5i6 



NA TORE 



'{March 31, 1881 



M. Delesee, a member of the Institute, vice-president of the 

 Geographical Society of I'aris, and author of a number of works 

 and papers on geology, died in Paris at the age of sixty-three 

 years. 



The death is announced on the 25th inst. of Sir Charles 

 Keed, M. P., the much -respected chairman of the London School 

 Board. 



A ^fETEOROLOGICAL observatory has been erected at Port-au- 

 Prince, Haiti, under the care of the Rev. Father Wiek, on 

 gi'ouud granted by the State. It is an octagon of two stories 

 and a platform. Besides the indispensable instruments it has 

 electric clocks (for communicating the time to clocks outside), 

 telephones, microphones, phonographs, radiometers, &c. 



The inaugural meeting of a Society of Chemical Industry will 

 be held in the rooms of the Cliemical Society, Burlington 

 House, Piccadilly, on April 4, at 4 p.m. This Society 

 is not intended to represent any one particular branch of 

 chemical industry. It is hoped that it will be representative 

 of many manufactures — alkali-making, manure-making, the 

 .textile colour industries, the glass and pottery manufactures, tar 

 distilling, soap-making, sugar-making, brewing, metallurgy, the 

 manufacture of fine chemicals, and all other industries which 

 show any connection with chemical science. 



The newly-issued part of the Medical Reports which are from 

 time to time issued by order of the Inspector-General of Chinese 

 Maritime Customs, contains an elaborate monograph by Dr. 

 Duane B. Simmons on the subject of Beriberi, or the Kakke of 

 Japan, which includes some interesting notes on the history and 

 geographical distribution of the disease, and is illustrated by a 

 sketch-map. 



Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, F. L.S., delivered on Thursday last 

 the concluding lecture of a series on the " Birds of the World,'' 

 which he has heen giving at Tonbridge School. Throughout 

 the winter lectures have been given on various literary and scien- 

 tific subjects by Prof. Henry Morley, Rev. A. Lucas, and others, 

 and large and attentive audiences have shown great interest in 

 all the series. The school already possesses a small museum, 

 which is increasing under the auspices of the present head-master, 

 the Rev. T. B. Rowe, who is evidently doing his best to encourage 

 a taste for science and literature in the institution under his 

 dharge. 



EV.ER.Y ornithologist should read a little pamphlet recently 

 sent to us by the Dundee Naturalists' Society, entitled "The 

 Grallatores and Natatores of the Estuary of the Tay ; the great 

 decrease in their numbers of late years ; the causes ; with 

 suggestions for its miligation. A paper read by Col. Drummond 

 Hay." The author, whose long residence in the district alluded 

 to renders his experiences doubly interesting, makes out a good 

 case for his friends the birds in regard to their alleged destruction 

 of fish and spawn, and no doubt some notice will be taken of his 

 stfrtements at the approaching Fisheries' Exhibition at Norwich. 

 The principal cause in the decrease of the birds on the Tay he 

 attributes chiefly to the increased number of gunners on the river, 

 who disregard the close-season, while the wilful destruction of 

 the sea-birds' eggs also plays sad havoc amongst their numbers. 

 Drainage and cultivation of the land has also altered the 

 conditions under which certain species nested, and has driven 

 them further afield. 



A Conference on the reform of the Educational Code is to 

 meet in London in the third week in April, and to sit for two 

 days, for the purpose of drawing up a series of recommen- 

 dations, to be submitted in the form of a memorial to the 

 Vice-President of the Committee of Council. The gentlemen 

 invited to attend are persons conversant with the practical 



working of the public elementary school system, head-masters of 

 secondary schools, persons experienced in education, and others 

 interested. Invitations have been accepted by the chairmen of 

 the Education and School Management Committees of the 

 School Boards for London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, 

 Sheffield, Bristol, Bradford, Leice^ter, and Nottingham ; also by 

 Dr. Abbott, Dr. Caldicott, Mr. Eve, Professors Max MiiUer, 

 Carey Foster, Henrici, Gladstone, and Meiklejohn ; Sh- U. 

 Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir. John Lubbock, the Rev. Mark Pattison, 

 and numerous others. 



Mr. Stephen Bretton, F.M.S., writes from Eastbourne to 

 the Times, under date March 28, that he saw a meteor of great 

 splendour that morning (1. 15 a.m. Greenwich meantime), the 

 finest he ever observed. Its size was apparently rather larger 

 than Venus at her brightest, and for two or three seconds illu- 

 minated the heavens very brilliantly. Its colour was of an intense 

 purple white, and moved somewhat slowly. He first noticed it 

 a little south of Regulus, and going in direction of Castor. When 

 immediately below Proesepe it burst into about five or six frag, 

 ments, each about the size of a star of the third or fourth magni- 

 tude, these assuming a deep fiery red. It then immediately 

 disappeared. The night was especially clear ; temperature in 

 air about 30° ; barometer about 29 '850. 



The Committee of the "Frank Buckland Memorial Fund " 

 have decided that the memorial shall take the form of a bust to 

 be placed in the Fish Museum at South Kensington ; the purchase 

 of an annuity to be presented to Mrs. Buckland ; and, if there 

 be any surplus, it will be applied in some way to promote the 

 welfare of the fishermen of this country. The ho.iorary secre- 

 taries are Col. Bridges and Mr. T. Douglas Murray, to whom 

 subscriptions may be sent at 34, Portland Place. 



Smart shocks of earthquake occurred at Agram on March 21 

 at 3h. 40m. a.m., duration three seconds, and on March 24 at 

 6h. 4Sm. a.m., both accompanied by loud subterranean noises. 



There was another earthquake shock at Casamicciola on 

 Sunday morning at 6.45. 



M. VAN Malderen, who was the electrical engineer of the 

 Alliance, and constructed the so long unrivalled magneto-electric 

 machine belonging to this Company, died at Brussels at the age 

 of seventy a few days ago. 



All the obstacles which have prevented the reconstruction of 

 the Sorbonne being accomplished, have been removed by M. 

 Jules Ferry, and the work will begin immediately. The same 

 may be said of the isolation of the Public Library of Paris, all 

 the required expropriations having been decreed. 



The date for admission of exhibits to the International Exhi- 

 bition of Electricity at Paris has been prolonged to April 1$. 



The Geologists' Association Easter Excursion will, be on 

 Monday and Tuesday, April 18 and 19, to Salisbury, Stone- 

 henge, and Vale of Wardour. 



Colonel Paris, the head of the Paris fire brigade, has con- 

 cluded his report on the destruction of the Printemps Establish- 

 ment by proposing that large warehouses be compelled to light 

 by electricity. The burning of the Nice Theatre, which was 

 occasioned by a gas explosion, has given a new importance to 

 that movement. 



M. DE Meritens has completed the construction of one of 

 his magneto-electric engines intended for lighthou-e illumination. 

 An experimental trial took place on March 25 before MM. 

 Becquerel, Cornu, Mascart, and other members of the Technical 

 Commission of the International Exhibition. It was proved 

 that with fifteen horse-power his machine illuminates at once 

 more than thirty Jablochkofi" lights, and that it could, at a 

 moment's notice, be used in a regulator for marine purposes. 



