Mar. 19, 1874] 



NATURE 



391 



The widow of General Poncelet, one of the most distinguished 

 French military engineers, has written to the French Institute, 

 announcing that the whole of the works of her late husband 

 will soon be in the hands of the public. The last volume, the 

 sixth of the series, containing the lectures delivered at the Metz 

 School of Artillery and the Ecole Polytechnique, will be issued 

 shortly. It is edited by M. Krcetz, Chief Engineer of the 

 National Manufactures, one of the General's pupils. General 

 Poncelet was a member of the French Institute lor more than 

 twenty years. He died in 1S64. 



A Mi;.MOlR upon the embiyology of Tocbyatulina, by Prof 

 Morse, has just been published by the Boston (U.S.) Society of 

 Natural History, this being the result of a thorough investigation 

 in regard to the development of this genus of the brachiopod 

 shells found so abundantly on the coast of Maine. Prof 

 Morse's labours were mainly prosecuted at Eastport, and ex- 

 tended through a period of several years. He found that the 

 species spawns throughout the entire summer season (at least 

 from April to August), but that investigations in the earlier part 

 of the season were preferable, since, witli the increasing warmth, 

 the development is more rapid than is convenient to the 

 observer. 



The " Fenland Meteorological Circular and Weather Report " 

 is the name of a monthly periodical, two numbers of which, for 

 February and March, have just reached us. It is edited by Mr. 

 S. H. Miller, F.R.A.S. The circular is intended to be "a 

 medium for local meteorologists, an abiding record of the cli- 

 mate of the Fenland, and a register of the changes of the 

 weather, to which the agriculturist, horticulturist, and naturalist 

 may easily refer." It is intended besides, we believe, that the 

 " Circular " should fill to some extent an educational function, 

 and induce agriculturists to take an interest in the sciences with 

 which their art is so intimately connected. This purpose is to 

 be served by the publication of readable articles on scientific 

 subjects, the first of which is by Mr. S. B. J. Skertchly, J'.G.S., 

 on the "Practical Bearings of Meteorology." The two 

 numbers sent us contain well-constructed tabular and graphic 

 reports of the meteorology of Wisbech for January and 

 February, besides district reports, and a number of notes and 

 short articles on subjects more or less intimately connected with 

 the department to which the " Circular " belongs ; the paper and 

 typography are all that can be desired, and the price is only 

 2,d. per month. The enterprise is highly creditable to its 

 originators, and we sincerely hope it will be a great success and 

 attain a wide circulation in the important district for whose 

 benefit it has been started ; and we hope the example thus set will 

 be followed by other districts in the kingdom. The publishers 

 of the "Circular " are Leach and Son, Wisbech. 



A BILL has been introduced into the U.S. Congress pro- 

 posing an appropriation of 7,000 dols, to enable the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to make a collection of all the species of 

 trees growing throughout the United States, and for their exhi- 

 bition in suitable cases. The collection itself, when completed, 

 is to be exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, but 

 to belong to the Agricultural Department, and to be returned 

 to it. 



At the meeting of the French Acadenty of March 2, M. 

 Charles Sainte-Claire Deville, gave an account of his meteoro- 

 logical mission to Biskra and Tugguit. At each of these 

 stations an observatory has been established similar to that at 

 Montsouris. Captain Roget superintends the observatory of 

 Biskra, and Dr. Audet that of Tuggurt ; tlie latter, according to 

 M. Deville, is in an almost perfect situation, surrounded by a 

 sufficient quantity of vegetation, and preserved from the effects 

 of radiation. The results comprehend already observations 

 continued during the month of January, and M. Deville sees in 

 them the promise of important discoveries. 



We have received a useful work lately published by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, prepared by Prof. F. W. Clark, of Howard 

 University, Washington. This is the first part of a series en- 

 titled the " Constants of Nature," and gives in tabular form the 

 specific gravities, the boiling and melting points, and the 

 chemical formula of a large number of substances, with indica- 

 tions of the authorities whence the facts are derived. The 

 volume contains about_250 pages, and is well provided with the 

 necessary indices. 



Lieutenant G. M. Wheeler (United States Engineers) and 

 party are in Washington, and are engaged in elaborating tl:e 

 results of their explorations in 1873. Already about 76,000 

 square miles of territory have been carefully gone over and topo- 

 graphed with a view to their representation in the new series of 

 index maps now nearly ready for publication. Much valuable 

 information in regard to the geology of the country, its mining 

 facilities, and the probabilities of successful irrigation, has been 

 obtained, and will be duly published. In the line of natural 

 history the collections have been very large, embracing at least 

 1,200 skins of birds, besides many hundreds of reptiles, fish, 

 insects, iS:c. The botanical collection is said to be the finest and 

 largest ever procured by a Government expedition. The results 

 of the woik of the expedition for the years 1871, 1872, and 

 1S73 are, we understand, shortly to be published, comprising 

 seven large quarto volumes, which will prove a valuable addi- 

 tion to the scientific history of the great West. 



We are glad to see, from Part IV. of the Transactions of the 

 Clifton College Scientific Society, that that Society is exceedingly 

 prosperous, so far as number and attendance of members is con- 

 cerned, though we very much regret to lejrn that, like not a few 

 other similar Societies, it contains but a small number of real 

 workers. We hope that the patrons and office-bearers of the 

 Society will do their best to devise some means to remedy this 

 very serious defect, for serious the defect is, seeing that one of 

 th^ main objects of such a Society is to train its members to 

 methodical work, careful observation, and independent thuiking. 

 The only paper in this part, by a student member of the Society, 

 is a long and elaborate one on Potteries, by C. C, Stevenson. 



jV thick supplementary number of Vtitxmann's Mitt/uilungen 

 has been published containing a vast number of statistics relating 

 to the population of the globe, with two excellent illustrative 

 maps. 



At the meeting of the Adelaide Philosophical Society held on 

 Nov. 25, 1S73, Dr. Schomburgk read the second part of a long 

 paper on poisonous plants. The plants noticed were those of 

 the genus Sirycknos nux vomica. Datura stramonium (the thorn- 

 apple). Solatium nigrutn, and 'Jaxus baccala (the yew tree). 



According to the " Report of the Mining Surveyors and 

 Registrars " of Victoria for the cjuarter ending September 30, 

 1S73, the total yield of gold from alluvium and quartz reefs during 

 the quarter was 291,861023. 7dwts. Appended to the Report 

 is the continuation of Baron von Midler's description of New 

 Vegetable Fossils of Victoria ; the following are described and 

 illustrated : — Odontocaryon magregorii, Coiic/iot/itca rotundata, 

 and Phytidotheca pleioclinis. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Finsch's Amazon [C/irysotis finschi) from 

 W. Mexico, presented by Mr. C. Chivers ; a Virginian Deer 

 ( Ccrviis virgiiiiaims) from N. America, presented by Mr. N. M . 

 Bateson ; a Cornish Chough (Fregiliis grniiihis), British, pre- 

 sented by Mr. J. T. Llewes ; a Common Otter {Lntra vulgaris), 

 British, presented by Dr. Stafford ; a Blue and Yellow Macaw 

 [Ara ararauna) from S. America, presented by Miss J. Staines. 



