
Fans 125. 1871] 
NATURE 
213 

Engineering for Jan. 6 gives a ground plan and elevation of 
the proposed building for the united accommodation of the 
Society of Arts, Statistical Society, Royal Colonial Institute, 
Tron and Steel Institute, Institute of Actuaries, Ethnological 
Society, Anthropological Society, Photographic Society, Social 
Science and Law Amendment Society, Juridical Society, Victoria 
Institute, Royal Archzeological Society, Meteorological Society, 
East India Association, and others which will not find a home 
in Burlington House. The proposal is to adapt for the purposes 
of these Societies the block of buildings, No. 4, Westminster 
Chambers, Victoria Street, together with a triangular piece of 
vacant ground, about a fifth of an acre, now lying waste in the 
rear of the Westminster Chambers. With these resources it is 
calculated that ample room will be obtained for the needful 
Offices, reading-rooms, &c., as well as for libraries and museums, 
and a large lecture theatre capable of holding 1,200 persons. 
THE Meteorological Officeis nowissuing daily Wind Charts of the 
British Isles, which are published in the Mercantile and Shipping 
Gazette. The chart indicates the direction and force of the wind 
at a number of different stations on the coast of Great Britain 
and Ireland, and will be found of great value to all interested both 
in shipping and in meteorology. 
WE have received a copy of the Inaugural Lecture delivered by 
Prof. M‘Coy at the opening of the Industrial and Technical 
Museum of Victoria, at Melbourne, to which is appended a short 
sketch of the contents of the Museum. The most important 
collections are illustrations of the manufacture of glass and of 
pottery, a series of 1,300 specimens of Victorian rocks and 
minerals, and 500 specimens of New Zealand rocks ; a phyto- 
logical collection to illustrate the natural productions of the 
Australian colonies, and a series of Australian ores, slates, 
building-stones, &c. Courses of lectures on technical subjects 
are delivered at the Museum. 
THE first number has been issued of a Yournal of the London 
Institution, containing short reports of lectures which have been 
delivered and a programme of proceedings in the future. In 
future numbers it is proposed to devote considerable space to 
Notices of New Books presented to the General Library, to 
Bibliographic and Scientific Notes and Queries, and to Records 
of Laboratory Work. 
WE have received the first number of Zhe Quarterly Feurnal 
of the Amateur Mechanical Society, the object of which is stated 
by the honorary editor, the Rey. J. Lukin, to serve as a 
medium of mutual information upon all points connected with 
mechanical manipulation. The best idea of its nature will be 
given by alist of the contents of the first number: The Rise 
and Progress of the Society ; Eccentric Turning ; Mensuration 
and Enumeration of the Impalpable and Invisible ; Medallion 
Machine ; Fancy Turning in Box-wood; and Breechloading 
Fire-arms. Several of the articles are illustrated. 
THE December number of the American Entomologist and 
Botanist completes the second volume, and the publication will 
now be suspended for a twelvemonth, intending to be renewed 
again after that period. In the meantime the botanical editor, 
Dr. Vasey, will conduct a botanical department in the Fowrnal 
of Agriculture, published at St. Louis. 
THE Natural History Society of Montreal has just issued its 
Annual Report, comprising a sketch of its proceedings for the year 
ending May 1870. Although the number of members has de- 
creased during the year, the Society has, nevertheless, shown 
considerable activity, and many valuable papers have been read 
at its meetings on Geology, Zoology, and general subjects, some 
of which have appeared in the Canadian Naturalist, the organ 
of the Society. A very important work is now contemplated by 
the Society outside its immediate sphere of action, viz., the 
. a 

dredging of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence. Application 
has been made to the Dominion Government for a free passage 
for the dredgers in one of their ordinary cruisers. It is feared, 
however, that this application may not be successful, and that 
the Society may have to draw upon its private resources for the 
necessary expenses. 
THE Homeward Mail gives reports of the earthquake that was 
felt in Scinde in October last. On October 28 two shocks are 
reported from various places. One report says ‘‘the earth 
quaked for fifteen minutes from east to west, and the people felt 
sea-sick while the pitching continued,” and another ascribes it to 
the fact that the dwellers in Upper Scinde must have specially 
incurred the displeasure of the gods, 
HEAvy rains, followed by severe frost, have produced their 
usual effect in altering the shape of theland. We have accounts 
of two extensive landslips, one at Whitby and one at Mevagissey 
in Cornwall, At the former place, “‘a large part of the cliffs, 
supporting twelve houses, has fallen into the harbour, and it is 
feared that more will fall.” At the latter place about 500 to 600 
tons of rock were precipitated to a depth of fifty feet, and much 
damage was done. Exactly a year ago, in December 1869, a 
great landslip was reported near Nantmel in Radnorshire. The 
mass of earth which fell was of enormous size, and did not become 
stationary till it had travelled half a mile. Much damage was 
done, though no lives were lost. 
Dr. Henrt VAN HEuRcK publishes in French, under the 
title of ‘* Observationes Botanicze et Descriptiones Plantarum 
novarum Herbarii Van Heurckiani,” the first fasciculus of a 
description of new and undescribed species contained in his 
herbarium. The descriptions are drawn up by several eminent 
botanists, and the herbarium, one of the richest in the world, 
containing collections from all quarters of the globe, results from 
a fusion of those of Sieber, Baron von Reichenbach, and Dr. 
Van Heurck, to which numerous important additions have been 
made by purchase and otherwise. The volume is offered in 
exchange for other botanical publications. 
Dr. L. PFEIFFER of Cassel, has recently published the first 
part of a ‘‘Synonymia Botanica locupletissima Generum Sec- 
tionum vel Subgenerum ad finem anni 1858 promulgatorum.” 
Such a synonymy is much wanted by botanists who may be work- 
ing at any particular order or genus. The value, however, for 
the ordinary systematist, is considerably decreased by the adop- 
tion of the singular arrangement of Endlicher in preference to 
those in use in Hooker and Bentham’s ‘‘ Genera Plantarum” or 
in De Candolle’s ‘‘ Prodromus.”” 
Mr. THoMAS MEEHAN read a paper before a recent meeting 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia on the 
Compass Plant (S7phium Jaciniatum). We confirms the state- 
ment of earlier observers, that when the plant first comes up, 
and until the leaves become large and heayy, there is an un- 
mistakeable tendency towards the north. When, however, 
winds and rains have once borne them in different directions, 
they have no power of regaining the points lost. Hence the 
statement made by some, that they have examined the plant in 
its native habitat, and found no such tendency. 
Tue Pharmaceutical Journal for December 31st contains an 
interesting article on the trade in leeches. The annual value of 
the leeches imported into this country decreased from 27,068/, in 
1853 to 7,067/. in 1869; the largest quantity coming formerly 
from Hamburg, but more recently from France. These figures 
probably represent an import at the present time of two mil- 
lion leeches annually, besides the home supply. The leeches 
annually employed in France may be taken at thirty millions, the 
largest portion being produced at home. The South and West 
of France and North of Africa still produce enormous quantities. 
