240 



NA TURE 



{Jan. 6, 1887 



Mathematical Sciences, 3000 francs, researches on the elasticity 

 of one or more crystallised bodies from the experimental and 

 theoretical standpoints ; I^. Lacaze, 10,000 francs each, to the 

 authors of the best work on physics, chemistry, and physiology ; 

 Montyon, 500 francs, vital statistics ; Jecker, 10,000 francs, 

 organic chemistry ; Delesse, 1400 francs, to the author of a 

 treatise on the geological or mineralogical sciences ; Barbier, 

 2000 francs, for any valuable discovery in surgery, medicine, 

 pharmaceutics, or botany, in connection with therapeutics ; 

 Desmazieres, 1600 francs, for the most useful work on the 

 whole or any section of cryptogamy ; Thore, 200 francs, 

 awarded alternately for works on the cellular cryptogams of 

 Europe, and for researches on the habits and anatomy of any 

 European entomological species ; Montagne, 1000 and 500 

 francs, to the authors of important works on anatomy, physio- 

 logy, the development or description ol the lower cryptogams ; 

 Grand Prize of the Physical Sciences, jooo francs, researches on 

 the phenomena of phosphorescence in animals ; Bordin, 3000 

 francs, for a comparative study < .f the African, South Asiatic, and 

 Australasian freshwater fauna; Bordin, 3000 franc , for a com- 

 parative study of the auditory apparatus in the warm-blooded 

 vertebrates, mammals, and birds ; Savigny, 975 francs, for 

 young zoological travellers ; Montyon, 750 francs, medicine and 

 surgery ; Breant, ioo,ooo francs, to the discoverer of an effi- 

 cacious remedy against Asiatic cholera ; Godard, 1000 francs, 

 anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the genito-urinary organs ; 

 Serres, 7500 francs, general embryology, especially as applied 

 to physiology and medicine ; Chaussier, 2500 francs, for import- 

 ant works on forensic and practical medicine ; Lallemand, iSoo 

 francs, for works relating to the nervous system in the widest 

 sense of the term ; Montyon, 750 francs, experimental physio- 

 logy ; Gay, 2500 francs, distribution of heat on the surface of 

 the globe ; Montyon, unhealthy industries ; Tremont, 1 100 

 francs, for any naturalist, physicist, artist, or mechanician 

 needing assistance in the accomplishment of any undertaking 

 useful to France ; Gegner, 4000 francs, in aid of any savant 

 distinguished by serious pursuits undertaken for the purpose of 

 advancing the positive sciences ; Petit D'Ormoy, 10,000 francs, 

 pure and applied mathematics, and the natural sciences ; Laplace, 

 a complete edition of the works of Laplace, for the first student 

 leaving the Ecole Polytechnique. General conditions : the 

 Academy retains all memoirs, the authors being at liberty to ob- 

 tain copies from the Secretary. Competitors must send in their 

 papers by June i, accompanied by a brief summary of the part 

 containing the discovery on which they desire the judgment of 

 the Academy. No one can claim the title of Laureate of the 

 Academy unless awarded a prize. Honourable mention or any 

 other formal recognition of merit does not justify the assumption 

 of this title. 



Stockholm 



Society of Natural Science, September 18. — Prof. Witt- 

 rock gave an account of thegypsies, chieflyin relation to Hungary, 

 which country he had recently visited with a view to studying 

 its various nationahties. — Dr. Skiuberg exhibited abnormal 

 specimens of various plants he had found in Sweden last sum- 

 mer, viz. Phleum praU-nse, Listera ovata, Linaria cymbalaria, 

 Typha atigiistifolia, and T. latifolia. — Herr Berggren exhibited 

 a specimen, in spirits, of Nyctalis parasitica, which had grown 

 on another fungus, Russula adusta, whilst the latter was still 

 quite fresh. The former fungus, he said, was also at times 

 attacked by a smaller parasitic one, imparting to it a kind of 

 coating. — Herr Meves exhibited a specimen of Oriolus gulbula, 

 shot last May, a bird very rarely found in Sweden. 



Entomological Society, September 25. — Prof. Chr. Auri- 

 villius gave an interesting account of his studies, last summer, of 

 the habits of various species of Hymenoptera. He specially 

 referred to one, Odynertts mtiralis, which he had found when 

 boring holes in red-painted wooden walls, at the bottom of 

 which it deposited its larvae, protecting the latter against attack 

 by making partitions of clay at intervals, and by putting a prop 

 at the end, which it carefully covered with tiny bits of red p.-iint, 

 whereby these holes were almost impossible to detect. — Dr. 

