472 



NA TURE 



{^March 17, 1887 



sense," having accumulated income available for grants, desire to 

 receive applications for appropriations in aid of scientific work. 

 This endowment is not for the benefit of any one department of 

 science, but it is the intention of the trustees to give the preference 

 to those investigations which cannot otherwise be provided for, 

 which have for their object the advancement of human know- 

 ledge, or the benefit of mankind in general, rather than to re- 

 searches directed to the solution of questions of merely local 

 importance. Applications for assistance from this fund should be 

 addressed to the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Dr. C. S. 

 Minot, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., U.S.A., and 

 should be accompanied by a full statement of the nature of the 

 investigation, of the conditions under which it is to be prose- 

 cuted, and of the manner in which the appropriation asked for 

 is to be expended. The new grants will probably be made in 

 May next. 



In consequence of the date fixed for the celebration of the 

 Queen's Jubilee, the Senate of the University of London have 

 deemed it necessary to change the time of holding the ensuing 

 Matriculation Examination from the week beginning Monday, 

 June 20, to the preceding week beginning Monday, June 13. 



In his annual Report for the year 1886, Mr. H. B. Medlicott, 

 Director of the Geological Survey of India, explains how it 

 happens that Bengalis have not hitherto been employed in con- 

 nection with his department. The Survey, he points out, has 

 no duties of a mechanical nature to which, and through which, 

 it would be possible to break in the uninitiated. Its work is 

 strictly scientific, and requires the constant exercise, upon scanty 

 data, of an independent, conscientious, and sober judgment. 

 Now, Mr. Medlicott holds that Bengalis have not yet shown that 

 they are fit for such work as this. " In Bengal,'' he says, "the 

 word of knowledge has been preached for the last two genera- 

 tions, but in no single case has it found the needful germ in 

 which it might come to maturity and bear fruit in original scien- 

 tific work ; it seems only to develop a more obnoxious kind of 

 weed — words of science without substance. In the medical and 

 engineering services they have for lonj had like teaching and 

 opportunities to those from which Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, 

 and a host of others have arisen, but of like result in Bengal 

 there is no symptom even. For a still longer period the prac- 

 tical results of the new knowledge in the shape of material pro- 

 gress have been displayed with ever-increasing energy from the 

 West, but neither has this awakened in the Oriental mind a 

 a power to do likewise. Of imitation there is no lack, but of 

 creative power there is no sign. If this is not a demonstration 

 on the part of the Bengali of his ineptitude for science, evidence 

 counts for nothing. He would do well to take it to heart, if by 

 any means he may correct his failing. Meanwhile, even if there 

 were not particular evidence to confirm it, I hold this as suf- 

 ficient warrant for objecting to the appointment of natives to 

 the slender staff of the Geological Survey." 



Mr. a. Lawrence Rotch, the proprietor of the Blue Hill 

 Meteorological Observatory in the United States, has recently 

 issued a pamphlet giving an account of the foundation and 

 work of the observatory. According to i\\& American Meteoro- 

 logical yoni-nal, the station on Pike's Peak, 14,000 feet above 

 the sea, is of problematic value to meteorology, whereas " the 

 Blue Hill Observatory, only 635 feet above the sea, and much 

 younger, has already been of considerable meteorological service. " 



Some time ago we referred to the fact that experiments were 

 being made at Fort Scott in connection with the manufacture of 

 sugar from Sorghum. A report on these experiments was lately 

 presented to the U.S. Department of Agriculture by Mr. H. 

 W. Wiley, to whom the conduct of the work was intrusted. 

 The results were very discouraging, and the failure is attributed 



by Mr. Wiley to the following causes: — (i) Defective machinery 

 for cutting the canes and for elevating and cleaning the chips 

 and for removing the exhausted chips. (2) The deterioration of 

 the cane due to much of it becoming over-ripe, but chiefly to the 

 fact that much time would generally elapse after the canes were 

 cut before they reached the diffusion battery. The heavy frost 

 which came on October I, 1886, injured the cane somewhat, but 

 not until ten days or two weeks after it occurred. (3) The 

 deteriorated cane caused a considerable inversion of the sucrose 

 in the battery, an inversion which was increased by the delay in 

 furnishing chips, thus causing the chips in the battery to remain 

 exposed under pressure for a much longer time than was neces- 

 sary. The mean time required for diffusing one cell was twenty- 

 one minutes, three times as long as it should have been. (4) The 

 process of carbonatation, as employed, secured a maximum yield 

 of sugar, but failed to make a molasses which was marketable. 

 This trouble arose from the small quantity of lime remaining in 

 the filtered juices, causing a blackening of the syrup on concen- 

 tration, and the failure of the cleaning apparatus to properly 

 prepare the chips for diffusion. With regard to the future, Mr. 

 Wiley is of opinion that the chief thing to be accomplished is 

 the production of a Sorghum plant containing a reasonably 

 constant percentage of crystallisable sugar. 



Mr. Hennessy, of the Indian Survey, to whom, as we 

 have already announced, the Government of the Straits Settle- 

 ments applied to aid in a survey of the latter territoiy, has 

 declined the appointment offered him. Indian Engineering 

 observes that as the size and population of the Straits do not 

 come up to those of an Indian district, and as the colony has 

 already a Surveyor-General, a Deputy Surveyor-General, several 

 Assistant Surveyors-General, with a full complement of sub- 

 ordinates, as well as a Special Commissioner of Lands, there must 

 be something wrong when another surveyor from India is re- 

 quired in order to carry out a satisfactory survey. The circum • 

 stance appears to require some explanation. 



On December 10, a volcanic eruption of great violence took 

 jjlace in Mount Tarumai in Yezo. Ashes continued to fall 

 for several hours in the vicinity of the foot of the mountain, and 

 on the neighbouring coasts, and even after this had ceased the 

 underground disturbances continued. On December 13 the 

 eruption recommenced, and lasted for four days. A large slip 

 occurred on the side of the volcano, an area of about 10,000 feet 

 square being affected, and stones and other debris fell so thickly 

 as to change the configuration of the sea-shore to some extent. 

 Previous eruptions, according to Prof. Milne's work on the vol- 

 canoes of Japan, occurred on February 8, 1S74 ; October 7, 

 1883 ; January 4, 1885 ; and April 21, 1886. 



On March 15 a strong shock of earthquake passed through 

 Mandalay, perceptibly moving buildings and trees. No damage 

 occurred. 



On the 9th inst. Mr. W. A. Carter lectured to the Croydon 

 Natural History Society on " Marine and Fresh-water Fishes." 

 Mr. Carter stated that fish have the power of influencing each 

 other by sounds and action, and in support of this assertion he 

 described the movements of a shoal of carp in a pond. He had 

 observed them following the lead of a single congener, which 

 conducted them to a quantity of food a considerable distance 

 off. Referring to fish monarchs, the lecturer said he had 

 noticed that certain freshwater fish, such as the trout, were 

 subservient to a ruler, which might be seen swimming at the 

 head of his tribe, as might also certain marine forms, such 

 as herring and bass. 



The new gun-powder melinite has already begun its work of 

 destruction. Some days ago a bomb filled with this explosive 

 agent exploded by accident in Belfort arsenal, killing six 

 persons, and severely wounding eleven. 



