312 

Mr. J. C. BucKMASTER has been appointed by Her Majesty’s 
Commissioners to deliver an address on the{value of the Inter- 
national Exhibition, with its bearing on industrial instruction, 
designed particularly for the working classes in all the large towns 
of the country which express a desire to hear it. 
ScIENCE has derived many wrinkles from the siege of Paris, 
and we now learn from the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph 
that all the galleries of the Louvre are filled with sacks of earth 
to protect the interior from shells ; and the damp and compara- 
tive warmth of the last few days have provoked active vegetation, 
so that the bags are covered with grass and weeds ; each window 
is converted into a lively and promising garden. If the arrange- 
ment is left undisturbed much longer, we shall have flower beds 
there. This is certainly a novel kind of window-gardening, which 
we have no desire to see introduced into this country. 
M. STEENAEKERS is about to issue a report on aéronautical 
ascents which took place during the siege of Paris. Individual 
reports are asked from a€ronauts, but, unfortunately, very few of 
‘them are in a position to give a correct idea of their impressions, 
being mostly sailors of the Royal Navy. 
Amoncst the learned men who escaped from Paris in a balloon 
we must cite M. d’Almeida, author of a treatise on Physics. 
He escaped on the 17th of December, at one o'clock in the 
morning, in the ‘‘Guttemberg,” with four or five other persons. 
The “ Guttemberg” was despatched a few minutes after the “Par- | 
mentier,” which carried three persons and a bag of letters, and 
fell within Prussian lines. M. d’Almecida landed at Sanson, 
eight miles from thence, but he has not been heard of since 
that time, and it is to be feared that he was taken prisoner with 
his companions and sent to some German fortress. 
Tue French Government had amalgamated the post-office and 
telegraphs during the siege of Paris, under the management of M, 
Steenaekers, for the whole of France except the besieged capital. 
This reform was inaugurated in imitation of the English system 
under the pressure of circumstances. But a retrograde step was 
as formerly, It is to be hoped that so unscientific a measure will 
soon be cancelled. 
FRENCH savants do not appear to be successful politicians 
under universal suffrage. Amongst more than 2,000 citizens who 
offered themselves as candidates to the Parisian electors, we notice 
only a few members of the French Académie des Sciences. The 
only names who have come under our notice are M. Sainte-Claire 
Deville (we do not know if it is Henri or Charles), and M. 
Nelaton, the physician who cured Garibaldi’s wound. M. 
Berthelot was also a candidate, but he does not belong to the 
Académie des Sciences. The Académie Frangaise was more 
successful, as Michelet, Victor Hugo, Henri Martin, Thiers, 
Jules Favre, and many others, were chosen. 
We learn from the British Medical Fournai that the distin- 
guished ophthalmologist, Dr. Liebreich, has just passed an 
examination and been admitted a member of the Royal College 
of Surgeons. It is stated that he will be invited to accept the 
ophthalmic chair of St. Thomas’s Hospital. 
Tur death is announced of Dr. Sheridan Muspratt, F.R.S., 
the well-known analytical chemist of Liverpool, and author of a 
Dictionary of Chemistry. 
Tue following is the list of officers fand council of the Royal 
Microscopical Society for the current year :—President : NGA 
Parker, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents: Chas. Brooke, PeReS:; J: 
EE. Gray, F.R.S., J. Millar, F. H. Wendham. Treasurer : 
Richard Mestayer. Secretaries: Henry J. Slack, Jabez Hogg. 
Council : R. Braithwaite, M.D., John Berney, James Glaisher, 
F.R.S., W. J. Gray, M.D., Henry Lawson, M.D., Henry Lee, 
Jas. Murie, M.D., G.W. Royston Pigott, M.D., J. W. Stephen- 
NATURE 


[Fed, 16, 1871 

son, Chas. Stewart, Chas. Tyler, T. C. White. 
Secretary : Walter W. Reeves. 
Mr. A. R. WALLACE has printed his Anniversary Address, 
delivered before the Entomological Society on Jan. 23rd. After 
referring to the loss Entomology has sustained during the past 
year by the death of J. T. Lacordaire and A. H. Haliday, and 
to the publication of Mr. Crotch’s papers on the Genera of 
Coleoptera studied chronologically, McLachlan’s Catalogue of 
British Neuroptera, Dr. A. S. Packard’s Guide to the Study of 
Insects, and some other works of the year, the greater part of 
the address is occupied by a critique on Mr. Andrew Murray’s 
important paper ‘‘On the Geographical Relations of the chief 
Coleopterous Faunce.” Of Mr. Murray's division of the Coleop- 
tera of the world into three grand stirpes or races—the Indo- 
African, the Brazilian, and the Microtypal—the first compre- 
hending all the characteristic forms of the eastern tropics, the 
second all those of tropical America, and the third those of the 
temperate regions of the whole world, not excluding “even 
America—Mr. Wallace remarks that the two first will probably 
be generally accepted, while the third group, as of equal value 
to the others, will be as generally rejected. Mr. Murray’s theory, 
derived from the geographical distribution of the Coleoptera, 
that the whole of the Atlantic Islands, from the Azores to the 
Cape de Verdes, and even to St. Helena, are portions of a vast 
submerged continent connected with Southern Europe, is com- 
bated by Mr. Wallace as far as the Madeira group is concerned, 
while he considers there is more to be said in favour of their con- 
nection with one another at some remote period. 
Assistant 
THE third session of the Ladies’ Educational Association of 
London is considered a successful one. The number of tickets 
issued has been :—for English Literature, 56; English Language, 
40; Psychology and Logic, 46; French Literature, 39; French 
Language, 20; Experimental Physics, 25; Chemistry, 10; 
Total, 236, against 292 last year. The falling off is almost 
entirely in the class of English Literature, in which 104 tickets 
. A / were issued last year, i i 
taken a few days ago, and two different services have been created | year, @ decrease Of 48 10 (ie jet ee 
The attendance is reported as regular. Lecture associations of 
a similar kind for ladies have also been established in the 
northern and eastern districts of the metropolis, 
Tue Annual Report of the Canadian Natural History Society 
states that the recent dredgings of Mr, Whiteaves have added 
many facts to our knowledge of the creatures which inhabit 
Canadian seas. The marine mollusca have been carefully mono- 
graphed, and instead of 60 or 70 species, we now know of nearly 
130, the number having been thus nearly doubled. The careful 
identification of the inhabitants of the deep sea, in addition to 
its zoological importance, will do much to illustrate the condi- 
tions under which the Canadian post-tertiary deposits have been 
accumulated. * 
WE have on our table a number of important papers referring 
to the Colony of Victoria, prepared by Mr. W. H. Archer, 
Registrar-general to the Colony, and published by authority of 
the Colonial Government : viz. Patents and Patentees from 1854 
to 1866, Abstracts of Specifications of Patents applied for from 
1854 to 1866 Ac. to Bu., and Indexes to Patents and Patentees 
for 1867 and 1868. Also Reports of the Mining Surveyors and 
Registrars for the quarter ending Sept. 30th, 1870, Report on the 
present condition of the Geological Survey of the Colony, and 
Abstracts of English and Colonial Patent Specifications relating 
to the Preservation of Food, &c., compiled from original docu- 
ments, by Mr. W. H. Archer. We would call especial attention 
to the last as a well-arranged epitome of very useful information. 
Dr. M. T. Masters and Dr. J’ H. Gilbert reprint from the 
Froceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society ‘‘ Reports ot 
Experiments made in the Gardens of the Society at Chiswick in 
1869 on the Influence of various Manures on different Species of 
