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NATURE 



\_3Iai-ch 13, 1884 



cliemists. Section G has been particularly active. The Con- 

 niittee has prepared a list of subjects for papers which it is 

 thought would be interesting to English visitors if treated by 

 engineers and mechanicians in Canada ; a good supply of papers 

 is expected both from this country and America. We regret to 

 learn that Prof. Williamson, the General Treasurer, will be 

 unable to be present, and the Council have decided to engage the 

 services, pro hac vice, of Mr. Hamy Brown, Assistant Secretary 

 and Accountant of University College, as "Financial Officer," 

 while Prof. Burdon Sanderson has virtually consented to act as 

 deputy for the Treasurer at Montreal. 



M. Card, for the French Academy, and MM. Pasteur and 

 d'Abbadie, for the Academy of Sciences, will attend as delegates 

 the/etfs at Edinburgh in commemoration of the tercentenary of 

 the foundation of the University of Edinburgh. 



Dr. Koch and his colleagues of the German Cholera Com- 

 mission will proceed s'lortly to Goalpara and Darjeeli'ig to 

 prosecute further inquiries. After passing a few days there, 

 they will return to Germany, but they hope to be back in India 

 next winter to carry on their very important and useful labours. 



Dr. George Engelmann of St. Louis — the oldest United 

 States botanist (excepting the venerable Lesquereux), as well as 

 an eminent physician, for a time a fellow-student with Agassiz 

 in Germany — died on February 11, at the age of seventy-five. 



Commodore Samuel R. Franklin, U.S.N., has been de- 

 tached from duty on the United States Naval Examining Board, 

 and ordered as superintendent of the naval observatory, to 

 succeed Rear-Admiral R. W. Shufeldt, who was placed upon 

 the retired list on February 21. 



At the sitting of the Academy of Sciences of March 10 M. 

 Faye presented drawings which have been executed at Algiers 

 by M. Trepied, Director of the Observatory, and which repre- 

 sent Pons' comet as seen on the very days on which have been 

 noticed the changes that have excited such surprise amongst cer- 

 tain astronomers. M. Faye took advantage of this communica- 

 tion to give an exjilanation of these wonderful observation--, 

 which are more frequent than has been supposed in the history 

 of astronomy. M. Faye does not suppose that they may be attri- 

 buted to any collision with cosmical matter, but to a rapid 

 change in the point of view of the comet itself, as observed 

 from the earth. This theory will he illustrated by a woodcut 

 published in the next number of the Comptes Rendus. 



Considerable progre s has now been made in the carrying 

 out of the works connected w ith the marine station which some 

 time ago the Scottish Meteorological Society resolved to esta- 

 blish at Grantoii ; and it is anticipated that the oper tions of the 

 station will be properly commenced towards the close of the 

 present month. As the first instalment of the work to be done, 

 it is hoped that a tolerably complete description of the Firth of 

 Forth, in its biological, meteorological, physical, and chemical 

 relations, may be prepared in the course of the next few year<; 

 and when this has been carried out, the residt will have an ex- 

 ceptional, and indeed unique value, as a piece of work of the 

 greatest scientific and national importance, produced by coopera- 

 tion amongst scientific men. The Council of the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society, it may be mentioned, recently asked 

 Her Majesty's Government for a subscription of 1000/. for the 

 purpose of building permanent laboratories in connection with 

 the station — undertaking at the same time to raise an additional 

 1000/. by public subscription. The Government, however, have 

 not seen their way to assist this school of research, notwithstand- 

 ing that the grant was warmly recommended by Prof. Huxley, 

 President of the Royal Society. The Council of the Meteoro- 

 logical Society have, however, every confidence that the scheme 

 will be liberally supported by the general public. 



Dr. Casey, F.R.S., has just written a new work on Analytic 

 Geometry, which covers about two-thirds of the ground occupied 

 by Salmon's Conies ; in the author's opinion it will contain more 

 new matter than any work on the subject since Salmon's book 

 was written. 



An interesting experiment is to be made by Dr. Zintgraff, 

 who, in company with Dr. Chavanne, is about to visit the Congo 

 and the interior of Africa. He takes with him a phonograph, 

 wherewith to fix the speech and melodies of hitherto unknown 

 tribes, which, thus received by the instrument, will be forwarded 

 to scientific men in Germany. The apparatus (which will be 

 used for such a purpose for the first time) has been made by Mr. 

 Fuhrmann, of Berlin, and exactly corresponds w ith one he has 

 in that city, so that the plates used in Africa can be sent to 

 Berlin to be unrolled by that machine, and caused to re-emit the 

 sounds received. 



A remarkable occurrence is reported from Bona (Algeria). 

 An isolated mountain, Jebel Naiba, 800 m. in height, is 

 rapidly decreasing in altitude, and round its base a considerable 

 cavity is being formed. The whole mass of the mountain is 

 evidently sinking. The neighbourhood of Bona must, however, 

 have already been the scene of a similar phenomenon. Lake 

 Fezzara, which measures over 12,000 hectares in extent, did not 

 exist during the time of the Romans. Its depth in the centre is 

 only 2 '60 m. Investigations which were made in 1870 showed 

 that the remains of a Roman town now lie in the lake ; this 

 town has therefore probably sunk in the same manner as the 

 mountain. 



A PREHISTORIC burial-ground has been discovered on the so- 

 called Hasenburg, near Buhla (Kreis Nordhausen, Germany). 

 Two complete human skeletons, numerous bronze rings, and 

 several rings made of amber were found. The Hasenburg is an 

 isolated rock on which stood formerly a castle of the Emperor 

 Henry IV. ; but the numerous prehistoric remains found in 

 the neighbourhood point to its having been an ancient place 

 of worship. The objects recently found have been deposited in 

 the Museum of Nordhausen. 



The appointment by the Swedish Government of an entomo- 

 logist to assist farmers has been found of so much value that it 

 has been decided to continue the same. Dr. A. Holmgren has 

 been appointed agricultural entomologist for this year. 



The city of Hamburg offers various prizes for the plans of a 

 new Natural History Museum. The total cost of construction 

 of the building must not exceed 45,000/. Five prizes of 50/. 

 each will be awarded for the five best plans ; further prizes of 

 200/. will be distributed amongst the victors for further work in 

 connection with the scheme. 



At a recent meeting of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society at Singapore, it was decided to prepare and publish a 

 school geography of the Malay peninsula and the adjoining 

 regions, as well as a skeleton map of the peninsula, on a scale 

 of a quarter of an inch to a mile, to be gradually filled in as may 

 be determined by subsequent survey and research. 



Dr. Benjamin Sharp has been appointed Professor cf Lower 

 Invertebrata by the Council of the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia. Dr. Sharp is a graduate of the University of 

 Pennsylvania, from which he received the degrees of Doctor of 

 Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy in 1881. He afterwards 

 studied under Leuckart in Leipzig, and under Semper in the 

 University of Wurzburg. Dr. Sharp w as granted the privilege 

 of studying .it the Bavarian table in the Zoological Station at 

 Naples, an honour rarely granted a foreigner. Dr. Sharp pro- 

 foses delivering lectures, during the coming .'pring, on the lower 

 forms of life. 



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