iH 



r^ATURE 



{June 1 8, 1874 



The Committee of the Leeds Mechanics' Institute and 

 Schools of Alt and Science have resolved to accede to a generally 

 expressed wish that they should organise a Yorkshire Exhibition 

 of Arts and Manufactures, to be opened in Leeds on May I, 

 1875. The object of the Exhibilion will be to promote the Fine 

 Arts and Ait and Science as applied to Manufactures, and the 

 surplus funds will be applied to the liquidation of the debt now 

 remaining on the Leeds Mechanics' Institute. 



A VERY successful meeting, under the presidency of the Mayor 

 of Bristol, was held at the Victoiii Rooms, Clifton, for the pur- 

 pose of inaugurating the formation of a College of Science and 

 Literature for the south and west of England and South Wales, 

 to which we referred in Nature, vol. x. p. 93. The meeting 

 was perfectly harmonious, and we have no doubt that the scheme 

 so auspiciously begun will be successfully accompUshed. It is 

 evidently intended that science will hold an equally important 

 place with literature in the new college. 



Wince and Hbiberg, oi Christiania (" Die puerperalen und 

 pyaemischen processe," H. Heiberg, Leipzig, 1873), point out 

 the remarkable presence of a fungus, which is at least very like 

 a vibrio, in the basis of the sore in cases of pyemic ulcerative 

 endocarditis {Mycosis endocardii Winge), and Heiberg shows in 

 similar cases the crowding of such beings in the superficial 

 lymphatics of some of the viscera. This appears to be an im- 

 portant contribution to the views of Lister as to the septic cha- 

 racter of the pycemic diseases. 



A riECE of native gold weighing 200 kilogrammes, and worth 

 24,000/., has been found in French Guyana, and sent to Paris 

 to be placed in the Colonial Exhibition at the Champs Elysees.. 



The French Academy of Sciences has held a long secret 

 committee meeting on the propriety of granting to M. Chapelas- 

 Coulvier-Gvavier a sum of money for his meteoric observatory 

 on the upper part of the Luxembourg Takice. A very strong 

 opposition was offered, and it is doubtful whether the grant will 

 be allowed. 



Upwards of a year ago there was founded at Uerlin in con- 

 nection with the German Geographical Society, a "German 

 Society for the Exploration of Equatorial Africa," or, shortly, 

 the "African Society," Raving for its president the well-known 

 Dr. Bastian, and vice-president Dr. Neumayer. The Society 

 has received handsome subscriptions to enable it to carry out its 

 object, including a large sum from the Government. An expe- 

 dition under Dr. Baul GUssfeldt was soon organised, and in the 

 end of May left Liverpool for the west coast of Africa, in the 

 steamer Nigrdia, which unfortunately was wrecked off Sierra 

 Leone on June 14, Dr. Giissfeldt losing nearly all the equipments 

 of the expedition. He got another ship to take him to Cabinda 

 in Congo, the scat of the German African Trading; Company, 

 where he found Dr. Bastian, who had also gone out to organise 

 the work of the expedition. From Cabinda as a starting-point, 

 several journeys have already been made into the interior, and 

 in the Correspondenzblntt of the Society, several numbers of which 

 have been issued, an account of the work done is given in a 

 number of letters from Dr. Bastian, Dr. Giissfeldt, and others. 



We are glad to see that the governors of the Burnley Grammar 

 School in the reconstruction of the buildings have given con- 

 siderable faciUties for the practical teaching of Science. They 

 have provided, among other rooms, two well-contrived labora- 

 tories, one of which is to be devoted to chemical manipulation, 

 and the other to experimental physic?. The schoul is expected to 

 open on August I, and the governors have elected as headmaster 

 Mr. Joseph Hough, B.A. (Cambridge), now Science Master at the 

 Rossall School. It is likewise the intention of the governors to 

 found a central science school, which shall be open in the 

 evening for the instruction of persons occupied in the day- 



time in commercial pursuits. This school is intended to carry 

 out the recommendation of the Commission on Scientific In- 

 struction in one of their recent reports. 



Mr. George Smith has returned from his second Assyrian 

 expedition. He brings home a very large collection of new 

 cuneiform tablets and fragments, as well as a great many inter- 

 esting objects of Assyrian art, including the entire lintel in 

 sculjitured stone of one of the ancient palace gateways. 



The forthcoming number of Petermann's Gcographisclic Mil- 

 ihcilungcn will contain an important contribution by Prof. Hanns 

 Hofer, the geologist of Count Wilczek's expedition of 1872, on 

 the geography of Spitzbergen. The paper contains the results 

 of careful observation on the harbours, the configuration of the 

 island, especially in the neighborrhood of Horn Sound, and on 

 the glaciers, which were minutely explored. 



A NOVELTY in legislation consists in the recent introduction 

 into the U. S. Congress of a bill proposing to grant the State of 

 Minnesota 200,000 acres of land within its limits, the proceeds 

 of which shall be kept as a perpetual fund, the interest to be 

 applied to the support, maintenance, and equipment of an astro- 

 nomical observatory and school of mines at .St. Anthony's Falls 

 in connection wilh the Minnesota State University. A special 

 stipulation in this proposed act is that the schools shall be free 

 of charge to all students. 



We have received the first two numbers of the Quarterly 

 jfoiinial oj Coiichology, conducted by Messrs. W. Nelson and J. 

 W. Taylor (Hardwicke). We should think it likely to prove 

 of considerable value to the class to which it is addressed. 



We have r-eceived the Report of the Asliniolean Society 

 for the year 1S73. Daring last year the .Society has held 

 Seven General Meetings, at which a number of valuable scientific 

 paper's were read by well-known men of science. 



Messrs. MACi.Acni.ANand Stewart, of Edinburgh, have ready 

 for immediate publication a work entitled tire "Birds of Shetland," 

 wilh oljservations on their habits, migration, anl occasional 

 occurrence, by the late Dr. Saxby. It will be published at one 

 guinea. 



The various learned bodies of Massachusetts, especially the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Boston Society 

 of Natural History, are urging upon the Legislature the import- 

 ance of undertaking a new and thorough scientific survey of the 

 commonwealth. The results expected from such a survey at 

 the present lime are a detailed topographical map on a scale 

 of an inch to the mile, maps coloured to show the distribu- 

 tion of rock-formations and economic minerals, with charts on a 

 larger scale of particular localities having special interest or im- 

 portance ; also full descriptions of everything connected with the 

 theoretical and economical mineralogy and geology of the Slate, 

 and especially full descriptions and truthful ilhrsti'.ations of the 

 animals aird plants, inchrding their natural history, transforma- 

 tions, and relations to man and his requirements. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Vulturine Guinea Fowl [A'umida vuUiirina) 

 from East Africa, presented by Dr. J. Kirk ; a Stump-tailed 

 Lizard [Trachydosaiirus rtijosus) from Australia, preseirted by 

 Mr. N. Clements ; a Spotted Cavy (Caioxoirs /'tica) from South 

 Americ.i, presented by Mr. J. W. Alexander ; a Crested Agouti 

 (Dasypn'cta crislala) from Colon, presented by ^^rs Wood ; a 

 Persian Gazelle (Gazdla siili'^iillurosa) and a Fennec Fox (Cimis 

 fcitncc) from Persia, presented by Mr. E. S. Dawes; two Cor- 

 morants {Plialanocoiax carbo], British, presen'.ed by Capt. 

 Salvin ; five Mandarin Ducks (Aix galericiilala) hatched in the 

 Gardens, 



