48 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 390 



X,ord Chesterfield's letters, which it strongly resembles, for it com- 

 bines reminiscence with instruction, precept and anecdote running 

 side by side through its pages. A portiait of Mr. McAllister, 

 taken expressly for the purpose, will form the frontispiece of 

 the book. 



— At the third summer meetiog of university extension and 

 other students, which is to be held at Oxford in August, as stated 

 in Nature, Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.K.S., will lecture on the influence 

 of courtship on color, and Mr. Francis Gotch on tbe physiology of 

 the nervous system; Professor Patrick Geddes will deal with 

 problems of evolution, organic and social; Professor Green, F.R.S., 

 will give a course on geology; and Mj. C. Cams- Wilson lectures on 

 geological phenomena. "The Teaching of Geography," by Mr. 

 H. J. Mackiuder; "Protective Adaptations in Plants," by Mr. J. 

 B. Farmer; and " Some Aspects of Light," by M. V. Perronet Sells, 

 — are also subjects announced in the programme. 



— It will be remembered that a set of metric standards, fur- 

 nished by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near 

 Paris, was brought to this country last autumn, and that they 

 were formally received by the President of the United States, in 

 tbe presence of a number of distinguished men. The other set 

 allotted to this government, consisting of Metre No. 21 and Kilo- 

 gram No. 4, has just been brought from Paris by Assistant O. H. 

 Tittmann, and has been deposited at the office of United States 

 Standard Weights and Measures in tbe Coast and Geodetic Survey 

 building at Washington. 



— Under the auspices of the Royal Dublin Society, and partially 

 aided by government, a scientific investigation of Irish fishing- 

 grounds is now being carried on upon the south-west and west 

 coasts of Ireland, as stated in Nature of July 3. Tbe Rev. W. 

 Spotswood Green, her Majesty's inspector of fisheries, Dutilin, 

 and Professor A. C. Haddon of Dublin, organized the expediticn, 

 which is expected to last four or five months. The screw steamer 

 '•Fingal," of Glasgow, 160 tons register, chartered for the cruise, 

 left Queenstown on May 7, having on board Mr. Green, Professor 

 Prince, Mr. T. H. Poole of Cork (special surveyor to the expedi- 

 tion), and a crew of seamen experienced in trawl, net, and line 

 tishing. Professor Prince, who has conducted elaborate investi- 

 gations upon the embryology of food-fishes at St. Andrews, and, 

 later on, Mr. E W. L. Holt, also of St. Andrews Marine Labora- 

 tory, superintended the zoological department until Professor 

 Haddon was able to join the .steamer. Dr. R. Sohartf of the Sci- 

 ence and Art JIuseum, Dublin, and other gentlemen, have tem- 

 porarily assisted on board. The "Fingal" has been specially fitted 

 up for the work. Several beam-trawls (including patent forms), 

 a' quantity of mackerel nets, thirteen miles of long lines, large 

 tow-nets (after Professor Mcintosh's pattern), microscopes and in- 

 struments for zoological and physical research, are included 

 among the appliances. The coast from Cape Clear to Killybegs 

 Bay (Donegal) has already been traversed, and about thirty sta- 

 tions have been tested, and results of value obtained. In tbe open 

 sea and in inshore waters the eggs and larval stages of mackerel, 

 ling, gurnard, haddock, turbot, witch, and other species of food- 

 fishes, have been obtained; and a great variety of invertebrates, 

 including some rare echinoderms, annelids, raollusks, etc., have 

 been brought up in the dredge and trawl, the greatest depth tested 

 so far being about a hundred fathoms. The estuary of the Kenmare 

 River, Dingle Bay, Smerwick, Birterburg, and Roundstone Bays, 

 and the harbor of Chfden, proved to be very rich in invertebrate 

 forms, specimens of Synapta inhcerens being abundant, while 

 Bonellia. Priapulus. and many rare moUusks, Lyonsia. Philine, 

 and various nudibranchs, were procured. Copepods, larval crusta- 

 ceans, medusae, echinoderms, and ascidians occurred in such 

 quantities as to frequently cause great inconvenience. A fine ex- 

 ample of Orthagoriscus mola, nedsly nme feet in dorso-ventral 

 measurement, was shot by Mr. Green, and secured; and the rare 

 pleuronectid, Arnoglossus grohmanii, was obtained in Clifden 

 harbor, the second specimen captured in British seas. Deep-sea 

 dredgings will be taken, and it is expected that the reports to be 

 presented at the end of tbe cruise to the Royal Dublin Society, to 

 the Irish Fishery Department, and the government, will be of 

 unusual scientific interest. 



