April 28, 1870} 
NATURE 
659 
standard works of Bewick and Yarrell owing much to his 
assistance ; his own work on the subject being also a very 
valuable one. Hs was also a frequent contributor on various 
branches of Natural History to the scientific journals. A corre- 
spondent of the British Medical Fournal states that he wasa 
good linguist, and devoted a considerable time to antiquities. 
He was aman in whom simple tastes were combined with per- 
sistent industry and very accurate powers of observation, and 
was one of few in whom these qualities were not spoiled by easy 
circumstances, 
THE photographic journals announce the sudden death, in his 
72nd year, of a distinguished photographer, M. Niepce de 
St. Victor, one of the most skilful and indefatigable of experi- 
mentalists, and unquestionably the practical originator of photo- 
graphy on glass plates. His name will, however, be associated 
chietly with the process of photo-engraving. 
THE conversazione of the Society of Arts is fixed to take place 
at the South Kensington Museum on Wednesday evening, the 
4th of May. Cards of invitation have been issued. 
Tr will be remembered that on the 13th of July last a deputa- 
tion from the Council and India Committee of the Society ot 
Arts waited on the Duke of Argyll for the purpose of urging 
the Government of India to take steps for providing a Depart- 
ment of Agriculture for India, The Council have great pleasure 
in announcing that a Department of Agriculture and Commerce 
for India has now been established, and that Mr. Rivett Carnac 
has been appointed the secretary. 
Aft the last meeting of the Society of Arts, a valuable paper 
was read by Mr. Alexander J. Ellis on a practical method ot 
meeting the spelling difficulty in school and in life, which was 
followed by an interesting discussion. 
A SERIES of ladies’ classes has been arranged at Blackheath, 
and a large number will attend lectures by the Rev. Stopford 
Brooke, and Professors Seeley, Miller, and Duncan. 
Mr. W. Ratstron will deliver a lecture at St. George’s 
Hall, Langham-place, at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4, on 
** Russian Folk-lore,” which will be illustrated by a number of 
stories taken from the ‘‘Skazki” (or prose tales answering to 
Dasent’s ‘‘ Tales from the Norse,” or Grimm’s ‘* Mahrchen ”), 
with a few notes on their historical, mythological, and social 
bearings. 
Dr. HooKer’s ‘‘ Student’s Flora of the British Isles” is an- 
nounced as nearly ready. It will contain fuller descriptions 
of the orders, genera, and species of British plants than the 
existing manuals aim at giving, together with the distribution of 
the species in area and altitude, and their hitherto recognized 
sub-species and yarieties. The method adopted will differ from 
those of the author’s predecessors in many points, and the 
whole will be contained in a pocket volume suited for the class- 
room and the field. 
A PECULIAR variety of Chamelio Vulgaris, found near 
Bughodeer, on the Grand Trunk Road, was presented by Mr. 
H. Hexter to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, on 
January 5. Dr. Stoliczka, the palzontologist of the Indian 
Survey, said that the specimen was very interesting, and of a kind 
not often found in India so far north. It was fully 12 inches 
long, the tail measuring slightly more than half. Dr. Ginther 
remarks in his ‘‘ Reptiles of India,” p. 162, that most of the 
Indian specimens are of a green colour. The present specimen 
was a distinct greyish olive, having throughout a slight green 
tinge, which Mr. Hexter stated appeared to have been more 
prevalent and variable during the life of the animal ; but faded 
quickly after its death. Each side’ was marked with eight 
irregular orange brown cross bands. ‘The head, the greater part 
of the feet, and part of the tail were bright yellow. The 
animal is more fully described in the the Society’s Proceedings, 
1870. No. I. 
From Thorell’s Essays on European Spiders (‘‘ Nova Acta 
regiz Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis,” ser. 111. vol. vii. 
fasc. 1, 1869), we extract the following observations, first sug- 
gested by M. Westring, a Swedish naturalist, on the best mode 
of preserving spiders in Natural History collections. The 
essential feature of the method is that the spider’s addomen, and 
that part only of its body, is hardened by heat. The spider is 
first killed, either by the vapour of ether or by heat, and is 
impaled by an insect pin, which is passed through the right side 
of the cephalo-thorax ; the abdomen is then cut off close to the 
cephalo-thorax, and the cut surface dried with blotting-paper. 
The head of another insect pin is cut off, and the blunt extremity 
introduced through the incision into the abdomen, up to the 
spinners. The abdomen thus spitted is inserted into a large test- 
tube held over the flame of a candle, the preparation being con- 
stantly rotated till dry, avoiding the extremes of too much or 
too little heat—the firmness of the abdomen being tested every 
now and then with a fine needle, till it is so firm as not to yield 
to pressure; the front extremity of the pin is how cut off ob- 
liquely, and the point thus made inserted into the cephalo-thorax, 
the two halves of the body being thus again brought into apposi- 
tion. The animal may then be mounted as usual. This method 
is stated by Mr. Thorell to preserve the appearance of the animals 
almost entirely unchanged. 
AN attempt is being made to cultivate the Japanese tea-plant 
in California. 27,000 trees have been imported. 
Tue third course of Cantor Lectures of the Society of Arts for 
the present session is being given by Professor A. W. William- 
son, The course consists of four lectures, “On Fermen- 
tation,’”” on Monday evenings, the 25th of April, and the 2nd, 
gth, and 16th of May, at 8 o’clock, and will include an account 
ofimportant investigations of M. Pasteur. The subjects treated 
of will be as follows :—Chief varieties of fermentation ; chemi- 
cal processes which take place in the best known processes of 
fermentation ; other chemical processes analogous to them ; how 
these cyclical processes are distinguished from ordinary processes 
of chemical action; cyclical action analysed; 1. in known 
cases; 2. in less known cases ; theory of ‘‘ contagiousness ” of 
chemical action ; composition of yeast, and changes which it un- 
dergoes ; assimilation of food by yeast plants during life; de- 
composition of yeast plants during life ; propagation of ferments ; 
prevention of fermentation ; germs in air: how removed: how 
destroyed ; processes for arresting fermentation ; wine-making 
and wine-keeping; chemical changes which improve the 
quality of wine ; chemical changes which deteriorate the quality 
of wine.—These lectures are open to members, each of whom 
has the privilege of introducing two friends to each lecture. 
A TELEGRAPHIC despatch from Marseilles announces the dis: 
covery there, by M. Borelly, of a new planet. Its position on 
the 19th at 10h. 33m., 13s. was—Right ascension, 13h. 2m. 395. 
North declination, 6° 50' 39”. 
Tue Italian Parliament is engaged in discussing a vast financial 
plan of the new Ministry, one feature of which is the suppression 
of a number of the smaller Italian universities. Irrespective of 
considerations of economy, it is thought that the cause of educa- 
tion will gain by the concentration of the teaching power of the 
nation in a few towns where a great educational movement 
exists. A portion of the scheme which meets with less favour is 
the suppression of the Superior Institute of Florence, an esta- 
