1t4 

Society, is somewhat discouraging, and a well-supported body of 
workers in all branches of Natural Science seems likely to be a 
desideratum. 
Pror. HAssKart reports that the cultivation of Cinchona in 
Java is proceeding satisfactorily. The weather, on the whole, 
hasbeen favourable, and the growth of the plants leaves nothing 
to be desired. The number of plants grown from seeds and 
layers is upwards of one and a half millions, by far the greater 
number belonging to the species C. cad/sava, a good many to 
C. officinalis and succirubra, and a very few to C. lancifolia and 
micrantha. In addition to these, 870,000 plants have been 
transplanted, and the whole shows an increase of nearly 200,000 
plants since the commencement of the year. 460 kilogrammes 
of the dry bark were sent to Holland in December, 1869, and 
sold at from two to three florins per kil. ; 900 kilogrammes 
have since been exported, and more than 1,000 were ready at 
the date of the despatch. Prof. Hasskarl reckons the total pro- 
duce of 1870 at no less thin 4,000 kilogrammes of dry bark for 
exportation, besides some hundreds for home use in the island. 
An important branch of industry im the colony is new formed 
by the stripping, cutting, drying, sorting, and packing of the 
Cinchona. 
THE report of the Hartley Institution, Southampton, for the 
current year gives a very favourable account of its position and 
prospects. The students in the day classes have increased from 
twenty-nine last year to eighty-six ; in the evening classes there 
have been thirty-one. Among the students of the engineering 
department there have been as many as eighteen government 
nominees to the Telegraphic Service of India, who have been 
pursuing an advanced course of instruction in mathematics and 
physical science to qualify them for their final examination. A 
class of fourteen nominees has also been under instruction in the 
- Institution during the year in practical telegraphy. At the last 
final examination for appointments to the Indian Telegraphic 
Service, all the successful candidates, except one, had been 
instructed in the Institution. There is a library of 400 or 500 
volumes in connection with the Institution, a reading-room 
amply supplied with the current literary, scientific, and political 
publications of the day, and a good course of lectures was 
delivered during last session, 
A WRITER in the Boston Post of October 24 thus describes 
the present condition of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in 
that city :— Since the acquisition of the private collection of Prof. 
Agassiz, the Boston Museum may claim to rank among the fore- 
most institutions of its kind ; for although the British Museum 
in London and the Jardin des Plantes in Paris are on a very much 
larger scale, yet in certain departments, such as corals and fishes, 
the Museum of Comparative Zoology is superior to both, while 
the increase of its collections since its existence, andthe promi- 
nence it has attained among other museums, are such as no like 
establishment has reached in the same time and with the same 
means. From want of room the greater part of the Museum as 
it now exists is occupied by working-rooms and store-rooms, and 
only four rooms are devoted to exhibition. Each of these con- 
tains the representatives of one great division of the animal 
kingdom, and it is intended to complete them in such a manner 
that they shall exhibit in an easy and conspicuous way the natural 
relations of all the animals known in creation. In the new 
building now going up, which adjoins the present Museum and 
is to be of equal dimensions, it is intended to exhibit all the 
animals peculiar to the different parts of the world, in such a 
manner as to impress the observer with their natural association 
in nature, so that the student of Natural History shall be able to 
make himself familiar in one part of the building with the latest 
result of scientific research in working out the system which binds 
NATURE 


[Dec. 8, 1870 

together the whole animal kingdom as a unit ; while in the other 
part of the building their geographical distribution upon the 
whole surface of the earth, and their various combinations and 
associations on different continents will be made apparent. Such 
a twofold arrangement of collections has never yet been attempted 
in any museum, not even in the largest and most prominent 
institutions of the kind in Europe. The fossil remains of past 
ages will be exhibited in like munner in such an arrangement as 
to display at the same time their order of succession in geological 
periods, and their relations to the animals now living. It is 
intended to complete this plan by exhibiting also the different 
stages of all known animals, from their earliest period of develop- 
ment in the egg to their adult condition. This isa truly mag- 
nificent plan, but although the addition to the Museum will 
double the amount of room, yet the whole of this plan cannot be 
carried out at present, and a large part of the collections must 
still remain in the store-rooms until another section of the building: 
can be completed. It is sincerely to be hoped that the strong 
interest which has already been shown hy the Legislature of 
Massachusetts and the citizens of Boston will not flag, and that 
sufficient aid will be given to carry out and fully complete this 
admirable work, with'n the lifetime of the distinguished man who 
has done so much to elevate the tone of thought, and improve 
the method of education in this his adopted conntry.—We 
imagine it must be only typical animals of each group that are re- 
ferred to in the above account. It is to the munificence of a private 
patron of this Museum, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer, that Science 
is indebted for Prof. Agassiz’s recent exploration of Brazil, 
with six trained assistants. 
A SECOND paper on “ Mystic Trees and Flowers ” appears in 
Fraser's Magazine for this month. Herbaceous plants form the 
subject of this portion, the mandrake (of the history of which 
an especially interesting sketch is given), mistletoe, rose, lily, 
violet, and primrose, being the principal which are touched upon 
in detail. The author, Mr. Moncure D. Conway, in some con- 
cluding remarks, states his belief that ‘‘the reverence paid to 
trees and flowers” must be looked upon “not as fetish worship, but 
as a sacred regard paid to them as oracles of beings higher than 
themselves,” and combats the idea ‘‘ that it was from these lower 
objects that reverence graduitlly ascended to the adoration of the 
sun and stars, as the case was really the reverse.” 
THE British Medical Journal quotes the following description 
of ‘* The Nemesis of Tobacco,”’ from the ninetieth observation 
of Theodorus Kerckringius, M.D. (Spicilegium Anatomicum, 
Amsterdam, circa 1670) describing the fost mortem appearances 
of an inveterate smoker :—‘‘ Too greatly, now, alas ! in Europe, 
prevails‘ that cacoéthes of sucking up the smoke of the herb 
tobacco, as they call it, through tubes actually manufactured for 
that special purpose !_In consequence, what a perversity of morals 
has arisen they must have noted whose duty it is to attend to 
the public morality, whether they be politicians or theologians. 
How noxious it is to the health of those who indulge in the habit 
of sacrificing so often te Vulcan, or rather to Charon, I shall not 
here explain. Let it suffice, that I adduce the case of a man 
whose body I opened before the Faculty. He, ordinately given 
to these fuliginous delights, had sc-rcely ever engaged in any 
kind of work, as it appeared, wil out inhaling this fatal juice. 
When, however, at length, Nature, assailed by frequent attacks, 
began to fail, and to give way to disease, he rejected for so long 
a time a black-looking matter, both upwards and down- 
wards (fer utrumque gutturem) that at last he vomited 
forth his dusky soul ; which to accompany in its visit to the 
realms of Pluto would be far from agreeable, for, I suspect, it 
would greatly, and that from habit, have preferred those black 
lakes, steaming with the bubbles of Stygian vapours, to the lucid 
stars of heaven, inasmuch as it had long been fed, though not 
