338 
NATURE 
[ Fan. 27, 1870 
four Faculties—Arts, Sciences, Law, and Medicine—are typified 
by the four sitting statues over the portico, representing Milton, 
Newton, Bentham, and Harvey. 
WE are happy to be able to announce that the council of the 
Chemical Society has decided to have a report of their proceed- 
ings and an abstract of the papers read before the society drawn 
up immediately after its meetings, and to offer copies of this 
report to the editors of journals who may be likely to wish to 
publish it. The days when the newest results of science were 
regarded as something secret —or, at all events, of no concern to 
the ordinary man of education—are gone by, we trust, for ever. 
It may now be confidently expected that the example of the 
Chemical Society in thus seeking a wide publicity for the reports 
of their proceedings will be followed by those societies—such as 
the Linnean and the Astronomical—which have not offered 
hitherto such facilities to thosewho endeavour to inform the general 
scientific public and the world of letters of the latest researches 
in science. 
We learn from the fifth annual report of the Sanitary Com- 
missioner with the Government of India, just received, that the 
first scientific report on the inquiry into epidemic cholera in India, 
the instructions for which were prepared by the Army Sanitary 
Commission, has been presented. 
have been making ‘ 
The reporters state that they 
careful and systematic examinations of 
cholera excreta, and the changes taking place in them during 
decomposition as compared with healthy excreta, and the 
changes occurring in them as well as in other fluids and solids 
during the same process. These changes have been studied as 
occurring under various circumstances, associated with various 
substrata and media. In addition to the above experiments, 
others on the effects of cholera excreta on growing rice plants 
have been entered upon. Careful daily observations have been 
made, and notes and camera /ucida drawings of all the changes 
observed to occur have been accumulated. As far as the obser- 
vations have as yet gone, they have not been confirmatory of 
those of Hallier. For, though fungi have frequently appeared 
on choleraic materials, yet—(1) several species have appeared ; 
(2) the same species have occurred in abundance on other sub- 
strata in like circumstances ; (3) the species observed have not 
belonged to the cholera series of Hallier. As yet, however, it 
would be premature to draw any definite conclusions in the 
matter, as any series of observations on such points is beset with 
innumerable difficulties and fallacies, necessitating careful and 
frequent repetition of each experiment before coming to a final 
decision as to the value of its results.” Observations are being 
conducted at various stations to ascertain whether Pettenkofer’s 
theory of the relation of cholera to subsoil water level is borne 
out in India. 
THE Boston Society of Natural History, at its last meeting, 
passed the following vote :— 
“That the net proceeds of the celebration of the centennial 
anniversary of the birth of Humboldt, together with the money 
received from the sale of Prof. Agassiz’s Address, previous to 
Jan. 1, 1870, and the money subscribed at the solicitation of the 
society's committee, be given to the trustees of the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, in trust, for the esta- 
blishment of an endowment, under the title of the Humboldt 
Scholarship, the income of which is to be solely applied, under 
the direction of the Faculty, toward the maintenance of one or 
more young and needy persons engaged in study at said 
museum.” 
THE subject of the Ravizza prize of a thousand lire for 1870 
is, the effect which emigration to foreign countries and removal 
to cities produce on the population of agricultural districts. 
Manuscripts are to be marked with a motto, and accompanied 
by a sealed letter containing the author’s name. They must be 
written in Italian, addressed Prestdenza del Regio Liceo, Cesare, 
Beccaria, Milan, and delivered not later than the last day of 
December next. 
A MONTHLY Journal, devoted to social and sanitary economy, 
is advertised to appear on the Ist proximo, under the title of the 
Food Fournal. Judging by the names included in the published 
list of contributors, we may confidently expect that the important 
subjects to be dealt with in this periodical will be treated of with 
ability, and in accordance with the most recent results of scien- 
tific research. 
THAT interesting and useful periodical the American 
Naturalist, which is devoted to the popularisation of Natural 
History, commences a new volume in March next. The first 
article in the volume will be an illustrated paper by Mr. E. 
G, Squier, the eminent archzeologist, on the Ancient Megalithic 
Monuments of Peru compared with those in other parts of the 
world. The second article will be on Sponges, by Prof. Leidy, 
of Philadelphia. 
WE have received from the Mannheim Association for Natural 
Science the annual report published in February of last year, and 
giving an account of the society’s operations during the year 
1868-9. The usefulness of the Association appears to have been 
somewhat limited by the want of funds. To the same cause 
must doubtless be ascribed the fact that the only papers published 
with the report before us are on the meteorology of Mannheim. 
We are glad, however, to learn from the Secretary that the 
yolume for 1870 will shortly appear, and that it is to contain 
several interesting astronomical, meteorological, and botanical 
communications, 
M. DumeEriL, Member of the Institute and Professor at the 
Jardin des Plantes, commenced on the 15th inst. at the Museum 
of Natural History, a course of lectures on the general history 
of reptiles, batrachians, and fish. 
Mr. Dyer, of Cirencester College, has been appointed by 
Earl De Grey to the Professorship of Botany in the Royal 
College of Science, Dublin. 
Ir was some time since announced that the prize offered by 
Lieut.-Colonel Scott, R.E., the secretary of the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society, for an essay on the Principles of Floral Criti- 
cism, would be awarded on January 19th. It is now stated 
that the award will not be made till Wednesday, May 4th, 1870. 
WE note the appearance of a new edition of the very handy 
geological map of Germany, France, England, and the neigh- 
bouring countries, originally drawn up by Von Dechen in 1839. 
Tt will be found very useful to any continental tourists who have 
some geological knowledge, and who care to take an intelligent 
survey of the countries they travel through. Copies may be 
obtained of Messrs. Nutt, 270, Strand. The scale is 1: 2,500,000, 
A CoMMITTEE has been formed at Liverpool for the purpose 
of establishing a Zoological Society. Itis hoped that the corpora- 
tion will grant a site for the society’s garden in one of the public 
parks. 
MELBOURNE has recently acquired a fresh utility and ornament 
in the shape of a turret-clock, the first manufactured in the 
colony, which for perfection of work and peculiarities of con- 
struction challenges the admiration of all horologists. The dials, 
six feet in diameter, consisting of frames of cast-iron—the rings, 
figures, and minute marks (eight inches long and one broad) all 
formed in one casting—are eighty feet from the level of Bourke 
Street. The weight is about I20 pounds, suspended on a barrel 
seventeen inches long and ten inches in diameter, revolving 
twenty-nine times a week, giving a downfall of about seventy 
feet. The pendulum swings once in two seconds, and consists of 
a dry and varnished pine rod fifteen feet six inches long, with a 
cylinder of lead weighing 320 pounds. As it was thought 
desirable to make the hands moye by easily seen impulses every 
