ced 
Sept. 30, 1886] 
NATURE 
529 
readily accessible to business men, and would be prefer 
ably in or close to the City rather than in the West End 
of London. HENRY TRIMEN 
NOTES 
THE International Geodetic Conference will assemble in 
Berlin on October 20. Its principal business will be to deli- 
berate on the best method of executing the resolutions arrived at 
at Rome and Washington in 1883 and 1884 respecting the actual 
measurement of a degree on the earth’s surface, and likewise in 
reference to a scientific survey of the European continent. The 
adoption by all nations of Greenwich as the first meridian, in 
accordance with the decision taken at Washington, is to be 
strictly enforced in practice. The introduction of international 
normal time, on the other hand, has had to be postponed, 
owing to insuperable practical difficulties connected with 
ordinary business life. In ozder to promote the project of any 
international survey of the entire globe, it is proposed to establish 
a Central Geodetic Office in Berlin. 
THE Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teach- 
ing has revised its ‘“‘Syllabus of Elementary Geometrical 
Conics,” and is about to publish the same, with three figures 
lettered in accordance with the enunciation; of the Syllabus. 
The work will be interleaved to allow of teachers and students 
supplying their own proofs, and will, it is hoped, appear early 
in November. Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein are the publishers. 
THE Bombay Government has just issued a long resolution 
on the subject of technical education, which is one of special 
importance to India. The resolution lays down the outlines of 
the scheme which it favours under three heads—agriculture, art, 
and mechanical industries. It proposes that the College of 
Science at Poonah should be a central institution for the teach- 
ing of higher agriculture, and that local classes and schools 
should be established throughout the province under the super- 
vision of district officers and of the Educational Department. 
The Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art in Bombay is to be 
the centre of Government efforts for the purpose of art teaching, 
and a report is called for as to the propriety of obtaining addi- 
tional teaching. The question whether a technological institute 
for mechanical industries should be established is discussed at 
some length, and the Government expresses the opinion that the 
time for doing so has not yet come. Meanwhile, it is suggested 
that the Committee of the Ripon Memorial Fund should form 
itself into an a sociation for promoting technical education in 
Bombay city, the Government promising to give it the utmost 
possible aid. The main dependence of other parts of the pro- 
vince must be upon the high schools for elementary science, and 
upon such institutions as may be started by means of local efforts. 
The resolution concludes by saying that the scheme is not aca- 
demic, but that it is meant to enhance the well-being of the 
people at large by giving increased employment to labour and 
capital, and by cementing harmonious relations between them. 
TuE International Congress of Orientalists was opened at 
Vienna on the 27th inst., under the presidency of the Arch- 
duke Rénier. This is the seventh Congress of this body, the 
previous ones having been held -at Paris in 1873, at 
London in 1874, St. Petersburg in 1876, Florence in 1878, 
Berlin in 1881, and Leyden in 1883. The Austrian Minister 
of Public Instruction welcomed the members, of whom there 
were about 300, in the name of the Government. 
Dr. SCHWEINFURTH has, in the interests of science, ad- 
dressed to all Europeans, especially physicians, residing in 
Egypt, an inquiry as to whether, so far as they are aware, 
families of Northern origin settling in Egypt do, or do not, die 
out within three generations, or whether the race is capable of 
» being perpetuated beyond that limit. 
WE are requested to announce that the seventh annual 
€ryptogamic and Botanical Meeting of the Essex Field Club 
will be held on Friday. and Saturday, October 15 and 16, in 
Epping Forest, the head-quarters for the day being at Buckhurst 
Hill. A large number of well-known botanists have promised 
to take part in the meeting, and the naming and arrangement of 
the specimens collected will be in the hands of Dr. Cooke, Rev. 
Ganon Du Port, Dr. Wharton, Mr. Worthington Smith, and 
other fungologists. Botanists and others desirous of attending 
should communicate with the Hon. Secretary, Buckhurst Hill, 
Bssex. 
' THE U.S. Hydrographic Office has received the following note : 
—‘ August 31, at 9.45 p.m., the steamer Crty of Palatka, Capt. 
Vogel, when a mile and a half north of Martin’s industry light- 
ship (off the coast, scuth of Charleston), in eight fathoms and 
a half of water, experienced a terrible rumbling sensation, 
lasting a minute and a half. There was quite a heavy sea from 
the south-east after leaving Charleston Bar at 5.30 p.m. When 
this rumbling sensation took place the wave-motion ceased. It 
was a perfect calm during the rumbling; after that the usual 
Inotion of the south-east swell took place. The wind at the time 
was south-west, light, weather cloudy, barometer 30°T, thermo- 
meter 80°. The sensation resembled a ship scraping a pebbly 
pottom, and the vibration of the ship was very great.” 
‘ H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES has decided that the Colonial 
and Indian Exhibition shall close on the evening of Wednesday, 
November 10. 
We hear that the first of the Grocers’ ‘‘ Medical Research 
Scholarships” has been awarded to Dr. Sims Woodhead, of 
Edinburgh. The value of the award is 2507. 
*Pyrtips’ Planisphere, showing the Principal Stars visible 
for every Hour in the Year” (London: George Philip and 
Son), is perhaps the best means yet devised of getting a pre- 
liminary acquaintance with the aspect of the sky. It consists of 
a movable disk representing the celestial sphere, and a fixed 
horizon corresponding to the latitude of London. On the edge 
of the disk are inscribed the signs of the zodiac, the months 
and days of the year; on the horizon, the hours of the day and 
night. By merely rotating the disk until any given day and 
hour are brouzht to coincide, the stars above the visible horizon 
of London at that time come into view. A continuance of the 
movement from east to west exhibits ten apparent revolutions of 
the stars. Each successive group on the chart rises and sets in 
its proper order, while its distance from the sun at any selected 
date can be estimated by following a line drawn from the 
celestial pole to the corresponding section of the disk. Its point 
of intersection with the ecliptic indicates the position of the sun. 
The same lines show the differences between solar and sidereal 
time throughout the year. A very little attention will enable 
the student to distinguish the circumpolar stars, to track the 
course of the Milky Way among the constellations, and to 
acquire some rough notion of the magnitudes of the principal 
stars. Quite a little stock of uranographical information, in 
short, is concentrated in this ingenious toy. 
A CAREFUL revision of the hydrographic map of the Lake of 
Geneva has been lately made by M. Hornlimann, soundings 
being taken by the steel-wire method. It is shown that between 
Lutry, Ouchy, Evian, and La Tour-ronde the bottom of the lake 
is absolutely horizontal. For distances of 2 kilometres and more 
the differences of depth did not exceed o*10 to 0°15 m. (being 
thus quite within the limits of observational error. The point 
of greatest depth was met with in the line which joins the 
mouth of the Flon, below Lausanne, and the church of Evian, 
7km. from the Swiss side and 5 from that of Savoy. This was 
310 m. (say 1034 feet). The bottom of the lake is here about 
219 feet above the sea. 
