July 26, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



57 



of the colonies. During the year the population of the Australian 

 colonies increased 120,668: the increase in Victoria being 54,750; 

 New South Wales, 42,437 ; Queensland, 20,523; South Australia, 

 4,381 ; western Australia, 351 ; Tasmania, 3,671; New Zealand, 

 4,019. 



— The rdle played by vegetation in determining the character of 

 land surface is well shown in the so-called " banana-holes," so 

 abundant in New Providence and other of the Bahama Islands, — 

 holes varying in size from that of a pint cup to that of a large cis- 

 tern. They are suggestive of pot-holes, but can have no such ori- 

 gin, and are evidently not cut out by the waves at any previous 

 period of subsidence. Professor Charles S. Dolley, who recently 

 examined these holes, could account for their formation in but one 

 way, and that is through the action of decaying vegetable matter. 

 Each of these holes contains large quantities of leaves and other 

 vegetable substances, which, being kept wet by the heavy rains and 

 by the fresh water elevated by each rising tide (almost all wells 

 have a regular ebb and flow in these porous islands), undergo fer- 

 mentative changes, by the products of which the soft calcareous 

 rock is dissolved, and leaches away. 



— L' Economz'sie Fran^azse sa.ys that on the 31st of December, 

 1887, the total length of railways worked in Europe amounted to 

 207,939 kilometres (the kilometre being equivalent to .621 of a 

 mile), as compared with 301,468 kilometres in the preceding year. 

 The increase in 1887 was therefore 6,471 kilometres, or at the rate 

 of 3.21 per cent. The openings to traffic of the new lines which 

 took place in 1887 increased by 2.67 per cent the length of the 

 French system, while the percentage increase was 3.18 in Germany, 



5.59 in Austria-Hungary, 3.71 in Belgium, 1.03 only in the United 

 Kingdom, 3.92 in Italy, 2.96 in Russia. Roumanian lines increased 

 21.25 psf cent in 1887. The extent of French railway lines opened 

 in the course of 1887 represents 13.77 per cent of the total length 

 of line opened in 'the whole of Europe during the same period. 

 The participation of Germany in the increase of the European rail- 

 way system is 18.87 pel" cent; Austria, 20.21 per cent; Belgium, 



2.60 per cent ; Great Britain and Ireland, 5 per cent ; Italy, 6.76 

 per cent ; and Russia, 12.67 per cent. 



— Professor Edward H. Griffin of Williams College has accepted 

 in Johns Hopkins University the office of dean, and professor of 

 the history of philosophy, and he will enter upon his new duties at 

 the beginning of the next session. He was graduated at Williams 

 College in 1862, and subsequently pursued the study of theology in 

 Princeton and in New York. Since 1872 he has been a professor 

 in Williams College, having recently occupied the chair of intellec- 

 tual and moral philosophy which bears the name of iVIark Hopkins. 

 Professor Griffin received the honorary degree of D.D. from Am.- 

 herst in 1880, and of LL.D. from Princeton in 1888. 



— It appears, according to Nature, that the meteoric stone found 

 in Scania, and acquired by Baron Nordenskiold for the National 

 Museum at Stockholm, fell on April 6, and that its fall was accom- 

 panied by a red flash like lightning and a thunder-like detonation. 

 It weighs eleven kilograms, and had made a hole thirty centi- 

 metres in depth ; but, having recoiled, it lay on the level ground at 

 the edge of the hole. The color is grayish black, and the fracture 

 grayish white. From a hasty analysis made by Herr A. Win- 

 gardh of Helsingborg, the chief mass appears to consist of manga- 

 nese, in which are yellow and gray particles of metal. The mete- 

 orite seems to have been in a red-hot state, being covered with a 

 glazed coating of fused metal half a millimetre in thickness. 



— The international congress which met in Paris in 1887 to make 

 arrangements for the preparation of a photographic chart of the 

 heavens expressed a wish that a similar congress might meet for 

 the discussion of questions relating to celestial photography in gen- 

 eral. M. Janssen and Mr. Common were asked to take such steps 

 as might be necessary for the attainment of this object ; and after- 

 wards, by a ministerial decision at Paris, an organizing committee, 

 with M. Janssen as president, was appointed. The arrangements 

 have now been completed, and the congress will be held in Paris 

 from Aug. 22 to Sept. 3. The aim of the congress will be to de- 

 termine the methods which are most suitable for each branch of 

 celestial photography, and the means by which the results obtained 

 by these methods can be most effectually published and preserved. 



