. Fan, 20, 1870 | 
_. Heidelberg and Dr. Mayer of Heilbronn, have recently been 
elected, there is still a vacancy caused by the death of Principal 
- Forbes, which took place in December 1868. In the section 
for Geography and Navigation no successor has yet been ap- 
pointed to M. A, d’Abbadie, elected membre titulaire in. April 
1867. In the Chemical section there are two vacancies, that of 
Bérard of Montpellier, who died in June last, and that of Prof. 
Graham, the Master of the Mint, who died in September. 
There are likewise two vacancies in the Mineralogical section, 
which includes the Geologists and Palxontologists. “They were 
occasioned by the promotion of Sir Roderick Murchison to the 
rank of Foreign Associate, and the death of M. Fournet of 
_Lyons. M. Harrman has been nominated by this section for the 
first place ; Dr. W. H. Miller of Cambridge will probably obtain 
the second. Mr. Dana is, however, also spoken of ; likewise two 
French geologists, M. Lory of Grenoble and M. Leymerie of 
Toulouse. The Zoological and Anatomical section has three 
Jruteuils to dispose of, those of Quoy of Brest, Carus of Dresden, 
and Purkinje of Prague. One of them will in all probability be 
assigned to Prof. Huxley. Lastly, there are two vacancies in 
the Medical section, those of Panizza of Pavia and Sir W. 
Lawrence. Prof. Lebert of Breslau will almost certainly be 
nominated by the section for one of the vacancies. 
‘fue Chancellor of the North-German Confederation hes 
presented to the Federal Council the report of the Scientific 
Commission on the best means of observing the transit of Venus 
in 1874. ‘the detailed report proposes to send two expeditions 
to different points of the northern, and two others to different 
localities in the southern hemisphere. 
THE third volume of Dr. Percy’s admirable ‘* Metallurgy” will 
shortly be issued, There will still be another yolume to com- 
plete the work. 
Tue Royal Irish Academy at their last meeting approved of 
some alterations in the bye-laws proposed by the Council. By 
these alterations the Council for the future will be divided into 
two Committees: one of Science, consisting of eleven members, 
ant one of Polite Literature-and Antiquities, consisting of ten 
members. The Committee of Publication to consist of four 
~ members from each of the Committees of Council, his change 
will very much simplify the management of the Academy. ‘The 
first election under the new bye-laws will take place on the 16th 
March next, and we trust that at least one biologist may be 
elected into the Commitlee of Science. For many years past 
neither a zoologist nor a botanist has been elected into the 
Council. 
LL Jnstitut hasannounced that from the beginning of the new year 
it will open its columns to the discussion of scientific subjects of 
interest to the public at large. We hold that it is an important 
part of the work of a weekly scientific journal to afford oppor- 
tunity for instructing others than scientific-workers, and also to 
afford opportunity for a more careful and thorough sifting of 
most scientific questions than is possible at the meetings of 
learned societies or in the pages of periodicals published monthly 
or quarterly. Tt is satisfactory to us to find that our views on 
this head are endorsed by so long established and ably conducted 
a journal as L’Lrestitut. 
letters is necessarily limited, we take this opportunity of begging 
that our correspondents will make their communications as short 
as is consistent with clearness. 
IN a paper published in a recent number of the Journal of the 
Society of Arts, Mr. Alexander Wallace expresses his conviction 
that the cultivation of the silkworm may now be successfully and 
profitably carried out in England, as the causes which led to the 
» failure of the attempts made by the British, Irish, and Colonial 
Silk Company some forty years ago have been greatly modified. 
NATURE 317 
As the space which we can devote to 
He adyocates the adoption of the oak-feeding silkworm of Japan, 
Bombex Yama-mai, and thinks that the experience of a few 
more seasons will show the limits of temperature and locality 
wherein it may be acclimatised. 
HAVING adyerted in our number of last week to the view 
recently maintained by Prof. Huxley that the difference between 
Celt and Saxon is merely one of language, we think it right to 
call attention to the rejoinder of a ‘* Devonshire Man,” printed 
in the Lall Mall Gazette of Tuesday last. The writer energeti- 
cally opposes Prof. Huxley’s attempt to prove identity of race 
between the natives of Tipperary and the men of Devonshire. 
He shows further, that Caesar was fully alive to the essential 
difference of character between the Celts and the Teutons, and 
that he defined those characters in language which for accuracy 
and precision could not be exceeded in our day. The ‘* Devon- 
shire Man” did not, however, adduce any evidence depending on 
physical characters in support of his view of the question ; 
probably leaving this powerful weapon to some one who has 
made a special study of European ethnography. 
Mr. W. CHANDLER Rogerts has been appointed Chemist to 
the Mint. ‘The selection of this gentleman to fill this important 
office is a good one: many points arise during the working of 
the precious metals that require careful investigation, and Mr. 
Roberts will doubtless also continue the valuable 
interrupted by the death of Professor Graham. 
researches 
We have received specimens of a new process of photo- 
mechanical printing, patented by Messrs. Edwards and Kidd, 
of 22, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. It seems admirably 
adapted for the reproduction of the works of the great masters of 
etching and engraving. We are unable as yet to speak of the 
process as applied to photographs of landscapes. 
Dire Royal Danish Society of Sciences has offered the follow- 
ing prizes for scientific memoirs, which may be written in Latin, 
French, English, German, Swedish, or Danish, and must be sent 
to the secretary of the Society, Professor J. S. Steenstrup, before 
the end of the month of October next. A gold medal for a 
memoir establishing a mathematical theory of some branch of 
assurance hitherto destitute of any such foundation; a gold 
medal for an experimental and theoretical essay oa the law of 
Cauchy relating to the dispersion of coloured rays, with especial 
reference to the number of constants necessary to be introduce 
into the formula; and the Classen prize of 309 rixd. (about 
34/.), for an investigation of the movement of the air in a 
system of ventilation. Full details of tie questions, in French, 
will be found in the ‘* Oversigt” of the Society for 1869, 
No. ft. 
Mk. JAMRACH, of St. George's Street East, ina letter addressed 
to Land and Water, gives the following extraordinary list of 
animals now on sale at his establishment :—‘‘ 1 pair of South 
African lions, 1 brown hyena, 1 striped hyena, 8 Tasmanian 
devils, 1 large rare dasyurus, 8 dasyurus maugeii, 6 ichneumons, 
4 banded ichneumons, + musk cat, 1 African skunk, 1 pair 
@\merican black bears, 1 pair zebras, 1 pair imported yaks, 6 
lamas, 2 Iceland ponies, a new deer, a Brocket dear, a spring- 
boc, a harnessed antelope, 2 female and r male Wapiti deer, a 
female nylghaie, a pair fat-tailed sheep, 10 kangaroos, 1 broad- 
nosed wombat, I pair mouflon, a Formosa pig, 8 large crested 
porcupines, 4 Java porcupines, I Java hare, 4 vulpine phalangers, 
2 black phalangers, 1 pacca, 4 baboons, 1 pair large drills, 1 
mandrill, 2 Mona monkeys, t ringtail monkey, 3 green monkeys, 
1 blue fox, 1 pair flying opossums, I pair emus, a maraboo, a 
pair Mexican cranes, a pair Demoiselle cranes, 5 spur-wing 
geese, 16 pair Carolina ducks, 1 pair Australian wild ducks, 2 
pair white peafowl, 1 pair lineated pheasants, sand grouse, 
Mogadore partridges, a New Zealand rail, large European yul- 
ture, I black hawk, I condor, a female Bateleur eagle, a secre- 
