May I, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



243 



latter city. Still, among the alumni of the university there are so 

 many wealthy men who should be proud to come to the assistance 

 of their alma mater. The university have out of their present 

 funds provided a suitable site, and have provided annual grants 

 towards the payment of demonstrators and the cuiTent expenses 

 of the department. More, however, they are unable to do, with- 

 out outside assistance, which, it is to be hoped, will be promptly 

 forthcoming." 



— We learn from Engineering that the Kew Observatory are 

 about to undertake the testing of photographic lenses, as they 

 have long done that of telescopes, sextants, and surveying instru- 

 ments, as well as watches and thermometers. Lenses up to four 

 inches in diameter will be examined, and certificates awarded 

 according to the performances of the glass. They will be tested 

 in sets, the trials beginning about the 1st and loth of each month. 

 A lens may be entered either for a class A certificate or a class B 

 one. In the first case, the fee for which is 10s. 6d., the test will 

 comprise the determination of the length of equivalent focus; size 

 of effective aperture with every stop in terms of focal length ; 

 angle of field of view and size of plate effectively illuminated; 

 number of external reflecting surfaces; coincidence of visual and 

 chemical foci; presence of flare spot; workmanship of surfaces, 

 structure and degree of transparency of glass ; centring in mount ; 

 deflning power; relative quality of illumination in different parts 

 of fleld, and amount of astigmatism or optical distortion. For a 

 class B certificate, at a fee of 3s. 6d., the test will consist simply 

 of the determination of the length of equivalent focus; size of 

 efi'ective aperture with largest stop ; angle of field of view ; size of 

 plate effectively illuminated; and coincidence of visual and chemi- 

 cal foci. Further particulars of the arrangements can be obtained 

 from the superintendent, Kew Observatory, Old Deer Park, Rich- 

 mond. The fees charged are certainly very moderate for the work 

 undertaken, and, from the character already earned by the officials 

 of the Kew Observatory, there can be no doubt that this work will 

 be thoroughly performed. 



— In the course of excavations which are being carried out in 

 the neighborhood of Vienna by the Academy of Sciences, a cavern 

 was discovered on the slope of the mountain at Baden. A cor- 

 respondent writes to the London Times, "It was plain, on a cur- 

 sory inspection, that the cavern had been used not only in the 

 middle ages, but long previously. At the time of the Roman oc- 

 cupation, Baden was the encampment of a veteran legion who 

 were well acquainted with the good qualities of the waters. De- 

 cided remains of the foundations of a vestibule were found at the 

 entrance of the cave. In a niche hewn out of the rock was an 

 altar with the sacrificial stone table. In front of the cavern was 

 a regularly constructed building, fully ten feet below the surface 

 of the ground above, designed probably to conceal the cavern be- 

 hind, which was most probably employed as a temple to Mithras. 

 There were two stalls for horses, fragments of utensils, knives, 

 flint arrow-heads, carved bones, mixed up with Roman coins, 

 lamps, and stamped tiles." 



