28o 



NATURE 



\July 20, 1882 



asia or Southern Asia is given to a number of islands in the 

 Indian and Southern Oceans. The largest of these is New 

 Holland, which is nearly as extensive as the whole of Europe. 

 Much of the greater part of New Holland is unknown to 

 Europeans ; but there are British settlements on the coast. It 

 is inhabited by a race of savages who are among the lowest and 

 most degraded that are to be found in the world." The moral 

 seems to us to be that the Australians ought to compile their 

 own school-books. 



The invertebrate portion of the collection of fossils made by 

 the late Mr. Charles Moore, now in the Royal Literary and 

 Scientific Institution of that city, is being classified and arranged 

 by Messrs. R. Etheridge, jun., and R. Bullen Newton, of the 

 British Museum. The vertebrates will afterwards be examined 

 by Mr. Wm, Davies of the British Museum. 



Our contemporary, V Electricity, in an able article on the 

 progress of electrical science, remarks that in all the most striking 

 of recent advances it is improvement rather than invention that 

 comes to the front, and that no compromise or equivocation can 

 deny justice to the real original discoverers. " Bell does not 

 efface Reis in spite of the recent Chancery suit ; Faure cannot 

 destroy Plante ; and Swan, Edison, and the others cannot 

 suppress the anterior labours of Changy." 



It is proposed to establish a " German Botanical Society" for 

 the whole of the " Vaterland, " founded on, and an extension of, 

 'he already existing " Botanical Society for the Province of 

 Brandenburg." A conference for the purpose of founding the 

 new society is summoned to meet at Eisenach on September 16 ; 

 the conveners including many of the most distinguished botanists 

 from all parts of Germany. 



The most recent issue of the " Bulletin de la Federation des 

 Socie'tes d'Horticulture de Belgique," published under the 

 authority of the Belgian Minister of the Interior, contains the 

 usual evidence of the activity of horticulture in that little 

 kingdom, as well as the ninth annual issue of Prof. Morren's 

 valuable " Correspondance Botanique." 



At the sixth anniversary meeting of the Sanitary Institute, 

 Mr. E. C. Robins read a paper on the work of the Institute. 

 After dealing with the objects of the institution, which are to 

 awaken the conscience of the country generally to the import- 

 ance of preventive measures in arresting the spread of disea-e, 

 to acquire and impart information upon all matters connected 

 with the public health, and to influence the laws which might 

 be framed for the public good in connection with sanitary 

 matters, the reader addressed himself to these things, which still 

 remained to be performed. With respect to the examination 

 conducted by the Institute, it might soon be necessary to con- 

 sider the extent to which technical education should be required 

 as a condition precedent to such examination if the standard of 

 efficiency for the offices of local surveyors or inspector of public 

 nuisance was to be peimanently raised. He was happy to think 

 that during the last six years science classes were being esta- 

 blished throughout the country by the municipal authorities of 

 various cities. Instances were then given by Mr. Robins of the 

 disabilities under which sanitarians laboured. The influence of 

 the institute might be also used in favour of the public, and 

 especially of the humbler portion of it, by getting a revision of 

 the Water Companies' Act, which had granted to them inquisi- 

 torial powers quite inconsistent with public purposes of a 

 sanitary nature. Another and pressing want of the day was 

 greater uniformity in the bye-laws governing the action of local 

 authorities. 



A memorial has been presented by the Council of the Society 

 of Arts to the Secretary of State for India calling attention to 

 the great and growing demand for the services of persons skilled 



in forest cultivation and analogous occupations, in India and the 

 Colonies generally, and to the increasing desire on the part of 

 land agents, land stewards, and bailiffs to acquaint themselves 

 with the scientific and technical treatment of plantations, woods, 

 and forests, as a means of fitting them for the more satisfactory 

 management of landed estates in the United Kingdom. The 

 memorialists believe that no suitable provision exists at any of 

 our great centres of instruction in this country for the teaching of 

 natural science in its special reference to forestry, nor for the 

 scientific teaching of sylviculture in any of its branches ; and are 

 of opinion by grafting itinerating classes for observation of the 

 practical method adopted in the regularly worked forests abroad 

 on classes for scientific teaching at home, established in connec- 

 tion with such a school as already exists at Cooper's Hill, satis- 

 factory means could be afforded of enabling students to obtain 

 the requisite knowledge, both theoretical and practical, to qualify 

 them for entering upon the duties appertaining to forest manage- 

 ment, whether in India, our colonies, or elsewhere. They 

 therefore express their earnest hope that steps may be taken by 

 the Council to establish a department for the teaching of forestry 

 in the Royal Engineering College at Cooper's Hill. 



We have received a "Catechism" of modern elementary 

 chemistry, or solutions of questions set at examinations of the 

 London University, for the last twenty years, by the Lecturer on 

 Chemistry at Downside. The appearance of a book like this is 

 a further indication of what we are drifting to in this country in 

 regard to science teaching. The numerous examinations have 

 created a method of study which will meet the examination with 

 the least expenditure of labour on the part of the student. 

 Numerous small books on different branches of science have 

 appeared with this object, containing a mass of facts simply 

 crammed into them, and hence have earned the very appropriate 

 term "cram books." They serve to "get up the Exam.," 

 and are of no further use, generally creating a dislike of the 

 subject. The little book before us is i-carcely one of these, but 

 it is an examination helper more in the manner than the sub- 

 stance. It contains over 400 questions that have been actually 

 set, with answers appended, and will undoubtedly be useful in 

 preparing for the matriculation and other examinations. It is 

 intended to be used as an aid to a text-book, and as such is to 

 be commended. 



M. Delaporte, who has been exploring the celebrated 

 remains of Cambodia on behalf of the French Government, 

 propounds the idea — novel, we believe— that the remains at 

 Angkor and elsewhere are due neither to Buddhism nor Serpent, 

 worship, but were born of Brahminism. He finds figures and 

 emblems of Siva, Vishnu, Rama, and other Brahminic gods and 

 heroes everywhere. M. Delaporte has brought home numerous 

 photographs, mouldings, &c, and the details of his discoveries, 

 on which his new theory is based, will be anxiously looked for 

 by archaeologists. A brief note on the subject will be found in 

 the Bulletin of the Society for Encouraging National Industry 

 (May). 



Considerable consternation has been cau-ed by the appear- 

 ance of the Phylloxera at several points in the Canton of 

 Neuchatel and Geneva. 



In order to secure the greater purity in the atmosphere of the 

 St. Gothard Tunnel, an attempt is to be made to propel the 

 locomotives by electricity. Experiments, for which the sum of 

 iSo,ooo francs is set apart, are now being made at Berne with 

 this object. 



An earthquake shock lasting four seconds was felt on Monday 

 morning at half-past four o'clock at Laibach and Trieste- 

 Another shock, lasting longer, was felt at nine o'clock. A smart 

 earthquake shock, accompanied by subterranean thunder, was 



