researches on slaty cleavage and on the minute structure of mi nerals and rocks, for the construction of the micro-spectroscope, and for his researches on colouring matters.

We are very glad to be able to announce that Prof. Maskelyne's lectures on Crystallography to the Chemical Society are likely to be well attended. The first lecture will be given on Monday evening next, at 8.30, at Burlington House.

LAST week some engineers visited the National Library, Paris, on behalf of the Japanese Government, to take measurements for the purpose of building a large public library in Japan on the same plan. The magazine and reading-rooms of Paris have, with some improvements, been built on the system of the British Museum.

THE report of the Potato Disease Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society has been recently published. It will be recollected that three years ago Earl Cathcart offered a prize of 100/. for essays on the prevention of the disease. Although no fresh practical information was elicited, and it may perhaps be said no direct good came from this well-meant offer, the Society took the subject up and offered prizes for potatoes reputed to be proof against disease. Two prizes were offered for the commencement of this year, for potatoes of varieties already known, and two are to be awarded five years hence for varieties that may be produced by cultivation before that periol. Six different varieties were sent in, I ton (twenty bags of 1 cwt.) of each. The Society arranged to have these practically tested. Twelve stations in England, four in Scotland, and four in Ireland were selected, and I cwt. of each variety sent for planting, of these so-called disease-proof potatoes. During the summer the botanic referee of the Society visited all the localities, and in all cases disease was found. Much valuable information is likely to arise from the statistics that have been collected, for although it seems that Lo indication is given of how the disease can be preventel, yet under certain conditions, principally influenced by moisture, its effect is but small. Prof. de Bary has worked cut the scientific questions that occur as to the origin of the disease. It is owing to a fungus (Peronospora infestans), which attacks the leaves first, and after absorbing the nutriment of them, utilises the petiole, and thus reaches the tubes. A further report of the Committee, based on the statistics sent in, is shortly to be expected.

WE greatly regret to announce the death of Mrs. Hooker, the wife of the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, and President of the Royal Society, which took place on Friday, Nov. 13, very suddenly. She was the translator of Le Maout and Decaisne's "Traité général de Botanique. She will be missed by a large circle of scientific friends.

THE death of Dr. Archibald Campbell will be regarded as a severe loss by his colleagues in scientific societies and by many of the Indian public. He was sixty-nine years of age, and till lately appeared hale and hearty. As Superintendent of Darjeeling, he became a leading authority of reference on the natural history, geography, and ethnography of Thibet, Nepaul, Sikkim, and Bhootan. He was distinguished as an administrator, and under his government and auspices Darjeeling has risen from an obscure sanitarium for invalid soldiers to be a settlement of some consideration. He was the author of several memoirs and

notes.

WE have to record the death, on Monday last, in his fiftysixth year, of Dr. Edward Smith, F.R.S., Assistant Medical Officer, for Poor-law purposes, to the Local Government Board. Dr. Smith's excellent observations on quantitative physiological cyclical phenomena, many of which were conducted on himself, are too well known to require special mention; they indicate an amount of energy and willingness to experience personal incon

venience for the sake of his favourite subject which is very rarely to be met with. His observations on dietaries, especially with regard to the Manchester cotton famine, are also of consi lerable importance.

We hear that a new method has been proposed for crossing the Channel; this is to construct an artificial isthmus between the French and English sides, leaving a very small space in the centre for the passage of ships. The expense would not be much larger than that of boring a tunnel, and the advantages would in some respects be greater.

THE International Congress of Orientalists has been the means of originating in Paris a new society under the title of Société d'Études, Japonaises, Chinoises, Tartares, and Indo-chinoises. The number of members already amounts to sixty. At a recent meeting of the Society, M. Bourset exhibited a game for teaching children in a few hours the elements of which Chinese letters are made-omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci. M. Bourset has also shown another invention for diminishing the number of letters which must be cut, and therefore of diminishing the cost of printing Chinese works.

M. LEVERRIER is constructing, in the recently annexed garden of his observatory, a basis for comparing accurately, by superposition, standard measures of length with the metre. The first comparison will be made between the Archives metre and the celebrated Boscowitz rule, which was used more than a century ago for determining the length of two degrees in the Papal

States.

