470 



NA TURE 



[April 1 6, 1874 



the like distinction to a patient, obsei'i'ant, and reflecting student 

 of nature. In doing so they, at the same time, offered their 

 thanks to the University of Oxford for hiving included physical 

 science in its curriculum of education, and they celebrated, so to 

 speak, the alliance in that city of art and science. 



The recent appearance of a French translation of the last 

 edition of Prof Haeckel's world-known "Natiirliche Schbpfungs- 

 Geschichte ;" or, " History of the Creation of Organised Beings," 

 will give a larger number of students the opportunity of master- 

 ing its valuable contents. How is it that no translation has yet 

 appeared in our own language ? 



Men of Science will be glad to learn that the Premier has re- 

 commended to the Queen for a pension of 100/. on the Civil List 

 Mrs. C. L. Basevi, the mother of Captain Basevi, who lost his li(e 

 on the Thibet frontier of India, whilst engaged in exploring the 

 mountain passes, and pursuing other scientific inquiries. _; 



Dr. John Anderson, Director of the India Museum of 

 Calcutta, is at present in this country on two years' leave of 

 absence. He is, however, devoting his holiday to working out 

 the results of the Yunan Expedition, to which he was attached 

 as naturalist three years ago. The Linnean Society has under- 

 taken their publication, which will embrace a full description of 

 the anatomy of the fresh- watar Dolphin of the Ganges (-Plalamsla 

 gaiigelica), as also of the still rarer fresh-water Cetacean of the 

 Irawady 0; alia flu meiialis. 



On Friday, April 10, M. Leverrier gave a soin'e at the 

 National Observatory of Paris, in honour of the delegates of the 

 French Scientific Societies. The weather was unfavourable, 

 but the exhibition of scientific instruments was very successful 

 indeed. Many new electrical apparatus were exhibited for the 

 first time. No gaslight was used ; an electrical lamp by Perrin 

 being the only lighting medium. A lecture was delivered by M. 

 Wolf, on phenomena of polarisation, illustrated by optical expe- 

 riments by Dubosc. 



The Commissioners for the Construction of a Universal Metre 

 are at present superhitending the fabrication of the definitive 

 standards, which will be distributed amongst the several Govern- 

 ment delegates to the International Congress. The operations 

 are executed at Paris, in the laboratory of the School of Mines. 



M. Alluarp, the originator and director of the Puy de Dome 

 Observatory, has announced that an inauguration will take place 

 next September. Invitations will be sent to England as well as 

 throughout France. The cost of the building will be something 

 more than 4,000/., and the work is fast advancing. The Puy de 

 Dome Observatory will be connected by an electric telegraph with 

 another observatory built at Clermont, and which is already in 

 operation ; the difference of level between the two stations will be 

 more than 4,000 ft. When excavating on the top of the moun- 

 tain it was discovered that a large building about So yards in 

 breadih had existed on the spot. It is supposed to have been a 

 Roman fortress and temple ; a number of Roman medals were 

 discovered. 



M. CoLLADON, the Geneva physicist, has published an essay 

 on the subject of turning poplars into lightning conductors. 

 He proposes to insert in the lower part of the trunk a metallic 

 rod, which lie connects with the earth by a chain, so that the 

 fluid cannot leave the tree to dart at any object placed within a 

 short distance, which at present is very often the case. 



M. Sainte-Claire Deville, appears to have been again 

 successful in his weather predictions. We shall give details in 

 our next on the important question. 



French officials are organising a fusion between the postal 

 and telegraphic oflScials. 



A REMARKABLE instance of the rapid spread of a new pest is 

 furnished by the history of Pticcinia Mnh'accanim, a fungus 

 parasitic on various plants belonging to the natural order Mal- 

 vaceae. Its native country is probably Chili, where it was dis- 

 covered by Bertero on Alihaa officinalis. Its first appearance 

 in Europe was in April 1873, on Malva sylvestris, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bordeaux, and in August it had extended to several 

 other plants of the same order in the botanic gardens of that 

 town, but, singularly enough, was not found on ./////iriv officinalis, 

 several other nearly allied genera being also exempt from its 

 attacks. In Germany it was first discovered in October, while 

 in this country it was detected in the summer of 1873, nearly 

 simultaneously in many widely-dispersed localities, as Exeter, 

 Salisbury, Chichester, Shere in Surrey, the neighbourhood of 

 London, Eastbourne, Pevensey, Sandown in the Isle of Wight, 

 and Lynn, and threatens to be exceedingly destructive to the 

 hollyhocks. 



Two remarkable instances of protective mimicry have lately 

 been described by Prof Gerstaecker, both among parasitic Hy- 

 menoptera, and having apparently for their object to facilitate 

 the access of the parasite to the n;st of the host for the purpose 

 of laying its eggs. Cryptnriis argioiiis differs altogether in 

 colour and marking from the allied species of Ichneumonidje, 

 and assumes even in the minutest details those of the wasp 

 Pollistcs gallica, on which it is parasitic. To so great an extent 

 is the mimicry carried out that even variations characteristic of 

 particular districts are reproduced, the area of distribution of 

 both insects being very wide. In the second case it is the colour 

 and markings of a wasp, t'cs/a gcniianica, that arc imitated by 

 its parasite Conops diadematus. 



At the east end of the Palm House at Kew there is a fine 

 specimen of the rare Agave univitlata coming into flower. Near 

 it stand the still stately flowering stems of two allied plants, 

 Agai'C jaci}uiniana and Fourcroya gigantca. 



The French conscription enables us to study annually the com- 

 position of the growing generation. Last year from about 300,000 

 young men passing the examination for recruiting the army, 

 16,000 were discharged on account of having lost their brothers or 

 having jhad them wounded in the war, 11,400 as being sons or 

 grandsons of widows, or of people above seventy years of age, 

 1,600 elder brothers of orphans, 16,000 as not being strong 

 enough, 10,000 for lameness, 8,000 not tall enough, 4,000 from 

 having defects of the bowels, 3,000 of the eyes, 2, 700 organs of 

 generation, 2,000 bad teeth, 1,000 as being mute, &c., 1,200 

 epileptics, 600 deaf. So blind, 1,000 phthisic, &c. ; in all, 89,000 

 were left out of the contingent. 



In the report furnished us by the Secretary of the Anthropo- 

 logical Institute (vol. ix. p. 345) of Mr. Distant's paper On the 

 Mental Differences between the Sexes, the author is said to have 

 referred to the " now moderately well established fact that in 

 primitive races the hair of women approximates more closely to 

 that of man than obtains in a higher state of civilisation." Mr. 

 Distant in his paper referred to the brain, not to the hair. 



A QIICKSILVER mine is said to have been discovered at 

 Exeter. 



M. Gaston Tissandier is publishing at Hachette's an 

 excellent popular work on "Photography," with numerous 

 illustrations. One of them shows Charles, the inventor of 

 the gas balloon, photographing the silhouette of one of his pupils 

 on a paper sensitised with one of the salts of silver, nrore than 

 twenty years before the discovery of Daguene. 



1 N his recent paper On the Placentation of the Sloths, published 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Prof. 

 Turner has done much to diminish the value of placental charac- 



