172 



NA TURE 



[_7n/y 2, 1874 



The last but one of the Government expeditions for observing 

 the transit of Venus sailed from Plymouth for Christchurch, 

 New Zealand, in the clipper ship Mcrope, on Saturday. The 

 party consists of Major H. S. Palmer, R.E., chief astronomer 

 in charge ; Lieut. L. Darwin, R. E. , assistant-astronomer and 

 photographer ; Lieut. H. Crawford, R. N. , assistant-astronomer, 

 and three non-commissioned officers of the Royal Engineers 

 trained in the use of the photoheliograph. 



A Correspondent writes that he has tried, with almost 

 complete success, Prof. Helmholtz's remedy for Hay Fever, 

 referred to in the paper (Nature, vol. .x. p. 26) sent us 

 by Prof. Tyndall. Our correspondent gives the details of his 

 treatment in a letter to the MancJtesler Examiner of the 30th 

 ult., which also contains a letter from another sufferer who has 

 tried Helmholtz's remedy with success. Our correspondent also 

 asks, — " Could any of your readers give any information as to 

 Weber's nose douche? — a more effective method of administer- 

 ing the remedy than by means of the pipette is desirable." 



Mr. Saville Kent, Curator of the Manchester Aquarium, 

 seems resolved to do Iiis best to mal<e that institution subserve 

 the purposes of scientific instruction. Last Friday he gave the 

 first of a series of lectures on subjects connected with aquaria 

 to a fairly numerous audience ; it is intended, we believe to con- 

 tinue the lectures on Friday afternoons during the summer. 



Db. John Kirk has received a letter from Lieut. Cameron 

 dated Ujiji, Feb. 25, reporting his safe arrival at that place ; 

 he was just about to start for Unyanyembe. He heard from 

 the people of Ujiji that the Lualaba from Nyangwe goes into 

 the Mwootawzige or Bahari Unyoro, "so that," he says, "it 

 must be the Nile after all." 



Mr. Forsyth, the leader of the Yarkund Mission, arrived at 

 Leh on the 17th. ult. all well. He is expected in Calcutta about 

 the isth inst. Dr. Stoliczka is reported to have died on the 

 19th ult. at Shyok, above the Saser Pass. 



The prospectus is issued of a series of Positivist publications. La 

 JSibliotluque Posilivish;\.o be written by M. Andre Pocy, having for 

 its object the popularisation of the positive philosophy. The pro- 

 spectus is mainly an eloquent eulogy of the Positivist doctrines, and 

 an attempt to show that since Comte began to write they have gra- 

 dually penetrated everywhere. The Bil'liotliojiie Posilivisle will 

 consist of 30 monographs, to be published at intervals, in which 

 the principles of Positivism will be expounded in relation to every 

 sphere of human thought and action. The first part is enthled 

 "La Bibliographie Positiviste," and will contain a list of 750 

 publications in favour of or opposed to Positivism, all of which 

 have been published since Comte began to write. The publisher 

 is Ernest Leroux of Paris. 



The Turners' Company, unlike most of the antiquated City 

 guilds, seems to be alive to the fact that there are other 

 kinds of merit worthy of honour besides the distinguished one 

 of being a prince of the blood, a foreign potentate, a conquering 

 hero, or one of her Majesty's ministers. It requires distinction 

 of a very blazing kind indeed to attract the attention of most of 

 our obtuse City Companies. The above Company is, however, 

 a creditable exception in this respect to most of the others. 

 Shortly before his death it conferred its freedom upon 

 the late Prof. Phillips, and last week it did itself the honour 

 of marking in a similar w.ay its appreciation of the work which 

 his been done by Sir Charles LyelJ, Bart., F.K.S. The Turners' 

 Company is evidently awake to the fact that after all the Useful 

 Arts, Manufacture, and Commerce may derive some benefit from 

 the resulrs of non-utilitarian scientific research. The arts repre- 

 sented by the Turners' Company use, as part of their material, 

 various sorts of stones, and Mr. Jones, the Master, showed in his 



really eloquentand well-informed address last week, that these arts 

 have been greatly indebted to Sir Charles Lyell for hiving done 

 much in their belialf by spreading a knowledge of the materials 

 willi which they work. Sir Charles, in his reply, spoke of the 

 storm of opposition raised against many of the geological 

 doctrines propounded in his first work, half a century ago, as 

 compared with their almost universal acceptance at the present 

 day. 



We have received a copy of a very able address delivered by 

 Dr. Julius Ilaist, F.R.S., before the Philosophical Institute of 

 Canterbury, New Zealand, in which he comments on several 

 points connected with the geology of that country, maintaining 

 his own theory as to the glacial origin of the Canterbury Plains 

 in opposition to that of their marine formation, as supported by 

 Capt. Hutton. In speaking of the extinct Struthious birds 

 whose remains are so abundant, he is disposed to divide them, 

 contrary to Prof. Owen, into two main families : the Dinorni- 

 thidse with a long metatarsus, no hallux, and a bony scapulo- 

 coracoid bone; and the Palapterygida; with a short metatarsus, 

 with a fully-developed hallux, and no ossified scapulo-coracoid 

 bone ; the last-named character being one of particular interest, 

 and supported by several arguments, the strongest of which 

 depends on the absence of any coracoid articular grooves on the 

 anterior margin of the sternum. 



A rather strong shock of earthquake was felt at Constanti- 

 nople on Friday, lasting two seconds. No accident is reported. 



The French Government has recently voted the sum necessary 

 for the formation of a great inland sea in Algeria, 190 miles long 

 by 36 broad, to the south of Biskra. A chain of chotts (C/tott 

 implying the bed of a lagoon) considerably below the level ot 

 the Mediterranean, is to be utilised for the purpose. A full 

 account of the project is given in the first June number of the 

 Revue des Deux Mondcs. 



The meeting which was to have been held this month in 

 London in connection with the Edinburgh University Buildings 

 Extension P'und, has been postponed until November next. 



Mr. Sanderson, from Lancing College, has been elected to 

 a Natural Science Scholarship in Worcester College, Oxford. 

 Messrs. Hugh Brocas-Price, from University College, London, 

 and Mr. Henry H. Robinson, from Magdalen College School, 

 have been elected to Natural Science Demyships in Magdalen 

 College. 



Mr. W. J. Noui.E, of Epsom College, has been elected to a 

 Natural Science Scholarship in Keble College, Oxford. 



A ME,\NS of preventing the spread of the vine-pest, the 

 Fliylhwcra vastatrix, is said to have been found, in the spreading 

 of a layer of fine sand on the ground round the stems of the 

 plants. The sand is said to be too loose for this insect to pass 

 through, and the consequence is that it is intercepted in its passage 

 from one plant to another. We are sorry to hear a report that 

 this plague has found its way into Australia. The vine-growing 

 districts of our Australian colonies are becoming so important 

 that we trust this report may be unfounded. At all event steps 

 should be taken to prevent its introduction into any of our 

 colonies : such a measure will be easier than its destruction, 

 should it ever gain a footing in them . 



In view of the scarcity and high price of oysters in tliis country 

 it is alarming to hear that the celebrated beds of Arcachon, 

 Concarneau, and other places in the west of France, are thought 

 to be less productive than formerly. The want of accurate kno k- 

 ledgc concerning this bivalve is probably at llie root of this 

 scarcity, and it may also be possible that the changes which are 

 constantly taking place in the position and even in tlie nature of 

 the sea-coast, may have a serious effect on the pniduclivencss of 



