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Ethnological Museum is to be established in connection with 

 the Exhibition, which is said to have the support of several 

 capitalists. Possibly the recent success in Berlin and London of 

 Japanese and Indian villages has led to this project, which, 

 however, is a far more difficult undertaking, but which, if 

 carried out, would prove of great public interest. A good 

 many years ago, at the Crystal Palace, an attempt to repre- 

 sent various peoples and their habits by means of models was 

 commenced, but it was never carried very far. Some of these 

 models are still to be seen at the south-west corner of the main 

 building. 



The annual meeting of the Association for the Improvement 

 of Geometrical Teaching was held at University College, Gower 

 Street, on Friday, January 15, when certain additions to the 

 rules were carried and twenty new members (including three 

 honorary members) were elected. At the afternoon sitting, the 

 President (R. B. Hay ward, F.R.S., Harrow) read a paper on 

 the "Correlation of the Different Branches of Elementary 

 Mathematics." A di->cussion on the paper was commenced by 

 the Rev. G. Richardson (Winchester), in which the Chairman 

 (R. Levett, Birmingham), Profs. Carey Foster, Hudson, and 

 Minchin, Messrs. A. J. Ellis, Heppel, Walters (Dover College), 

 and the Rev. J. B. Lock (late of Eton) took part. We hope to 

 notice the paper when the Report of the Association has been 

 printed. 



On December 31 last, Mr. G. J. Symons completed the 

 twenty-fifth year of his work in connection with " British Rain- 

 fall," and it has been thought a good opportunity for presenting 

 him with a pecuniary testimonial, to which all observers of rain- 

 fall are invited to subscribe. The Committee have already pub- 

 lished a first list of subscribers, and as they are anxious to 

 present Mr. Symons with the testimonial as early in the year as 

 possible, all observers who intend to subscribe are requested to 

 communicate with the treasurer, Rev. Clifford Maiden, St. 

 Lawrence Rectory, near Ventnor, Isle of Wight. 



As examples of tropical rainfall, it may interest our readers 

 to learn that during the present rainy season in Jamaica, which 

 has succeeded a period of serious drought, there was recorded at 

 the Government Cinchona Plantations on December 21 last a fall 

 of 1 1 'So inches in twenty-four hours, while the gauge, the read- 

 ings of which are taken at 7 a.m. daily, was full and overflowing. 

 On the crest of the Blue Mountain range, on the same planta- 

 tions, the record was 3 1 '50 inches for one week, of which period 

 three days were fine. 



The following alteration has been made in the arrangements 

 for the Friday evening meetings at the Royal Institution before 

 Easter: — Prof. W. H. Flower, F. R. S., will give a discourse on 

 Friday, February ig, on " The Wings of Birds," instead of Prof. 

 W. K. Parker, F.R.S., on "Birds, their Structure, Classifica- 

 tion, and Origin." 



The thirty-ninth annual general meeting of the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers will be held on Thursday, February 4, 

 and Friday, February 5, at 25, Great George Street, West- 

 minster. The chair will be taken by the President, Mr. Jeremiah 

 Head, at 7.30 p.m. on each evening. The following papers 

 will be read and discussed, as far as time permits : — Description 

 of an autographic test-recording apparatus, by Mr. J. Hartley 

 Wicksteed, of Leeds ; description of tensile tests of iron and 

 steel bars, by the late Mr. Peter D. Bennett, of Tipton ; descrip- 

 tion of a hydraulic buffer-stop for railways, by Mr. Alfred A. 

 Langley, of Derby ; on the distribution of the wheel load in 

 cycles, by Mr. J. Alfred Grifiiths, of Coventry. 



The Council of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Elec- 

 tricians are at present engaged in considering a proposal brought 



before them by Prof. J. A. Fleming, and having for its object 

 the establishment of a National Electric Standardising Labora- 

 tory. 



The third Electrical Exhibition at St. Petersburg was opened 

 on January i by Prince Michael Nikolaievitch. It is held in 

 the buildings of the Pedagogical Museum, and [is said to be 

 the largest ever held. The telephonic department forms a 

 special attraction. 



A German edition of Prof. R. S. Ball's researches on 

 " Theoretical Dynamics " is in the press. The volume will 

 contain the "Theory of Screws," published in 1876, and the 

 papers subsequently read to the Royal Irish Academy. The 

 whole has been edited and translated by Dr. Harry Gravelius, 

 of Berlin, who has occasionally added developments necessary 

 for continuity and completeness. 



A PROPOSITION has been made in Ceylon for the systematic 

 observation of the singular migration of butterflies in that island. 

 Despite occasional references in the local press, nothing has yet 

 been done towards compiling and editing a scientific and com- 

 prehensive record of annual observations. It is proposed there- 

 fore that volunteers should watch for the migration, and send a 

 postcard bulletin to the editor of the records, noticing date, 

 direction of flight, direction of wind, the weather, and the 

 species. For the last purpose amateur observers are to send 

 one sjjecimen of each species noticed, in order to insure scientific 

 accuracy. A competent naturalist is stated to have offered to 

 revise, assort, and edit all such notices once or twice a year, and 

 publish a periodical report of progress. The annual summary 

 will appear in the Taprobanian Magazine, the first number of 

 which we recently noticed. 



With the great spread of education throughout England 

 during the past sixteen years it is extraordinary how little here 

 compared with the United States the work of the schools has 

 been supplemented by those "universities of the -people, " free 

 libraries. No doubt the costliness of working one in a com- 

 munity where the produce of the penny rate does not amount to 

 500/. a year is a great difficulty, as such a sum is absorbed in 

 the ordinaiy working expenses of rent, attendance, gas, and 

 newspapers. We would call attention to the success of a method 

 of supplementing an insufficient income clearly shown by a cata- 

 logue we have received from the Coventry Free Library. For 

 many years its rate brought in little more than paid the above 

 expenses. A dub was then established consisting at first of a 

 few assiduous readers who selected their books, kept them for 

 their own use for six months, and then sold them to the Free 

 Library at one quarter of published price. To the club the 

 advantages were that the Free Library, open at all hours, being 

 their depot, they had scircely any working expenses, the books 

 all remained permanently within their reach, and yet, instead of 

 having to purchase at the end of the year books which 

 they did not want, one-third of the amount of their sub- 

 scription was returned to them for further purchases of 

 books. The advantage to the Library is shown by the 

 present catalogue, from which we learn that the .still-increasing 

 list of members has now reached 172, and, accordingly, that it 

 is passing more than 1200 works yearly into the Library at an 

 expense of over 200/. per annum. There is au increase of over 

 11,000 works in the Library since the last catalogue was 

 printed ; and a larger proportion of them than usual in a Free 

 Library are high-class and costly books derived from this source, 

 which must make the Library the resort of the most studious 

 and best educated readers of the city. 



In the last number of Naitiren, Herr Karl Hesselberg closes 

 his series of interesting papers on the climate of Norway. The 

 small number of systematically organised meteorological stations 



