April 7, 1881] 



NA TURE 



541 



of Ml", Anderson to appoint a roving Commission to inspect the 

 technical schools of tlie Continent. The fact is, as Mr. Mundella 

 [)ointed out, we know quite well what is wanted here, and if the 

 City Guilds would only spend the amount of money they ought 

 to do, there need be no want of technical instruction for all who 

 are prepared to take advantage of it. As it is, such institutions 

 as Owens College, the Mason College, and others are putting a 

 first-rate scientific technical education within the reach of all 

 classes, and what is really wanted is the teaching of elementary 

 science in all our primary schools. The House was counted out 

 over the motion. 



A MEETING for the purpose of forming a society for the 

 advancement of chemical industry was held on Monday after- 

 noon at the rooms of the Chemical Society, Burlington House, 

 Piccadilly, Prof. Roscoe presiding. The chairman explained 

 that for some time the want of a Society had been felt, the 

 object of which was the advancement of chemical industry in the 

 United Kingdom. Its main purpose would be to bring together 

 at stated intervals all those who possessed chemical, physical, 

 and engineering knowledge, and who used this knowledge in 

 the utilisation of chemical action on a manufacturing scale, and 

 who had the charge of or an interest in chemical industries. It 

 might afterwards prove desirable to found a distinct branch of 

 the engineering profession, who might be designated as chemical 

 engineers. He drew attention to the advantages which would 

 doubtless accrue to the various branches of chemical industry by 

 the establishment of such an organisation. Briefly stated, its 

 objects would be to enable persons interested in chemical in- 

 dustries to meet, to correspond, and to interchange ideas 

 respecting improvements in the various proces-es, to publish 

 information relating thereto by means of a journal or otherwise, 

 to acquire and dis| ose of property for such purposes, and to do 

 all other things incidental or conducive to the olyects aimed at. 

 Prof. Roscoe concluded by moving ihat it was desirable to form 

 such a society as that suggested. This was seconded by Mr. 

 Perkin and carried. Formal resolutions were then passed with. 

 the view of carrying out the object thus agreed upon. 



We take the folio .ving significant passage from a paper read 

 by Sir George Campbell, K.C.S.I., M.P., late Lieutenant- 

 Governor of Bengal, to the Society of Arts on March 25 last : — 

 " Most of us who go to India know very little about agriculture 

 of any kind ; and of agriculture under the conditions of Indian 

 soil and climate we know nothing whatever. The consequence 

 has been that when we have attempted to show the natives how 

 to improve their agriculture we have generally egregiously failed, 

 and to use a native expression, our faces have been blackened. 

 In this respect I an- afraid we are not improving. The old- 

 fashioned civil servant, if not so literary as the new class, and 

 perhaps not much more agricultural, settled down more in the 

 country and learned more of native agricultural habits and ways. 

 Present administrators, I am afraid, know very little of any kind 

 of agriculture, and it is much the same with the native public 

 ^ers'ant ; formerly they knew nothing of English literature, but 

 they knew a great deal of the country ; now they are very highly 

 educated, but do not know much more of agriculture than their 

 European superiors." 



The post of Curator of the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Calcutta, has been filled up by the India Office by the 

 appoiatment, on the nomination of the Director of the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew', of Mr. L. J. K. Brace, of New Providence, 

 Bahamas. Mr. Brace was educated at Christ's Hospital, and 

 held a subordinate post in the colony. Having turned his atten- 

 tion to botany, he was employed by the late Governor, Mr. W, 

 Robinson, to make a collection for Kew of the indigenous 

 vegetation. 



Of late years the cultivation of Liberian coffee (Cojfea Liberkd) 

 has been energetically pushed in English coffee-growing colonies 



and possessions. This has been due to two causes : — First, the 

 cultivation of Arabian coffee (Coffea Arabua) has been severely 

 crippled in the New World by the " white fly "( Ctv«/oj/w«a 

 caffcclliim), and in the Old by the "leaf disease" (Haiiilda vas- 

 tatrix) ; secondly, Liberian coffee being a more tropical plant, 

 grows well at a zone of altitude below that which Arabian coffee 

 requires. The produce of the plantations of the new species is 

 now coming into commerce. At present it does not find much 

 favour apparently in England, but in America it is better appre- 

 ciated. Recent sales at New York of Ceylon-grown Liberian 

 coffee have realised 93J. per cwt., or 12.S. above the current 

 quotation for middling plantation coffee (Arabian) in the London 

 market. This is a result of great importance for the West Indian 

 Islands. Liberian coffee has been found in Dominica to possess 

 a comparative immunity from the attacks of the white fly, the 

 ravages of which had all but corapletelv extinguished the coffee- 

 cultivation of the island. Not merely therefore can West Indian 

 coffee cultivation be revived with reasonable prospect of success, 

 but there is the additional encouragement of a ready market easy 

 of access in the United States. 



The death is announced, at the age of seventy-five, of Sir 

 Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton. Sir Philip was an occasional 

 contributor to our pages. 



A STRONG shock of earthquake occurred on Sunday after- 

 noon at Chio, which has caused terrible destruction. Many 

 houses in the principal town and thirty villages in the island 

 are said to have been destroyed, and 4000 persons killed. Fresh 

 shocks of earthquake occurred on Monday, and the inhabitants 

 were taking refuge on board the steamers in the harbour. The 

 country around and the town Tsesme, on the mainland, suffered 

 considerably, and shocks were also felt on Monday at Zante, Syra, 

 Smyrna, Carosto, Eubcea, and Tinos. The island of Chio, Scio, 

 or Skio, for the name is thus variously spelt, is situated in the 

 jEgean Sea, separated from the coast of Anatolia by a channel 

 not more than seven miles wide where narrowest, and about 

 fifty-three miles west of Smyrna. 



Some of our readers may be glad to learn that the French 

 Association has resolved to curtail the number of scientific 

 meetings in order to extend the time left for excursions and 

 festivals. The programme includes two receptions by the Mayor 

 of Algiers, one by the Governor-General, and a large Arabian 

 flte called Bita, dancing and singing by native women, &c. 

 Possibly the reported massacre of the Flatters Expedition may 

 put a stop to these ultra-scientific festivities. 



We notice that the names of Drs. Gladstone and Tribe are 

 down for a paper in the Physical and Chemical Section of the 

 meeting of the French Association at Algiers, as also that of Mr. 

 Rodwell. 



At the ordinary meeting of the Sanitary Insttiute, to be held 

 at 9, Conduit Street, on Wednesday, April 13, at S p.m., the 

 Chairman of Council, Dr. Richardson, F.R.S., will give a short 

 address entitled, " Some Brief Suggestions on the Best Mode of 

 dealing with Small Pox and other Infectious Diseases in the 

 Metropolis and other large Towns," to be followed by a 

 discussion. 



Mr. R. ]. Friswell writes : — As the following novel 

 "facts" have their origin in Truth there can, I presume, be 

 no gainsaying of them. As they are entirely new and are pub- 

 lished in a journal not so well known as a scientific paper as it 

 ought to be, will you be good enough to give them a wider 

 currency for the information of chemists. Their value needs no 

 comment :—" The bomb with which the Emperor was kiUed 

 appears to have been filled with nitro-glycerine, and it is un- 

 fortunate that this compound, like gun-cotton, is so easy to 

 make. A certain amount of glycerine is taken, and to this 



