NATURE 
[ Fuly 15, 1886 
safety or danger of erecting a tower to the height of 300 metres, 
as proposed, in the Champ de Mars, on the occasion of the 
forthcoming Universal Exhibition, has reported that there is no 
danger in connection with such a structure if special precautions 
are taken for its non-insulation. The tower acting as a light- 
ning conductor would, on the contrary, they explain, serve to 
protect the whole of the Champ de Mars from injury by light- 
ning if the rules laid down by the Commission on lightning con- 
ductors were applicable in the case of so exceptional an 
altitude. 
THE report for the current year of the Coventry Free Public 
Library is a very encouraging document. It shows increase in 
all directions—in the number of borrowers, the number of books 
issued, and a large increase in the number of volumes owned by 
the Library. All the excellent work done by the Institution is 
paid for by a trifling rate producing a little over 500/., supple- 
mented by the assistance of a private book club. The tables 
appended by the Coairman, Mr. Odell, showing the number of 
books issued in each class of literature, the monthly totals and 
averages, the ages of the borrowers, and more especially the 
occupations of the latter, are very suggestive. In these days, 
when more than ever we have, politically speaking, to ‘* educate 
our masters,” the record of the work of the Coventry Free 
Public Library is very gratifying. 
WE have received from Tokio a copy of a Japanese scientific 
journal (apparently the Nature of Japan), which has already 
reached its third volume and fifty-sixth number. It is printed 
throughout in Japanese, being much the same shape as NATURE, 
and containing forty-eight pages in each number. The issue before 
us contains a lecture on human parasites, by Prof. Ijima ; some 
remarks on the historical methods of the Chinese school, by Mr. 
Suyematsu, formerly of Cambridge ; the third of a series of 
lectures on physical geography by Prof. Kotd; a paper on 
““Some Phenomena IJ have witnessed,’’ and another on methods 
of treating pebrine, by a teacher in the Kornaba Agricultural 
College. The notes are also of a very general character: they 
refer to ‘some simple physical experiments” ; an alloy that ex- 
p2nds with cold ; the uses of coffee ; refining ores by electricity ; 
the strength of paper; a new sweet compound; animal bone 
industry ; hypnotism ; the Universal Meridian and Time Con- 
ference, &c. Then follow letters to the editor, and finally a 
report of a meeting of the Tokio Physico-Mathematical Society. 
No proof is wanted nowadays of the remarkable scientific 
progress in Japan ; if it were, it would be supplied by the fact 
thita journal of this high character can live and apparently 
flourish. 
We have also to acknowledge the receipt from the Imperial 
Meteorological Observatory of Japan of the ‘‘ Monthly and 
Yearly Means, Extremes, and Sums for the Years 1883, 1884, 
1885,” with an appendix on observations of clouds, There 
were twenty-seven stations, including four in Yezo and one in 
Corea. 
AN interesting work which has just been published in the 
Bulletin of the United States National Museum (No. xxx. 
pp. 113-81) is an annotated catalogue of the published writings 
of Dr. Charles Abrathar White, the distinguished palzontolo- 
gist to the United States Geological Survey, and the occupant 
of several other important scientific positions. The editor is 
Mr. J. B. Marcou, whose object has been to note everything 
containing any expression of Dr. White’s views on scientific 
subjects, as well as his more elaborate works. The annotations 
which accompany the catalogue were drawn up mainly from 
data furnished by the author himself, and all expressions of 
opinion on geological ard paleontological subjects are his own. 
The catalogue contains in all 151 entries, ranging from articles 
| of trout. 
in scientific periodicals to his contributions on invertebrate 
palezeontogy in the annual reports of the Geological Survey. The 
whole represents an almost incredible mass of scientific work, 
performed as it was in a brief quarter of a century, 1860-85. 
WE are glad to notice that Dr. White’s important work on 
the Cretaceous invertebrates of Brazil, which were collected by 
the Imperial Geological Commission under the direction of the 
late Prof. Hartt, is now in process of publication at Rio de 
Janeiro by the Brazilian National Museum. It is to appear in 
the Portuguese and English languages, and will be illustrated 
by twenty-eight lithographic plates ; 214 species in all are pub- 
lished and figured in this work, of which 116 species are diag- 
nosed as new. Four new genera are proposed—three of 
Gasteropoda, and one of Echinoids. The former are Orvillia, 
Cylindritella, and Cypreiteon. The latter is Heteropoda, the 
generic diagnosis of which was supplied to the author by Prof. 
| P. de Loriol, of Geneva. 
Tue following facts exemplify the strong migratory instincts 
At the fish culture establishment at Delaford, where 
the utmost care is taken to isolate the various species of Sal- 
monidz, a few of the fish occasionally are found in ponds long 
distances from those in which they were originally located. 
Considering that each pond is so constructed as to prevent such 
a contingency, the occurrence is very remarkable, and can only 
be accounted for in two ways, viz. that the fish either burrow 
through holes that probably are made by rats and moles, or 
they jump out of the water and so proceed to the next pond. It 
is not likely that they are borne thence by birds, as the appear- 
ance of the fish on the occasions referred to does not justify such 
an assumption. It will be interesting to inquire further into the 
subject with a view of eliciting the real facts of the case. 
A Fis Culture Conference is to be held at the Colonial and 
Indian Exhibition on July 26 at the instigation of the National 
Fish Culture Association. The Marquis of Exeter will preside, 
and papers will be read by Mr. J. Willis-Bund, the Rey. C. J. 
Steward, Mr. Oldham Chambers, and others, upon fresh-water 
and marine fish. The Conference will commence at 10.30 a.m. 
and last until Io p.m, 
A PAIR of electric eels (Gy nolus elechicus) arrived the other 
day at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition Aquarium from British 
Guiana, but have since unfortunately died. They were very 
fine specimens, and measured 44 feet in length, their normal 
size being 6 feet. They require a temperature of 75°, and pro- 
vided the water is maintained at this standard they will live and 
thrive in captivity. The water should not be too deep, how 
ever, and must be kept clean, 
From the report issued by the Central Meteorological Insti- 
tute of Sweden for last year it appears that there are thirty-four 
public stations for observation, and some half-a-dozen private 
ones, in that country. In addition to these there are nearly 400 
places where the fall of rain is registered, and other partial 
observations made. These observations have been duly pub- 
lished in the Institute’s journal, ‘‘ Monthly 2ésmé” of the 
weather in Sweden, edited by Dr. H. E. Hamberg, which has 
now reached its sixth year of publication, In addition to this,the 
publication of a short climatological description of each country, 
founded on the observations of the last twenty-six years, has 
been continued, whilst Dr. Hamberg has added an important 
contribution in the shape of the work ‘‘On the Influence o 
Forests on the Climate of Sweden.” The twenty-second part 
of a work ‘* Meteorological Observations in Sweden,” a résumé 
of the observations made at the public meteorological station, 
| has also appeared, and finally synoptical tables have been 
