246 



NATURE 



IJuly 15, 1880 



the extreme north, where the elements here absorbed 

 belonged to some of the best Slav blood — Serbs and 

 Montenegrins. But the plain and often even repulsive 

 features met with in some of the central districts would 

 seem to point at fusion with the Ugrian or Volga Finn 

 Bulgarians, whose headquarters were at Okhrida, and 

 who at that time (8th and 9th centuries) had not yet been 

 Slavonised. Nevertheless, the Albanians are on the 

 whole a fine and even a handsome race, with long head, 

 oval face, long thin nose, rather high cheek bones, small 

 eyes, generally grey or blue, hair often fairer light brown, 

 long neck, broad chest, slim and upright figures. But 

 descriptions of course vary with the experiences of the 

 observer. Thus while Pouqueville speaks rather of black 

 eyes, others describe the Toshks as essentially a blue-eyed 

 and light-haired race. In general the purest type is found 

 in the district between the Shkumbi and Voyussa, where 

 Kamardas says that the language also is spoken in the 

 greatest purity. North and south of this district both 

 people and language are more or less intermingled with 

 Slav and Hellenic elements respectively. 



A. H. Keane 



REPORT OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM 



THE Parliamentary Report of the Trustees of the 

 British Museum, which has been lately issued, 

 tells us that during the past year much progress has 

 been made in arrangements for removal of the natural 

 history collections, and in preparations for their re- 

 ception in the new buildings designed for them at 

 South Kensington. New cases and fittings have been 

 provided and erected for the departments of botany and 

 mineralogy, and in part for that of geology ; and the 

 transference of these three collections to the new museum 

 will probably be effected in the course of the present year. 

 The galleries vacated by these collections will be at once 

 made use of for the exhibition of objects of archaeological 

 interest which have been accumulating for many years, 

 and from want of space have been stored away in imper- 

 fectly-lighted rooms in the basement of the British 

 Museum. 



The whole of the zoological and geological portions of 

 the India Museum at South Kensington, together with 

 the friezes from the Amravati Tope and other remains of 

 ancient sculpture, have been made over by the Secretary 

 of State and Council of India to the Trustees of the 

 British Museum. The sculpture w-ill be exhibited in the 

 Museum ; the zoological and other collections have been 

 removed to the New Natural History Museum at South 

 Kensington. 



Turning to Prof. Owen's special report on the depart- 

 ments of natural history, we are told that part of the 

 work during the past year has been that of the prepara- 

 tion of the collections for the pending transfer to South 

 Kensington. 



In the department of zoology Dr. Giinther informs us 

 that not less than 45,881 specimens have been added to 

 the several parts of the collection ; of this, however, more 

 than half is attributable to the collection of exotic butter- 

 flies, bequeathed to the nation by the late William 

 Chapman Hewitson. This is one of the most extensive 

 and valuable collections of this group of animals that has 

 ever been formed ; it consists of 24,624 specimens refer- 

 able to 5,795 species, many of which have been described 

 by the testator in his " Exotic Butterflies," " Diurnal 

 Lepidoptera," and other works. The collection is in a 

 perfect state of arrangement and preservation, and by 

 Mr. Hewitson's direction a catalogue of its contents has 

 been prepared and printed at the expense of his estate. 

 The testator attached to this bequest the condition that 

 the collection should be called the " Hewitson Collec- 

 tion," and should be kept in good order, preservation, 

 and condition, and in the same cabinets, and in the same 



order and arrangement, and under the same nomenclature 

 as they should be at the time of his decease, until the 

 expiration of twenty-one years from that time. 



Another important addition to the national collection of 

 insects made during the last parliamentary year was the 

 Wollaston collection of St. Helena Lepidoptera, consisting 

 of 364 specimens, and including types of thirty-eight 

 species, collected and described by Mrs. Vernon Wol- 

 laston. This must be regarded as one of the most 

 important acquisitions of last year, as the accurate and 

 perfect knowledge of the fauna and flora of so isolated a 

 locality as St. Helena at a given period will enable future 

 investigators to determine exactly the changes which are 

 taking place in oceanic islands, not only with regard to 

 the composition of their fauna and flora, but also with 

 regard to the specific characters of the animals and plants 

 imported into them. 



Four additions have been made to the well-known 

 series of zoological catalogues in 1879, namely, the fourth 

 volume of Mr. Sharpe's " Catalogue of Birds" ; an octavo 

 volume by Mr. C. O. Waterhouse, containing descriptions 

 of typical specimens of coleoptera, illustrated by coloured 

 plates ; a volume containing descriptions of a number of 

 new species of hymenoptera by the late Mr. Frederick 

 Smith, which the lamented author left nearly ready for 

 publication at the time of his death ; and the third volume 

 of Mr. Butler's " Illustration-^ of Typical Specimens of 

 Lepidoptera hetcrccera" 



Mr. Waterhouse's report on the Geological Depart- 

 ment and Mr. Story Maskelyne's on that of Mineralogy 

 succeed that of Dr. Gunther, but we observe nothing of 

 very special interest contained in them. Mr. Carruthers' 

 report on Botany records an important addition to that 

 department in the shape of the extensive herbarium of the 

 late John Miers, F.R.S., &c., the distinguished botanist, 

 which he bequeathed to the Trustees. It contains the 

 types of the species described in his numerous systematic 

 works and memoirs, as far as they were in his own pos- 

 session, together with an extensive series of South 

 American plants from various collectors, and many valu- 

 able collections from other regions of the world. Besides 

 the plants Mr. John W. Miers has presented to the de- 

 partment the large series of original drawings made by 

 his father from the living plants in South America and 

 from dissections of plants in later years. 



MARCEL DEPREZ'S GALVANOMETER FOR 

 STRONG CURRENTS 



"PRACTICAL electricians have laboured up to the 

 -'■ present time under a considerable difiiculty in attempt- 

 ing to measure the strength of very powerful electric 

 currents, such as are, for example, employed in the pro- 

 duction of the electric light. There has been no simple 

 instrument suited to the rapid direct measurement of the 

 strength of such currents, much less one that would 

 measure any fluctuations of short duration. Ordinary 

 galvanometers have not been equal to the task, being 

 adapted for a different class of work, usually of too high 

 a resistance to be safely introduced into the circuit, and in 

 general too leisurely in their movements to afford indica- 

 tions of any rapid fluctuations. 



Although the current furnished by a good dynamo- 

 electric machine, such as those of Gramme, Siemens and 

 Brush, may for most practical purposes be considered 

 both continuous and uniform, the construction of these 

 instruments could hardly leave any doubt on a priori 

 grounds that the current really consists of a number of 

 successive impulses, which, although they may, as it were, 

 run into one another and yield a continuous current, yet 

 cause the strength of the current to be continually increas- 

 ing and diminishing in rapid alternations ; and indeed the 

 telephone shows clearly that this is the case, for a low 

 humming sound is heard in that instrument when its 



