Dec. 31, 1874] 



NA TV RE 



175 



Fkom Ihe Indian papers it appeal s llmt the expedition 

 despatched fiom British Burmah to Vunan was to travel, not by 

 any new route, but by the one which Major Sladen followed 

 some six years ago. It was to start, in fact, from his point of 

 departure, Bhamo, proceeding thence to Momein and Talifu. 

 From the last-named city, once more subject lo a Chinese 

 governor, it will sail down the mighty Yangtse, with Shanghai 

 for its final goal. The exploring parly is commanded by Col. 

 Horace Browne, one of the most distinguished ofilcers of the 

 Burmah Commission. Mr. Ney Elias is a member of the expe- 

 dition, and Dr. John Anderson, who goes as scientific officer, 

 with a small staff of Eurasian and native collectors, is already 

 well known as a member of the former expedition to Bhamo 

 and Yunan. If the present parly succeed in reaching Shanghai, 

 they will be the first Europeans who, at least since the days of 

 Marco Polo, have ever made their way through China from the 

 West. 



It is with somewhat mingled feelings that we have jierused 

 the Report of the " Botanical Locality .Record Club " for 1873. 

 Any addiaon to our knowledge of the geographical distribution 

 of British plants is very valuable, and the Recorder and his corre- 

 spondents have industriously compiled much useful and interesting 

 observation. But what chance remains of the permanence of 

 our rarer plants when their localities are published in this way? 

 We are glad to find that one of the rarest and most interesting of 

 Britisli plants, the Lady's Slipper, Cypripcdiiim Calceo.'us, has 

 been found in several other localities m the woody raagntsian- 

 limestone denes of Durham, besides the original one of Castle 

 Eden ; the exact spots are wisely withheld. 



Mr. R. Routledge, B.Sc, F.C.S., has been appointed to 

 the Professorship of Natural Philosophy at the Bedford College, 

 York Place. Lecture rooms and a chemical laboratory fitted 

 wilh the requisite appliances for the practical teaching of physi- 

 cal science are in course of preparation ; but pending the comple- 

 tion of these, arrangements have been made to commence the 

 next session with an elementary course of experimental lectures 

 on heat, in another apartment of the College. 



Surgeon-Major Day, F.Z.S., Inspector of Fisheries in 

 India, has recently issued a second report on the fisheries of 

 India and Burmah, which treats of the sea fisheries of those 

 countries, and of the principal customs affecting the supply of 

 fish. The case of the fisheries in the East is entirely diffeient 

 from that in this coimtry. In India, the chief subject of investi- 

 gation is how to augment the working ol the sea fisheries ; in 

 Great Britain, one of the main objects of the Ltgislature in the 

 various inquiries that have been made has been to -see if tliey 

 were being overworked, and to devise means for their preserva- 

 tion and protection. Although certain customs exist wliich, if 

 observed on a large scale, would seriously affect the fisheries of 

 India, still the g-neral facts .seem to prove that there are not 

 sufficient means for properly capturing and utilising the natural 

 supplies of fish. One of the principal defects is the want of 

 quick means of carriage of the fish to the inland towns ; t<j 

 secure a supply of fish in the interior, it is necessary to salt them, 

 and a great impediment to the trade in salt fish is the Govern- 

 ment tax on salt. On this point Dr. Day's remarks are very im- 

 j.ortant. lie says : " It may be well to decide whether it is 

 humane or even prudent, in a sanitary point of view, to make 

 the price of salt so excessively high that it cannot be used to 

 preserve fish with, and thus compel the people to go without or 

 consume it putrid or rotten. We read that ' in Bergen there are 

 two lar^e hospitals devoted exclusively to the treatment of 

 patients suffering from a peculiar form of disease brought on by 

 eating badly-cured fish ; the disease is a mixture of leprosy and 

 elephantiasis ' (both common in Orissa). In Ireland, in 1645, 

 we are told that the leprosy was driven out of Munster by the 



English, the disease being due lo the people erding foul salmon 

 or those out of season. This was prohibited, and tfie pro- 

 hibition enforced ' whereby hindering these barbarians against 

 their will to feed on that poisonous meat ; they were the cause 

 of that woeful sickness which used so mightily to reign among 

 them, but hath in time been almost abolished.' The collector of 

 Ratnagiri states that the high duty on salt is undoubtedly a source 

 of epidemics and other serious illnesses induced by eating imper- 

 fectly prepared fish. I think the foregoing extract sufficient to 

 show that compelling a population to eat rotten fish may be a 

 rather impolitic act." 



The Council of the Society for the Promotion of Scientific 

 Industry, the head-quarters of which are at Manchester, has 

 decided to give gold, silver, and bronze medals for excellence 

 and novelty in the various classes of exhibits at the exhibition of 

 implements, machines, and appliances for the economising of 

 labour, which is to take place in Manchester in 1S75. The 

 arrangements for the Exhibition are progressing satisfactorily, 

 and space has been secured by many high-class engineering and 

 other firms. 



The tenth number 01 the third volume of the Bulletin of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology consists of an article on the 

 Opkuiridiv and AstropliYliii-^, old and new, by Theodore Lyman, 

 in continuation and rectification of previous memoirs on the same 

 subject. Many new species are indicated, principally from the 

 Philippine Islands, where they were collected by Dr. Semper, 

 from whom they passed into the possession of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology. The memoir is illustrated by seven plates, 

 showing the anatomy of the Ol'ldnridtr, the growth of spines, 

 hooks, and stumps, the formation of armed spines, &c., and the 

 characters of the new species. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Hardwicke's Mastigur-es (Uromastix 

 /lardivirki/) from India, presented by Lieut. -Col. C. S. Sturt ; a 

 Nicobar Pigeon {(Calccnas nirobarica) from the Nicobar Islands, 

 presented by Capt. R. J. Wimberley ; two Bonnet Monkeys 

 {Macacus radtalus) from India, presented by Mr. L. Miller and 

 Miss J. Watt ; two Mazame Deer (Cei-vus campestris) from 

 South America, purchased ; a Paradise Whydah Bird (Vidua 

 paradised), a Pin-tailed Whydah Bird (Viiua primipii/is) from 

 West Africa, received in exchange. 



THE PRESENT COAWITTON OF THE ROYAL 



SOCIETY 



{Extracted from the President's Address at the A nriiveisary 

 J\/eetii,!;.) 

 TT has been represented to me that, the Royal Society 

 -'- being now, after eighteen years of tempiorary accommodation, 

 settled in quarters ot which we hope to retain undisturbed 

 occupation lor some generations to come, an account of the 

 present posi'i in of the Socieiy in respect of our more impor- 

 tant possessions, foundaiions, and functions, and our relations 

 to the Government, would not only be generally acceptable, 

 but might even be required of me by that large and increasing 

 class 01 Fellows who live far from our doors. This class 

 now numbers as nearly as possible one half of the Society, 

 few of whom can be evirn occasional attendants at our meetings ; 

 and if to this class of absentees be added the large number of resi- 

 dents within the metropolitan district whose avocations prevent 

 their attending, it will not surprise you to hear that (as I have 

 ascertained by careful inquiry) a very large proportion of our 

 fellow members know little of the Society's proceedings beyond 

 what appears in our perio ileal publications, nor of our collec- 

 tions, nor of the tenure under which we occupy our apartments 

 under the Crown — and that many have never heard of the funds 

 we administer, whether our own or those voted by Parliament in 

 aid of scientific research, nor of the fund for relief of the neces- 

 sitous, nor of the gratuitous services rendered by the Society to 

 various departments of the Government. 



