Feb. 17, 1870] 
NATURE 
4tl 
the science is well-known, and his labours for its advance, 
especially in connection with the Royal Astronomical Society, 
haye now extended over many years. 
THE President of the Royal Society has sent out cards for 
two evening receptions, which are to be held at Burlington 
House on March 5, and April 23. 
WE understand that 75 towns have signified their intention 
of contributing to the fund required by the British Association 
Committee on the Treatment and Utilisation of Sewage, for 
the investigation of this subject, Manchester heading the list with 
a contribution of roo/, 
A? the ensuing meeting of the Geological Society on the 23rd 
inst., a paper of especial interest will be read, on the subject of 
copper mining at deep levels in the South of Ireland, experience 
having disproved the dictum of Irish geologists as to the non- 
existence of metalliferous strata at any considerable depth. 
THE number of candidates for election as members of the 
Royal Institution may, we hope, be taken as a fair indication of 
the daily increasing interest taken in scientific matters. The 
number elected last year was forty-seven. The number of can- 
didates proposed during the first six weeks of the present year is 
forty-two. 
M. NAuMANN has been elected a corresponding member of 
the mineralogical section of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, 
in the place of Sir Roderick Murchison, who has been made a 
foreign associate. He received 27 votes out of 44, of the 
remainder 10 being recorded in favour of our countryman, Pro- 
fessor Miller, and 5 for Professor Studer, of Berne. 
At the meeting of the Académie des Sciences, on the 31st 
of January, M. de la Roche Poncié was erected to the place 
rendered vacant in the Bureau des Longitudes by the death of 
M. Darondeau. 
M. ALGLAVE announces in the Revue des Cours Scientifiques, 
that the total amount subscribed to the Sars Fund, is now up- 
wards of 160/., including the subscriptions of twenty-eight mem- 
bers of the Royal Belgian Academy, the same number of 
members of the Anthropological Society of Paris, M. Drouyn 
de Lhuys, and several members of the Zoological Society. We 
have the satisfaction to announce further subscriptions to the 
fund in this country, which appear in our advertising columns. 
We hear that the eminent geographer Kiepert is about to pro- 
ceed tothe Holy Land, and spend some time there, for the pur- 
pose of personally determining geographical positions. He has 
the advantage over our University explorers, recently sent out, in 
being a skilful and experienced geodetist, and of acquaintance 
with the country obtained during a former sojourn of several years. 
A CoMMITTEE has been appointed to inquire into the educa- 
tion of naval officers, consisting of Rear-Admiral Shadwell, 
C.B., President ; Captain W. H. Richards, R. N., Hydrographer, 
Captain A. A. Wood, R.N., Director of Naval Ordnance, the 
Rey. Dr. Woolley, Admiralty Director of Education, the Rev. 
A. Barry, D.D., Principal of King’s College. S. P. Butler, Esq., 
darrister-at-law, Richard Saintbill, Esq., R.N., Secretary. 
PrIzEs are offered by the Royal Belgian Academy for essays 
on the following subjects:—1. To give a résumé of and to 
simplify the theory of the integration of equations con‘aining 
partial derivatives of the first two orders. 2. A study of 
electrical currents based as far as possible on new experiments. 
3. To fix by new researches the place to be occupied in the 
natural system, by the species Lycopodium, Selaginella, Psilotum, 
Tmesipteris, and Phylloglossum. 4. To describe the mode of 
reproduction of eels, 5. New researches to establish the 
composition and mutual relations of albuminoid substances. 
The gold medal to be given for the first and fifth of these 
questions is to be worth 40/., that for the second, third, and 
fourth questions, 247. The essays must be written in Latin, 
French, or Flemish, and addressed paid to M. Ad. Quetelet, the 
Perpetual Secretary, before the rst of June, 1871. The Academy 
will require the greatest exactness in the quotations, and the 
pages as weil as the editions of works cited, must be given. 
ANTHROPOLOGY is being publicly taught in Paris by one of 
the most distinguished masters of that science, Dr. Paul Broca. 
The conferences are held every Monday and Friday at 3 o’clock 
at the Anthropological Laboratory, No. 15, Rue de Ecole de 
Medecine, The instruction given has reference chiefly to 
craniology and the comparative anatomy of man and the apes. 
We also learn from Herr F. von Hauer that a new Anthropo- 
logical Society has been formed at Vienna, It already numbers 
twenty-four members, among whom are several distinguished 
men of science. The society will publish a journal. In a 
prospectus which has been issued it is stated that the study of 
the natural history of man has now reached a stage in which 
active support by association appears to be imperatively needful. 
AT a recent meeting of the Zoological Society of London, 
Professor Owen communicated a very interesting letter, which he 
had lately received from Dr. Julius Haast, F.R.S., of Canter- 
bury, New Zealand, on the subject of the extinction of the Moa, 
or Dinornis. Dr. Haast was of opinion that these gigantic 
birds had been extinct many hundreds of years, and had been so 
before the arrival of the Maories in New Zealand, having been 
exterminated by a race which previously inhabited these islands 
near the mouth of the river Rakaia. He had recently been so 
fortunate as to find the remains of a former large encampment of 
these ‘‘ Moa hunters.” The kitchen-middens and cooking-ovens, 
which were still completely preserved, were spread over more 
than forty acres in extent. Numerous stone weapons were dis- 
covered, consisting either of hard sandstone or of chipped flint. 
The Moa bones were very abundant, but belonged chiefly to the 
smaller species, Dizornis casniarinus, D. didiformis, and D, 
crassus. There were also some bones of D. e/ephantopus, and of a 
small Palapteryx ingens, but none of D. gigartteus and D. robustus. 
The leg bones of these birds had all been broken at the ends, so 
as to allow the marrow to be extracted, and the skulls scooped out 
from below, so that the brain might be reached. The middens 
likewise contained bones of the domestic dog, sea-gull, and the 
tympanic bones of several species of whale, but no human 
remains had been found amongst the heaps, so that it might be 
presumed that the Moa-hunters were not cannibals. 
PROFESSOR LIEBIG disputes Pasteur’s view that the decom- 
position of sugar in fermentation, depends on the development 
and multiplication of yeast-cells and that fermentation generally 
is only a phenomenon accompanying the vital process of yeast. 
He expresses the opinion that Pasteur’s researches have not 
explained fermentation ; but have only made known another 
phenomenon—the development of yeast—which equally requires 
explanation. 
A NEW Flora of India by Dr. Hooker and Dr. Thomson is 
in preparation, and the first volume is expected in the course of 
the present season. This willsupersede the old ‘‘ Flora Indica” 
by the same authors, the first volume of which was published in 
1855. The fifth volume of Mr. Bentham’s ‘‘ Flora Australiensis ” 
is also announced as nearly ready. 
AT the monthly session of the Imperial Geographical Society 
of Russia, held December 3rd, under the presidency of Count 
F. de Liitke, a memoir was read from M. Popow, of the Russian 
embassy, Pekin, on the ‘‘ export of tea from Hankow,” amounting 
to 50,000,000 Ibs. — one-third of the total export from China—of 
which 15,000,000 is sent by twenty-eight Russian merchants. 
Among the measures adopted by the council in November 
was one concerning Mr, Hayward’s expedition in Central Asia. 
