April r, 1 875 J 



MATURE 



435 



On Monday, the 22nd March, the first meeting of the 

 Governors of the London School of Medicine for Women took 

 place on the school premises. No. 30, Henrietta Street, Bruns- 

 wick Square ; Lord Aberdare in the chair. The Dean gave 

 a short history of the school. He stated that during the 

 ■winter session the same courses of lectures and demonstra- 

 tions had been given as in the other medical schools of the 

 metropolis, and that the number of women students attend- 

 ing was twenty. It was resolved that the proposed consti- 

 tution and laws should be referred to a committee for considera- 

 tion, and that in the meantime the school business should be 

 conducted by the Provisional Council as heretofore. It was 

 then agreed that the next meeting of the governors should take 

 place on the 3rd of May, on which day the prizes will be distri- 

 buted to those pupils who have been successful in the class 

 examinations. 



The Council of the Social Science Association has fixed 

 October 6th to the 13th for holding the Congress at Brighton 

 this year. It has also authorised an exhibition of sanitary and 

 educational ajipliances and apparatus to be held at the same 

 time in connection with the meeting. 



A LONG and interesting letter, dated Soubat, Feb. 7, appears 

 in Saturday's Times, giving some details of Col. Gordon's work 

 in Central Africa. He seems to have been fairly successful in 

 the object of his mission — the reduction of these lawless regions 

 to something like order, and the abolition of the slave traffic. 

 Lieuts. Watson and Chippendale, two young Engineer officers 

 who were at RagafT, about 1,000 miles above Khartoum, suc- 

 ceeded in making some important observations during the 

 Transit of Venus, which are to be transmitted to the Royal 

 Geographical Society. Lieut. Chippendale, when the letter 

 left, was on his way to Dufle. He was to make his way across 

 the Ashua River to Ibrahimia, and from thence to continue his 

 march with only a few soldiers, striking inland for the Albert 

 Nyanra. He is there to obtain a canoe at any cost, and 

 return, if possible, from the Albert Nyanza down the Nile to 

 Dufle, thus establishing the fact whether the Nile is navigable 

 between these two points. 



A TELEGRAM, dated Ulm, March 30, states that the African 

 traveller Karl Mauch, who is at present staying in Blaubeiiren, 

 has suffered such severe injuries in consequence of a fall that his 

 life is despaired of. 



It is stated that a project has been formed, under the sanction 

 of Capt. Sir John H. Glover, Mr. R. N. Fowler, and other well- 

 known gentlemen, for the formation of a canal from the mouth 

 of the African river Belta, on the Atlantic, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Cape Bajador, to tlie northern bend of the River Niger, 

 at Timbuctoo, a distance of 740 miles. 



The French are trying to open a regular trade with Timbuctoo 

 and Soudan tHi Tusalah, the chief city of Touaregs. They have 

 recently conquered the oasis of Goleah, about 600 miles from the 

 coast. It is from that place that M. Paul Soleillet, the enter- 

 prising Sahara explorer, will start for Tusalah, having to march 

 a distance of only 900 miles. The colonisation of Algeria has 

 recently received a strong impulse from more than 10,000 Alsace- 

 Lnrainers having settled in the colony. The European popu- 

 lation is increasing not only by a sensible flow of emigration, but 

 by the excess of births over deaths. The colonists, exclusive of 

 the army, now number 250,000, while the native population 

 is not more than 2, 250,000. The governor of the three provinces 

 is General Chanzy, who has decided on the institution of three 

 annual fairs to be held in the southern part of each province. 

 Goleah behig too far south, a city will be founded for that 

 purpose at about 300 miles from the coast, in the eastern pro- 

 vince. It is expected that, attracted by these fairs, Arabs and 



Touaregs of the west will resume the old trade. Another French 

 African settlement is the district south of the Gold Coast, 

 known as Gaboon. The Marquis de Compiegne and M. Marche, 

 who explored this region last year, are shortly to resume their 

 explorations, which had been cut short by hostile tribes. 



M. Largeau, another French explorer, left Algiers a few 

 weeks ago for Rhadamez, an oasis in the central part of the 

 Sahara. A letter dated 17th February last has been received 

 from him. He was very well received by the Sheikh and the 

 Djamaa, or national council of natives. Explanations were 

 given to him as to the murder of his fellow-traveller Dournaux- 

 Dupere, whose conduct had b-en rather indiscreet. The 

 Djamaa is anxious to open commercial relations with France, 

 and M. Largeau will soon begin his return journey by another 

 way in order to ascertain if it is not more practicable than the 

 one by which he travelled southwards. 



From the oflTicial report of the chamois shooting in the can- 

 ton of Griions during 1S74, it appears that during the year 

 91S chamois, 4 bears, and 18 eagles [Aqnila fulva) were killed 

 in the canton. The highest number of chamois killed by one 

 sportsman was 16 ; tha term for shooting is four weeks in Sep- 

 tember. In 1S73 the numbers were 696 chamois and 4 bears ; 

 in 1S72, when the shooting term extended two weeks longer, the 

 numbers were 760 chamois and 3 bears. The result of last 

 year, therefore, is decidedly favourable, and evidently owing to 

 the reduced term of shooting. 



Mr. F. Norgate has recently published, under the title of 

 " Humboldt's Natur-und Reisebilder," a selection of pictures of 

 nature and travel from A. von Humboldt's personal narrative of 

 travel and aspect of nature. It is edited, with a commentary, 

 scientific glossary, and biographical notice of the author, by Dr. 

 C. A. Buchheim. It is intended to afford to readers of German 

 and to students of the language a pleasant variety and a relief 

 from the standard works which as a rule form the staple of 

 German readings in this country. The idea seems to us a happy 

 one, and the selections are well chosen ; Dr. Buchheim has well 

 performed his part of biographer and interpreter. 



A NEwJ edition 'has just been issued by Messrs. W. Hunt 

 and Co., of the late Rev. A. B. Whatton's " Memoir of the Li'e 

 .ind Labours of the Rev. Jeremiah Horrox," which was first 

 published in 1859. From the present edition the translation of 

 Horrox's Treatise on the Transit of 1639 has been omitted. 



Near Cortil-Noirmont (Belgium) two old tombs have lately 

 been investigated ; they had the shape of mounds, and were 

 called " the Roman tombs " by the people. In one of them 

 many human bones were found, rusty iron weapons, and many 

 small bronze coins, unfortunately not well preserved. In the 

 other there were only the remains of one human skeleton, but 

 besides this a highly ornamental glass bottle, several large bronze 

 vases, a lamp of the same material, two silver and two gold 

 coins, and a relief cut into rock crystal and representing a lizard. 

 Tlie coins are of the time of Nerva and Hadrianus. 



Brick Tea is a large article of commerce between China and 

 Thibet. It i» described as being made chiefly in the neighbour- 

 hood of Ya-tsow in Szechuen, the tea- plant from which it is 

 made being "a hedgerow tree, fifteen feet high, with a large and 

 coarse leaf. " The tea is done up in packets, each containing 

 four bricks and weighing five pounds, and is bought at Tatsien-lu 

 for about 6j-. d^d. ; it sells at Lhassa for \l. 4J'. to il. Sj'., 

 and at a much greater sum in the districts which lie off the grand 

 road. From these facts it is apparent that the Darjeeling planters 

 could supply Lhassa with tea at prices to undersell the Chinese 

 article at a very considerable profit, and could make a still 

 larger profit by supplying the country whicK lies between Lhassa 