— Mr. W. C. Macdonald, a merchant of Montreal, has just 

 made a munificent contribution to McGill College, says Nature of 

 July 10. He has given $150,000 to the law faculty for the en- 

 dowment of the dean's and another chair, and also $50,000 for the 

 endowment of a chair of experimental physics, and has offered to 

 erect buildings for the faculty of applied science, to include class- 

 rooms and laboratories. Altogether the value of Mr. Macdonald's 

 gift is about $400,000. 



— The July number of the Kew Bulletin cont^Lms further in- 

 formation on the cultivation and preparation of the coloring-sub- 

 stance known as annatto. The present instalment deals with the 

 West African seed, which does not appear to possess the qualities 

 of that from Jamaica. A new method of preserving grain from 

 weevils is suggested, while there is a long correspondence on 

 Colombian india rubber. The letters contain an account of a tree 

 which yields rubber, and which is known in commerce as Colom- 

 bia virgeii. It has the peculiarity of growing at high elevations, 

 and therefore in a comparatively cool climate. Another section 

 deals with the fibre-industry of the Bahamas ; and particulars are 

 given of the establishment of the botanical station at Lagos, the 

 first of its kind on the West Coast of Africa. A letter from the 

 curator, Mr. McNalr, gives interesting information respecting 

 some of the plants under experimental cultivation there. 



— We learn from Nature of July 10, that according to the re- 

 port of the Oxford University extension scheme which has been 

 issued, and which comes up to the commencement of July, " since 

 June, 1889, 148 courses have been delivered in 109 centres by 25 

 lecturers. Examinations were held at the conclusion of 119 

 courses, and the examiners have awarded certificates of merit or 

 distinction to 927 candidates The courses were attended by 

 17,854 students, and the average period of study covered by each 

 course was 10 weeks." In 1885-86 the number of courses deliv- 

 ered was 37 only, and the number of lecture centres, 32. Among 

 the chief signs of progress recorded are (1) a great extension of 

 university teaching in small towns, (2) a marked increase in the 

 number of working men attending the lectures, (3) the arrange- 

 ment of a number of successful and well-attended courses during 

 the early summer months, (4) the establishment of 36 students' 

 associations at various centres, and (5) the federation in two new 

 districts of the various lecture centres. The students' associations 

 are very valuable, inasmuch as "they encourage the students to 

 undertake regular reading throughout the year in preparation 

 for, or in continuation of, the courses of lectures." The federa- 

 tion movement is also extremely helpful. It enables the difficulty 

 sometimes experienced in procuring lecturers to be more easily 

 surmounted, and it fosters and stimulates local interest in the 

 study undertaken. Tbe committee regrets that a greater propor- 

 tion of students do not present themselves for examination; but 

 those who do go through the ordeal appear, on the whole, to come 

 out very creditably. Scholarships are given to the writers of the 

 best essays on a number of subjects connected with those studied 

 during the course; and "among the successful essayists," we are- 

 told, "were two carpenters, two clerks, a fustian weaver, an 

 artisan employed in a government dockyard, and three elementary 

 teachers." In an examination recently held, those who were 

 awarded certificates included " a national school-mistress, a young 

 lawyer, a plumber, and a railway signalman." Again, we are 

 Informed that "a course of lectures on zoology recently given by 

 an Oxford lecturer in Devonshire was attended by a student whose 

 essays convinced the lecturer of her singular powers of accurate 

 and original observation. She was encouraged by the lecturer to- 

 undertake a course of systematic study, and at his suggestion be- 

 came a candidate in the examination for scholarships at Somerville 

 Hall, where she was elected to the second scholarship." 



— The latest information of the Russian expedition to Thibet,, 

 under the command of Col. Pevtsoff, is contained in the follow- 

 ing letter from the mining engineer Bogdanovitcb, published by 

 the Russian newspaper the Messenger of the Volga, and repub- 

 lished in Nature of July 10: "Having happily passed through 

 the winter at Nia, the expedition set out on April 24 to traverse 

 the defile of Idjelik-Khanoum, and thus reach Thibet. Col. 

 Pevtsoff had sent half his camels, carrying 23 bales with his col- 