IN a paper read before the Paris Société d'Acclima'ation, Dr. Turrel suggests that the rapid spread of the Phylloxera vastutrix in France may be due to the scarcity of small birds in that country. Forty years ago, he says, linnets, tits, &c., were numerous in Provence, and in the autumn they could be seen posted on the vine branches, carrying on a vigorous search after the insects, and larvæ and eggs of insects, concealed in the cracks of the stein and leaves of the plant. Since the commencement of the present century, however, it is easy to perceive that the destruction of small birds has been carried on more anl more generally; and that, concurrently with this war of extermination against the feathered tribes, the numbers of destructive insects have increased at an alarming rate. Dr. Turrel thinks that, though it cannot be absolutely maintained that the oidium and the Phylloxera, the two latest forms of vine disease (the one a vegetable, the other an insect parasite), owe their frightful extension to the scarcity of small birds, yet it is unquestionable that a plant like the vine, weakened by the attacks of insects, is less in a condition to withstand the ravages of parasites; and that, deprived of its feathered protectors and left to the successive and unchecked onslaught of the vine grub and other normal enemies, it has been predisposed to succumb before the ravages of its new enemies. The obvious moral is that the French are themselves partly to blame for their indiscretion in killing the useful small birds.

THE Commotion created in th : Paris School of Medicine by the false rumour spread by the Figaro has been beyond bounds; not only was M. Wurtz, the Dean, cheered, but M. Chauffard, one of the professors belonging to the clerical party, was hooted, and unable to deliver his lecture. The disorder having been renewed in spite of all precautions taken by M. Wurtz, the School of Medicine has been closed for a month. If students again exhibit a riotous spirit, the ringleaders will be prosecuted before a Council of War; which is a lawful proceeding, Paris being placed under a state of siege.

STROMBOLI is reported to have recently shown symptoms of revived action.

ICEBERGS are reported to have been met with in the Bay of Biscay during very rough weather, by the Mongolia, which arrived at Southampton on Monday last. Icebergs have been met with as far south, but generally well out in the Atlantic Ocean.

We invite the attention of all interested in technical education to the very excellent examination scheme of the Society of Arts, intended to promote such education among the working men of the country. No doubt a prospectus of the scheme will be forwarded to anyone writing for it to the Society's offices in London.

IN one of its last sittings the Municipal Council of Paris will have to vote on a proposition, supported by forty of its members, asking the National Assembly to establish a system of public instruction, gratuitous, obligatory, and secular. The motion will probably be agreed to by the Municipal Council, but rejected altogether by the National Assembly.

THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week include eighteen Lancelets (Amphioxus lanceolatus) from the Mediterranean Sea, presented by the Director of the oological Station at Naples; a Pine Marten (Martes abietum), British, presented by Mr. J. Francis; a Red-shouldered Starling (Agelacus phoeniceus) from N. America, presented by Mrs. Boxwell); two Aztec Conures (Conurus aztec) from S. America, purchased.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES

LONDON

Linnean Society, Nov. 5.-G. J. Allman, M.D., president, in the chair.-W. H. Archer, R. A. Pryor, and W. W. Wilson were elected Fellows. Mr. J. E. Howard read a paper on the appearances of Lobelia dortmanna on the floating island in Derwentwater. Mr. J. A. Jackson exhibited leaves of Liquidambar and Perottia, exhibiting remarkably beautiful autuinn tints.-Mr. J. G. Baker read a paper on Asparage, a section of Liliace. The author commenced by discussing the limits of the natural order Liliaceæ. He proposed to regard it as consisting of three great series, and in addition several abnormal tribes, all of which have some claim to be regarded as distinct orders. The three series are:-) -Liliacea proper, characterise t by capsular fruit with loculicidal dehiscence, united styles, and introrse anthers (1200 to 1300 species); Colchicaceæ, marked by capsular fruit with septicidal dehiscence, free styles, and extrorse anthers (130 species); and Asparagacea, marked by baccate fruit (260 species). The aberrant tribes are Liriopea (Ophiopogoneæ), Gillesieæ, Conantheræ, Stemoneæ (Roxburghiaceae, Lindley), and Scoliopea. All these have anatropous ovules : and he advocated the separating of Smilax from Asparageæ, with which it has been commonly joined by recent writers, and the retention of it as the type of a separate order marked by orthotropous ovules, and by its habit of growth, woody often prickly stems, minute polygamous umbellate flowers, stipular tendrils, and decidedly stalked exogen-like leaves with venules reticulated between the palmate main nerves. The tribes and genera of Asparage, which are as follows, to a considerable extent represent the non-bulbous tribes of the two capsular series :-(1) Dracene: Shrubs with proper leaves, hermaphrodite flowers, and introrse anthers; genera, Dracena, Toetsea (= Cordyline, but used on ground of priority), and Colmia; represents Yuccoidea in Euliliaceæ. (2) Sanseviere: Undershrubs with coriaceo-carnose leaves, hermaphrodite flowers, and extrorse anthers; genera, Sanseviera, Lomatophyllum ; represents closely Aloine in Euliliaceae. (3) Comvallarica: Herbs with proper leaves, gamophyllous hermaphrodite flowers, and introrse anthers; genera, Reineckia, Convallaria, Polygonatum, Hylonome; represents Hemerocallide in Euliliacea. (4) Tovarice :

