Oct. 14, 1886 | 
THE Duc d’Aumale has bequeathed to the Institute of 
France in perpetuity the mansion and domain of Chantilly, with 
its museum and all its other contents, to be preserved and main- 
tained forthe benefit of the French nation. This munificent gift 
is fettered by no conditions beyond those necessary for carrying 
out the main purpose ofthe testator. The value of the gift is 
estimated at thirty millions of francs, or nearly a million and a 
quarter sterling, and the income for maintaining it at 20,000/. 
per annum. 
SoME time since, Herr Paul von Ritter, of Basle, gave the sum 
of 300,000 marks for the furtherance of scientific inquiry on the 
basis of the Darwinian theory. It has now been decided to 
employ half the interest in the maintenance of a ‘‘ Ritter Pro- 
fessorship of Philogeny.” The chair is to be filled by Dr. Arnold 
Lang, formerly scholar and assistant of Prof. Haeckel at Jena. Dr. 
Lang has for several years taken part in the work of the 
Zoological Station at Naples. The other half of the interest will 
be expended in grants foz scientific travel, and in furnishing 
improved means of instruction in zoology at this University. 
Herr von Ritter has been made Doctor of Philosophy hoxoris 
causa. 
SINCE the end of 1883, regular observations of atmospheric 
electricity have been made at the Odessa Meteorological Obser- 
vatory, and M. Klossofsky shows by the graphic method (Za 
Nature) how there is an intimate relation between the variations 
of atmospheric pressure, and those of electric potential. Cyclonic 
movements of the atmosphere find a faithful echo in the indica- 
tions of the electrometer, though sometimes mist, smoke, dust, 
and atmospheric precipitates may for a time mask the cor- 
respondence. 
IN the course of a review in the Chinese Recorder of a new 
Chinese geometry by Dr. Mateer, Dr. Martin, the head of the 
Foreign Language College at Pekin, states that the first transla- 
tion of Euclid into Chinese was made by the illustrious Father 
Ricci, ‘‘the apostle at once of religion and science.” In time 
the paramount influence of Euclid grew into something like a 
bondage in the east as well as in the west. In the west a 
wholesome revolt took place long ago, but in China Euclid 
‘thas reigned with undisputed sway for three centuries, and 
nothing has been done even in the way of simplification until 
the work of Dr, Mateer. It is a strange fact that Ricci’s Euclid 
was left standing through all these ages in the condition of a 
truncated pyramid. Only six books were translated by the 
great Jesuit, and the remaining nine were supplied about thirty 
years ago by Mr. A. Wylie, aided by Prof. Li Shenlon.” Mr. 
Wylie subsequently translated Loomis’s ‘* Analytical Geometry 
and Differential Calculus” ; but, says Dr. Martin, he would 
have done better to have commenced his mathematical text- 
books by a version of Loomis’s ‘‘ Geometry,” which, following 
the footsteps of Legendre, presents the whole subject in a com- 
pact and easily intelligible form. The translation of the Chinese 
' titte of the older book is ‘‘ First Book in the Science of Quan- 
tity”; that of Dr. Mateer’s is ‘‘The Science of Form.” A 
Chinese mathematician’s view of the new work is given by Dr. 
Martin in the following words :—‘‘ This book presents the 
principles of geometry in a more concise form than Euclid, and 
omits nothing of importance that -is found in Euclid. Besides 
the chapter on the three round bodies, there are throughout 
many excellent theories that were unknown to Euclid, especially 
those relating to spherical triangles, so essential to the study of 
astronomy.” The price of the two volumes, it may be added, 
is about 2s. 3d. 
THE number of the Folk-Lore Fournal (vol. iv. part 4) just 
published, contains the first instalment of a paper by Capt. A. C. 
Temple, which promises to be the most important work yet 
NATURE 
By) 
published on the folk-lore of North-Western India, The writer 
has made it a practice to collect all the popular works published 
in the Punjaub relating to history, folk-lore, and religion. He 
has now about 350 of these in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, 
Punjaubi, Pushtoo, and Sanscrit. It faithfully represents the 
current popular literature of the day in the Punjaub. Capt. 
Temple has had abstracts of the books prepared, and twenty- 
eight of these are published in the present paper. In the some- 
what distant future when the whole 350 are published, few 
regions will have had their folk-lore so thoroughly investigated 
as the Punjaub. 
ACCORDING to Die Natur a remarkable collection of minerals 
exists in the cellars of the Academia San Fernando at Madrid. 
It is contained in a number of boxes which have filled the cellars 
for about 209 years, and which may remain there as long again 
unless some better fortune befalls them than that which has 
attended them in the past. They come down from the golden 
age of Spanish donination in South America and in Mexico, 
when the mines of these regions made them the El Dorado of 
the globe. Noone knows exactly the contents of the boxes, 
but they are believed to contain the rarest objects, although the 
scientific importance of collections was but little appreciated in 
the days when this one was made. It appears also that collec- 
tions made by Humboldt during his travels in America, and 
handed over by liim as a kind of scientific tribute to the Spanish 
Government, are in the same Academy ‘‘locked up since 1804 
in a press, untouched.” With respect to the famous skeleton of 
the Megatherium americanum, Cuv:, found by the Marquis de 
Loreto on the banks of the Rio Luxon near Buenos Ayres in 
1778, which is in the Museum of the Academy, its present state 
is described by the brothers Fraas of Stuttgart in their letters 
from the south of France and Spain, just published under the 
title of “‘ Aus dem Siiden,” as being one of the utmost confusion. 
The bones are bored for mounting, but they are ‘‘ completed 
and restored”’ to the verge of the impossible. The bones are 
placed in absurd positions, and parts which were inconvenient 
to the mounter are put aside altozether. The writers ask what 
the state of instruction in natural history must be in an Academy 
where such things are possible. 
WE have never heard an adequate explanation of the extra- 
ordinary delay which takes place in the issue of the Annual 
Reports of the Japanese Ministry of Education, They are as a 
rule three years behind time. That for $82 has only just been 
published. They contain a considerable number of statistics, 
but this alone would not account for the delay, for the publica- 
tions of, say, the Japanese Meteorological Observatory contain 
far more and more complicated tables, yet the latter appear in 
reasonable time. It is very difficult to feel any interest in an 
annual report of the year 1882 at this date ; conditions have 
altered, the circumstances are different, the inspector’s report 
for 1885 may show energy and success where those of 1882 had 
to reveal apathy and ignorance. The Tokio University, for 
example, has been wholly remodelled, and one reads with very 
languid interest now that in 1882 there were such and such 
departments, so many graduates, and the like. The details in 
the report, especially those relating to students abroad, to the 
position of libraries and museums, their utility to and apprecia- 
tion by the public, would be of interest and well worth quota- 
tion, or at least a short summary, if they were those of last year 
instead of those of four years ago. These reports may perhaps 
be of use to any one who undertakes to write a history of educa- 
tion in Japan ; for any practical present use they are they might 
as well remain unpublished in the Archives of the Education 
Department in Tokio. We can perceive nothing in the nature 
of things, or in the design or details of the reports to prevent 
them being produced regularly in the first half of the year 
succeeding that to which they refer. 
