July 27, 1882] 



NATURE 



305 



While, however, the Society, which, with its habitual 

 energy, has set on foot the proposed expedition, is ready 

 and willing to do all that is necessary to ensure success 

 [rj the way of geographical exploration, it does not con- 

 sider itself bound to undertake the further outlay which 

 the investigation of the natural history of Kilimandjaro 

 and Kenia must necessarily require. To effect this in a 

 satisfactory way, a zoologist and botanist should be 

 attached to Mr. Thomson's staff to make the necessary 

 observations and collections. These gentlemen might 

 perhaps be best left on the upper ranges of Kilimandjaro, 

 while Mr. Thomson descends to the shores of the Victoria 

 Nyanza, to rejoin him on his return towards the sea- 

 coast. However this may be arranged, it is obvious that 

 the addition of two Europeans to the expedition and the 

 transport of their collection from the interior cannot be 

 effected without materially increasing the cost. It is 

 hoped, therefore, that the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, which has already been in cor- 

 respondence with the Geographical Society upon the 

 subject of the proposed expedition, will take up this 

 branch of the question, and at the approaching meeting 

 at Southampton supply the funds necessary for the pur- 

 pose. It would be a great misfortune if the excellent 

 opportunity of solving a problem of first-rate importance 

 which thus presents itself were to be thrown away for 

 want of the few hundred pounds required to send out 

 naturalists in company with the proposed expedition. 



NOTES 



We can only express, for the present, the deep regret w iih 

 which we learn the death of Prof. F. M. Balfour, a regret 

 which we are sure will be shared by all who know anything of 

 Mr. Balfour's career. The details to hand of the accident which 

 led to Mr. Balfour's death are meagre. The news reached Cam. 

 bridge on Sunday evening that he had been killed by a fall on 

 the Alps. From later information it would seem that both Mr. 

 Balfour and his guide met with their deaths on the glacier of 

 Fresney, on the south side of Mont Blanc, about five miles west 

 of the village of Courmayeur. The bodies have both been found. 

 Mr. Balfour was only thirty-one years of age. 



Mr. George P. Marsh, the venerable American Minister at 

 Rome, whose death, at the age of eighty-one years, has just been 

 announced, was known as the author of the interesting work 0:1 

 "The Earth as Modified by Human Action," reviewed in 

 Nature, vol. xi. p. S2. His well-known work on "The 

 Origin and History of the English Language " is also marked by 

 a true scientific spirit. 



The German Association of Naturalists and physicians meets 

 this year at Eisenach, from September 18 to 21. In deference 

 to the wishes of many members, the duration of the meeting 

 has been shortened this year by curtailing the festivities which 

 have hitherto held so large a place in the proceedings of this vener- 

 able association. The Association, however, will really begin its 

 work on the Sunday evening (September 17) by a " Zusammen- 

 kunft im 'Tivoli,' " and finish on the Friday (22nd) by an ex. 

 CUrsion to Kissingen, the programme including lunch, dinner, 

 sapper, and ball. On the iStb, Prof. Haeckel will give a 

 lecture "On the Interpretation of Nature by Darwin, Goethe, 

 and Lamarck"; and on the 21st Prof. Rehmke lectures on 

 " Physiology and Kantism." As the German A-saciation meets 

 quite a fortnight later than our own, there is nothing to hinder 

 English men of science attending both. It is a pity some 

 arrangement could not be come to among the various associa- 

 tions to prevent sinjultaneous meetings. The English, French, 

 and American Associations all meet this year at the -ame time ; 

 the Americans, at least, might have arranged differently, seeiiu* 

 that their meeting in Montreal next month i.s intended to be to 

 some extent international. 



Mr. W. A. Forbes, tbe Prosector of the Zoological Society 

 of London, has just left the country upon a four month's expe- 

 dition up the River Niger. During his absence Mr. W, N. 

 Parker has been appointed Deputy Prosector to the Zoological 

 Society. To him all communications should be addressed during 

 Mr. Forbes's absence. 



The United States Government have voted 10,000/. for the 

 International Fisheries Exhibition. From the statement made 

 by the Prince of Wales at a meeting of the General Committee 

 last week, it is evident that the arrangements are progressing 

 favourably. 



Mr. Eugene Oates, who has been collecting in Pegu for the 

 last fourteen years, is now in England, and has been studying 

 for some months at the British Museum, his intention being to 

 issue shortly a revised catalogue of the birds of Burmah, for 

 which task his personal experiences in the field point him out as 

 being admirably fitted. 



Mr. Wm Davison, who is so well known for his collections 

 in Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula, under the auspices of 

 that energetic ornithologist, Mr. A. O. Hume, is also now in 

 this country. We are glad to hear that Mr. Davison's health is 

 fast becoming restored, and that he hopes soon to be able to 

 return to the scene of his scientific explorations in Malaiasia. 



Vol. 1. of a large work on " Electric Illumination " will 

 shortly be published at the office of Engineering. The volume 

 refers to general principles, current generators, conductors, 

 carbons, and lamps, the authors being Mr. Conrad W. Cooke, 

 Mr. James Dredge, Prof. O'Reilly, Prof. Silvai.us P. Thompson, 

 and M. H. Vivarez ; the whole will be edited by Mr. Dredge. 

 A second volume w ill follow, to comprise installations, motive 

 power, cost of production and maintenance, electrical photo- 

 metry, secondary batteries, accessories to electric lighting, &c, 

 &c, together with the completion of the patent abridgements 

 from 1S72 to 1882. 



The Algerian Government has sent to France a scientific 

 mission to study the means of destroying the Phylloxera. It is 

 mostly composed of viticuhurists, apprehensive that the pest may 

 eventually cross the Mediterranean. 



" Whence comes the x of mathematicians?" is a question on 

 which M. de Lagarde supplies some curious information (in a 

 note to the Gdttingen Royal Society of Sciences). The old 

 Italian algebraists named the unknown quantity in an equation, 

 cosa, or res (which they either wrote out or denoted by a sign). 

 These are translations of the Arabic sat, thing, by which the 

 Arabians in Spain indicated the unknown quantity — writing the 



Arabic equivalent of s ; thus our 12 * would be s . Now it has 



been the rule in Spain to expre.s the Arabic s by the Latin x. 

 Thus our mathematical x seems to have come from the Arabic 

 for thing. Going further back, to the Greeks, it appears that 

 Diophantus called the unknown quantity aptd/uos ; and for this, 

 a final sigma, accented, came to be written. It is thought the 

 Arabians may have denoted this by their s, and called it by the 

 name for thing. The Greek name for the square of the unknown 

 quantity was Siva/us, and for the cube kv0os ; and the corre- 

 sponding Arabian terms are clearly derived from these by trans- 

 lation ; hence a probability of derivation in the other case 

 (though not by translation). 



We lately noticed a full report on education in the United 

 States, as delineated and reviewed by the Bureau. A later 

 Circular (No. 6) calls special attention to the ] resent teaching 

 of physics and chemistry. The growth of science-teaching, it 

 says, is evident everywhere ; and how the movement will cul- 

 minate, no one can say. To-day, chemistry and physics are 



