162 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 107. 



— The first part of the new ' Journal of the New- 

 York microscopical society ' has appeared as a well- 

 printed octavo of thirty-two pages. It is to contain 

 the transactions and proceedings of the society, and to 

 be published in nine monthly numbers, from Novem- 

 ber to July inclusive, at one dollar per annum, The 

 present number contains an abstract of Stein's article 

 on electrical illumination for the microscope, which 

 appeared in the Zeitschrift fur voissenschaftliche mi- 

 kroskopie ; a short critical essay on pollen-tubes, by 

 Dr. Britton; the report of the proceedings of the 

 society; and, finally, an ' Index to articles of interest 

 to microscopists.' From the examination of the 

 journal, we conclude that the society opens its 

 career with good prospects ; and we find among the 

 members a number of familiar and esteemed names, 

 which makes us hope that it will prove something 

 more than an association of dilettanti. Cornelius 

 van Brunt is president of the society, and B. Braman 

 editor of the journal. 



— The Deutsche geographische blatter of Bremen 

 publishes a ' sociological essay' on the Kongo tribes, 

 written by Mr. K. C. Phillips, an old resident at 

 Ponta da Lenha. The writer deals more especially 

 with the social condition of the tribes with whom he 

 was brought into contact, and only incidentally enters 

 into questions of commerce and international policy. 

 What he says about the recent ' annexations' and 

 purchases of land by the International association, 

 the French, and the Portuguese, is of some interest 

 just now. It is quite clear that the native chiefs, 

 when they signed tjie documents so ostentatiously 

 made public, never meant either to 'sell' the land of 

 their tribes, or to place themselves under the sover- 

 eignty or protection of foreign powers. 



— The following three monographs, part of the 

 larger work on the fauna raid flora of the Bay of 

 Naples and the neighboring coasts, will shortly be 

 published by Engelmann of Leipzig: 'Doliolum,' by 

 Dr. Basilius Uljanin, with twelve colored lithographs, 

 ten zincographs, and a woodcut; 'Polycladae,' by 

 Dr. A. Lang, with fifteen lithographs; ' Cryptomen- 

 iaceae,' by Dr. G. Berthold, with eight colored litho- 

 graphs. 



— The eighteenth volume of the new edition of 

 the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' is to be published 

 this month. It opens with the article ' Ornithology,' 

 of Prof. A. Newton : and among the other scientific 

 articles are ' Oysters,' by Mr. J. I. Cunningham ; 

 'Pacific Ocean,' by Mr. J. Murray; 'Parasitism,' 

 treated under the three heads, 'animal,' 'vegetable,' 

 and 'medical,' by Mr. P. Geddes, Mr. Milne Murray, 

 and Dr. C. Creighton; 'Pathology,' by Dr. Creigh- 

 ton; 'Photography,' by Capt. Abney;and 'Phrenol- 

 ogy?' by Professor Macalister. 'Philology' is dealt 

 with by Professor Whitney of Yale, and Prof. E. 

 Sievers of Tubingen. 



— The fourth edition of ' Tables, meteorological and 

 physical,' by Professor Arnold Guyot, has just been 

 published by the Smithsonian institution. The pre- 

 ceding or third edition was published in 185ft; and 

 though stereotyped, it was thought advisable to have 



this new edition entirely reconstructed. It now 

 forms an octavo volume of seven hundred and sixty- 

 three pages, and is offered for sale at the price of 

 three dollars. The first series of tables (fifteen in 

 number) embraces thermometrical comparisons and 

 conversions; the second (of thirty-three tables), 

 hygrometrical computations; the third (of twenty- 

 seven), barometrical tables; the fourth (of twenty- 

 six), hypsometrical tables; the fifth, geographical 

 tables of conversions, including forty-nine tables of 

 measures of length (for heights, etc. ), ten tables of 

 itinerary measures, and ten tables of square meas- 

 ures, or measures of geographical surface; the sixth 

 (of ninety nine), tables for corrections of variations 

 of temperature, etc., at different parts of the earth; 

 the seventh and last series (of nine tables) em- 

 braces miscellaneous tables. 



— The brothers Donhardt have reached Zanzibar, 

 and will continue the explorations in the interior of 

 eastern Africa, which they began in 1878 and 1879. 



— The International association has sent out an 

 officer to open a station between Karema, on Lake 

 Tanganyika, and the station at Stanley Falls, on the 

 Upper Kongo. A transcontinental route will then be 

 opened by steamer up the Zambezi and Lake Nyassa, 

 across the Stevenson road to Lake Tanganyika, 

 thence by the new station to Stanley Falls, and so 

 down the Kongo. 



— The two Austrian explorers, Dr. von Hardegger 

 and Professor Paulitschke, have sailed from Trieste 

 for Aden, whence they mean to go to Harar, and 

 make scientific studies, and collect specimens between 

 there and Sela. 



— The general geographical conference of the 

 Australian colonies, to be held at Melbourne, is to 

 discuss the necessity of defining the exact meaning of 

 the geographical term ' Australasia,' the compilation 

 of a reliable work on the geography of Australia for 

 Australian schools, the New-Guinea exploration, and 

 the discovering and defining of the exact boundaries 

 of what may now be termed ' British New Guinea.' 



— It is stated in the anthropological notes of the 

 Athenatum, that Deniker's study of the Kalmucks, 

 which has appeared in the last five numbers of the 

 Revue uV anthropologic, is now complete. He re- 

 marks that in Russia, as in China, the Kalmucks are 

 little by little losing their originality, though not so 

 quickly as some other peoples; and that the time is 

 not far distant when there will only remain of this 

 ancient and warlike people, which has its own lit- 

 erature, religion, and laws, some thousands of peace- 

 able subjects whose physical type will perhaps be all 

 that will be left to prove their Mongolian origin. In 

 sooner or later absorbing themselves into the rest of 

 humanity, however, they will certainly add to the 

 mass some traits of character distinctively their own. 

 The same author has also published an investigation 

 into the foetus of the gorilla"; a specimen of which, 

 the only one which has ever reached Europe, is in 

 his hands, and has been described by him to the So- 

 ciety of anthropology of Paris. 