 Lampa described his observations of the remarkable keenness 

 of the olfactory organs of the males of Bombyx qiiercus, L., 

 whereby they were enabled to discern the females, even when 

 far off. In one instance a female had been discovered by a 

 male, although access to the former, which was in a cage, 

 could only be gained through a balcony and room beyond. — Dr. 

 Adlerz referred to an unusual case of hermaphroditism in an ant, 

 whose left half was formed like a male, and the right like a female. 



Christiania 



Society of Sciences, October i. — The following papers 

 were presented : — Der Ursprung der Etrusker durch zwei lem- 

 nische Inschriften erliiutert, by Prof. .Sophus Bugge. — Fresh 

 contributions to our knowledge of the extension of the tube 

 plants in Norway, by Prof. A. Blytt. — On variations in climate 

 in the course of time (see Nature, vol. xxxiv. pp. 220 and 

 239), by the same. — Ueber die Entwickelungsgeschichte der 

 Pollenkorner des Angiospermen, by Dr. N. Wille. — Fresh con- 

 tributions to our knowledge of the extension of lichen in Nor- 

 way, by Herr B. Kaalaas. — Dr. G. Storm read a paper on 

 voyages to countries north and north-west of Iceland, maintain- 

 ing that the priests who, in 1285, discovered " Nya Land" (New 

 Land) did not reach Newfoundland, but the south-eastern part 

 of Greenland, and that the island discovered in 1194, " Sval- 

 barde," was Jan Mayen. He further believed that the old 

 Norsemen knew of other Arctic countries north of Russia and 

 Norway. 



BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED 



Aiinu.-il Report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, 

 new series, vol. i. ; A. R. C. Selwyn (Dawson Bros,, Montreal).— Negretti 

 and Zambra's Encyclopaidic Catalogue.— Proceedines of the Royal Physical 

 Society, Session 1885-86 (M'Farlane and Erskinc, Edinburgh).— Den 

 Norske Nordhaus-Expedition, 1876-78, XVI. Zoologi, Mollusca, II.: 

 H Friele (Grondahl, Christiania).— Transactions of the Sanitary Institute 

 of Great Britain, vol. vii. 1885-86 (Stanford).— Zeitschrift fur Wissen- 

 schaftliche Zoologie, xliv. Hand, 4 Heft (Engelman, Leipzig).— Geological 

 Survey of Alabama— On the Warrior Coal-Field ; H. McCalley (Mont- 

 gomery).— Ytar-book of Photography, 1887 (Piper and Carter).— Anuario de 

 la Olicina Central Meteorolojica de Chile, ser Cuaderno, Mayoijunio.— 

 Fourth .Annual Rep-.rt of the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. 



CONTENTS PAGE 



Science and the Jubilee 217 



Historical Geology. By Prof. A. H. Green .... 218 



Photographs and Descriptions of Wild Animals . 220 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Bert's " First Year of Scientific Knowledge " . . . 221 



Bouinais and Paulus's "La France en Indo-Chine " 221 



Feilden's " My African Home " 221 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Coal-Dust Theory.— W. Galloway 222 



The Cambridge Cholera Fungus.— Charles Roy . 223 

 An Error in Maxwell's " Electricity and Magnetism." 



Rev. Henry W. Watson 223 



The Manipulation of Glass containing Lead. — Prof. 



W. A. Shenstone 223 



Pyrometers and Fusion-Points. — Thos. Andrews . 224 

 Electricity and Clocks. — Prof. Silvanus P. Thomp- 

 son 224 



Barnard's Comet. — T. W. Backhouse 224 



Meteor.— J. M. H 224 



Red Sunsets and New Zealand Eruptions. — Lieut. - 



Colonel A. T. Eraser, R.E 224 



Theodor von Oppolzer 224 



The Colonial and Indian Exhibition. By John R. 



Jackson 225 



Ipecacuanha Cultivation in India. By W. T. 



Thiselton Dyer, C.M.G., F.R.S 227 



Sunspot Observations in Hungary. By A, M. 



Clerke 227 



Notes 228 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Andromedes, November 27, 1886 231 



The Reduction of the Positions of Close Polar Stars 



from one Epoch to another 231 



Astronomical Phenomena for the Week 1887 



January 9-15 232 



Geographical Notes 232 



Tasmanian Fisheries 233 



The Forms of Seedlings : the Causes to which 

 they are due. By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P. , 



F.R.S 235 



On the Use and Equipment of Engineering 



Laboratories. By Prof. Alex. B. W. Kennedy 235 



Birds' Nests and Eggs. By H. Seebohm .... 236 



Scientific Serials 237 



Societies and Academies 238 



Books and Pamphlets Received 240 



