
Dec. 22, 1870] 
NATURE 
1$3 


fund, in order to give concerts annually in the Royal Albert Hall; 
these concerts to consist of vocal and instrumental music of the 
highest character. After paying the expenses of the concerts, 
the profits are to be applied to the establishment of a National 
Training School for Music. 
Tue Perthshire Society of Natural Science proposes starting a 
Quarterly Magazine, to be called the Scottish Naturalist, and | 
Journal of the Perthshire Society of Natural H:story. Tt willbe 
specially devoted to recording observations and discoveries made 
in the northern part of this island ; and it is intended that it 
shall contain (in addition to the ‘‘ Proceedings” of the Society), 
reports of the meetings of Scottish Natural History Societies; 
a record of Scoitish captures ; observations and discoveries both 
zoological and botanical ; scientific jottings ; notes and queries ; | 
lists of species for distribution in exchange, &c. As the carrying 
out of this scheme depends entirely upon the encouragement and 
support received by the Society, it is hoped that those interested 
will at once send in their names as subscribers to the honorary 
secretary, Mr. A. T. Scott, Clydesdale Bank, Perth. 
TuE Saturday Review of December 10 refers to “the gigantic 
Lycoperdon, or Puff-ball, which in one night acquires the bulk 
of a child of ten years old, and produces about 96,000,000 cells 
a minute!” We have both seen and heard of Puff-balls as 
large as a child’s Aead, but one of this ‘‘ bulk” is, we imagine, 
somewhat rare. 
THE Folkestone Natural History Society has issued the follow- 
ing programme of its proceedings for the present (its third) winter 
session :—Noy. 8: Public lecture on ‘‘Solar Eclipses,” Rev. 
C, L. Acland, M.A. Nov. 23: Microscopical Conversazione. 
Dec. 13: Public lecture on ‘* Food, and the Process of Diges- 
tion,” F. Fagge, Esq., F.L.S. Jan. 10: Public lecture on 
“*Fossilsand their Teachings,” Henry Ullyett, hon. sec. Feb. 1: 
Annual meeting. Feb. 7: Public lecture on ‘* The Natural 
History of Language,” by W. J. Jeaffreson, Esq., M.A. Feb. 
22: O.dinary meeting, paper, and discussion. March 7: 
Public lecture on ‘‘Iceland and Spitzbergen,” by C. E. Fitz- 
gerald, Esq., M.D., president. March 22: Ordinary meeting, 
paper on antiquitics, and discussion. March 28: Public lec- 
ture on ‘‘ The Materials for Antiquarian Research in S. E. Kent,” 
by the Rev. Canon Jenkins. A class in Botany is held every 
Wednesday, at 4 P.M., by the Rev. C. L. Acland, and one in 
Geology every Monday at 8 p.M., by Mr, Ullyett. The Museum 
is open free on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons, as 
well as on the occasion of meetings ; and a library of reference is 
in course of formation. 
Mr. Epwin C. REeEp has been employed by the Director of 
the Museum of Santiago, in Chili, to arrange the insects. He 
has classified the foreign insects, which had hitherto remained 
unpacked. Mr. Reed is preparing a Chilian collection to send 
to California in exchange for a collection from that country. 
Tue United States Government commenced on the st of 
November the publication of a daily record of the state of the 
weather in various parts of the country. The following extract 
from the New York Journal of Commerce, dated Nov. 5th, 
shows the view entertained in the States on this subject :— 
“*The Federal Government has lately done one thing which 
men of all parties will agree in commending heartily. It has 
made arrangements to furnish daily reports of the markings of 
the barometer and thermometer, the direction, velocity, pressure, 
and force of the wind, and the state of the weather, at points 
in different parts of the country. The shipowner, master, or 
merchant, reading this journal, has before him every day trust- 
worthy advices of the weather all over the United States only a 
few hours old, and sufficiently fresh to apprise him of the danger 
or safety of sailing or making shipments from this port. Much 
depends on the accuracy of the reports, and for that we find 
good assurance in the fact that they are prepared by army 
officers, most of whom have received an education scientific and 
practical enough to qualify them for the work. The Associated 
Press have made an appropriation to have an observer among the 
party who will watch through the winter on the top of Mount 
Washington, White Mountains. From that point also we expect 
to receive daily bulletins, which will not only be serviceable to 
commerce, but in our coldest weather here may make people 
more comfortable to think how much colder it is away up on that 
windy peak. Prof. Hitchcock will be in charge of the party, 
which comprises a number of able scientists. The Chamber of 
Commerce is making a move to supplement the action of the 
Government at this point with a little more money.” The places 
at present contributing ‘‘ weather reports” are Augusta (Ga.), 
Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cheyenne, 
Detroit, Duluth, Lake City (FI.), Milwaukie, Montgomery, 
Mobile, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Oswego, Omaha, 
Rochester, St. Paul, St. Louis, Toledo, and Washington. 
A St. PATRICK, says the Pall Mall Gazette, is evidently wanted 
in India as much as ever he was in Ireland. During the year 1869 

no fewer than 11,416 persons in the Bengal Presidency died from 
the effects of snake bite. The return giving us this information 
has been carefully compiled ; all the merely sick and wounded 
have been omitted, as well as those sudden deaths which in India 
are often attributed to snake-bites by heirs to property unduly 
eager for their inheritance. Such a mortality from such a cause 
is sufficiently startling to the sophisticated mind of a stay-at- 
home Englishman, but the more surprising fact remains that this 
destruction of human life goes on year by year, and that no effi- 
cacious means are adopted to check its ravages. 
The Pall Mall Gazette states that we owe our supplies ot 
Indian cotton to the American war, and we may have to refer 
the cultivation of tobacco in our colonies to the present campaign. 
A good deal of the leaf employed in the manufacture of cut 
tobacco comes to us from the Continent, and of course that source 
is now closed ; but the smoker may be consoled by hearing that 
India, Jamaica, and Natal are all engaged in cultivating the 
plant. Latakia from the West Indies has been received in Lon- 
don and reported upon favourably, and the samples of tobacco 
from Natal are said to be remarkably good. What the Indian 
Government has already done for the cultivation of tea, cinchona, 
and ipecacuanha, it is now doing for the tobacco plant. Seeds ot 
the best varieties have been distributed in suitab!e districts, and 
| the time may speedily come when the Bengal cheroot may be a 
production of the Presidency. 
From the report of the cotton department of India it seems 
that the crops in the several districts have, during the past year, 
yielded a satisfactory return. We also learn that a very extensive 
system of adulteration exists by mixing two or more qualities in 
one bale, to which astamp, indicating a superior quality, is 
affixed. With regard to the use of English ploughs which have 
been introduced, it is said that ‘the cohesion and tenacity of 
the richer black cotton soils are evidenced by the manner in 
which they get rent and cracked into deep fissures instead of 
becoming pulverised by the rapid contraction they undergo when 
exposed to the fierce rays of the sun after the crops have been 
removed, and from the same cause the upper surface becomes 
baked and hardened into a crust, which is about as inaccessible 
to the plough as if it were a pavement. The cultivator has 
accordingly to wait until the advent of the monsoon has softened 
and removed this crusty impediment, and, if it should happen 
that the first crusts are very heavy and continuous, he is still 
further delayed from an opposite cause, namely, on account of 
his fields having become too soft for his cattle to move on, so 
that he has to wait for a favourable break to get rid of the surface 
moisture.” In this state of the land the plough gets clogged, 