Herbs with proper leaves, polyphyllous hermaphrodite flowers, and introrse anthers, dehiscing longitudinally; genera, Theronogon, Speirantha (new genus founded on Albrica gardeni, Hook.). Maianthemum, Tovaria (an earlier name for Smilacina). Dry. (5) Dian lea: mophila, Geitonoplesium, and Eustrephus. Herbs with proper leaves, hermaphrodite flowers, and anthers dehiscing by terminal pores; genera, Dianella, Luzuriaga. (6) Aspidistrea: Acaulescent herbs, with fleshy, often eight-lobed perianths, hermaphrodite flowers, introrse anthers with longitu dinal dehiscence, and large peltate complicated stigmas; genera, Aspidistra, Plectogyne, Tupistra, Campylandra (new genus from East Himalyas), Gonioscypha (new genus from Bhotan), Rohdea. (7) Streptope: Herbs with proper leaves, hermaphrodite flowers, and extrorse anthers, with longitudinal dehiscence; genera, Medeola, Clintonea, Prosartes, Streptopus, Callixene. Kruhsea; represents Colchicaceae in the capsular series. (8) Asparagea: Herbs or shrubs with leaves degraded down into spurred bract-like membranes, and their place filled by an abundant development of branches in their axils; flowers often polygamous, with introrse anthers dehiscing longitudinally ; genera, Asparagus (including Asparagopsis and Myrsiphyllum), Ruscus, Semele, and Danae; the most specialised type of the baccate series, not represented by any tribe in the two capsular sets. The most noticeable points of structure in the series are that, in the first place, such a thing as a bulbous rootstock or a narrow fle hy lorate leaf of the hyacinth type does not occur in Asparageæ at all. As regards distribution, it is noticeable that whilst the bulbous tribes of Liliaceæ possess a distinctlymarked geographical individuality, this does not hold good of the non-bulbous half of the natural order; and that the 260 species are scattered all over the world, and not concentrated in any particular geographical area. The most curious structural peculiarity in the group is the degradation of the leaf-organ which marks the tribe Asparage. The leaves have 'an alternate arrangement, and are invariably developed in the form of a minute membranous scale. This has a spur at the base, which in many of the shrubby species of Asparagus is developed out into a woody spine, as firm in texture as the indurated branchlet of the sloe or hawthorn. The function of the leaf is fulfilled by branches, which are developed singly or in fascicles in the axils of these bract-like proper leaves. Sometimes these branches are needle-like (cladodia), without any flattening, as in the common garden asparagus; and sometimes, as in Myrsiphyllum and Ruscus, they assume all the appearance of proper leaves (phyllocladia). The flowers in the 100 species of the genus Asparagus are remarkably uniform, and it is principally upon characters furnished by the shape and arrangement of these barren branches that the species are marked. The stigma of the Aspidistreæ is a very curious and complicated organ. It is a plate with eight troughs radiating from a raised central umbilicus, separated from one another by raised walls, and it closes in the tube of the perianth, in which the anthers are placed so thoroughly that it is difficult to tell how fertilisation is effected; but upon turning it upside down four minute holes may be seen, through which it would be possible for a very small insect to creep. The paper was illustrated by plates of the three new genera, and one to show the structure of the stigma of these Aspidistreæ; and a large number of new species, especially in the genus Asparagus, were described. In the discussion which followed, Dr. Hooker, Dr. Masters, and others expressed their sense of the great value of Mr. Baker's labours.

