494 



NA TURE 



\Scpt. 23, 1S80 



delivery of an address by Dr. Reincke ; and on the third day 

 the ventilation of private dwellings, and other similar subjects. 

 A resolution, proposed by Dr. Rietschel of Dresden, was passed 

 to induce public authorities to study practically the ventilation 

 of buildings, and another, by Dr. Prath of Dresden, that sani- 

 tary inspection should always take place by duly qualified officers. 

 This session is the eighth of the Association. 



The Russian newspapers announce that the jubilee of the 

 zoological museum of the Academy of Sciences, established in 

 1831 by the Emperor Nicholas, will take place in 1881. Russian 

 and foreign zoologists will meet at St. Petersburg on this 

 occasion. 



The Association .Scientifique de France has not continued the 

 observations of meteors which was begun by Leverrier, its 

 founder. No steps have been taken by the Observatory to fill 

 up this important gap in the scientific vrork of the nation. The 

 interest of observations taken during the last two years in the 

 •display of August meteors and the forthcoming inauguration of 

 Leverrier's statue have attracted public attention to this circum- 

 stance, and it is hoped these observations will shortly be 

 resumed. 



University College, Bristol, has the credit of being the 

 first in England in which the higher education of women has 

 been conducted on a large scale in conjunction with that of men. 

 Its Calendar, which is before us, shows that in the last session, 

 its fourth, the College was attended by more than five hundred 

 students, of whom nearly half were women. A wide range in 

 science and literature is covered by the lectures, of which there 

 are more than forty distinct courses in the day, and more than 

 twenty in the evening. Its engineering department has derived 

 great advantage from the plan under which the students spend 

 the six'winter months in the College, and the six summer months 

 as pupils in engineering works in the neighbourhood. The want 

 of space, which has hitherto pressed severely, will be relieved 

 by the opening in October of a part of the new buildings. 



The crayfish is disappearing so rapidly in several French 

 departments that energetic measures have been considered neces- 

 sary for its protection. The fishing of it has been entirely pro- 

 hibited in the depa-tments of Meuse and Doubs by prefectorial 

 tiecrees. 



The freedom of the City of London is to be conferred on Sir 

 Henry Bessemer, F.R.S., on October 6. 



M. LORTET gives a brief account in the Comptcs rendus for 

 September 13, of the results of h's dredging in the Lake of 

 Tiberias. The lake is 212 metres above the surface of the 

 Mediterranean, and the greatest depth is 250 metres. M. Lortet 

 .finds proofs that the lake was formerly on the same level as the 

 Mediterranean. It is probable, he thinks, that formerly the 

 lake was very salt ; and thus a study of the fauna of the lake is 

 full of interest. At least a dozen species of fidi were obtained, 

 several of them new forms, which M. Lortet is now investigating. 

 He gives the following list of species which have been deter- 

 mined : — Clarias macraiithus, Capocta damasceita, Barbus Bed- 

 domii, Chromis Andm, C. paterfamilias, C. Simonis, C. nilotica, 

 C. nov. sp., C. voz'.sp., C. nov.sp., (an genre nouveau inditer- 

 minc'), Labroharbus canis. Several new species of molluscs 

 have also been obtained ; M. Lortet gives the following list :— 

 Nerilina Jordani, Butt. ; Melania titberculala, Miiller ; Mela?!, 

 opsis premorsa, L. ; M. costata, Olivier ; Cyrena fluminalis, 

 Miiller; Unio lerminalis, Bourg. ; U. tigridis, Bourg. ; C. 

 Lorteti, Locard ; U. Pietri, Locard. ; U. Maris Galiloci, Locard. 

 Melanopsis and Melania are of a marine appearance, and seem 

 to M. Lortet to show the transition between salt and fresh 

 water. 



In Vol. xii. of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 

 Mr. J. W. Stack has some interesting notes on the colour-sense 

 of the Maori. Mr. Stack asks \vhat stage had the colour-sense 

 of the Maori reached before intercourse with Europeans began ? 

 This can readily be ascertained by reference to the terms 

 existing in the language at that date for giving expres-ion to 

 the sense of colour. We find, upon examination, that the 

 language possessed very few words that conveyed to the mind 

 an idea of colour, apart from the object with which the parti- 

 cular colour was associated. There are only three colours for 

 which terms exist, namely, white, black, and red. White, ma 

 (sometimes tea — very limited application). }il3.c\i, pouri, pa/!«o, 

 mangu. Red, whero, kiira, ngan^ana. If we analyse these 

 words they seem all to relate to the presence or absence of 

 sunlight. Ma is doubtless a contraction for Marama, light, 

 which is derived from Ra, the sun. Potiri, black, is derived 

 from Po, night. The derivation of pango and viangu is not so 

 apparent, but I venture to think that both whero and kura may 

 be traced to Ra. Ma is not only the term for whiteness and 

 clearness, but also for all the lighter tints of yellow, grey, and 

 green. Grey hair is called hina, but the term was never used 

 to designate anything else but hair ; every other grey object was 

 either ma or pango, as it inclined to a lighter or darker shade. 

 All the words for expressing redness, except ngaiigana, may, 

 Mr. Stack thinks, be traced to Ra, and connect the Maori idea 

 of that colour with the brilliant rays of the sun. Ngangana is 

 not the word generally used to express the quality of redness, 

 but only certain appearances of it, as in flowers or blood-shot 

 eyes. Yellow and green were recognised, not as abstract con- 

 ceptions of colour, but only as they are associated with objects. 

 Blue was not formerly recognised, as no word exists to re- 

 present it. Anything blue was classed with black, and went 

 under the heading of potiri, or pango, or mangu. The blue 

 depths of ocean and sky were potiri, or dark. No words are 

 found in the Maori language to express violet, brown, orange, 

 and pink colours ; but there are no less than three words to 

 express pied or speckled objects. Kopurepure — reddish 

 speckle ; Kolingotingo — dark speckle ; tongilongi = spotted. 

 The limited number of colour-expressions that exist in the 

 Maori language cannot be attributed to the absence of objects 

 presentmg those colours for which the terms are wanting. The 

 ornamental scroll-work, and the elaborate patterns employed in 

 tatooing and carving, showed that the Maoris were capable of 

 appreciating the beautiful, both in form and in colouring, and 

 we can only account, Mr. Stack thinks, for their indifference to 

 the more delicate tints of flowers which call forth our admira- 

 tion by supposing that their colour-sense was not so well 

 educated as our own. 



Mr. John Scott has been appointed Professor of Agriculture 

 and Estate Management to the Royal Agricultural College at 

 Cirencester. Mr. Scott studied agriculture at the University of 

 Edinburgh, and has had many years practical experience in 

 farming, estate manage iient, and land valuing, both at home 

 and in the Colonies. He is the author of two well-known books 

 on farm and estate valuations, and was formerly editor of the 

 Farm jfotirnal. 



A NEW and revised edition of Bishop Stanley's well-known 

 and deservedly popular " Familiar History of British Birds " has 

 just been published by Messrs. Longmans and Co. It has been 

 revised by " a practical ornithologist of much experience," and 

 has been furnished with numerous additional illustrations. 



Another Lake village, assigned by experts to the age of 

 Bronze, has been discovered at Auveniier, near Neuchatel. 

 Several millstones quite new, others half made, have been 

 brought to light, from which it is inferred that the place may 

 have been the seat of a manufactory of these articles. Another 



