NOVKMBEII U>, \XSii.] 



SCIENCE. 



mi 



ladies, clirahed Ihe inuuiitaiii, in spite ut unfavora- 

 ble weather; and after their return to the base, where 

 a second meteorological station is establislied, a din- 

 ner, with congratulatory speeches, was given. The 

 funds for the establishment of these observatories, 

 £5,000, have been raised by popular subscriptions, 

 the subscribers numbering about two thousand. 



— At the meeting of the German society of natural 

 science at Ilalle, on Oct. 0, a paper was read by Dr. 

 Assman of ilagdeburg, on the advisability of estab- 

 lishing a meteorological station on the Brocken Moun- 

 tain. 'What will become of the spectre?' 



— Drs. Schuchardt and Krause, of the Volkmann 

 clinical hospital at Halle, consider that they have 

 placed the connection between scrofula and tuber- 

 culosis beyond a doubt. Following up Koch's line of 

 research, they have discovered the peculiar bacilli 

 of tuberculosis to be present in several distinct forms 

 of scrofula. 



— Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau, professor of 

 physics at the University of Ghent, died at that place, 

 Sept. 1.5, at tlie age of eighty-two yeai-s. 



— The U.S. hydrographic office has published a 

 ' List of geographical positions for the use of naviga- 

 tors and others," compiled by Lieut.-f'oniniander F. 

 M. Green. The list is divided into seventeen sec- 

 tions, accoiding to the geographical position of the 

 places, and is confined to points on the sliore or on 

 navigable rivers. 



— Ur. J. Lawrence Smith died at Louisville, Ky., 

 on Oct. 12, in his sixty-fifth year. He was born 

 near Charleston, S.C, and was educated at the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia and the Charleston medical col- 

 lege. He afterwards spent some time abroad. His 

 first paper was published while he was in Paris. A 

 large part of his work was in meteorology, his collec- 

 tion of meteorites being especially famous. 



— Among the exhibits at the New- Mexico territo- 

 rial fair, held at .Xlbuijuerque, Oct. I to .">, was a 

 collection of antii|uities from tire old pueblo ruins 

 of Arizona, l)y Mr. Thomas V. Keam. This gentle- 

 man has long been engaged in trade in that region, 

 is well known to the Indians and to our national 

 surveying -parties, and has rendered very efiicient 

 service, both as an advisor and mediator, in our nego- 

 tiations with the Navajos. His exhibit was highly 

 spoken of by the Albuquerqu* press. 



— Dr. D. G. Brinton of Philadelphia, who was one 

 of the vice-presidents of the congress of Americanists 

 held in Copenhagen, and the only delegate from Ihe 

 United States, makes a brief report of the proceed- 

 ings. In 187.5 the first meeting was Iveld at Nancy; 

 that of 1877, at Brussels; of 1S7'J, at Luxembourg; of 

 ISSl, at Madrid. The meeting of this year was opened 

 in the magnificent hall of the university, in the pres- 

 ence of the king, the royal family, the Princess of 

 Wales, and other dignitaries. Professor Worsall pre- 

 sided, and delivered the address of welcome. The 

 discussions and papers related to paleolithic man in 

 America, Scandinavian discoveries, the history of 

 Columbus, native American literature, ceramics, tre- 

 phiny, etc. Dr. Brinton reports that the communi- 

 cations were very generally of a high order, though 



there was enough of I'rince Madoc and the pilgrimage 

 of St. Thomas to remind the members of the jnimble 

 origin of archeology. 



— Messrs. Kegan Paul. Trench, & Co.. of London, 

 announce Mr. Everard ini Thurm's 'Among the 

 Indians of British Guiana," sketches, chiefly anthro- 

 pologic, from the interior. 



— M. Berthelot has publislied the results of his 

 researches into the nature of explosives, under the 

 title of 'Sur la force des niatiferes explosives d'aprfes 

 la thermochimie.' One portion of the book appeared 

 as an article in the Nouvelle rente. 



In presenting his work to the Paris academic des 

 sciences, M. Berthelot explained that he was led to 

 those researches by the events of 1870. The first 

 book is on his theory of the phenomena of explosion, 

 and especially the explosive wave, which he considers 

 throws a new light on the subject. Tlie second book 

 is on the composition of explosives, and the third on 

 their comparative power. The last is very compre- 

 hensive, and he gives numerous tables. 



— Mr. William .1. Fisher, U.S. sigual-observfr at 

 Kadiak, has found time, in the prosecution of his 

 duties, to collect for the National museum ethnologi- 

 cal specimens from the following Alaskan tribes: 

 Ugashagmint, of Ugashag River, Biistol Bay: Ta- 

 nichnagraiute, of Lesnoi Island, near Kodiak I>land; 

 Nanuachpachmiute, of Aliaska peninsula, near Ui- 

 amna Bay; Keiichwichmiut, at Katmai settlement, 

 Aliaska peninsula; Kiatichmynt, near Maltshatna 

 River, Aliaska peninsula; Tshu-attshigmjnt, around 

 Nuchek, Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound. 



The editor of the Smithsonian proceedings holds 

 up this invoice of Mr. Fisher as an example to be fol- 

 lowed by all collectors. The excellent features are 

 the native names of the articles, the expl:iMatinn of 

 their functions, and the location of the tribe from 

 which each comes. There is a very grave objection, 

 however, to the spelling of the names and the iden- 

 tification of the tribes. Mr. Dall and others have 

 located many little bands of Eskimo all along the 

 Alaskan coast. Are these the same, or different ones? 

 If the same, why another mode of spelling; and, what 

 is worse, why is ' mut ' spelled ' mint,' ' miu(c; ' ' miut," 

 'mynt;' 'mjnt,' ' mjut,' 'nijule,' 'jujill,' ' injcnl,' 

 mjunt,' and 'muff Strenuous efforts are making 

 to bring order out of chaos in the matter (if tribes, 

 but nothing will be accomplished if confusion is con- 

 stantly introduced by observeis. 



— Prof. T. (f. Bonney read a paper before the 

 Geological society of London on Nov. 7, on the geol- 

 <igy of the South Devon coast from 'IVr Cross to 

 Hope Cove. 



— The relation of the state to Ihe me<li>-al profes- 

 sion was the prevailing topic in the recent inaugural 

 addresses before the schools of the several hospitals 

 of Loiujon. Until 1S5.S the English people had virtu- 

 ally no protection against unrjualified practitioners. 

 In that year the act was jiassed establishing the pres- 

 ent system of medical licensing. 



A royal commission was appointed in May, 1881, to 

 inquire into the existing provision, and to recommend 

 such additional action as might seem advis.able. The 



