Fune 24, 1886] 
NATURE 175 
which we noticed last week, Dr. Doberck, the Government Astro- 
nomer there, refers to the great value of the systematic meteoro- 
logical observations with verified instruments which have lately 
been set on foot at many of the stations and lighthouses of the 
Chinese Customs, and which will serve as an important aid in 
the investigation of typhoons. He pays a well-deserved tribute 
to Japan’s ‘extensive meteorological service, conducted on 
approved principles,” and to the useful weather maps issued by 
the Tokio Observatory, while he deplores the absence of a 
similar comprehensive service in the Philippines and the non- 
publication of such data as are observed there—an omission 
which increases the labour of following typhoons in their pas-age 
across or near to those islands. The intention of the French 
authorities to establish a meteorological observatory at Haiphong, 
on the coast of Tonquin, seems to have been dropped, at least 
for a time, since the death of the distinguished me‘eorologist, 
Dr. Borius. The Hong Kong Observatory during the year 
was supplied with a gazing-telescope, as was recommended by 
Col. Palmer in the original project, a Lee equatorial from 
Greenwich having been erected. In 1882, when the plan of 
the Hong Kong Observatory was first drawn up, the local 
Government was willing to pay for one thoroughly equipped, 
but the Colonial Office at home cut out the most im- 
portant part of the provision for magnetic research, and 
this unfortunate spirit of parsimony in expenditure con- 
nected with scientific research seems now to have extended 
to Hong Kong. For Dr.:Doberck complains that the‘addition to 
the work of his Observatory is not accompanied by a correspond- 
ing increase of funds and staff, that his telegraphic facilities are 
insufficient to give full effect to the proper purposes of the esta- 
blishment, that the slopes of the observatory hill have been left 
unturfed since they were stripped in 1883, and that no effective 
measures haye been taken to improve the unhealthiness of the 
site, which is on the Kowloon peninsula opposite the town of 
Victoria. It sounds-incredible that the gun which was supposed 
to be set apart for the purpose of announcing the approach of a 
typhoon has also been used to announce the arrival of the mail- 
steamers—a course which is as senseless as it is cruel, for it con- 
fuses the unfortunate boat- and junk-men who swarm in the 
Hong Kong waters, and who either throw up their work and 
flee into a place of refuge when only a mail-steamer is arriving, 
to their great loss of time and money, or they take no precau- 
tions at all when a typhoon is really at hand. In the latter case, 
if any lives were lost, an English coroner’s jury would probably 
indict the official responsible for this gross negligence for man- 
slaughter, as they would the chemist who carelessly gives 
strychnine in place of Epsom salts. Dr. Doberck proposes that, 
if the gun be used for post-office purposes, it should cease alto- 
gether as a typhoon warning. 
At the annual meeting of the Chemical Society of Tokio, 
held on April ro, and reported in the Fafan Mail, a very satis- 
factory report was read. The Society is composed of Japanese 
and foreign men of science, the total number of members last 
year being eighty-six, and being constantly on the increase. 
The number of papers read amounted to nineteen. The journal 
of the Society is published four times a year, and it is hoped to 
make it a monthly journal soon, ‘‘ especially as the number of 
papers read is not few, nor their nature inferior to those which 
appear in foreign journals.” The Society undertook to trans- 
late chemical terms into Japanese about four years ago, and it 
now possesses (though not yet published) a dictionary of com- 
moner chemical terms in Japanese, English, French, and 
German. It has also undertaken to establish a system of 
chemical nomenclature in the Japanese language, of which the 
nomenciature of the elements and of inorganic compounds is 
already nearly finished. It is hoped that a sound and complete 
system of nomenclature will be published in the course of the 
coming year. An address was delivered by Mr. Watanabe, the 
head of the’new University of Japan, and, on other grounds, an 
important official, who impressed on the members of the Society 
the necessity of making chemistry popular, on account of its 
intimate connection with arts and manufactures. He hoped, 
too, that more and more original work in science would be done 
in Japan, for on such work depended ultimately all improvement 
in manufacturing processes. 
AT the same meeting a paper was read by Dr. Kellner on the 
deportment of urea towards soils, with special reference to the 
mode of manuring the soil employed in China and Japan. The 
experiments on this subject which have been carried out at the 
Komaba Agricultural College show that the application of fresh 
excreta is injurious to crops, and that, in this state, a great deal 
of the most valuable nitrogenous compounds of the manure is 
lost by rain, which carries the urea into the deep subsoil beyond 
the reach of the roots of the plants. Japanese farmers had long 
ago come to a similar conclusion for themselves, for they only 
employed this manure when in a highly decomposed state, when 
the urea had been converted by putrefaction into ammonium 
carbonate. 
THE report of the Rugby School Natural History Society for 
the past year is a very satisfactory one, forit shows great activity 
on the part of the members and of the Society collectively in 
every direction. With a single exception the papers are con- 
tributed by working members or associates ; the collection of 
British quadrupeds commenced last year is almost complete, 
and a new vivarium has been added to the Society’s resources. 
The papers deal with many subjects from China to heraldry, but 
local ornithology appears to have received special attention ; for 
the Society’s first prize essay was won by Mr. Austen with a 
paper on the water-birds of Rugby; the second by Mr. Mander, 
on some of the large birds round Rugby. Mr. Solly also con- 
tributes an interesting paper on microscopic fungi, with illustra- 
tions. But it is in the sectional reports that the activity of the 
Society is made most manifest. Here we find a meteorological 
report, based on continuous observation throughout the year; a 
vivarium report ; a report from the entomological section, con- 
taining a list of the Lepidoptera observed at or near Rugby 
during the year; similarly the report of the botanical section 
contains a long list of observations, in which are some plants 
hitherto unknown in the flora of Rugby ; the zoological report, 
it may be added, isa specially long one ; and the book concludes 
with the report of the Temple Observatory, where so much good 
astrononical work is being done. Of the many excellent natural 
history societies which pass under our notice from time to time, 
few can show more or better work than the Rugby School 
Society. 
ONE interesting matter referred to in the report just noticed 
was the presentation of an address of congratulation to Mr. M. 
H. Bloxam, a very energetic member of the Society, on reach- 
ing his eightieth year. In his reply Mr. Bloxam claimed to be, 
ina peculiar degree, a link between the Rugby of the present 
and that of the past. He transacted business with a Rugbeian 
who entered the school in the reign of George II., 127 years 
ago. Mr. Bloxam entered Rugby School about 72 years ago, 
and left it 64 years ago: and while he was at the school a 
retired master died who was born in 1718, early in the reign 
of George I., 167 years ago. The Rey Henry Holyoak was 
master of the school in the boyhood of that retired old master, 
and Mr. Holyoak was alive in the lifetime of a nephew of 
Lawrence Sheriff, the founder of Rugby School. Now Law- 
rence Sheriff died 318 years ago. Thus three lives, one of them 
being Mr. Bloxam’s, carry us back to the foundation of Rugby 
School. 
