512 
NATURE 
| March 17, 1870 
is strange, as it came to us from the interior, first showing on the 
coast at Pangani; now it goes in from Bogamoyo, and has 
reached Ugogo. Caravans on the route are stopped by death, 
ivory is left abandoned, and a party is being sent off to bring 
one large lot down, all the porters being cead in Ugogo. The 
expedition with valuable goods and a gang of men I sent off to 
assist Livingstone has been caught by it, and is at a standstill. 
Many of those I had engaged and paid considerable advances to 
are dead. There will be much loss this season, and Dr. Living- 
stone will come in for a share of it.” 
Tue Working Men’s Club and Institute Union have, with 
permission of the authorities, arranged for a series of visits to 
the national museums on Saturday afternoons, for the members 
of workmen’s clubs. The important feature connected with 
these visits is, that in each case the party will be under the guid- 
ance of some gentleman specially qualified to afford instruction 
in some particular branch of science and art. /- party of fifty 
workmen were thus enabled to pay a visit to the Egyptian De- 
partment of the British Museum on Saturday, under the guidance 
of Mr. Samuel Sharpe. We are informed that the “‘ Club Union” 
will be very glad to have similar valuable services rendered by 
other gentlemen for visits to the natianal collections. 
A LETTER has been received at Alexandria from Sir Samuel 
Baker, dated Khartoum, February 7, wherein he reports that 32 
boats were collected together to convey him and his party to 
Gondokoro. With the last shipment of troops the total expedi- 
tionary force amounts to 700, including a battery of artillery. 
Mr. Higginbotham is reported to be within four days’ march of 
Khartoum, having crossed the Nubian Desert. Tle has under 
his charge the steel steamers for the lake Albert Nyanza. Mr. 
Higginbotham has command of the rear expedition, and will 
follow Sir Samuel Baker immediately. All the members of the 
expedition are in good health and spirits. 
THE Pall Mall Gazette states that the Arctic explorer, Mr. C. 
F. Hall, has, in a lecture given at Washington, developed his 
plans for a third voyage. 
Tue establishment of the first sewage farm in India has taken 
place in the vicinity of Madras. It is an experiment, but the 
results as given in the official report are most hopeful, both as 
regards the drainage of Indian towns and the profit likely to 
accrue from the operation. ‘The site is an old swamp four feet 
only above the sea level; the soil isa stiff clay, mixed with much 
salt and a little sand—one of the worst possible soils for the pur- 
pose. The surface was levelled and protected from floods, and 
the sewage from Perambore barracks and-a small portion of the 
adjacent village, after being raised 22 feet, is conducted in 
an open earthenware conduit, and floated over the surface 
of the ground. The total area is 37 acres, but about 2 
acres only have been put under cultivation. The sewage 
is as thick as pea-soup, and sometimes more diluted. Its smell 
is overpowering close to the channel, but as it flows over the 
ground ‘‘it loses its offensiveness very soon.’” Various crops 
haye been tried on the sewaged area. Guinea grass succeeds so 
well that its yield is at the rate of 88 tons of fresh grass, or 29 
tons of hay per acre. The value is 58/. per acre. It is stated 
that grass will take any quantity of sewage, but that other useful 
crops, chiefly native vegetables, also succeed. Different plants 
require different treatment. Some of the best crops are native 
greens, which grow most luxuriantly and take a large quantity 
of sewage. The report states that the results to health have been 
satisfactory, and that one great source of disease has been re- 
moved. The application of the sewage of two other districts of 
the city was nearly completed at the date of the report. 
CANDIDATES for the first chair of Algebra at the Paris Faculty 
of Sciences are requested to send in certificates. 
Messrs. Moxon AND Co, are preparing for publication a 
Dictionary of Science, edited by Mr. G, Farrer Rodwell. It will 
be uniform with Haydn’s “ Dictionary of Dates” and “ Diction- 
ary of Biography,” and will comprise acoustics, astronomy, 
chemistry, dynamics, electricity, heat, hydrodynamics, hydro- 
statics, light, magnetism, meteorology, pneumatics, and statics. 
These subjects will be treated of by Mr. J. T. Bottomley, 
Lecturer on Natural Science in King’s College School; Mr. 
William Crookes, Mr. Frederick Guthrie, Professor of Natural 
Philosophy in the Royal School of Mines; Mr. R. A. Proctor, 
Mr. Richard Wormell ; and the Editor. 
Tue Paris Zoological Acclimatisation Society celebrated their 
seventeenth anniyersary last week in the Hotel de Ville. Dr. 
Tlooker was unanimously elected an honorary fellow, and the 
following prizes were awarded :—The gold medal offered to the 
society by the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce to M. 
Carbonnier, for the introduction of Chinese fish ; another gold 
medal to M. Vekemans, the director of the Zoological Gardens 
at Antwerp; grand gold medal to M. Alfred Grandidier for his 
travels in Africa and America ; a prize of 500fr. for the theo- 
retical researches of M. Verreaux on acclimatisation subjects ; a 
similar prize for works of pure zoology to the late Professor 
Sars for his publication on the littoral fauna of Norway and the 
development of sea-fish ; a prize of 200fr. was also awarded 
to M. E. Gayot for his essay on Leporides. 
Tue Liverpool Naturalists’ Field Club held a soirée at the 
Royal Institution on the 11th instant, the Mayor and about two 
hundred members and friends attending. The principal objects 
exhibited, interesting in a natural history point of view, were a 
very large collection of British plants beautifully mounted by 
Mr. Gibson, sen., a member of the club; an interesting case of 
spiders found in the neighbourhood, preserved in spirits in flat 
zlass bottles, and very effectively displiyed by Mr. H.jHizgins, 
son of the president ; a selection of valuable shells lately pre- 
sented to the Free Museum by Mr. Samuel Smith; young salmon ; 
case illustrating anatomical structure of the elephant, Xc. ; the 
largest known Nudibranch and the largest known Foraminifer, 
both taken alive by Dr. Collingwood in the China seas—from the 
Free Museum ; a case of sections of Brazilian creepers, showing 
curious abnormal structure, specific names unknown—by Mr, 
Robert Holland. Members of the Microscopical Society illus- 
trated various subjects. A spectroscope and micro-spectroscope 
were worked by the secretary, Mr. Stearn; and the evening. 
concluded with some chemical experiments bearing on Prof. 
Tyndall’s ‘‘ Dust and Disease” article in /vaser, by Mr. Davis, 
F.C.S.; the exhibition of Geissler tubes, a number of insects, &c. 
AY a recent meeting, the Natural History Society of Mont- 
real presented its medal to Sir William Logan, the distinguished 
geologist. The following resolution was passed :—‘‘ That this 
Society, in presenting its medal to Sir W. E. Logan, LL.D., 
F.R.S., although it cannot add appreciably to the many honours 
which he has received, desires to place on record, not merely on 
its own behalf, but on that of all the students of Natural Science 
in Canada, its high estimation of the value of his services in 
creating as well as directing the Geological Survey of this 
country, in promoting the development of its mineral resources, 
in stimulating and aiding the efforts of scientific institutions, and 
in extending throughout the world the name of Canadian 
science. We desire also to express our high appreciation of Sir 
William’s admirable qualities, and our hope that he may be 
spared for many years to Canada and to science, and that the 
relief from official cares may give him the opportunity to pursue 
to completion the researches in scientific geology in which he is 
now engaged.” 
WE are glad to see that meetings are being held in support of 
Mr. W. S. Allen’s motion in the House of Commons to open 
museums on week-day evenings. We know of no argument 
against the experiment, and we believe the experiment would be 
an entirely successful one, 
