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NA TURE 



\_April y, 1887 



frequently been the case, from information derived from 

 native collectors. 



Personally, Sir Walter Elliot was one of the kindliest 

 of men, with a charming manner and generous disposi- 

 tion. At Wolfelee, as formerly in India, he was widely 

 known and universally respected. W. T. B. 



NOTES 

 He must be a very dull Englishman whose imagination has 

 not been touched by the assembling of the Colonial Conference, 

 an event which may hereafter be seen to have marked the first 

 stage in one of the greatest movements in the history of man- 

 kind. In describing the commercial relations of the colonies, 

 Sir Henry Holland, in his opening speech as President, had 

 occasion to bring some very eloquent figures to the notice of the 

 Conference. The imports and exports of the colonies were, in 

 1885, eleven times what they were in 1837. The British ship- 

 ping trade with the colonies rose from 3,700,000 tons in 1837 to 

 56,600,000 tons in 1885, while, in the same period, British 

 exports to the colonies rose from 11,300,000/. to 54,500,000/. 

 This astonishing material progress, accompanied by an increase 

 of population from 4,204,700 in all the colonies in 1837 to 

 15,763,072 in 1881, would, of course, have been impossible but 

 for the rapid development of physical science and the steadily 

 increasing application of its principles to the methods of indus- 

 try. And it is interesting to note that, of all the questions 

 which the Conference will have to discuss, by far the greatest 

 are those most directly connected with the results of 

 scientific investigation — questions relating to the naval and 

 military defence of the Empire, and to the improvement 

 of postal and telegraphic communication. In speaking of tele- 

 graphic communication, .Sir Henry Holland quoted a striking 

 letter he had received from Mr. Pender. Some of the facts 

 brought together in this letter must have reminded the delegates 

 very vividly of the debt which commerce owes to science. 

 Twenty years ago there were only about 2000 miles of submarine 

 cables, and some of the earlier cables were so badly constructed 

 that they were practically useless. " Science has now, however," 

 wrote Mr. Pender, "aided so greatly in the manufacture of 

 cables that they can at the present time be laid with compara- 

 tively little risk of breakage and with an almost certainty of 

 efficient repair." The consequence is that there are now 107,000 

 miles of submarine cables, which have cost something like thirty- 

 seven millions sterling. The whole of this vast system, with 

 the exception of about 7000 miles, is entirely under British con- 

 trol. To show the relative importance of the submarine cables, 

 Mr. Pender stated that the length of all the land telegraphic 

 lines now in existence in the world is about 1,750,000 miles, 

 representing an estimated cost of 52,000,000/. 



Dr. Brown-Sequard has been elected President of the 

 Society of Biology, Paris. His immediate predecessor was the 

 late M. Paul Bert. 



A Bill was lately submitted to the U.S. Senate, providing 

 for the creation of a Department of Agriculture and Labour. 

 Various amendments were proposed, and among them was one 

 for the transfer of the Weather Bureau from the Signal Office of 

 the Army to the new Department This amendment was 

 accepted by the Committee on Agriculture, and Science says that 

 it would certainly have been passed by the Senate had not 

 difficultie unexpectedly arisen with regard to the Bill as a whole. 

 The President, it seems, did not wish to have an additional 

 member in his Cabinet. The Bill was therefore referred back 

 to the Committee on Agriculture, and it did not again come 

 before the House. According to Science, there can be no 

 doubt that the Bureau will be transferred next year to some 



Civil Department, public opinion being decidedly in favour of 

 the change. In the meantime General Greely, General Haren's 

 successor, will retain the position of Chief Signal Officer. 



In the Report of the Scottish Meteorological Society, to 

 which we referred last week, it is stated that during the winter 

 Mr. Cunningham, Superintendent of the Zoological Laboratory 

 of the Marine Station at Granton, and Mr. Ramage, have been 

 continually engaged in a systematic study of the Chsetopoda of 

 the Firth of Forth. In the course of this work all the speci- 

 mens obtained by dredging have been determined, and their 

 anatomy has been investigated. Fresh specimens, and ova and 

 young forms, have been collected on the shore at low tide, and 

 by means of low nets ; and a large number of drawings and 

 descriptions have been made, among which are accounts of some 

 species new to the district, and additions to the knowledge of 

 anatomy and development. The results of this work are being 

 prepared for publication. 



The Report for the year 18S4 of the United States National 

 Museum, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, has 

 just been issued. It contains (i) the Report of the Assistant 

 Director, (2) Reports of the Curator and Acting-Curators, (3) 

 papers based on collections in the Museum, (4) bibliography of 

 the Museum for 1884, and (5) a list of accessions to the Museum 

 in 1884. Among the papers based on collections in the Museum 

 are two admirable anthropological studies by Mr. Otis T. 

 Mason — one on throwing-sticks, another on the basket-work of 

 the North-American aborigines. There is also an excellent 

 study, by Mr. John Murdoch, of the Eskimo bows in the 

 Museum. These papers are care'fuUy illustrated. 



On March 9 a Conference met in the Senate House, Cam- 

 bridge, to discuss various questions in connexion with the 

 Cambridge University Local Lectures. A report of the pro- 

 ceedings has been printed for the Syndics at the University 

 Press, and it ought to be read by all who are interested in the 

 subject of University Extension. Attention may especially be 

 called to a speech by Dr. Westcott, who argued with much 

 force that the affiliation of local centres to the University might 

 provide an .adequate foundation for a national system of higher 

 education. Mr. Browne, Secretary of the Syndicate, who made 

 a financial statement, set forth the claims of the movement to 

 the support of all "who feel that the University Extension 

 system "has great powers for good, and has already done excellent 

 work. " 



Science and Art, the first number of which has just been 

 issued, deserves, and will no doubt receive, a cordial welcome 

 from the class of readers to whom it appeals. Its principal 

 object is to bring the schools of science and art into closer con- 

 tact with one another. The articles, notes, and correspondence 

 will be on subjects likely to be of especial interest to teachers 

 in those schools, and it is also hoped that the journal may be of 

 benefit to students. Each issue is to contain test-questions in 

 science and art subjects, for which prizes of books and instru- 

 ments will be given. 



On Tuesday last Messrs. Mourlen, Belgian electricians, had 

 an interview at Brussels with M. Granet, the French Minister 

 of Posts and Telegraphs, relative to the establishment of a 

 telephone line from Paris to London. 



An excellent "General Guide" to the Natural History 

 Museum, Cromwell Road, has just been printed by order of the 

 Trustees. It contains plans and a view of the building. 



Mr. T. B. Coombe Williams has compiled an interesting 

 bibliography of the books, in his own library, on fancy pigeons. 

 The authorship of the works in his list may, he says, be appor- 

 tioned as follows : English writers, 58 ; German (including 



