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NA TURE 



\A2igust 26, 1880 



Scudder to exhibit interesting fossil insects, and illustrations of 

 New England Butterflies ; Dr. J. L. Le Conte to present an 

 essay on Lightning Bugs, and give a list of Coleoptera hatched 

 from a few hickory twigs ; and Dr. II. A. Hagen to present 

 papers on the Hessian Fly, on the anatomy of Prodiutus deceptus, 

 and on a new worm parasitic on insects. 



The third International Congress of Geography meets at 

 Venice from the 15th to the 22nd of September, 1S81, under the 

 patronage of King Humbert. The accompanying exhibition will 

 be opened on September I, and will not be closed before October 

 I. The Congress will be divided into seven groups : i. Mathe- 

 matical, Geodetic, and Topographical Geography. 2. Hydro- 

 graphy and Maritime Geography. 3. Physical, Meteorological, 

 Geological, Botanical, and Zoological Geography. 4. Historical, 

 Ethnographical, and Philological Geography. 5. Economical, 

 Commercial, and Statistical Geography. 6. Methodology ; 

 Geographical Education. 7. Exploration. Further information 

 may be obtained by addressing " Al Comitato ordinatore del 3° 

 Congresso Geografico Internazionale, 26, Via del Collegio 

 Romano, Roma." 



The Sixth Annual Conference of the Cryptogamic Society of 

 Scotland will be held in Glasgow, on .September 27-30, and 

 October I and 2, when all persons interested in cryptogamic 

 botany are invited to attend. A detailed prospectus of the 

 meetings, excursion, and show may be had on application to the 

 Local Secretaries, on and after September 6. Fellows and 

 others from a distance who purpose attending the Conference 

 are requested to send intimation thereof as soon as possible to 

 the Secretary, to whom also intimation of papers to be read 

 should be sent. Fellows are requested to bring or send speci- 

 mens of interest in any branch of cryptogamic botany for exhi- 

 bition at the meeting and show. The Secretary is Dr. F. 

 Buchanan White, Perth, and the Local Secretaries Mr. W. J. 

 Milligan, 180, West Regent Street, and Mr. A. Turner, 122, 

 Hospital Street, Glasgow. 



The annual meeting of the Mineralogical Society of Great 

 Britain will be held at Swansea, in the Unitarian Schoolroom, 

 High Street, on Friday, August 27, at 2.30 p.m. The Council 

 will meet at 2 p.m. All communications intended for this meet- 

 ing should be addressed to the Secretary, Mr. J. H. Collins, 

 F.G.S., at the Reception Rooms, British Association, Swansea. 



We understand that the long-expected first volume of Prof. 

 Arthur Gamgee's "Text-book of Physiological Chemistry" may 

 be expected to appear in the middle of September. This 

 volume, which will be published by Macmillan and Co., 

 deals with the Chemistry of the Tissues, and is to be succeeded 

 in the space of a few months by a second and concluding volume, 

 treating of the Chemical Processes Associated with the Animal 

 Functions. Dr. Gamgee's work is, we are informed, a more 

 elaborate treatise than has hitherto appeared on this branch of 

 science. It deals with the subject from the point of view of the 

 physiologist and the physician rather than from that of the pure 

 chemist ; it is indeed an advanced treatise, dealing with those 

 departments of physiology and pathology which involve a study 

 of chemical facts, and not, as all text-books of physiological 

 chemistry, save those of Lehmann and Kiihne, have been, a work 

 treating of one branch of Applied Chemistry. The work is well 

 illustrated ; it contains a very full and complete account of tlie 

 whole literature of each suliject treated of, and besides being a 

 systematic treatise, is intended to serve as a practical guide for 

 the student of physiological chemistry. 



In Mr. Wallace's forthcoming work — "Island Life," no less 

 than five chapters are devoted to geological subjects which lie 

 considers to be of fundamental importance for the study of 

 questions of distribution, — such as the permanence of continents 



and oceans, glacial epochs and mild arctic climates, and the 

 measurement of geological time. A complete and in many 

 respects a novel solution of the problem of geological climates is 

 attempted ; and as the distribution of both animal and vegetable 

 forms is dealt with this volume will probably interest a wide 

 class of readers. 



Mr. R. Bullen Newton, assistant naturalist under Prof. 

 Huxley in the Mnseum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, has 

 received an appointment in the geological department of the 

 British Museum. 



A BALLOON ascent was made at Cherbourg, on the occasion of 

 'Cae.fete given by the Municipality to M. Grevy, by MM. Perron 

 and Capt. Gauthier. The general direction of the w ind being 

 from the land to the sea, a government steamer was sent out to 

 secure the safety of the aeronauts if necessary. Before starting 

 not less than thirty pilot-balloons were sent up to ascertain the 

 superposition of the aerial currents. It was proved that at 400 

 metres the wind was blowing from the sea. After having 

 travelled for more than an hour in the direction of Portsmouth, 

 the aeronauts opened their valve and returned safely on shore. 

 More than a hundred thousand spectators witnessed the experi- 

 ment. The culminating point of the ascent was an altitude of 

 1,500 metre=, where the travellers could see the English coast, 

 the whole of the Isle of Wight, &c. The scenery is stated to have 

 surpassed description. Some very curious observations were 

 made on the c dours of the sea. In the places where the water 

 is very deep it looks quite inky, and the curves of level are so 

 clearly manifested that they bear comparison with equidistant 

 lines worked on ordnance maps. Wlien travelling at so great 

 an altitude ships can be detected with some difficulty; but 

 smoke can be seen even when the smoke-producing steamer can 

 hardly be perceived with the naked eye. 



At a recent meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Mr. L. 

 Schwendler gave an instance of a Langnr monkey (Scmnopillif- 

 ctts enttllus) having been taught to do useful work. Mr. 

 Schwendler's "trustworthy informant " was Babu B. Fyne, a 

 member of the Government Telegraph Department. The Babu 

 says : — " Some years ago I had a Langur which, when standing 

 erect, measured fully 2 feet 6 inches. The animal was very 

 powerful, and could e.-isily pull a punkha measuring eight feet in 

 length. It was a male, and even when young showed a dispo- 

 sition to be highly savage. The older it got the more savage 

 it became. Seeing the great power this monkey had, I wanted 

 to utilise it, and tlierefore intended to employ it for the pur- 

 pose of pulling punkhas. The teaching I effected in the follow- 

 ing manner : — The monkey was tied by the waist close to a 

 strong pole, so that it could not move either backwards or for- 

 wards, or right or left. Both hands were tied to a rope attached 

 to a punkha, %\ hich was regularly pulled from the other side by a 

 man. Thus the animal had to sit in one place, and could only 

 move its hands up and down with the punkha rope. In this 

 way the monkey in a comparatively short time learnt to pull the 

 punkha by itself, and was so employed by me for several 

 years. It always kept in first-rate health, enjoyed its work 

 immensely, and did it equally well, if not better, than a cooly. 

 During the rains it suffered from fever, and ultimately died. 

 Putting now this trained monkey in the place w here the man 

 used to pull the punkha, and a new Langur in the place where 

 the trained monkey formerly sat, I attempted to teach .succes- 

 sively /07/r more monkeys, two of wliich were females. I suc- 

 ceeded perfectly in teaching the males, but was quite unsuccessful 

 with the females." Mr. Schwendler said there is a certain 

 amount of intelligence required to do this work, since the arms, 

 in their up and down [movements, have to keep time with the 

 swinging punkha. Mr. Schwendler mentioned some other in- 

 stances in which the display of intelligence by monkeys had. 



