August 3, ISS;?.] 



SCIENCE. 



149 



out price would soon earn the same reputation ; the 

 reason being, I suppose, that Mongolia has no inns, 

 and all travellers are dependent on private houses 

 for shelter and refreshment. At first sight it seems 

 rather exacting to leap off your horse at the door of 

 a perfect stranger, and expect to find tea prepared and 

 offered to yon free ; but probably the master of the 

 tent where you refresh yourself is at the same time 

 sitting likewise, refreshing himself in some other 

 man's tent some hundred miles away; and thus the 

 thing balances itself. The hospitality received by 

 Mongols in travelling compensates for the hospitality 

 shown to travellers." 



— Two noteworthy ornithological papers appear in 

 the August magazines. The habits and mental traits 

 of the cat-bird in confinement have found an excellent 

 student in Olive Miller, who gives us in the Atlantic 

 a vivid jiicture of its curiosity, .and its tyranny over 

 weaker bird.s, with proofs of how it can learn by ex- 

 perience, and its capacity for jealousy. The article 

 is well worth reading. 



The friends of Prof. A. 51. Meyer of Iloboken, 

 who are aware of his zeal as a sportsman, will be 

 less surprised than those who know him only by his 

 professional studies, at his interesting paper on the 

 quail, or 'Bob White' as it is familiarly known, 

 which appears as the leading paper in the midsummer 

 Century. Eight or nine exquisite woodcuts by Beard 

 illustrate the different species of this class of game- 

 birds in Europe and America, and far surpass in 

 finish, and in excellence of delineation, any previous 

 pictures we have seen. 



— An increased interest in economic entomology is 

 being shown in England. The Council of education 

 (My lords of the privy council) have formed a com- 

 mittee of advice and reference regarding the entomo- 

 logical collections which have existed for some time 

 in connection with South Kensington museum. This 

 committee is under Professor Huxley as chairm.an; 

 and among the members are Professor Westwood, 

 Mr. Dyer (sub-director at Kew gardens), and Miss 

 Ormerod. It is planned to form a collection of cases 

 that shall show the insects commonly injurious to a 

 serious extent to the crops, fruit and timber trees, of 

 the British Isles. Each case is to be accompanied by 

 short life-histories of the species in it, and descrip- 

 tions of the most serviceable methods of preventing 

 their ravages. It is the purpose of the committee to 

 make the collection thoroughly plain to be under- 

 stood, so that farmers aiul gardeners may be able to 

 consult it serviceably. As far as possible, the insects 

 will be shown in all stages, together with specimens 

 of the injured plant. In those ca.ses where specimens 

 are too small or too perishable to be used, drawings 

 or models will be substituted. The carrying-out of 

 this plan in a thoroughly siinitific manner has been 

 assnred by placing the preparation of the cases in 

 the hands of Professor Westwood and Miss Ormerod. 



— In order to bring together the greatest amount 

 of solid information respecting the natural history of 

 man, students have published manuals of anthropol- 

 ogy from time to time, formulating the questions they 

 desire to have answered. In 1800 Degeraudo, a mem- 



ber of the Institut de France, published a quarto of 

 fifty-seven pages, entitled ' Consid(5rations sur les 

 diverses m^thodes i suivre dans I'observation des 

 l)euplessauvage.' The Soci^ltS ethnologiquede Paris, 

 in 183!), published its first memoir, which was pre- 

 ceded by general instructions addressed to travellers, 

 among which were three chapters on the individual, 

 family, social, and religious life of peoples. Mr. Gal- 

 latin, in our own country, while preparing his com- 

 parative Indian linguistics, issued circulars to all army 

 officers, Indian agents, and travellers. Mr. School- 

 craft prepared a very elaborate scheme. George 

 Gibbs published through the Smithsonian institu- 

 tion a linguistic circular, and the same institution 

 has issued a number of others on anthropological sub- 

 jects. The most elaborate published in our country 

 are Major Powell's manual for collectors of linguis- 

 tics, and Professor Mason's directions to collectors 

 for the Centennial exhibition, and his pamphlet on 

 the study of North American antiquities. In 1875 

 the Geographical society of Paris published ' Instruc- 

 tions aux voyageurs.' The British as.soeiation have 

 printed three sets of questions, in 18.'>], 18.54, and in 

 1874. The last named bears the title ' Notes and 

 queries on anthropology for the use of travellers and 

 residents in uncivilized lands." The Austrian expe- 

 dition in the frigate Xovara was furnished with a 

 very elaborate volume of ciuestions upon anthropol- 

 ogy. In addition to these, we have ' Instructions 

 anthropologiques' and ' Instructions craniologiques ' 

 by the Paris society, and manuals by Roberts and 

 Kaltbrunner. Finally, the last-named society has 

 been discussing with much learning and a slight loss 

 of temper a ' Questionnaire de sociologie et d'ethno- 

 graphie.' 



— The following investigations have been com- 

 pleted by advanced students at the chemical laborato- 

 ry of Johns Hopkins university diu-ing the past year: 

 on the conduct of moist phosphorus and air towards 

 carbon monoxide; white phosphorus; oxidation of 

 a compound containing the sulphamine and propyl 

 groups in the ortho-position with reference to each 

 other, showing protection of the propyl; oxidation of 

 paradipropylbenzine-sulphamide, showing protection 

 of the propyl; on the nature of sinapic acid; the in- 

 lluence of light on fermentation; chemical examina- 

 tion of minerals from the neighborhood of Jones's 

 Falls. 



— Hegarding the early telescopic observations of the 

 ring of Saturn, Dr. H. G. van de Sande Bakhuvzen 

 the director of the ob.servatoiy at Leiden, writes to 

 the editor of 7'Ae obserratory : It is clear that Bell 

 is not the discoverer of the division of Saturn's ring: 

 but that Cassini ought to be accounted the discoverer 

 is not quite so certain. In a volume of Ms. obser- 

 vations by Iluygens, in the library of the university 

 of Leiden, there is a drawing of Saturn, made 1075 

 Dec. 8 (and which has been copied, and published by 

 Kaiser in 1855), wherein the division in the ring, and 

 the difference of brightness of the two parts, are clearly 

 indicated. Al)Ove and on the side of the drawing, 

 Iluygens wrote, among other things, "... Saturnus 

 cum comite observatus tubo 36 pedum Campani; 



