2IO 



NATURE 



{July II, 1872 



Dawson. The De la Beclie Medal and Prize of Books in Min- 

 ing to Mr. W. Charlton. 



The forty-fiflh annual session of the German .Society of Na- 

 turalists and Physicians will be held in Leipzig nc.tt month. 

 'l"he meetings will commence on Monday, August 12, and end 

 on Sunday, .\ugu5t iS. Tlie secrelavies aimouncc that visitors 

 from foreign parti will be welcome. 



The Vicar of Folkestone has written to the Times stating 

 that the memorial west window which it is proposed to place 

 in the parish church to commemorate Harvey will consist of 

 eight subjects from Our Lord's Miracles of Healing, and that 

 underneath it will be recorded on a brass Harvey's great dis- 

 covery. This project is, we believe, entirely apart from that 

 set on foot by the committee of which Dr. Bence Jones is 

 treasurer, v.diose object it is to erect a statue to Harvey at 

 Folkestone. 



The death of Rev. M. A. Curtis, of Hillsborough, North 

 Carolina, which took place in April last, must be considered as 

 among the most serious losses that natural history in the United 

 States has experienced for some time. The attention of Mr. 

 Curtis was directed especially to the fungi, although he wa^ 

 more or less familiar with all the plants of the Southern States. 

 In his special department, however, he stood at the head of 

 American botanists, occupying the position in this country of 

 Mr. Berkeley, his correspondent, in England. Mr. Curtis pre- 

 pared the report upon the fungi collected by the United States 

 e.vploring expeditions, and has contributed various articles to the 

 literature of this science. Among other works nearly ready for 

 the press was one upon the edible fungi of the United States, 

 illustrated by figures and descriptions of some sixty species. 

 The qualities of most of these he had personally tested by experi- 

 ment, particularly during the late war, when the food question 

 was for some time a matter of serious moment. 



A LATE number of the Chemical Neios contains a suggestion 

 forthe formation of an "Association of Manufacturing Chemists,'' 

 which might hold annual meetings after the fashion of the Iron 

 and Steel Institute, at which topics would be discussed connected 

 with the various important branches of chemical manufacture. It 

 is obvious that meetings of this kind, and papers read to such a 

 body, with the discussion which would result therefrom, might be 

 in the highest degree beneficial to a large body of men engaged in 

 a manufacture requiring a large amount of scientific knowledge 

 and .acquaintance with technical details. 



A WRITER in the Food Jonntal points out the advantages, to 

 the Central Authority and to the Government, of a National 

 Registration of Sickness. As a basis for sanitary legislation, as 

 an indication for interference on the part of the Central Authority 

 in local sanitary affairs, as a test of the health conditions of the 

 country, as well as of its separate parts, no mass of information 

 could bear comparison with that which wcnild result from a well 

 ordered registration of diseases. 



llarpci's Weekly records the safe arrival of Mr. Henry W. 

 Klliott at the island of St. Paul, Behring Sea, on April 2S. He 

 left Washington last March under an appointment from the 

 Treasury Department, as an assistant of Captain Bryant in look- 

 ing after the interest of the United States in connection with the 

 fur seals on the Pribylow Islands. Mr. Elliott expects to spend 

 some time at St. Paul, and to devote much attention to the study 

 of the islands, and in collecting apecimens of their natural his- 

 tory. Wielding a ready pencil, he also proposes to make sketclies 

 from life of the fur seal, the walru.=, sea-lion, &c., so as to give 

 us a better idea of their general appearance than we can gather 

 from the stuffed caricatures in public museums. 



In addition to Prof. Agassiz's Report, given in another 

 column, several communications have been received from 

 gentlemen connected with the Hasslcr expedition, all bearing 



estimony to the zeal with which the operations of the 

 party have been prosecuted. Under date of March 12 

 it was reported that, after leaving Montevideo on Feb. 20, 

 the dredging work was carried on with due diligence and 

 with very interesting results, numerous radiates of great beauty, 

 m.any of them undoubtedly of new species, being brought to 

 light. Among the objects of particular interest were the floating 

 stems of the giant kelp of the South Pacific, Mncrocyslis, which 

 sometimes attains the length of 500 to 1,000 feet, the stems 

 being a foot in diameter, and resembling trees in magnitude. 

 The vessel entercl the .Straits of Magellan on March 13, and 

 passing through, arrive! at Talcahuana, in Chili, on April 11, 

 where it was expected to remain several days for repairs and 

 provisions. Prof, and Mrs. Agassiz proposed to spend the inter- 

 val in a visit to Santiago and Valparaiso, while Count Pourtales 

 and his assistants wera to make a line of deep-sea soundings and 

 dredgings from Talcahuana to the island of Juan Fernandez and 

 back to Valparaiso. 



■ The United States Coast Survey has received advices from 

 Mr. William H. Dall as late as May 5. At that time he was at 

 lUuUuk, Oonalaska, the head-quarters of his explorations. He 

 has been diligently engaged through the winter in carrying out 

 the objects of his mission connected with the geography and 

 hydrography of the Aleutian Islands, as well as the weather 

 would permit, a constant succession of storms of extreme violence 

 having interfered greatly with his work. The lowest tempera- 

 ture recorded by himdunng the past winter was 13', the average 

 from October to March being 33'. Mr. Dall has devoted such 

 time as he could spare while detained in port, to making col- 

 lections of natural history specimens, and has obtained quite a 

 number of forms, some of which he considers new to science. 



A PROPOSiTiON has been entertained to tunnel under the 

 Strait of Canso, between Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, where 

 the strait is only two and a half miles wide, for the purpose of 

 connecting the island of Cape Breton with the mainland. The 

 cost is estimated at 2,500,000 dols. This idea is connected with 

 a proposition to run a line of steamers from Glasgow, or other 

 British port, to Louisburg, the most easterly point of Cape 

 Breton. 



The Fanama Star and Herald records the first arrival on 

 April 2, at Panama, on its annual eastern migration, of the 

 beautiful sphinx ms/Ctv {Urania Icilus). The immense flights of 

 this moth, and the extreme regularity of their recurrence year 

 by year, have repeatedly been dwelt upon by the Star, and much 

 interest has been excited as to its starting-place and ultimate 

 destination. 



The Report of the.Winchester and Hampshire Scientific and 

 Literary Society for 1870-71, congratulates the members of the 

 .Society on the successful results of the second year of its exist- 

 ence. Though no important discoveries were due to the labour 

 of the .Society during the year, and the weather was very un- 

 favourable for out-of-door work, steady progress was made in 

 some departments, especially in the list of the flora of the neigh- 

 bourhood, which now includes nearly 700 species. Abstracts of 

 papers on various branches of science, read at the meetings of the 

 Society, are printed in the Report. 



The Malvern, Bath, and Woolhope Field Clubs met for a 

 joint excursion on May 17, an account of which is printed in a 

 separate form, and to it is appended the Report of the Armual 

 Meeting of the Malvern Field Club, with the Address of its 

 President, Mr. Edwin Lees. 



A NEW journal has been recently started in New York called 

 "Handicraft : a popular Journal of Progress of the Industrial 

 Arts, designed for workers and thinkers." The number on our 

 table contains papers and short paragraphs, on inventions in the 

 mechanical arts, illustrated with woodcuts, with notices of books, 

 &c. 



