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be found lo cause the Council to reconsider their position, and 

 that a course so diastrous to the College — an institution which, 

 in spite of its insecure position, has done excellent educational 

 work — and to the town itself, may yet be averted. Is Bristol so 

 flourishing that the citizens can afford to neglect the only true 

 foundation for prosperous trade and commerce at the present 

 time, when we are trj'ing to compete in the markets of the world 

 with men more highly trained than ourselves ? 



The Guthrie Memorial Fund, which will shortly be closed, 

 has now nearly reached the sum of 1400/. As we explained 

 some time ago. Prof. Guthrie was too exclusively devoted to 

 teaching and scientific research to be able to make adequate pro- 

 vision for his family. The object of the fund is to place his 

 children as nearly as possible in the position they would have 

 occupied but for his untimely death ; and subscribers have been 

 glad to have this opportunity of expressing their appreciation of 

 his personal character and scientific labours. 



We are glad to learn that the University Extension Scheme, 

 which has led to such excellent results in Kngland, is likely to 

 be tried in Scotland. The question ha^ been for some time 

 under the consiileration of the University Court of Glasgow, and 

 now the matter has been taken in hand by some energetic 

 University men in Edinburgh. The proposal is that the avail- 

 able lecturing power of the Scottish Universities shall be united, 

 so that while any town would naturally in the first place be 

 su|)plied as far as possible from the nearest University, any 

 desired course might be drawn from a more distant one. It is 

 hoped that in the larger towns Extension Colleges may be 

 established. These institutions might be made permanent by 

 means of small endow jnents, or towns might secuie them as 

 centres of regular teaching for a certain number of years by 

 subscribing a few hundred pounds to make up the deficit fiom 

 fees. 



Dr. Lkutiiner, of Vienna, author of a remarkable memoir 

 on the Odontolabini, a subdivision of the Coleopterous fiimily 

 Lucanidse, publi^hed in the Zoological Society's Transactions in 

 1885, will shortly leave Europe on a collecting expedition to 

 South Arabia and Socotra, where much work remains to be done, 

 notwithstanding seve'al recent excursions to the same district. 

 Dr. I.euthner's expedition is of a private nature, but he his the 

 full support of the Austro-Hungarian Government, and a free 

 passage in their ships. 



Prof. G. SiSe has recently published a new book, concerning 

 diet in disease (" Du Regime alimenlaire: Traitement hygienique 

 des Malades"). M. See, although he has never studied phy- 

 siological questions in a special manner, always writes useful 

 books, being familiar with English and German, and very well 

 pasted in all foreign experiments and work. The most interesting 

 part of his b >ok, from a physiological point of view, is that in 

 which he discusses the question of foods and their constituentg. 

 Criticising the f lod-ration of the French army, he says that too 

 much bread is allowed, and too little meat. 



The volume of the Indian Antiquary for the past year 

 contains a most interesting series of papers by Mr. H. 

 G. M. Murray- Aynsley, under the modest title, " Dis- 

 cursive Contributions towards the Comparative Study of 

 Asiatic Symbolism." They commence in the March number, 

 and, with the exception of the issues for June and July, are, 

 continued consecutively down to, and including, the November 

 number, and are not yet completed. One feature of special 

 value to the European student is the method of illustration 

 adopted. The plates are numerous, and beautifully executed, 

 and a large number describe objects collected by the writer him- 

 self in Northern India, which have probably never before been 

 seen by the majority of Western scholars. It is to be hoped 

 that Mr. Murray- Aynsley will ultimately collect these papers 



into a volume ; at present we can do no more than barely indi- 

 cate the outlines of their contents. His chief object is to make 

 a collection of facts bearing upon the subject of customs and 

 symbols, and, after a general introduction, a chapter is devoted 

 to each of the following divisions : — (i) Sun and cup (or moon) 

 symbols ; (2) sun-worship ; (3) the Svastil;a, or emblem of fire ; (4) 

 stones worshipped in India, and their counterparts in Scandina- 

 via and otlier parts of Europe ; (5) the land of departed souls ; 

 (6) the trees which have been held sacred in the East and in 

 Europe ; (7) snake-worship ; (8) amulets and charms ; (9) the 

 evil eye ; (10) the wild huntsman of Northern Europe and his 

 possible Asiatic origin ; (11) Eastern architecture compared with 

 certain old churches and houses in Norway ; (12) Asiatic sym- 

 bolism in Spain. While this may give a notion of the general 

 contents of these papers, it gives none whatever of the mass of 

 facts collected from different sources, principally by the author 

 himself in India and Cashmere. The coloured illustrations of 

 the Svaslika symbol, showing the wide area over which it is 

 employed, are very interesting. In addition to many others 

 given, the author might well have added that it is almost uni- 

 versal in this country as a bordering to the commoner kinds of 

 linoleum and other floor-cloths, the manufacturers having pro- 

 bably borrowed it from the designs on Central Asian carpets and 

 rugs. 



An important addition has just been made to the Zoological 

 Society's Collection in the Regent's Park, in the shape of three fine 

 specimens of the sea-lion or eared seal of the Auckland Islands 

 (Olaria hookeri). These animals, originally four in number, one 

 having been lost during the transit home, were captured in the 

 Auckland Islands, which lie in the Antarctic Ocean, some gcx) 

 miles south of Tasmania, by Capt. John Fairchild, master 

 of the New Zealand Government steamer Hinemoa, and were 

 sent to London in the steamship Tongariro by the Hon. W. J. 

 M. Larnach, C.M.G., Minister of Marine of New Zealand, as 

 a present to the Zoological Society. The Zoological Society's 

 menagerie already contained specimens of the sea-lion of the 

 Falkland Islands [Olaria -jubata), and of the Cape sea-lion 

 [Olaria pusilla), but no example of the present rarer species has 

 been previously brought alive to Europe. There are, however, 

 stuffed specimens of this animal in the MiiseuJi of Natural 

 History in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. 



In the Report of the Fish and Game Commissioners of 

 Massachusetts for 1886, there is an interesting paper by Mr. 

 George Dimmock on certain fish-destroying insects in the 

 United States. Tlve largest of them, and the most dangerous to 

 fishes, are those which belong to the family called Belostomidje. 

 They are provided with powerful fore-legs, and strong, some- 

 what oar shaped hind-legs for swimming; and, when full-grown, 

 they have vigorous wings, and are capable of long-sustained 

 flight. In seizing upo 1 fishes or other small animals, they grasp 

 their prey with their fore-feet, holding it firmly in their claws. 

 Then they pierce it with their beak or proboscis, and suck its 

 blood. They are strongly attracted by the electric light, and 

 Mr. Dimmock suggests that if might be used as a means of 

 destroying them, as it would be ea-^y to contrive a trap that 

 wouli retain them when they fall after striking the glass. An 

 illuminated trap beneath the surface of the water might, he 

 thinks, be more effective than one above the surface, for the 

 Belostomidfe do not often leave the water, apparently, except 

 when they quit it for the purpose of migration. 



The United States Fish Commission print in one of their 

 recent Bulletins an excellent report by Mrs. Emma Metcalf 

 Beckley, Curator of the Hawaiian National Museum, on 

 " Hawaiian Fishing Implements and Methods of Fishing." The 

 writer gives some curious details about octopus-fishing. The 

 smaller kinds of octopus, which live in shallow water, are caught 

 by women, who do their work with remarkable skill. They can 



