June 24, 1880] 



NATURE 



1S3 



success has been most marked. At Birmingham in 1S7S, at 

 Leicester last year, and at Northampton tliis year, it has 

 brought together naturalists from Nottingham, Burton, Leicester, 

 Bedford, Peterborough, Hereford, WebhpDol, Shrewsbuiy, Chel- 

 tenham, Stroud, Birminghao), and o'.her places, and has afforded 

 opportunities for intercourse between many who were previously 

 strangers. The pretidential address w'as brief, but interesting 

 and suggestive. Lord Lilford tcok part in the proceedings, and 

 read an admirable paper on ornithological topics. He exhi- 

 bited nearly 200 specimens of birds taken chiefly in North 

 Northamptonshire, the bulk of which he presented to the 

 Northamptonshire Naturalists Society, of Mhich he is president. 

 The report of the council gave an outline of work done by the 

 various societies in the Union during the past twelve months. 

 In the evening an interesting scientific convenazioiie was provided 

 in the Town Hall, and was largely attended. On Friday the 

 members divided into two parlies, one of which explored the 

 geology of the district under the guidance of Mr. Hull ; the 

 other, led by Mr. Scriven, visited Castle Ashby, the seat of the 

 Marquis of Northampton, and devoted the bulk of their time to 

 botanising in Yardley Chase, &c. The meeting was in' every 

 way a success. The next year's meeting will be held at 

 Cheltenham, and Dr. T. Wright, F.R.S., is the president elect. 



M. Daubr^e, director of the French School of Mines, has 

 published an essay on Descartes, ^in which he summarises the 

 services rendered by that philosopher to science. He reminds 

 his readers that Descartes advocated th; theory of an igneous 

 origin for the earth, and he enters into a lengthened discussion 

 of the objections which may be raised against the theory of actual 

 causes, as advocated by Lyell. 



The City and Guild.'-, of London Institute for the Advance- 

 ment of Technical Education has definitively accepted from Her 

 Majesty's Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 a site for the 

 Central Institution in Exhibition Road. The site is 300 feet 

 long, and is between the temporaiy French and Belgian Courts. 

 The advantages of this site are its proximity to the museums and 

 librarie--, and science and art schools of South Kensington. The 

 central institution, when erected, will be used for the training of 

 teachers, and will provide the highest technical instruction to 

 students who have already obtained such a knowledge of the 

 elements of science as is furnished by the School of Mines and 

 other scientific institutions. 



Reports continue to appear of the unusual quantity of drift 

 ice met with in the North Atlantic by vessels sailing between 

 this country and America. Do not these " numerous fields of 

 ice " met with indicate an unusually early and extensive break-up 

 of the Arctic ice-sheet, and extreme meteorological conditions 

 in the Polar area ? 



Mr. Frank Buckland has been awarded a gold medal and 

 a decorated diploma of honour by the authorities of the Berlin 

 luternational Fishery Exhibition. 



PfeRE Marc Dechevrens, the Director of the Zikawei 

 Observatory, near Shanghai, has lately published an important 

 essay on the Qisa>trou3 typhoon of July 31, 1879, accompanied 

 by remarks on other typhoons in the autumn of the same year. 



By recent intelligence from New South Wales we learn that 

 very rich silver lodes, with a large quantity of gold, had been 

 di covered at the Nambuccra River, and that gold had al;0 been 

 found near Moama, on the Murray. 



In his just published Consular Report from Saigon, Mr. 

 Tremlett furnishes some further notes respecting hwang-nao, to 

 which we have refeired on a previous occasion. It is said to be 

 a bush, and to present something of the appearance of ivy ; it is 

 only found in mountains of hmestone formation. It is said to 



cure the bite of the most venomous serpents, and has been suc- 

 cessfully employed in curing cancer and principally leprosy, in 

 the treatment of w hich it has never given other than satisfactory 

 results. The native physicians, Mr. Tremlett remarks, distin- 

 guish thirty -six kinds of leprosy, the most common attacking the 

 feet and hands ; it is considered to be hereditary, and is usually 

 contracted by children at the age of puberty. After some gene- 

 rations it has been noticed to confine itself to either the male or 

 the female members of the family ; the disease is considered 

 contagious, which only would account for the large number of 

 lepers in Tongking. 



In the last aeronautical ascent which was made at Rouen on 

 Monday, June 13, by M. Jovis, M. Desmaret, one of the aero- 

 nauts, tried with success to take photographs of the land below. 

 About fifteen different views were taken by him, and are 

 wonderfully executed. The car had a hole in the centre, and 

 the photographic apparatus was supplied with a patent obturator 

 working in one-hundredth of a second. The photographs were 

 of course taken by instantaneous process. 



We notice some interesting geological researches by M. 

 Kontkevitch on the eastern slopes of the Oaral Mountains. 

 They w ill be an important addition to the well-known map of 

 the western slope published some years ago by Prof. Mbller. 



We have received the tenth volume of the HUmoirs of the 

 St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, which contains, besides 

 the minutes of meetings of the Society, a series of interesting 

 papers : — A resume of our knowledge on the Silurian in the 

 Governments of St. Petersbm'g and Esthonia, by Prof. Friedrich 

 Schmidt; on the ornithological fauna of the marshes of the district 

 Uman (province Kieff ), by G. Th. Gbbel ; a monograph on the 

 sponges of the White Sea, by K. S. Merejkovsky ; on the alg;e 

 of the Gulf of Finland, by Chr. Gobi ; ornithological observa- 

 tions on the province of Ryazan, by P. Pavloff; on the birds 

 of the tracts between the Amou and Kouvan-djarma Rivers, by 

 M. Boutleroff; on the structure of the eye-like spots in certain 

 fishes, by MM. Ousoff ; and a fljra of the Phanerogams of the 

 Government of Tver, by A. A. Bakounin. 



In the Sessional Proceedings of June 4 of the National Associa- 

 tion for the Promotion of Social Science will be found an 

 extremely interesting discussion of the subject of educational 

 pres.ure among girl?, by various ladies connected with well- 

 known girls' schools, and others. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Rhesus Monkeys (Maeacus erythrccus) 

 from India, presented respectively by Mr. W. Connell, and Mr. 

 George L. Amlot ; a Quica Opossum {Didelphys quica) from 

 Demerara, presented by Capt. E. Ball ; an Azara's Fox {Canis 

 azarec) from South America, presented by Mr. Edward Cooper ; 

 a Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacaliia gale)-ita) from 

 Australia, presented by Mrs. M. A. Brown ; two Common Gulls 

 (Larus canns), European, presented by Mr. J. Castell; a 

 Dominican Gull (Larus dominicanus, jv. ?) from New Zealand, 



presented by Capt. R. Bower; a Buzzard (Buteo sf. inc.) 



from Tasmania, presented by Capt. J. Seaborne ; a Salt Water 

 Terrapin (Clemmys ierrajiin) from North America, presented by 

 Mr. A. D. Bartlett ; a Common Ocelot {Felis pardalis) from 

 Demerara, a Brown Capuchin (Cebus fatuellui) from Guiana, 

 a Weeper Capuchin (Cel/us capicinus) from Brazil, an Australian 

 Crane [Grus aus'.ralasiana) from Au.tralia, deposited; two 

 Virginian Deer (Cariacus vir^inianus) from North America, 

 four Beautiful Finches (EstrelJa l/el/a) from Australia, pur- 

 chased ; a Leonine Monkey (Macacus leoniniis) from Arracan, a 

 Slow Loris (Nycticebus tardi«radus) from Malacca, two Bay 

 Bamboo Rats (Rhizomys liadius) from India, two Samatrau 



