154 
NATURE 
| ¥une 17, 1886 
AN earthquake was felt at Bougie, Algeria, on June 10; no 
accidents are recorded. On the same day a heavy thunderstorm 
raged in the vicinity of Versailles. The lightning struck a tent 
at Sautenay camp; sixty soldiers were lying under it ; many 
were hurt, but none killed. 
ARRANGEMENTS are in progress for the establishment of an 
aquarium and winter garden in Stockholm. 
DURING the present summer a university will be opened at 
Tomsk, in Siberia, the first of its kind in this part of the Russian 
Empire. At first it will consist of two faculties—a_historical- 
philological one and a physical-mathematic. It already possesses 
a library with 50,000 books, a very valuable palzeontological 
collection, presented by Duke Nicolaus of Leuchtenberg. 
Ear Ly last year the East Indian section of the Dutch Royal 
Institution of Engineers published some prize questions for 
essays. One of these subjects was the theoretical methods and 
calculations used when making deductions from observations on 
earthquakes, together with positive data as to the situation of 
the point of egress of a given shock. The first prize of 159 
guilders and a diploma was awarded to Prof. Milne of Japan. 
He also received honourable mention for an esszy on another 
question respecting the application of the theoretical principles 
of seismological science to the art of house-building, especially 
in the Netherlands Indies, the prize committee at the same time 
asking for permission to use his observations and suggestions in 
a work under preparation by one of the members of the com- 
mittee, who has studied Javanese seismological phenomena and 
Javanese methods of architecture. 
IN a paper in the last number of the Yoz7nal of the American 
Oriental Society Dr. Martin, the head of the Foreign College at 
Pekin, writes on the ‘‘ Northern Barbarians ” of Ancient China, 
or the tribes which harassed the northern frontier. The eth- 
nology of these and other tribes inhabiting China and the 
adjacent regions is at present engaging much attention from 
Oriental scholars, and especially in England that of Prof. de 
Lacouperie. Dr. Martin confesses that we are still in darkness 
respecting the ethnology of these northern tribes. Even in 
regard to the great tribe of Hiongnu, which is conspicuous in 
history for many centuries about the commencement of the 
Christian era, it has been much disputed whether they were 
Turks, Huns, or Mongols. Dr. Martin thinks that these tribes 
of prehistoric times were probably not inferior to the Chinese in 
form, feature, or natural intelligence, as their descendants, the 
Manchus and Mongols, are not inferior in any of these respects. 
In reply to the question were they originally of one mould, or 
have the lines of distinction become gradually effaced by the 
intercourse of ages, he thinks the latter the correct hypothesis. 
He believes that the primitive Chinese type, that imported by the 
immigrants who founded the civilisation of China, is no longer 
to be discerned. In the southern and central regions it has 
everywhere been modified by combination with the aboriginal 
inhabitants, leading to provincial characteristics, which the prac- 
tised eye can easily recognise. It has probably undergone a 
similar modification in the northern belt, where it met with 
tribes akin to those of Mongolia, and gradually absorbed them. 
This process was going on in prehistoric times; history at its 
earliest dawn shows us the unassimilated fragments of these 
tribes, and at the same time discloses a vast movement south- 
ward all along the line. In the historic period these tribes, 
organised into great states, established in China a dominion 
enduring for centuries. They have, Dr. Martin thinks, stamped 
their impress on the people of this region as thoroughly as the 
Saxons have theirs on the people of England, or the Vandals 
theirs in that part of Spain which still bears their name in the 
form of Andalusia. In their turn the invaders have been sub- 
jected, in all ages, to influences under which they exchanged 
barbarism for such civilisation as they found among the more 
cultivated race. 
THE assertion that from the top of the Eichel tower communi- 
cation could be established with Dijon, a place situated 304 
kilometres from Paris, is not quite correct. The altitude of 
this proposed monument being only 300 metres, the radius of 
the horizon could not exceed 80 kilometres, if we disregard the 
inequalities of the surface. But the mountains which separate the 
basin of the Seine and that of the Rhone, which are in Céte d’Or, 
although not very lofty, may possibly be perceived from an eleva- 
tion of 300 metres at Paris, under the most favourable circum- 
stances, and they are not very far from Dijon. Practically such 
a tower could be used for placing Paris in communication with 
any army occupying these mountains. These facts are suffi- 
ciently proved by the success of the great triangulation executed 
by Col. Perrier between the province of Oran and the Sierra 
Nevada at a distance of over 200 kilometzes. The question is, 
if it is possible to erect this structure, whether it is worth the 
money required to build it, and whether the effect will not be to 
destroy all harmony in the great Exhibition. This question is 
not settled yet. 
Wir?H reference to Mr. Caldwell’s observations in which he 
found that Monotremes are oviparous with mesoblastic ovum, a 
correspondent sends us the following quotation from a work by 
Robert and Thomas Swinburn Carr, entitled ‘‘ The Literary 
Pancratium,” foot-note on p. 8 (London, 1832) :—‘‘ But this is 
New Holland, where it is summer with us when it is winter in 
Europe, and vice versa ; where the barometer rises before bad 
weather, and falls before good ; where the north is the hot wind, 
and the south the cold ; where the humblest house is fitted up 
with cedar ; where the fields are fenced with mahogany, and 
myrtle-trees are burnt for fire-wood ; where the swans are black 
and the eagles white ; where the kangaroo, an animal between 
the squirrel and the deer, has five claws on its fore-paws, and 
three talons on its hind-legs, like a bird, and yet hops on its 
tail; where the mole lays eggs, and has a duck’s bill; where 
there is a bird with a broom in its mouth instead of a tongue ; 
where there is a fish one half belonging to the genus Raja and 
the other to that of Sguwa/ws ; where the pears are made of wood, 
with the stalk at the broader end; and where the cherry grows 
with the stone on the outside.—Field’s Mew South Wales, 
p. 461.” 
Just as improved machinery, adopted in a locality to which 
the old trade was a stranger, through not being there hampered 
with old customs and much invested capital, may bring with it the 
future trade, so an intelligent and rapidly-progressing nation like 
Japan, by the free choice of the latest improvements in educa- 
tional organisation from both Europe and America, may even 
have something to teach. Hence the United States Bureau of 
Education has lately published a circular containing a statistical 
survey of the system now adopted there. There is a Minister of 
Education over all; candidates for school committees are 
nominated by each locality—either a large city or a province— 
into which the country is divided ; a selection is made from 
them by the Governor, and the chosen members are paid. There 
are schools of general education divided into three grades, to 
pass through all of which occupies eight years. The study of 
literature gives the choice of either Japanese or Chinese, the 
former requiring three years, the latter four. English, or if 
preferred, French or German, is required to be learnt in all 
middle-class schools, as well as in the highest. At the one 
University a course of instruction in the department of science 
is provided in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, astro- 
nomy, engineering, geology, mining, and metallurgy. There 
are astronomical and meteorslogical observatories, botanical 
gardens, and museums. Courses are provided in medicine, 
leading up to a special degree after a course of five years, and in 
rut: erre eee: 
