Feb. 26, 1874J 



NATURE 



331 



scible fluids was followed by their rapid development, and 

 they appeared in specimens of pure rain water. 



Although these oijservations may not appear to encourage 

 the hope of success in discovering the presence of atmo- 

 spheric particles connected with the origin of disease, it 

 must not be forgotten that they only refer to bodies distin- 

 guishable from one another luhilst in the aii; the possi- 

 bility remaining that many of the finer molecules present 

 in it are really of different natures, and may yet be dis- 

 tinguished from one another by means of their actions or 

 developments. Many interesting questions are sug- 

 gested in connection with the fact of the presence 

 of such considerable numbers of living cells in the air. 

 What becomes of them when drawn into the respira- 

 tory cavities of animals ? Is their vitality destroyed, and, 

 if so, how are they got rid of? Are they ever capable of 

 undergoing any development within the organism, and do 

 they then exeit any prejudicial influence on the recipient ? 

 These and similar questions can only be answered by 

 means of patient and extended experiment, but even such 

 imperfect and superficial observations as the present will, 

 I trust, serve a useful purpose in clearing away a few of 

 the preliminary obstacles from the path of investigation. 



NOTES 



A Special General Meeting of the Linnean Society is to be 

 held on Thursday, March 5, at S P.M., " to consider alterations in 

 the Bye-laws of the Society ; " when it is expected a full explana- 

 tion will be given of the reasons which induced the Council to 

 make the alterations recently adopted by the Society, which met 

 with such violent opposition from a small section of the Fellows. 

 It is understood that Mr. Benlham, who has occupied the 

 chair of the Linnean Society for the past eleven years, will not 

 offer himself for re-election at the ensuing anniversary. The 

 custom of th2 Society requires that the next president shall be a 

 Zoologist, but students of both branches of Biology will be glad 

 to learn that Prof Allman has allowed himself to be nominated. 

 Few naturalists would bring to the oflice a wider, and[none a 

 more sympathetic knowledge. 



Mr. Hind writes to the Times that he has received from 

 Prof. Winnecke, Director of the Observatory at Strasburg, the 

 following position of a comet discovered by him in the Constel- 

 lation \'ulpecula on the morning of Saturday last : — February 

 20, at 17'' 15"" 40^ mean time — ri^ht ascension, 2.0^ 35"" 34 '2^ ; 

 north declination, 25 deg. o™ 46^ The diurnal motion in right 

 ascension is 9™ increasing, and in declination i deg. 30™ towards 

 the south. 



Prof." Asa Gray has been appointed to fill the Chair in the 

 Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, previously occu- 

 pied by the late Prof Agassiz. 



The Rev. Dr. Thomas Wdliam Jex-Blake, Principal of Chel- 

 tenham College, has been elected Head-Master of Rugby School, 

 in succession to Dr. Hayniau. 



A BARONETCY has been conferred upon Dr. George Burrows, 

 F.R. S., President of the Royal College of Physicians. 



We would direct the attention of Palaeontologists and others 

 who are specially interested in the Cephalopoda, to a paper by 

 M. Munier-Chalmas, in the Coiiip/ts KcnJiis ior Dec. 29, 1873, 

 which is translated in the current number of the Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History, in which, from a study of their 

 earliest stages, the generally accepted systematic position of the 

 Ammonitites and Goniatites is stated to be inaccurate, they 

 being shown to be dibranciate decapoda allied to Spirula, and 

 not tetrabranchiata at all, 



There are two islands named St. Paul in tlieocean : one close to 

 the Equator was visited lately by the Challenger; the other, south 

 of the Cape of Good Hope, is to be visited by a French expe- 

 dition under Capt.Mouchez, for observing the forthcoming transit 

 of Venus, as we stated in our last number. The identity of name 

 has created a singular confusion. The French administration hav- 

 ing decided that no naturalist was needed for St. Paul, the Challen- 

 ger having explored the island a few months since, M. Mouchez 

 had some trouble, it is said, to get the decision reversed by the 

 authorities. Both islands, southern and northern, are almost 

 of the same microscopical size and equally barren. They are 

 of volcanic formation, with no trace of vegetable earth, and con- 

 sequentlyof vegetation. 



A TELEGRAM from Melbourne, dated February 17, states that 

 Colonel Egerton Warburton has reached Perth, in Western 

 Australia, overland from Adelaide, having thus accomplished 

 the object of the exploring expedition on which he left Tennaiit's 

 Creek, north of Adelaide, in the centre of Australia, about 

 twelve months ago. Colonel Warburton's explorations embrace 

 a portion of the interior of Western Australia hitherto unknown. 

 The distance traversed is over 1,000 miles of longitude, the ex- 

 pedition having been conducted by means of camels, and was fitted 

 out by the munificent liberality oi the Hon. Thomas Elder, M. L. C, 

 and Mr. W. W. Hughes. Another expedition under Mr. Gosse, 

 conducted with horses at the expense of the Government of South 

 Australia, has not been so successful. Mr. Gosse, amid many 

 difficulties caused by want of water and the barren nature of the 

 country through which he passed, managed to reach as far as 

 E. long. 129° 59' in lat. 26° 32' S., the total distance traversed 

 irrespective of numerous turnings and windings, being not less 

 than 600 miles. His most notable discovery was made in lat. 

 25°2i', long. 131°I4', being a hill consisting of one solid rock (fine 

 conglomerate) or huge natural monolith two miles long, one 

 wide, and i, 100 feet high, with a spring coming from its centre; 

 Mr. Gosse named it "Ayres Rock." Both expeditions are 

 highly creditable to the enterprise of South Australia, which, as 

 our readers know, has succeeded in carrying a line of telegiaphy 

 right across the comitry, from Port Augusta to Port Darwin. 



The enterprise of the Australian Colonies is producing really 

 valuable scientific results, as v/ill be seen from the following 

 telegram, dated Dec. 22, published in the Brisbane Courier, 

 from Mr. G. Elphinstone Dalrymple, commander of the Queens- 

 land North-east Exploring Expedition : — "The coasts, harbours, 

 inlets, navigable rivers, and creeks have been exaaiiued from 

 latitude iS° 15' to 15° 15' S. The Belknden Keir 

 mountain range has been successfully ascended, and found- 

 to be a complete ' razor back ' of granite. Palms were found on 

 the summit ; but althougli the botanical discoveries were interest- 

 ing, they have not borne out all that was anticipated fiom them ; 

 144 miles of soundings and 371 compass cross bearings have 

 been taken in ig navigable rivers and creeks of which the North 

 and South Johnstone, the Mulgrave and Russell, drain the 

 Bellenden Kerr range ; the Mossman and Daintree drain the 

 Arthur Palmer range inside the Schnapper Island. This range 

 is nearly as lofty as the Bellenden Kerr, and is 25 miles in 

 length. New rivers have been discovered penetrating a jungle- 

 clad country of thoroughly tropical character, covered with a new 

 rich soil suitable for sugar and other tropical cultivation. Tlie 

 extent of this country is roughly estimated at, in the aggrc__ate 

 half a million acres, thus at once placing Queensland on a par 

 with other favoured tropical countries. Mr. Hill has collected 

 3,000 botanical specimens, roots, and blocks of timber ; 133 

 shells of five genera and eight species ; 42 specimen bags of 

 soils. Mr. Johnstone has collected 30 specimens of interesting 

 birds, insects, and reptUes ; and I have obtained 93 geological 

 specimens." 



