29 + 



NATURE 



{Feb. II, 1875 



We would remind our readers that Prof. Clerk-Maxwell's 

 lecture to the Chemical Society, " On the dynamical evidence of 

 the molecular constitution of bodies," will be delivered on 

 Thursday r.ext, the i8th instant. The Faraday Lecture will be 

 delivered by Dr. A. W. Hofmann on the iSth of March. 



The Cambridge Smith's Prizes have been adjudged as fol- 

 lows : — First prize, W.Burnside, B.A., Pembroke ; second prize, 

 G. Chrystal, B.A., St. Peter's. These two gentlemen were 

 declared equal in the last Mathematical Tripos as Second 

 Wrangler. 



At the 300lh anniversary of the founding of the University of 

 Leyden, held on the 8th inst., degrees were conferred on the 

 following English men of science : — Prof. Cayley, Mr. Huggins, 

 Mr. Prescott Joule, Dr. Odling, and also Prof. Newcomb, of 

 Washington, U.S., created Doctors of Jlathematics and Physics. 

 Mr. Charles Darwin was created Doctor of Medicine. 



It is intended to issue, in October 1875, the first number of a 

 periodical to be entitled Mind ; a Quarterly RnnrcO tf Scientific 

 Psychology and Fhilosophy. Due prominence will be given in 

 the Review to objective researches into the functions ol ihe 

 nervous system. All special lines of investigation afforcing 

 insight into mind, in dependence on the main track of psy- 

 chological inquiry, will receive attention in the Review ; i".^., 

 Language, Primitive Culture, Mental Pathology, and Comparative 

 Psychology. Mind v/\\\ be published by Messrs. Williams and 

 Norgate. 



The Board of Trinity College, Dublin, have elected Dr. J. 

 Emerson Reynolds Professor of Chemistry in the University of 

 Dublin. Dr. Reynolds is well known as an accomplished 

 chemist, an excellent observer, and a skilful experimentalist. 

 His researches on a new group of colloid bodies containing 

 mercury, and on certain silicic acids, and his discovery of sul- 

 phuretted urea, have made his n.'.me well known. His election 

 as one of the Professors ot the Medical School of Dublin 

 University is in every way for the interest of that school, and the 

 announcement thereof will be received with the greatest favour 

 by his colleagues. 



There will be an examination at Downing College, on 

 Tuesday, April 6, and three following days, for a Scholarship 

 in Natural Science. Information can be obtained of the tutor 

 of the College, Mr. John Perkins. 



The Government has received a despatch from Ealavia, dated 

 Feb. 3, announcing an eruption of the volcano Kloit, in the 

 islarrd of Java, whereby great destruction has been caused at 

 Blitar. 



We have received an instalment of the thirty-ninth supplement 

 to Petermann's l\Hlthciliin(;en, which is to be occupied with a 

 full geographical and statistical account of the Argentine Re- 

 public, Chili, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The part to h.ind con- 

 tains details concerning the physical features, political divisions, 

 and popul.ition of the first-named, and a large finely executed 

 map cf all the four. Dr. Petcrmann himself compiles the strictly 

 geographical account from the latest ofl'rcial statistics, while a 

 geographico-statistical appendix is to be given by Dr. Bur- 

 meister, director of the Museum of Birenos Ayres. 



The January part of Petermann's Mitlheiiun^cn contains a very 

 interesting sketch, by E. Behm, of the origin and progress of the 

 German African Society, which has already set to work in earnest 

 on the West Coast, and promises to do much for the exploration 

 of Africa in this direction. Dr. Petermann writes on the means 

 by which the Society's explorers are to carry on their work, and 

 strongly advocates the use of elephants. A map of the coast 

 from 2° N. to 10° S. accompanies the papers, showing the routes 

 of previous explorers, and those of Bastian, Giissfeldt, and Lenz, 



in 1S73-74. The moving spirit of the Society is the accomplished 



Dr. Bastian, who himself has travelled in nearly every region of 

 the globe. 



The January number of the Bulletin of the French Geo- 

 graphical Society contains the first instalment of a series of 

 extracts from Abbe David's account of his travels in Mongolia 

 in 1S66. Abbe David is one of the most indefatigable of living 

 tr.avellers, and has probably done more than .iny other explorer 

 to make known the natural history of China ; for it is for botan- 

 ical and zoological, rather than for geographical purposes, be 

 travels. The narrative of this his first journey, and also of his 

 second in 1868-70, up the Yang-tse-Kiang, and as far as the 

 borders of Thibet, have been published in ihe A^onzvllcs .4 rcltivcs 

 of the Paris Museum. From these narratives the present 

 extracts, presenting mainly the geographical results, are taken. 

 Abbe David was compelled to return to Europe last April to recruit 

 his shattered health, and contemplates publishing a separate 

 nar.-ative of a third journey, from Pekin down through the centre 

 of China, during which he explored the important chain of 

 the Tsing-ling Mountains. 



At the last soiree of the Paris Observatory M. Dupuy de Lome 

 explained his ferry-boat intended to carry railway trains be- 

 twcEU England and France. M. de Lesseps also delivered a 

 lecture on the tunnel which It is proposed to bore from Calais 

 to Dover. A commission of nineteen members has been elected 

 by the Versailles Assembly to report upon the boring of a pre- 

 liminary gallery. All the members are unanimous to grant the 

 required authorisation. The president of the commissioner's is 

 M. Martel, one of the members for Pas de Calais. Four other 

 members for that department are amongst the commission. 



On the ist of February M. Leverrier announced to the 

 Academy of Sciences the discovery, by M. Stephan, the director 

 of the Marseilles Observatory, of Encke's comet. On the Sth 

 he announced the detection, by M. Stephan, of Winnecke's 

 comet, which is a more notable object, and can be observed with 

 a finder". It is necessary to employ powerful instruments to see 

 Encke's with certainty. Both comets were seen at Marseilles for 

 the first time, that of Enckc in iSiS, and Winnecke in iSig. 



In the number of the 30th January of the International Bulletin 

 of the Paris Olueii'atory, M. Leverrier publishes the first list of 

 the corrected observations for the small planets in 1S73. ■'^'" 

 most all the numbers are incorrect by a few tenths of a second, 

 many of one second, some of twenty seconds, and one of two 

 degrees. 



The Statistical Society have published this year for the first 

 time an almanac for 1875. It is very neatly got up, and will 

 no doubt prove useful to the members of the Society ; and the 

 very carefully and originally arranged calendar ought to make 

 it interesting to outsiders. The almanac contains, besides, a list 

 of the principal statistical documents Issued by the several State 

 departments, and a series of tables of equivalents of imperial 

 and metric weights and measures. During the year 1875 the 

 Council hope to make arrangements for compiling Tables of Con- 

 stants relating to population, pauperism, crime, education, 

 exports and imports, &c., with a view to their publication with 

 the almanac for 1876. 



The following is the title of the essay to which the Howard 

 Medal will be awarded by the Statistical Society in November 

 1875 ; the essays to be sent in on or before June 30, 1875 : — 

 "The State of the Dwellings of the Poor in the Rural Districts 

 of England, with special regard to the Improvements tliat have 

 taken place since ihe cHdle of the iSth century ; and their 

 Influence on the HeaUU and Mori of the Inmates." 



The South Park Commifsh'ne: a Chrcago have recently 

 determined upon the establiahnient of botanical gardens in the 



