510 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. V., No. 124. 



nien.' Under the same editor has just been issued 

 the first part of a hand-lexicon of Africa by Paul 

 Heichen, to comprise thirty parts, octavo, at fifty 

 pfennige each, to be profusely illustrated, and to 

 contain retrospective as well as actual information. 

 It is well printed, and is published by Grossner& 

 Schramm, Leipzig. 



— A long-delayed letter from the bishop of central 

 Oceanica gives details of the honors rendered by the 

 civil and religious authorities to the relics of the 

 companions of La Perouse. These last survivors of 

 that unfortunate expedition were massacred by the 

 Samoans on the Islet of Tutuila on the 11th of Decem- 

 ber, 1787. Father Yidal, of the mission, had been 

 searching twelve years for the remains, which were 

 finally identified in October, 1882. The authorities 

 in France, on being notified, caused a beautiful mor- 

 tuary tablet to be prepared, and forwarded to the ad- 

 miral on duty at that station. A monument was 

 erected, upon which the tablet was fixed, and a small 

 chapel built near it. The whole was dedicated by 

 Bishop Lamaze and Commandant Fournier, of the 

 French navy, with solemn ceremonial and minute- 

 guns on the ninety-seventh anniversary of the event. 



— The Societe de geographie has elected Mr. de 

 Lesseps, the present incumbent, to its presidency for 

 1885-86, and Messrs. Himly and Bischoffsheim, vice- 

 presidents. 



— A portion of the work of Protestant missionaries 

 in China, which has attracted little attention, says 

 Nature, and which, nevertheless, is of great impor- 

 tance, is the preparation of school and text books in 

 Chinese. For this purpose Protestant missionaries 

 of all nationalities and denominations have united. 

 At a general conference held in Shanghai in 1877, a 

 committee of eight of the leading missionaries was 

 appointed to superintend the preparation and publi- 

 cation of the series. The work has now been going 

 on for eight years, and the committee are able to re- 

 port that over forty works have been issued, and that 

 thirty more are in various stages of progress. In 

 addition, four numbers have been issued of an ' out- 

 line series' compiled with the object of supplying 

 Chinese schools with small and simple treatises on 

 scientific subjects at cheap rates, suitable either as 

 elementary school-books or as popular tracts for 

 general distribution. What ' cheap rates ' mean, will 

 appear from the fact that the outlines of astronomy 

 costs rather less than a penny ; those of political and 

 physical geography and geology, about twopence 

 each. The larger works embrace anatomy in five 

 volumes, ancient religions and philosophies in three, 

 arithmetic, charts of astronomy, birds and mammals, 

 with accompanying handbooks (these charts, from 

 the prices, are obviously intended for the walls of 

 schools), chemistry, political economy, geology, uni- 

 versal history, international law (a translation of 

 Bluntschli, it appears), zoology, and several on bibli- 

 cal topics. Those in preparation include treatises on 

 various branches of elementary mathematics, botany, 

 ethnology, hygiene, jurisprudence, logic, mathemati- 

 cal physics, meteorology, mineralogy, philology, and 



forty wall-charts with accompanying handbooks. 

 These works, it must be remembered, have first to 

 be compiled with a special view to the knowledge 

 usually possessed by Chinese children, and then to 

 be translated, representing in each case two distinct 

 tasks. That the missionaries in China and elsewhere 

 have schools where they teach the young, is well 

 known; but it will probably be a surprise to many to 

 find, that, in addition to their ordinary labors as 

 preachers and teachers, the missionaries in China 

 have had to undertake a task of such magnitude as 

 the creation of school literature on all subjects of 

 human knowledge, from arithmetic to jurisprudence, 

 and from anatomy to logic. The statement on this 

 subject is taken, it should be added, from the Chi- 

 nese recorder of Shanghai, a magazine which is itself 

 a monument to the learning and enterprise of Protes- 

 tant missionaries in China. 



— The second edition of Macfarlane's ' Geological 

 railway guide,' first published in 1879, is now in ac- 

 tive preparation. As its advance depends on co-op- 

 eration from many state geologists and others, it is 

 of necessity somewhat leisurely ; but substantial prog- 

 ress is marked by thirty preliminary pages, which 

 describe the Dominion of Canada, prepared.by G. M. 

 Dawson ; and, if the rest of the work is up to this high 

 standard of detail, it will be a great improvement 

 on its valuable predecessor. The notes are full, and 

 serve an excellent purpose. For example : uuder St. 

 Hilaire station, Grand Trunk railway, we find, "Be- 

 loeil Mountain, one of the remarkable igneous pro- 

 trusions which penetrate the flat-lying Silurian rocks 

 of the St. Lawrence valley, may be visited from this 

 point. The mountain is partly composed of augite 

 syenite, and partly of nepheline syenite. An excel- 

 lent summer hotel on the mountain." Again, at 

 Thorold, " Good section of Clinton and Niagara in 

 cutting of Welland canal. Fossils. A band of argil- 

 laceous limestone eight feet thick in the Niagara 

 yields an excellent cement." 



— The ordnance survey of the United Kingdom 

 has issued an interesting report on the progress made 

 to the end of 1884. Scotland and Ireland have been 

 completed, and maps of these countries on the six- 

 inch scale have been published. In Wales, Pem- 

 broke, Carnarvon, and Anglesea alone remain to be 

 surveyed. It is hoped that the whole of the king- 

 dom may be finished by the year 1890. 



— Professor Hermann Fol has made a most valua- 

 ble contribution to the resources of the histologist 

 through the publication of the first part of his ' Lehr- 

 buch der vergleichenden mikroskopischen anatomie/ 

 — a treatise which ought to be in the hands of every 

 morphologist and microscopist. The first part is 

 entirely devoted to technique, and is so thorough and 

 exhaustive, and done with so much critical acumen, 

 that it surpasses all its predecessors. Sensible and 

 practical directions for the use of the manifold 

 instruments and operations of the histologist are 

 given. The author has added also many valuable 

 explanations and criticisms, and describes a number 

 of new implements and methods devised by himself. 



