'58 



NA TURE 



[Dec. i6, i! 



of wind, extended to a greater altitude than the Ben Nevii 

 Observatory. 



Mr. T. H. Cox, of the firm of CJx Brothers, nianufactiirers, 

 Camperdown Linenworks, Lochee, has given a donation of 

 12,000/. for the endowment and equipment of a Chair of 

 Anatomy in connection with the Medical .School it is proposed 

 to establish in University College, Dundee. 



We are glad to notice that in the new French Ministry M. 

 Berthelot, the eminent chemist, takes the portfolio of Education. 



An electrical metronome has been established at the Paris 

 Opera House, which enables the die/ d'orc/iestre to conduct 

 choruses at any distance from his chair. The working is very 

 satisfactoiy, and the effect really admirable. 



The late Prof. Morris at the time of his death had made con- 

 siderable progress with a third edition of his "Catalogue of 

 British Fossils." Some of his friends, reluctant that so valuable 

 a work should be lost to science, have arranged to revise and 

 complete the manuscript, and the necessary expenses of pre- 

 paring it for the press have been guaranteed by his nearest 

 surviving relative, who rightly liolds that this will be the best 

 monument to his memory. The editor-in-chief is Dr. H. 

 Woodward, of the British Museum, and he is assisted by a 

 number of eminent specialists, among whom are Drs. Hinde and 

 Traquair, Profs. Duncan, Rupert Jones, Lapworth, Nicholson, 

 and H. G. .Seeley, Messrs. Carruthers, Etheridge, Hudleslon, 

 and Lydekker. The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press 

 tave now undertaken the publication of the work, which it is 

 hoped may appear in the course of the coming year. 



The annual distribution of prizes and certificates to the suc- 

 cessful students at the City and Guilds of London Institute was 

 held on Monday night, when the Lord Chancellor gave an 

 address in which he contracted the restrictions which hampered 

 industrial progress in the past with the complete freedom and 

 publicity of the present day. 



A VIOLENT shock of earthquake occurred at Smyrna and also 

 at Chios on the morning of December 11. Frequent oscillations 

 have been felt at Smyrna during the past fortnight, cau ing 

 fissures in the walls and fronts of many houses in the town. 

 A shock was felt on the 8th in Missouri City and in Missouri 

 State, and a shock is also reported from Columbia, South 

 Carolina. On the night of November I, at 12.15 P-m., a sharp 

 shock was felt at Nordheinsund, on the west coast of Nor- 

 way. Houses and windows shook, whilst a man walking in the 

 road felt the earth slowly rock under him. The shock, which 

 was accompanied by a heavy rumbling noise, was from north- 

 west to south-east. 



A CORRESPONDENT in South Africa writes : — "Rogeria loiigi- 

 fiora, the Martynia-Iike plant, has capsules which pierce the lips 

 of the gnu or 'wildebeest,' and are rubbed to pieces in their 

 efforts to get rid of them. Truly, what with Uiicaria, costing 

 the life of a springbok for every capsule trodden out, and Rogeria 

 festering in the poor ' wildebeest's ' mouth, the beneficent 

 ' Nature ' of the teleologist is in Africa a remarkably cruel 

 divinity." 



In an interesting recent paper on Siberia as a colony. Prof. 

 Petrie points out that there are two classes of colonists there — 

 those attracted by the immense wealth of the country in furred 

 animals and minerals, and an industrious people from the 

 Russian peasant class engaged in agriculture. The number of 

 wild animals taken in the boundless forests of Siberia shows a 

 great reduction from year to year. The fisheries are capable of 

 great development, and multitudes of fish are thrown away 

 because the art of salting and preserving is not understood. In 

 Ural, the southern steppes, Altai, and other places, there is 



immense mineral wealth in silver, gold, iron, lead, copper, 

 anthracite, graphite, &c. The steppes (quite different from the 

 Central Asiatic and Kirghisian) are well suited for cattle-breed- 

 ing ; they have excellent grass and numerous birch woods, and 

 also many lakes, large and small. In Western Siberia, about 

 32 per cent, of the whole hand is arable. With her four rivers 

 of the first rank, three of them flowing north and the other east, 

 Siberia is well oft" for intercommunication by water and for 

 transport of commerce to neighbouring countries. Notwith- 

 standing three hundred years of occupation, the Russians in 

 Siberia only amount to 4,800,000, and there are nearly as many 

 nntives. The Russian colonist in Siberia diverges from the 

 Sclav type, as the Yankee does from the Englishman. At 

 present, farming and cattle-breeding in Siberia are carried on in 

 an irrational way, commerce is in absolute dependence on 

 European Russia, and the roadi are dreadfully bad, so that, e.g., 

 people commonly make circuits rather than use the post route 

 from Tomsk to Irkutsk. There is, however, a party of intelli- 

 gent Siberians bent on gaining; the liberties and advantages of 

 the mother country, stopping the deportation of criminals, and 

 promoting education, &c. Many thousand roubles have been 

 contributed by Siberian merchants to found the Tomsk Uni- 

 versity and other institutions. 



Mr. J. B. Medland, of 12, Borough, has .sent us a specimen 

 of his new portable cabinet for microscope-slides. The cabinet 

 has sixteen trays to hold nine objects each, contained in a well- 

 made polished pine ca-e. When closed, it is the same height 

 and width, and only two inches and a half longer than the 

 ordinary case holding only half the number. Each glass slip is 

 held at its ends by the projecting side flap of the tray, which is 

 held down by the succeeding tray, and so on, the lid holding the 

 whole firmly down. When open, the lid and front fall back, 

 forming a stand or table to place the trays upon, keeping them 

 together and less liable to get displaced or up^et, as when placed 

 among other apparatus or upon the desk or work-table. The 

 advantages of the cabinet will be obvious to microscopists. 



A WORK by Mr. J. Allen Brown will appear early in January, 

 published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., entitled " Paleeolithic 

 Man in North-West Middlesex ; the Evidence of his Existence, 

 and the Physical Conditions under which he lived in Ealing and 

 its Neighbourhood, illustrated by the Condition and Culture 

 presented by certain existing Savage Races." 



The Council of the Essex Field Club has determined in future 

 to issue the Transactions and Proceedings of the Club combined 

 in the form of a monthly periodical, entitled The Essex 

 Naturalist ; being the Journal of the Essex Field Club. The 

 journal will contain papers read before the Club, reports of past 

 and announcements of future meetings, and, as space allows, 

 notes and communications upon any matters of interest connected 

 with the natural history, botany, geology, and prehistoric archaeo- 

 logy of Essex. We believe that this is a new departure in the 

 policy of local societies, at least in the south of England, but 

 the plan has been adopted by the Essex Club from a rapidly 

 growing conviction that, if local societies are to flourish and do 

 useful work, it is necessary to devise some means of " keeping 

 touch " with their members, and encouraging intercommunica- 

 tion among them. The first number of the Essex Naturalist 

 will appear in January next, and will be conducted by Mr. W. 

 Cole, who has edited the publications of the Club since its 

 establishment seven years ago. 



The Japanese Government has despatched an official of the 

 Ministry of Commerce to Norway, in order to study the cod- 

 fisheries, the preparation of oil, &c., in that country, the object 

 being to develop these industries in Northern Japan, where large 

 numbers of cod appear at certain seasons. 