— W. F. C. Hasson, a graduate of the United States Naval 

 Academy, and now an assistant engineer of the United States Navy, 

 has been detailed by the United States Navy Department to give 

 instruction for the next three years in mechanics and engineering 

 at Johns Hopkins University, and has already entered upon the 

 duties of his new post. 



— W. J. Stillman writes to Nature, June 27, from Canea, Crete, 

 that he has just witnessed a curious case of bird instinct which 

 seems worth recording. A gardener living at Zukaleria, three miles 

 from Canea, caught in his garden a young but fully fledged spar- 

 row, which he brought to the house of a friend with whom the 

 writer was staying in Canea, leaving home early in the morning. 

 He presented the bird to one of the children in the house, and it 

 was put in a cage and hung at the window, where it seemed likely 

 to be contented, losing its fright after a few hours. Late in the 

 afternoon an old bird was noticed fluttering about the cage, ap- 

 parently trying to get at the little one ; and the young bird, on its 

 appearance, became frantic to get out to the old one. It was evi- 

 dently the mother of the young one, as the recognition was too 

 cordial to have been owing to the interest of a strange bird ; and 

 when Mr. Stillman's daughter opened the cage, as she did after a 

 little, they both flew off rapidly in the direction of Zukaleria. It is 

 impossible that the old bird should have followed the gardener, as 

 it would have been seen by them earlier in the day. 



— The Botanical Society of France announces the following 

 programme of the forthcoming botanical congress to be held in 

 Paris : Tuesday, Aug. 20, opening sitting of the congress at 2 p.m., 

 at the hotel of the Horticultural Society, 84 Rue de Crenelle ; re- 

 ception of foreign members at 8.30 P.M. Wednesday, Aug. 21, 

 sitting at 9 A.M., devoted to the consideration of the first question, 

 on the utility of an agreement between the different botanical so- 

 cieties and museums, for the purpose of drawing up charts of the 

 distribution of species and genera of plants on the globe ; and 

 other communications, if time allows. Thursday, Aug. 22, excur- 

 sion in the neighborhood of Paris. Friday, Aug. 23, sitting at 9 

 A.M., devoted to the consideration of the second question, on the 

 characters furnished by anatomy for classification, and other com- 

 munications if time allows ; in the afternoon a visit to the botanical 

 collections and laboratories of the Museum of Natural History, and 

 of the other large scientific establishments in Paris. Saturday, 

 Aug. 24, sitting at 9 A.M., miscellaneous contributions ; in the 

 afternoon a visit to the exhibition. Sunday, Aug. 25, banquet to 

 the foreign botanists. During the following week several botanical 

 excursions will also be arranged. Special arrangements with re- 

 gard to railway-fares will be made in favor of botanists announcing 

 their intention to be present to M. P. Maury, the secretary to the 

 committee of organization, 84 Rue de Crenelle, before July 25. 



— The sixty-second meeting of German naturalists and physi- 

 cians will be held at Heidelberg from Sept. 17 to Sept. 23. One 

 whole day will be devoted to excursions in the neighborhood, and 

 on the evening of Sept. 23 the Castle of Heidelberg will be bril- 

 liantly illuminated. 



— Satisfactory progress is being made with the preliminary ar- 

 rangements in connection with the Electrical Engineering and 

 Mechanical Inventions Exhibition, which is to be held in Edin- 

 burgh next year to commemorate the opening of the Forth Bridge. 

 Support has been promised from this country, and some of the 

 exhibits in the Paris Exhibition are to be transferred to Edinburgh. 



— In 1887-S8 the courses in astronomy at Johns Hopkins were 

 so extended as to justify its being chosen as a principal subject by 

 candidates for the degree of doctor of philosophy. A small obser- 

 vatory has been erected, and is fitted up with a meridian circle by 

 Fauth & Co., a portable transit instrument by Troughton, a clock, 

 a chronograph, and other subsidiary apparatus. In the dome of 

 the physical laboratory is mounted an equatorial of 9I inches aper- 

 ture, so fitted that the student can learn to make the usual deter- 

 minations with the largest instruments of that class. The work 

 in astronomy consists in a study of the histor}- and practice of the 

 subject, supplemented by instruction in the use of the instruments, 

 and exercises in astronomical computation. During the year 1889- 

 90 the courses are intended to cover a wider range of individual 

 subjects than usual. 