— M. Hennique, the director of the colonial section which formed 

 such a pronounced feature of the Paris Exposition of 1889, has 

 followed up his suggestion for a colonial exhibition at Paris in 

 1892 with characteristic energy; and there is now exery prospect 

 of success, according to Engineering of April 17. The scheme, 

 too, has immensely widened, and the society formed for its fur- 

 therance includes several members of the institute, many scientific 

 men and political notabilities all working in earnest. The exhibi- 

 tion will be opened on May 1, 1892. It is to be held, of course, on 

 ±he Champ de Mars; and the principal sections will be located in 

 the Machinery Hall, — one of the glories of the 1889 exhibition, and 

 at present used for popular gatherings on a large scale. Villages 

 and encampments will be erected by natives of colonies, who will in- 

 habit them, and in this way illustrate aboriginal life. The primary 

 idea is to gather a thoroughly representative collection of the prod- 

 uce of the colonies of all nations, while the scientific and nie- 

 •chanical departments will indicate the methods adopted and possi- 

 bility of adoption for development. It is not necessary to say that 

 the popular attractions will be largely in evidence : Parisian man- 

 agement implies that. M. Lockroy, who had much to do with 



the 1889 exposition, being at the time minister of public instruc- 

 tion, is taking an active interest in the project. He has been elected 

 president of the General Colonial Society, which is providing the 

 necessary funds to the extent of $1,400,000. As soon as the Muni- 

 cipal Council grant the use of the Champ de Mars, the society will 

 communicate with various nations, inviting co-operation. Special 

 requests are to be made to Great Britain. Agents are at the same 

 time to be sent to Africa, Asia, and America to arrange for groups 

 of aboriginal tribes being sent to the exhibition. These will be 

 changed from time to time, the exigencies of the ever -varying 

 climate being the chief consideration in making the arrangements, 

 so that denizens of the tropic as well as Arctic regions may be 

 presented for the amusement of the patrons of the exhibition as 

 well as for the study of ethnologists. 



— At the meeting of the French Meteorological Society on March 

 3, a communication from M. Mares showed that the weather in 

 Algeria had been as remarkable during the last winter as in 

 Europe. The author stated, says Nature, that in many localities 

 the excessive rainfall had prevented the sowing of seeds; and in 

 the mountainous districts, where the sowing had taken place early, 

 the seed had been swept away by the torrents. About the third 

 week in January a heavy fall of snow lay on the Mitidja and the 

 Sahel for two whole days. The writer states that for the last 

 thirty-five years, although he had sometimes seen snow fall, it 

 did not lie an instant on the ground. The effects had been dis- 

 astrous to early crops and to many animals. 



— A pleasant series of summer studies in botany was begun on 

 April 23 by the Torrey Botanical Club and the College of Phar- 

 macy of the City of New York, whose members have jointly ar- 

 ranged a course consisting of lectures and excursions extending 

 throughout the summer. This course has been provided as a 

 means of instruction for those business and professional men and 

 women who desire to become practically acquainted with the 

 chief principles of the science of botany and with local flora, but 

 who are deprived of the ordinary means of study provided by 

 schools and colleges. The course will consist of ten lectures by 

 competent instructors, and ten excursions into the woods and 

 fields by the lecturers and students. Professor Henry H. Rusby, 

 Professor Henry Kraemer, and Professor Thomas Morong wiU be 

 the lecturers. 



— The executive committee of the last International Congress of 

 Americanists, which was held in Paris from the 14th to the 30th 

 of October last, decided that the next session of the congress 

 should be held at such place as the Spanish Government should be 

 pleased to indicate. The Spanish Government has now designated 

 the Convent of Santa Maria de la Rabida, in the province of 

 Huelva, as the place of the ninth session of the congress, which 

 will commence on April 1, and end on Oct. 6, 1892. The Spanish 

 Transatlantic Steamship Line offers free passage to two officially 

 accredited delegates to the congress from each of the American 

 republics, and half fare for all other duly accredited members who 

 may desire to attend the congress at Santa Maria de la Rabida. 

 The Spanish railways will likewise give delegates half fares. Any 

 duly accredited person desiring to take part in the congress can 

 apply for membership to the Spanish consulate here, and for a 

 merely nominal fee will receive the proper credentials. The Con- 

 vent of Santa Maria de la Rabida has been chosen by the Spanish 

 Government because it is the place where Christopher Columbus 

 received his first real encouragement in his plan to sail westward 

 in an attempt to ditcover the Indies, and because it is near Palos, 

 the port from which he sailed. The International Congress of 

 Americanists has two aims, — to contribute to the progress of scien- 

 tific studies, relative to the two Americas, especially in times 

 previous to and immediately after Christopher Columbus, and to 

 bring more closely together the persons engaged in such studies. 

 A number of papers bearing upon matters in which the congress 

 is interested will be read at the different sessions. Any paper 

 requiring more than twenty minutes to read should be submitted 

 in advance. The classes of questions on which papers are invited, 

 and the various particular subjects under each class, are history, 

 geography, archaeology, anthropology, ethnography, language, and 

 paleography. 



