Aug. 20, 1874] 



NATURE 



307 



A PARTICULARLY closely reasoned and valuable paper has 

 just been published by Dr. William Marcet, F.R.S., entitled 

 "An Experimental Inquiiy into the Nutrition of Animal 

 Tissues," in which the author argues out, and substantiates by 

 careful analysis, his division of the constituents of animal tissues 

 into the parts which constitute the working or ripe tissue, insolu- 

 ble in water ; the nutritive material of the tissue, colloid and 

 soluble ; and the products of tissue-destruction, crystalloid and 

 soluble. We hope to be able to give an abstract of this paper 

 on a future occasion. 



/£•;■ ^/tfWi'j- announces the death, on July 21, of Count Gustave 

 Doulcet de Pontecoulant, who was born in 179S. 



The seventh s«ssion of the International Congress of Anthro- 

 p<ilogy and Prehistoric Archceology was closed at Stockholm on 

 Sunday, after having fixed on Buda-Pesth as the next place of 

 meeting. The number of members of this Association is up- 

 wards of 1,550 : of these, 800 were present at the Stockholm 

 meeting, which commenced on the 7th instant, when the follow- 

 ing ofiicials were chosen : — Patron, Oscar II., King of Sweden 

 and Norway ; president, Count Ilammig Hamilton, Grand 

 Ciiancellor of the Swedish Universities ; honorary presidents, 

 IVIM. Desor, Capellini, and Worsaae ; vice-presidents, MM. Ilil- 

 debrandt, sen., and Nilsson (Sweden), De Quatrefages (France) 

 Franks (England), Vircliow (Germany), Dupont (Belgium), Lee! 

 mans and Bogdanow (Kussia) ; general secretary, M. Hans 

 Ilildebrandt ; secretaries, MJI. Montelius, Retzius, Chantre, 

 and Cazalis de Fondouce ; assistant secretaries, i\IM. Stolpe 

 and Landberg ; council, MM. Bertrand, Berthelot, Evans, Von 

 Quast, Schaffhausen, Pigorini, Van Beneden, Engelhardt, Rygh, 

 Von Diiben, Aspelin, Lerch, Romer, Whitney. The sittings 

 were held at the Riddai-hus, or "House of Knights," a house 

 as old as the time of Gustavus Adolphus, which belongs to the 

 Swedish nobility. Stockholm was very appropriately fixed upon 

 as the place of meeting for this year's Congress, as the northern 

 antiquaries and archaeologists have done a great deal to form 

 the departments of research with which the Congress deals ; we 

 need only mention the names of Bruzelius, Thomsen (Denmark), 

 Nilsson, Retzius, and Hildebrandt. The magnificent museum of 

 Stockholm was commenced in 1S50, and finished in 1S63, and 

 the collection has been arranged by the Government Antiquary, 

 M. Hildebrandt, and is one of the finest collections of prehistoric 

 archxology in existence. Both the King and the city of Stock- 

 holm gave the antiquaries a splendid welcome. 



The British Medical Association meets next year in Edinburgh, 

 the president elect being Prof Sir Robert Christison, Bart. 



A NEW physiological laboratory, and also an addition to the 

 chemical laboratory of Westminster Hospital, are rapidly ap- 

 proaching completion. 



At the meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences on the loth 

 inst., a letter from the Minister of Public Instruction was read, 

 informing the Academy that in consequence of the proposition 

 made to the National Assembly in the month of July last to 

 establish in the neighbourhood of Paris a Physical Observatory 

 independent of the Astronomical Observatory, it was decided to 

 consult the Academy as to the appropriateness and utility of such 

 an establishment. The Minister requested the Academy to con- 

 sider the question and let him know what conclusion they 

 came to. 



With reference to Prof. Newcomb's investigation of the 

 moon's motion, the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observa- 

 tory reports that the work has been nearly accomplished and 

 prepared for the press according to the original plan ; but on 

 examining certain terms troublesome to calculate, which it was 

 supposed were entirely unimportant, it was found that the work 

 could not be properly completed without them. The prepara- 



tions for observing the transit of Venus have interfered with the 

 development of these important terms. The second part of the 

 work, namely, the tables founded upon Prof. Newcomb's theory, 

 has been carried as far as it can be without the data that will be 

 attainable as soon as the preparations for observing the transit of 

 Venus are completed. 



Admiral Sands, in his annual report with reference to the 

 work of the U. S. Naval Observatory, states that observations, 

 to be of any value to the world , must be published. If they are 

 not, the time and labour spent upon them are simply wasted ; 

 and yet they are so much more easily made than reduced, that 

 nothing is more common than to see them lie for years before 

 the computations necessary to fit them for publication are com- 

 pleted. The Naval Observatory has been enabled to resuscitate 

 from its store-rooms the zones of stars observed by Capt. Gilliss, 

 in Chili, in 1S50-52, and their reductions are now in such a 

 state of forwardness that the resulting star catalogue will appear 

 in the volume of Washington Observations for 1873. Thus it 

 will be seen that nearly all the valuable observations which were 

 at one time locked up in the archives of the observatory have 

 been given to the world. 



We notice with much pleasure that the Society of Arts has 

 issued a prospectus of Examinations in the Technology of Agri- 

 culture and Rural Economy, proposed to be held annually by 

 the Society, as a part of its excellent system of technological 

 examinations in the various industries of the country. We sin- 

 cerely hope that the proposed examinations will be largely the 

 means of carrying out the object which the Society has in view 

 in instituting them, viz., the promotion of a more extended and 

 intelligent study of agriculture and of the sciences bearing upon 

 it, by those intending to adopt farming as an occupation. The 

 examinations will consist of three parts :— (l) General Science, 

 in which a very wide knowledge of the various sciences 

 which lie at the basis of successful agriculture is demanded 

 from the candidates ; there are three certificates in this 

 department— the Elementary Certificate, the Advanced Certi- 

 ficate, and Honours. (2) Technology, in which a know- 

 ledge of the many points connected with agriculture and 

 rural economy will be demanded from the candidates pro- 

 portioned to the class in which they may have passed in the 

 previous examinations ; this examination looks very formidable 

 on paper, and to pass creditably in it will demand extensive 

 reading and hard work on the part of the candidates. (3) Prac- 

 tical Knowledge : under this head the candidate must forward 

 to the Society of Arts a certificate, on a form supplied, signed 

 by some agriculturist with whom he may have been practically 

 engaged in farming operations, showing that he has a practical 

 acquaintance with the subject. In order to render these exami- 

 nations really useful, the Council are making application to the 

 Agricultural Societies, local and general, for assistance in founding 

 scholarships for successful candidates to undergo a regular course 

 of instruction at an Agricultuial College. We hope the scheme 

 of the Society of Arts will be productive of excellent results on 

 the agriculture of the country. 



M. RiiNAN has brought out a new work, " La Mission de Phe- 

 nicie," being an account of the scientific researches in Syria 

 during the sojourn of the French army in l86o-6l. 



A Committee has been formed to consider what means ought 

 to be taken' for^ the construction of an aquarium at Heme Bay. 



Prof. Gervais (U.S.) has made a communication upon the 

 teeth of the American reptile known as Helodenna. A species 

 of the genus is abundant in Southern Arizona, where it is called 

 a scorpion, and is reputed by the natives to be extremely veno- 

 mous, although experiments carefully prosecuted by Dr. B. J.D. 

 Irwin, of the United States army, failed to exliibit any evidence 



