262 



NATURE 



[Jan. 15, 188a 



attendant at the meetings of the British Association. His first 

 artistic work was botanical, the drawing of many hundred of the 

 illustrations to London's "Encyclopedia of Plants," all drawn 

 from living specimens. The professional work of Mr. Cooke as 

 an artist was throughout an advancement of science through a 

 channel which we have often had occasion to point out, is 

 Generally too independent of the claims of science, and suffers 

 accordingly. Mr. Cooke's representations of natural objects, cf 

 plants and animals and rocks, were always scientifically accurate, 

 and his coast scenes are in themselves a geological study. He was 

 always ready to help other artists whose ignorance of natural 

 science was apt to lead them into ludicrous blunders. He was, 

 we believe, one of the first who ever attempted to grow ferns 

 and tropical plants under conditions similar to those under which 

 they are found in nature. Both at Kensington and at Tunbridge 

 Wells his fernery and tropical garden were masterpieces in their 

 way. For his eminence as a horticulturist and for his contribu- 

 tions to geological science by his series of pictures and drawings 

 illustrating the principal geological features of the British 

 Islands, Mr. Cooke was, in 1863, elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society. His series of drawings of "Grotesque Animals," 

 published a few years ago, afford a remarkable example of his 

 intimate knowledge of comparative anatomy, as well as of his 

 sense of humour. Mr. Cooke counted among his friends nearly 

 all the leading men both in science and art. 



Mr. William Alexander Fordes, B.A., F.Z.S., Scholar 

 of St. John's College, Cambridge, has been appointed by the 

 Council Prosector to the Zoological Society of London in succes- 

 sion to the late Prof. Garrod. Mr. Forbes, who is already well 

 known for his contributions to scientific literature, obtained a 

 first-class in the Natural Sciences Tripos at the late examination 

 at Cambridge, and was designated as specially distinguished in 

 the sciences of comparative anatomy and zoology. 



We understand that, at the suggestion of several practical 

 teachers of botany, a new piece of ground at the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew, will, during the ensuing season, be set apart for the study 

 of botany, and that students will, under certain regulations, be 

 able to carry home specimens for examination. Papers recently 

 read at the Chemical Society by Mr. Church on the respiration 

 and transpiration of albino foliage, and at the Linnean Society 

 by Mr. Marshall Ward on the embryology of phanerogams, were 

 in both cases founded on observations made in the laboratory. 



The Journal oj Botany announces the death, at the early age 

 of twenty-eight, of one of the most promising of the younger 

 generation of physiological botanists, Dr. H. Bauke, of Berlin. 

 His researches on cryptogams, and especially on the phenomenon 

 of bilateralness in the prothallia of ferns, gave promise of a 

 brilliant future. 



The Fourth Annual Report of the Johns Hopkins University 

 contains much that is of great interest. It gives a sketch of the 

 foundation and plan of instruction of the University, showing 

 how the latter has been based on the best ideas as to what ought 

 to be the functions of a university. The system of fellowships 

 at the Johns Hopkins institution is one calculated to encourage 

 and call forth the best energies of the Fellows, and in the short 

 career of the University the success of these fellowships has 

 been fully shown. The University has the use of the magnifi- 

 cent library of the Peabody Institute of Baltimore, and in its 

 own various laboratories much good work is being done. The 

 University has contrived happily to combine teaching and re- 

 search in such a way as to give students real help and yet leave 

 the teachers ample time to carry on original work. The Ameri- 

 can Journal of Mathematics and the American Journal of Che- 

 mistry both emanate fioai this Institution, while special publi- 

 cations contain the results of biological work, and a long list of 

 papers in various departments by members of the University is 



appended to the Report. We have also a long list of apparatus 

 for scientific researches involving accurate measurements in the 

 physical laboratory, and of some of the most important appara- 

 tus in the biological laboratory. Altogether from this Report it 

 will be seen that the Johns Hopkins University is doing its best 

 to carry out the noble purpose of its founder. 



From the Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Institute of 

 Baltimore, we see that the magnificent new buildings are now 

 complete and occupied. It now forms one of the best equipped 

 centres of culture in the United States. 



In the Bulletin of the Paris Anthropological Society (tome ii. 

 fasc. 3) M. J. Geoffroy gives a re'sume of his great work on the 

 knowledge and denominations of colour, in which he attempts 

 to controvert the views of Magnus and Geiger, and those of Mr. 

 Gladstone, which ascribe colour-blindne e s to Homer. On the 

 grounds taken by these writers he insists that we should be 

 equally justified in asserting that Corneille, La Fontaine, and 

 others who happen not to mention in their works any one special 

 colour, must have been blind te it ; he considers that the delight 

 taken by savages in bright colours is a sufficient proof that the 

 sense of colour is not due to culture. 



In the same number M. de Jouvencel draws attention to the 

 curious circumstances that the Latin races by preference take the 

 right side, where the Teutonic races, including our own, and that 

 of Scandinavians, take the left. With regard to the former, he 

 finds a sufficient explanation in the superstition of the Romans, 

 who deemed all omens favourable which manifested themselves 

 on their right side, and vice versd ; while the barbarian enemies 

 of Rome may be assumed to have regarded as favourable to 

 themselves whatever the Romans accepted as of evil portent. 

 The Saxon races as masters of the sea and pioneers in the laying 

 of railways, have imposed their own rules of the left side on the 

 French and other Latin nations, who, however, still in driving, 

 riding, &c, keep to the practice of their progenitors. 



M. Zaborowski recently communicated to the Paris Anthropo- 

 logical Society his discovery, on the banks of the Lower Vistula, 

 of certain sepulchral vessels of a kind never before described. 

 At the depth of 50-80 centimetres below the surface he found 

 cinerary urns filled with bones, in the midst of which were 

 various objects in bronze, iron, and bone, and over each urn 

 there was a cover, like an inverted bell, resting in some cases on 

 a kind of stand, or plateau. He proposes to give to these 

 singular urns the name of tombcaux sous cloches ; of which outline 

 drawings with full description of their form and size are given 

 at pp. 337-8 of the Bulletin (t. ii. fasc. 3). 



The North American Entomologist for August, 1879, contains 

 a paper by Mr. A. R. Grote " On the Neuration in certain 

 Genera of ByraliJu:," illustrated by a plate with outline figures 

 of the neural characters of fourteen genera, which should prove 

 of great service to students of Lcpidoptera. 



Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs, of Plymouth, announces the 

 early publication of a Flora of Plymouth, including the Flowering 

 Plants and Ferns growing within a distance of about twelve 

 miles from the town. The almost unrivalled critical knowledge 

 of oar native plants possessed by Mr. Briggs will render this a 

 valuable contribution to geographical botany. 



Messrs. D. M'Alpine and A. N. M'Alpine announce the 

 publication of a Biological Atlas, being a guide to the practical 

 study of plants and animals, illustrating the characters of typical 

 forms by drawings of the object, dissections, microscopic pre- 

 parations, and diagrams, with explanatory text, specially designed 

 for the London University, Science and Art, Medical, and other 

 examinations, and for use in schools and colleges. The Atlas 

 will consist of 24 plates, containing 423 coloured figures and 



