492 



NA TURE 



\March 24, 



Field Club elected him an honorary member with a gift of 5/., 

 and the Banff Field Club gave I/. \s. When his story was first 

 told by Mr. Jolly iti Good Words in 1S7S, the Largo Naturalists' 

 Society, one of tlie most active in the country, elected him an 

 hon. member. The Edinburgh Field Naturalists' Club have 

 lately issued a special circular and appeal on his behalf. Last 

 week he was elected an hen. member by the Aberdeen Natural 

 History Society, when a sketch of his life was given by Mr. 

 Taylor, one of his pupils. Miss E. Brown has sent us i/. for 

 the John Duncan Fund. 



We see from a lon^ article on the subject in the New York 

 Nation, that the " Reports on the Total Solar Eclipses of July 

 29, 1878, and Januai-y 11, 1880, issued by the U.S. Naval 

 Observatory," have appeared. We have not received a copy 

 of the work yet, but from the article in the Nation it is evi- 

 dently a valuable contribution to some of the questions suggested 

 by solar eclipses. 



The Commission Superiem'e of the Paris Electrical Exliibition 

 has already deliberated on all the demands sent by French elec- 

 tricians. The utmost liberality has prevailed, and only a few 

 technical questions have been reserved for more mature delibera- 

 tion. But the authorisations will not be made definitive until 

 after April I, when the list of would-be exhibitors will be 

 closed. The resolution of the Society of Telegraph Engineers 

 and Electricians to organise the English section has been received 

 with great satisfaction. 



We take the following from the Gardener s ChronieU .-—Dr. 

 Aitchison, Surgeon-Major in the Punjaub army, whose collec- 

 tions in the Kurrum Valley we alluded to on a former occaiion, 

 has returned from Afghanistan with another extensive collection 

 of dried plants, and is now at Kew engaged in working them 

 up. Amongst other interesting museum objects Dr. Aitchison 

 has brought home specimens of Chanuerops Ritchieana, a palm 

 that covers mUes of the alluvial plains with a dense bushy 

 thicket. Frequently too it occurs as a branching tree fifteen to 

 twenty-five feet high, but then usually in the vicinity of other 

 trees or buildings. Dr. Aitchison's specimens illustrate this 

 pecviliarity exhibited by comparatively few other palms. 



We are glad to learn that the museum building begun some 

 time ago under the auspices of the Perthshne Society of Natural 

 Science is approaching completion. To equip and endow the 

 muieum a bazaar will be held in Pertli towards the end of the 

 year. 



The translation of Nageli and Schwendener's treatise on the 

 Microscope is approacliing completion. Messrs. W. Swan 

 Sormenschein and Allen now announce its speedy issue to the 

 public, which they trust will be effected during the present spring. 

 The English editors, whose names will appear on the title-page, 

 are Mr. F. Crisp (Secretary of the Royal Microscopical Society) 

 and Mr. J. Mayall, jun., F.R.M.S., though several others have 

 collaborated in the work. Messrs. Sonnenschin and Allen also 

 announce for immediate issue an illustrated "Manual of Insects 

 Injurious to Agriculture," by E. A. Ormerod, whose "Report 

 of Injurious Insects for 1880" we reviewed in a recent number ; 

 and a second edition of " Pranll's Text-Book of Botany," by 

 Vines, greatly revised, the first edition of which appeared last 

 year. 



Where is Mackay ? ' ' Here, " we fancy a score of our readers 

 will reply ; but none of them would be " the real Mackay," as 

 they say in the North, at least not the Mackay whose local 

 habitation we inquire after. Happily we can answer our own 

 question from the Christmas number of the Maclcay Standard, a 

 fact that shows that our Mackay nmst be considerably to the fore 

 somewhere. " Mackay, according to the single archive at 

 present extant to which we have been able to attain access, was 



first discovered by a gentleman of the name of Mackay, a 

 Scotchman as his name would denote. That this is correct is 

 more than probable, but it does not appear that, beyond giving 

 his name to the place, he ever did anything to render himself 

 famous. It may accordingly be accepted as a fact that he dis- 

 covered the existence of the Pioneer River on which the town is 

 situated, and the date of this discovery is placed at 1861, so that 

 within a few days Mackay is twenty years of age. The Mackay 

 District is in latitude 21° lo', and is situated at a distance of 625 

 miles to the north-west of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River." So 

 then Mackay is nobody at all, but a flourishing new town (it 

 would be a "city" in the States) in Queensland, with shipping 

 and W'harves and warehouses, and prosperous sugar-mills, and 

 " Clifton on-the-Sea," a fashionable summer resort of the 

 Mackayites, twelve miles off. The municipality (3450 acres) is 

 said to have fifty miles of streets under its control ; there is 

 notliing said about houses, so most of them may not have left 

 the quarry or the brick-kiln yet. The population of the district 

 is given as 7500. 



On Friday will take place at Pere Lachaise the inauguration 

 of the monument erected by pubUc subscription to Croce- 

 Spinelli and Sivel, the two victims of the tragic Zenith ascent. 

 Speeches will be delivered by M. Paul Bert, Professor of 

 Physiology to the Sorbonne, who organised the ascent ; M. 

 Herve Mangon, director of the Arts-et Metiers, who was the 

 president of the Societe de Navigation Aerienne, then in office ; 

 and M. Gaston Tissandier, who was a party in the ascent, and 

 escaped by a manellous concurrence of circumstances. 



On Wednesday last week at l2.loa.m. another shock of earth- 

 quake was felt at Casamicciola and Lacco Ameno. All the 

 people fled to the open country ; much consternation exists, as 

 the people fear other shocks. Little damage was done, only a 

 few injured walls and a tile factory have fallen. Vesuvius quiet. 



A RATHER severe shock of earthquake was felt at Agram on 

 March 17 at 3h. p.m., duration two seconds. It was accom- 

 panied by wave-like motions of the ground. 



It is announced that the entire length of the St. Gothard 

 Railway between Airolo and the Lago Maggiore will be finished 

 by the end of June ; but the great tunnel, owing to difficulties 

 about tlie vaulting, cannot be completed before November. 



The Conseil d'Hygiene of Paris has just issued a large 4to 

 volume of 700 pages recounting all the precautions taken against 

 several so-called " Industries Insalubres " practised in Paris. The 

 work of the Conseil d'Hygiene extends over a period of five 

 years, from 1872 to 1877, and relates to more than 200 industries 

 in some of their essential details. Amongst the recommendations 

 made are a refrigerating machine for de.ad-houses and a special 

 establishment for cleansing contaminated objects with super- 

 heated vapours. Amongst the curious observations is the 

 analysis of a parasitic vegetation developing on bread for the 

 military. It appears the original sporula; were brought from 

 Germany by soldiers taken prisoners in the Franco-German war, 

 returning home. 



As the preparation of dynamite has acquired great importance, 

 M. Gobi shows (Memoirs of i)ie St. Pa.isburgSoc. of Nat.) that 

 formerly the be=t dynamite was made with the " Kieselguhr" of 

 Hanover, which can absorb as much as 75 per cent, of nitro- 

 glycerine, but is now made with the diatomaceous deposits from 

 Randanne, in the department of Puy-de-Dome, which can 

 absorb from 73 to 78 per cent, of nitroglycerine. It is worthy 

 of notice that both these formations have been described by 

 Ehrenberg. It is obvious that the good quality of dynamite 

 prepared from these two deposits depends upon the porosity of 

 the small d3ris of the frustules of the microscopical diatoms, 

 and that, when determining the qualities of a diatomaceouf 



