. Smith's excellent observations on quantitative physiological 

 cyclical phenomena, many of which were conducted en himself, 

 are too we'd known to require special mention ; they indicate an 

 amount of energy and willingness to experience personal incon- 



venience for the sake of his favourite subject which is very 

 rarely to be met with. His observations on dietaries, espe- 

 cially with regard to the Manchester cotton famine, are also of 

 consilerable importance. 



We hear that a new method has been proposed for crossing 

 the Channel ; this is to construct an artificial isthmus between 

 the French and English sides, leaving a very small space in the 

 centre for the passage of ships. The expense would not be 

 mu ;h larger than that of boring a tunnel, and the advantages 

 would in somerespec'.sbe greater. 



The International Congress of Orientalists has been the 

 means of originating in Paris a new society under the 

 title of Societe .d'Etudes, Japonaises, Chinoises, Taitares, and 

 Indo-chinoises. The number of members already amounts to 

 si.\ty. At a recent meeting of the Society, M. Bourset exhibited 

 a game for teaching children in a few hours the elements of 

 which Chinese letters are made — oiiuic liilit punctum qui iniscuit 

 iililc dnlci. M. Bourset has also shoivn another invention for 

 diminiahiiig the number of letters which must be cut, and there- 

 fore of diminishing the cost of printing Chinese works. 



M. LeverrierIs constructing, in the recently annexed garden 

 of his observatory, a basis for comparing accurately, by super- 

 position, standard measures of length with the metre. The first 

 comparison v/iU be made between the Archives metre and the 

 celebrated Boscoivitz rule, which was used more than a century 

 ago for determining the length of two degrees in the Papal 

 States. 



I.\ a paper read before the Palis Societe d' Acclima' ation, Dr. 

 Turrel suggests that the rapid spread of the Phylloxera vastiirix 

 in France may be due to the scarcity of small birds in that 

 country. Forty years ago, he says, linnets, tits, &c., were 

 numerous in Provence, ant in the autumn they could be seen 

 posted on the vine bra.iches, carrying on a vigorous search afttr 

 the insects, and larva: and eggs of insects, concealed in the 

 cracks of the stem and leaves of the plant. Since the co.n- 

 meucement of the present cenairy, however, it is easy. to perceive 

 that the destruction of small birds has been carried on more anl 

 more generally ; and that, concurrently with this war of extermi- 

 nation against the feathered tribes, the numbers of destructive 

 initcts have increased at an alarming rate. Dr. Turrel thinks 

 t'nat, though it cannot be absolutely maintained that the oidium 

 and the Phylloxera, the two latest forms of vine disease (the one 

 a vegetable, the other an insect parasite), owe their /rightful 

 extension to the scarcity of small birds, y^t it is unquestionable 

 t'.iat a plant like the vine, weakened by the attacks of insects, is 

 less in a condition to withstand the ravages of parasites ; and 

 that, deprived of its feathered protectors and left to the succes- 

 sive and unchecked onslaught of the vine grub aud other normal 

 enemiei, it has been predisposed to sucju.nb before the ravages 

 of its new enemies. The obvious mor.il is that the French are 

 tremselves partly to blame fo: their indiscrjtion in killing the 

 useful small birds. 



The commotion created in th : Paris School of Medicine by the 

 false rumour spread by the Figaro has been beyond bounds ; not 

 only was M. Wurtz, the Dean, cheered, but M. Chauffard, one 

 of the professors belonging to the cleiical part)', was hooted, and 

 unable to deliver his lecture. The disorder having been renewed 

 in spite of all precautions taken by M. Wurtz, the School of 

 Medicine has been closed for a month. If students again exhibit 

 a riotous spirit, the ringleaders will be prosecuted before a 

 Council of War ; which is a lawful proceeding, Paris being 

 placed under a slate of siege. 



SiROMisoLi is reported to have recently shown symptoms ol 

 revived action. 