Geological Society, Nov. 4.-John Evans, F.R.S., president, in the chair. The following communication was read :— Notes on the Comparative Microscopic Rock-structure of some Ancient and Modern Volcanic Rocks, by J. Clifton Ward. The author stated at the outset that his object was to compare the microscopic rock-structure of several groups of volcanic rocks, and in so doing to gain light, if possible, upon the original structure of some of the oldest members of that series. The first part of the paper comprised an abstract of what had been previously done in this subject. The second part gave details of the microscopic structure of some few modern lavas, such as the Solfatara Trachyte, the Vesuvian lava-flows of 1631 and 1794. and a lava of the Alban Mount, near Rome. In the trachyte of the Solfatara acicular crystals of felspar show a well-marked flow around the larger and first-formed crystals. In the Vesuvian and Albanian lavas leucite seems, in part at any rate, to take the place of the felspar of other lavas; and the majority of the leucite crystals seem to be somewhat imperfectly formed, as is the case with the small felspar prisms of the Solfatara rock

heat.

o°C., and may be called cryohydrates, are not discontinuous with the hydrated crystalline salts previously known. A few cryohydrates were described as being obtained from the saturated aqueous solutions of the respective salts on the withdrawal of Thus chloride of sodium combines with 10'5 (?10) molecules of water, and solidifies therewith at — 23° C. Chloride of ammonium combines with 12 molecules of water, and solidifies at 15° C. The combinations with water were given of the sulphates of zinc, copper sodium, and magnesium, also those of the nitrates of potassium, chlorate of potassium, and bichromate of potassium. As far as experimental results at present indicate, it appears that those cryohydrates which have the lowest solidifying point have the least water. Some suggestions were offered concerning the application of these experimental results to the explanation of the separation of the Plutonic rocks from one another, and the importance was pointed out of the use which these cryohydrates will have in establishing constant temperatures below o° as fixed and as readily obtainable as o° itself.

Mathematical Society, Nov. 12.—Dr. Hirst, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-The President informed the meeting of the loss the Society had sustained by the recent death of one of its honorary foreign members, Dr. Otto Hesse, of the Polytechnicum, Munich, and mentioned that it was the intention of the Council soon to fill up the vacancies caused by the deaths of Drs. Clebsch and Hesse. On the motion of Prof. Cayley, F.R.S., seconded by the Rev. R. Harley, F.R.S., it was ordered that the cordial thanks of the Society be presented to Lord Rayleigh for his munificent donation of 1,000l. to the Society, and the chairman was requested to convey the same by letter to his lordship. -- The money has been vested, as the treasurer's report mentioned, in 870/. Guaranteed Indian Railway Stock, and the interest will be applied, as was stated two or three months since in NATURE, to the purchase of mathematical journals, and also to assist in defraying the expense of printing the Society's Proceedings. The meeting then proceeded to the election of the new Council, and the gentlemen whose names were given in a recent number of this journal were declared by the scrutators to be duly elected.-Instead of giving the usual valedictory address, Dr. Hirst stated what results he had arrived at in the course of his investigations upon "Correlation in Space." The communication was an extension to space of results arrived at in his paper (read before the Society in May last), entitled the Correlation of Two Planes."-Mr. J. H. Röhrs read an abstract of a communication on "Tidal Retardation." The problem discussed is the superior limit to the tidal retardation in a globe, in all respects similar to our own, except that it is covered entirely by a sea, the depth of which is constant for all places in the same latitude, and is therefore a function of latitude only-not longitude-a function supposed to be known.-A paper by Prof. Wolstenholme on a new view of the porism of the in- and circumscribed triangle was taken as read.

