350 



NA rURE 



IFeb. lo, 1887 



About 2000 delegates, inchuiing about 300 from Europe, are 

 expected to be present at the ninth triennial meeting of the 

 International Medical Congress at Washington in September 

 next. An effort is being made to sectu-e the hall of the House 

 of Representatives for the opening meeting. After this meeting 

 the Congress will be divided into seventeen sections, assembling 

 in the different halls of the city. 



Mr. G. T. Ryves, F.R.Met.Soc, wrote the other day lo 

 the Times, from Sto!<e-on-Trent, presenting the results of an 

 independent comparison of the daily forecast issued by the 

 Meteorological Office for the Midland District with the actual 

 weather experienced in l886. The number of forecasts sent out 

 by the Office during the year was 310. Of these, 309 were 

 tested, and Mr. Ryves found that there were 247 absolute suc- 

 cesses, 26 absolute failures, and 36 partial or doubtful successes. 

 That is to say, omitting small fractions, there were 80 per cent 

 of successes, %\ per cent, of failures, and 1 1 ^ per cent, of doubt- 

 ful cases. Mr. Ryves understands that a similar result has been 

 arrived at in other places where the forecasts have been sub- 

 mitted to an examination extending over a period of sufficient 

 length to make it possible to strike a fair average. 



The French Minister for Public Instruction has nominated a 

 Commission, under the presidency of M. Bertrand, the Secretary 

 of the Academie des Sciences, which will award a prize of 

 50,000 francs (2000/.) to the inventor of a cheap method for the 

 application of electricity to the purposes either of heating and 

 lighting, chemical or mechanical force, telegraphy, or the treat- 

 ment of the sick. 



The Royal Scientific Society of Gottingen offers a prize o^ 

 500 marks (25/. ), in 1889, for a complete review of the literature 

 of the Arabs and the Arabian-speaking tribes of the Islam and 

 Christian kingdoms up to the time of the conquest of Egypt by 

 Turkey. Further particulars can be obtained of the Society. 



Mr. Maclean, the official assistant to the Professor of Natu- 

 ral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, has just published a 

 little book containing examples of exercises given in the natural 

 philosophy class during recent years, with indications ihow to 

 answer them The exercises deal largely with dynamics and 

 properties of matter, and include sound, light, magnetism, elec- 

 tricity, and heat. The exercises, especially those on dynamics, 

 are very interesting, and indicate distinctly the thorough- 

 ness of the instruction given. Several of the hints for solution 

 will be found also of great value to students. 



We have frequently had to refer to the scientific renaissance now 

 going on in Italy. Another indication of this has just reached 

 us, in the shape of a volume of some 500 pages, on "Geological 

 Evolution : Inorganic, Animal, and Human," by Signor Enrico 

 del Pozzo di Mombello. The book is published by Sgariglia, 

 of Foligno. It exhibits a wide philosophical grasp of the 

 subject. The first chapter is almost confined to an analysis of 

 Herbert Spencer's " Principles of Evolution." The writer then 

 discusses the nebular hypothesis, and the new views as to the 

 inorganic evolution now going on in the sun. Geological 

 climates, with full references to the works of Lyell and Croll. 

 follow ; and after a chap'er on vulcanism are chapters on prac- 

 tical geology. The rest of the work deals with life, including a 

 full statement of Darwinism and human evolution, while the last 

 chapters are devoted to prehistoric man. Such a book as this 

 will be of the greatest service to science in Italy. 



We have received the fifth edition of " Celestial Motions," a 

 handy book of astronomy, by Mr. W. T. Lynn, formerly of the 

 Royal Observatory, Greenwich In this last edition a chapter 

 has been added on the refraction, propagation, and aberration 

 of light. The treatment, however, is necessarily so limited, 

 that the chapter is practically useless for educational purposes. 



We have received also the fifth edition of Prof. Bentley's 

 " Manual of Botany." The physiological part of the subject has 

 been largely revised, with the assistance of Mr. J. D. Groves, 

 Demonstrator of Practical Biology at King's College, London. 

 Many alterations have been made in the part treating of the 

 properties and uses of plants ; but the most marked change is 

 in those chapters relating to the classification of plants. The 

 book is now adapted in all essentials to the arrangement adopted 

 in the " Genera Plantarum." 



A STRONG shock of earthquake was felt in Venice on the 

 night of January 24. No damage seems to have been done. 

 At Aquila, in Lower Italy, seven shocks of earthquake were 

 noticed on January 26, three of which were rather strong. They 

 occurred between 2.30 p.m. and 7.45 a.m. of the next day. 



O.v the night of January 31 a shock of earthqu.ike was felt in 

 Zurich and the neighbourhood, and in the cantons of Zug and 

 Schwyz. The district affected was about 80 kilometres in diameter. 



UndiiR the auspices of the Geological and Natural History 

 Survey of Canada, Prof J. Macoun, of Ottawa, has now completed 

 the first volume of his " Catalogue of Canadian Plants." The third 

 part, just published, comprises the Apetah-e, Cuniferse, and a long 

 list of additions and corrections to parts i and 2, carrying the 

 work down to the end of Exogens. 



A CONSIGNMENT of German carp has been forwarded 

 to Portugal by the National Fish-Culture As-oclation, for 

 the purpose of acclimatisation in the waters of that country. 

 The experiment is being made by Messrs Broughton and Frietas, 

 who have also made arrangements to import a quantity of 

 salmon and trout ova, and hatch them out for a >imilar purpose. I 

 The N.ational Fish-Culture Association have intimated their \ 

 intention of supplying Salmonidae fry this year gratuitously to \ 

 public bodies desirous of repopulating depleted waters. One 

 million and a half of whitefish o\3.(Coregi>iius alhus) arrived from 

 the Amedcan Government at the hatchery of the Association 

 on January 31. 



The National Fish-Culture -Association have just issued the 

 first nuarber of their quarterly Journal, edited by Mr. J. W. 

 Willis-Bund. The objects of this publication are not only to 

 chronicle the operations of the Association, but to collect infor- 

 mation concerning the fish, fish culture, and fisheries both of the 

 United Kingdom and abroad. The present number includes 

 articles by Ur. Francis Day, Mr. J. W. Willis- Bund, Mr. W. 

 Oldham Chamber-, and Mr. Anderson Smith. 



Herr Richard Andree, of Leipzig, who has for some years 

 past made a special study of cannibalism and its prevalence in . 

 ancient and modern times, has recently published (Beit : '^ 

 Leipzig) a pamphlet on the subject, which is full of interest to 

 others besides the ethnologists for whom it is, of course, mainly 

 intended. He treats first of the practice of anthropophagy in 

 prehistoric times, discussing traces of it in popular tales, legends, 

 and superstitions. To this section also belong the investiga- 

 tions into the reiiiains found in caves and ancient burial-places in 

 Europe, which Herr Andree thinks prove beyond doubt that 

 cannibalism existed at this remote epoch in countries which are 

 now the most highly civilised on the globe. The next part deals 

 with the geographical distidbution of the practice at the present 

 day. The mass of information brought together is drawn from 

 the literature of many countries, ancient and modern, and is enor- 

 mous in amount. The writer attributes the origin of cannibalism 

 to hunger and want in the first instance, until it developed into 

 a settled practice, from which the step to human sacrifice, 

 whether of single individuals, such as prisoners, or of holocausts 

 of victims, as in ancient Mexico, is not a long one. 



The death is announced of Dr. Philip Fischer, the well- 

 known mathematician and Professor at the Polytechnic Institu- 

 tion at Darmstadt. He died on January 22. 



