514 
will be an exhibition of fungi and other plants, fresh and pre- 
served, with micro-objects; and papers will be read by Dr- 
Wharton and Mr. Worthington Smith. The following botanists, 
among many others, are expected to be present, and will act as 
‘‘ referees’ in various departments of plant-lore :— Prof. Boulger, 
Dr. Braithwaite, Dr. M. C. Cooke, Rey. J. M. Crombie, Rev. 
Canon Du-Port, Messrs. J. L. English, Henry Groves, F. J. 
Hanbury, E. M. Holmes, David Houston, A. Vaughan Jenn- 
ings, Frederick Oxley, W. W. Reeves, Worthington G. Smith, 
C. A. Wright, Dr. Spurrell, Dr. H. T. Wharton, &c. Those 
wishing to attend should communicate with the hon. secretary, 
Mr. W. Cole, Buckhurst Hill, Essex, who will forward pro- 
grammes giving full particulars. 
THE Trustees of the Gilchrist Lectures Fund have arranged 
for courses of six lectures in each of five Lancashire towns— 
Blackburn, Lancaster, Chorley, Colne, and Padiham, and for 
similar courses in Greenock, Paisley, Stirling, Alloa, and Kil- 
marnock—all to be delivered during October and December. 
No lectures will be given during November in consequence of 
the General Election in that month. The lecturers entrusted 
with the work are: Prof. R. S. Ball, Rev. W. H. Dallinger, 
Prof. W. C. Williamson, Dr. Andrew Wilson, and Mr. W. 
Lant Carpenter. Each course includes three lectures on bio- 
logical and three on physical subjects, oxyhydrogen lantern illus- 
trations being freely used, and in some cases experiments also. 
As usual the charge for admission will be one penny, and the 
largest available rooms are secured for the lectures, special 
measures being taken to insure the attendance of working men. 
There will probably be similar courses in five Midland towns in 
the spring. 
WE are informe d that the vacant Chair of Physics and 
Engineering in University College, Bristol, has been filled by 
the appointment to the post of Prof. John Ryan, M.A., King’s 
College, Cambridge, D.Sc. Lond on, and Member of the Insti- 
tute of Mechanical Engineers. Dr. Ryan, who is a practical 
engineer, has hitherto held the appointment of Professor of 
Mechanics and Engineering in University College, Nottingham. 
At Bristol he succeeds Prof. Thom pson, now Principal of the 
Finsbury Technical College, and Prof. Hele Shaw, recently 
appointed to the Professorship of Engineering in University 
College, Liverpool. 
Mr. F. C, LEHMANN, a German botanist, who has travelled 
or over ten years in Central and South America for the purposes 
of scientific researches, has arrived safely at Panama, from 
Europe, which he lately visited in order to arrange with other 
scientific colleagues to assist him in the classification of his ex- 
tensive collection of objects of natural history. Mr. Lehmann 
was about to proceed to the Cauca, where he intends to remain 
for several years, with his domicile in Popayan. He proposes 
the continuation of former labours and minute researches into 
the botanico-geographical conditions of the Flora of Tropical 
America. 
THE exceedingly unusual character of the following announce- 
ment, coming from the United States, will attract attention. 
We take it from Scéence:—‘*On account of the lack of funds 
necessary to maintain its activity, the Astronomical Observatory 
of Beloit College, Wisconsin (Prof. J. Tatlock, jun., director), 
has been closed.” 
THE experiments for the electrical illumination of the Palais 
Royal are very successful. The number of incandescent lights 
used is 150. The Théatre Francais, ThéAtre du Palais Royal, 
and Council of State have agreed to the deed of agreement 
signed by the shopkeepers, so that thousands of lamps will soon 
be in operation. But before taking a final decision, the sub- 
scribers are trying every description of incandescent lamp. 
NATURE 
like period three more. 
| fourth day. 
| 
[ Sept. 24, 1885 
A SERIES of science lectures has commenced at the Royal 
Victoria Hall, Waterloo Bridge Road, and promises to be as 
successful as any previous one. On September 29, W. J. 
Harrison, F.G.S., will lecture on ‘*Stone Tools and the Men 
who used them.” On October 6, Mr, A. H. Fison will lecture 
on ‘‘Some Other Worlds.” On October 13, Prof. H. G 
Seeley, F.R.S., will lecture on ‘‘ Coal.” 
WE learn from the London and China Telegraph that a work on 
which Dr. Dudgeon of Peking has been engaged for upwards of 
ten years, has just been issued in eighteen Chinese volumes. It 
comprises a translation of Gray’s ‘‘ Anatomy” and Holden’s 
“*QOsteology.”’ There are in addition two volumes of plates, 
comprising 600 cuts, which have occupied the time of two men 
for two years and a half. The whole of these cuts have been 
made at the expense of the Chinese Foreign Office, and the 
work has been published in a series issued by the Foreign 
Language College at Peking. It is proposed to establish in 
connection with this college a medical school and hospital to 
provide proper practitioners for the service of the army, navy, 
and palace. 
A REPORT on carp-culture in China has been made by Dr. 
Macgowan to the Carp-Culture Association of the United States. 
Pisciculture, it appears, was cultivated at a very early period, 
being regarded as a branch of agriculture. The carp is, of all 
fish, the most frequently reared by artificial means in China, but 
nearly every species of CyJrinid@, bream, tench, roach, gold- 
fish, &c., is soraised. A treatise on fish-rearing has been at- 
tributed to a Minister of the fifth century before our era, bat it 
it appears to have been really written eight centuries later. The 
work says that of the five modes of rearing animals by far the 
most productive and valuable is fish-breeding. The pond used 
for this purpose (it goes on) should be an acre in extent (the 
depth is usually less than eight feet), and nine stone islets, each 
having eight inlets or bays, a yard below the surface of the 
water, should be constructed in it; then twenty gravid carp and 
four males, each three feet long, are to be deposited in it noise- 
lessly in the month of March. Two months later a turtle should 
be placed in the pond, two months later a couple, and after a 
By this time there will be 360 carp. 
The turtles are to prevent their being transformed into dragons 
and flying away. The object of the islets and bays is to afford 
greater space for the fish in their sinuous voyages, for the 
more a fish travels the fatter and bigger he becomes. The 
Chinese author then makes the following calculation: in the 
following year the pond will be found to contain 150,000 carp 
1 foot in length, 450,000 3 feet, 10,000 2 feet. In the third 
year 100,000 I foot, 50,000 2 feet, 50,000 3 feet, and 40,000 
4 feet. A thousand of those that are 2 feet in length should be re- 
tained for replenishment, and all the rest be sent to market. In 
another year their number will exceed all calculation, and they 
require no feeding, hence the value of carp culture. All the 
varieties, we are told, come from the black species. Those 
destined to become white change to silver or yellow, while the 
others turn first red and then golden. Some of the white sort 
are so nearly transparent that their viscera are visible. Much 
of the art of rearing them consists in affording due amounts of 
shade and sunshine in the course of their. growth, and in changing 
their water, not more than half of which is to be removed every 
In the earliest times the practice, which continues 
to-day, was introduced of planting mulberries on the margins on 
which apiaries were placed, the droppings from which fed the 
fish, while the leaves of the trees first nourished silkworms and 
then goats. These droppings are said to impart a peculiar 
flavour to the fish. 
A CONSIGNMENT of soles and brill has lately been despatched 
by the National Fish Culture Association to the American 
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ee 