Anthropological Institute, Nov. 10.-Prof. Busk, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-Reports were read by Mr. F. W. Rudler on the Anthropological Department of the British Association at Belfast, and by Mr. Hyde Clarke on the Anthropological Section of the International Congress of Orientalists recently held in London.-A paper was then read by Col. Lane Fox on a series of flint and chert arrow-heads and flakes from the Rio Negro, Patagonia, with some remarks on the stability of form observable in stone implements. The series of specimens exhibited was selected from a collection of 500 gathered by Mr. | W. H. Hudson on the margin of the river and over an extent of about ninety miles, and on the numerous lagoons, now mostly dry, with which the valley is everywhere intersected. The valleys in that region run through high terraced table-lands; and on the plateaus above there is no water and but very scanty vegetation, which would seem to indicate the improbability of their having been occupied by man. A great number of the implements were discovered by Mr. Hudson on the sites of villages in the valley and in circular flattened mounds of clay measuring from 6 ft. to 8 ft. in circumference. The different styles of workmanship observed in the different villages were not, in the opinion of Mr. Hudson, to be attributed to the variety of material employed, but to the degree of skill possessed by the inhabitants of each village. The author drew attention to the interesting fact of the arrow-heads having long fallen into disuse among the Tehuelches and other Patagonian tribes, who now and for some centuries past employed the spear. Col. Fox proceeded to describe in detail the various weapons and their varieties of workmanship, and showed that they all presented the same general features as

implements found in the United States. He believed that, owing to our inability to understand the uncultured mental condition of savages and prehistoric races, we often lose sight of the inferences deducible from the stability of form observable in their arts and implements, and attach less importance than should be the case to minute varieties of structure.-It was announced that the Council had resolved to publish in the Journal of the Institute bibliographical notices, abstracts and reviews of English and foreign works and papers, and other miscellaneous matter of anthropological interest and importance.

PARIS

Academy of Sciences, Nov. 2.-M. Bertrand in the chair. -The following papers were read :-General results of observations on the germination and first developments of different lilies, by M. P. Duchartre.—Researches on the dissociation of crystalline salts, by MM. P. A. Favre and C. A. Valson.-— Results of the voyage of exploration undertaken for the preliminary study of the general track of a railway connecting the Anglo-Indian with the railways of Russian Asia, by M. F. de Lesseps. Rational treatment of pulmonary phthisis, by M. P. de Pietra Santa.-On new apparatus for studying the phenomena of the combustion of powders, by MM. Marcel-Deprez and H. Sebert.-Theory of electrodynamics freed from all hypotheses relating to the mutual action of two current elements, by M. P. Le Cordier.-Monograph of the anguilliform family of fishes, by M. C. Dareste.-On the existence of a sexual generation in Phylloxera vastatrix, by M. G. Balbiani.-On the solution of numerical equations of which all the roots are real, by M. Laguerre.-On an apparatus for determining personal equations in observations of the transit of stars, arranged for the geodesic service of the United States, by MM. Hilgard and Suess. - On the laws of the vibratory motion of tuning-forks, by M. E. Mercadier.-Note on a modification of Fehling's and Barres wil's solutions for the determination of glucose, by M. P. Lagrange. On the fermentation of fruits, by MM. G. Lechartier and F. Bellamy. The authors have now examined the produc's from cherries, gooseberries, and figs.-Application of the graphical method to the study of certain points in deglutition, by M. S. Arloing. The author concludes from his experiments that a decided difference exists between the swallowing of liquids and of solids. On the mechanism of deglutition, by M. G. Carlet.— Results furnished by surgical op rations performed on patients in which anesthesia has been produced by the intravenous injection of chloral, by M. Oré.-Note on a cyclone observed at La Poueze (Maine-et-Loire) Sept. 30, 1874, at 4.30 P. M., by M. Al. Jeanjen.-The Report of the Commission appointed on August 17 for preparing a reply to the letter addressed by the Minister of Public Instruction concerning the organisation of a Physical Astronomical Observatory in the neighbourhood of Paris, was read at the conclusion of the meeting.

BOOKS RECEIVED

BRITISH.-Meteorological Committee (her Majesty's Stationery Office) — Beauty in Common Things, by the author of "Life Underground" (Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.)

AMERICAN.Monthly Report of Department of Agriculture, October 18-4 (Washington, U.S.)

COLONIAL-Red Corpuscles of the Blood: R. H. Bakewell, M.D. (Mills, Dick, and Co., Otago, N.Z.)-Centrifugal Force and Gravitation: Jo n Harris (John Lovell, Montreal). Prodromus of the Paleontology of Victoria (Australia): John Ferris (Melbourne).