on the stalls along the quays of Paris, but he was officially warned not to carry out his undertaking. was as Ir is generally supposed that the custom, now almost universal in France, of addressing every one you meet "Monsieur" or "Madame" dates only as far back as the great French Revolution, when every one "Citoyen or "Citoyenne," afterwards converted into "Monsieur" and "Madame "; but the universality of the latter designations dates, at least, as far back as the time of the "Grand Monarque," and was then noticed by travellers, as appears from a passage in one of our own dramas of the period. We allude to "The Queen and Concubine': a Comedie, by Richard Brome: London, 1659.'" In this the discarded Queen Eulalia is addressed by one of the characters as "Madam." To which she replies, "Take heed good neighbours; beware how you give dignitie or title; therein you may transgress." And she is answered thus: It is from the pen of M. Léo Drouin, well known for his patient researches in archæology. A NEW part (the 28th) of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, which has just been published, after an interval of more than two years, is full of archæological and literary information. Prof. R. G. Bhandarkar and Dr. Bhau Daji vie with each other in furnishing, partly new, partly revised, transcripts and translations of important inscriptions. The latter gentleman is of opinion that the Delhi pillar at Kootub Minar does not contain the name Dhava, as had been supposed since Prinsep, but that it was constructed by Chandra Raja, of the Nerwar line of kings. In a paper on the date of the Mahabharata, Prof. Bhandarkar takes the rather unnecessary trouble of refuting the crotchety views of Col. Ellis as to the great war described in that poem having taken place about four to five centuries ago, and the composition of that epic after 1521 A.D. The No whit, good Madam. Observe the dialect of France, grant on which the suppositions rest, purport- THE French Société Bibliographique, numbering 1,200 members, has just held its annual general meeting, under the presidency of M. Mermillod, Vicar Apostolic of Geneva, who is an honorary member of the Society. After the Report was read, M. Mermillod entertained the company with a discourse that sparkled with witty sayings and well-chosen anecdotes. Among the company present were the Marquis de Biencourt, Prince Augustin Galitzin, the Duc de Chaulnes, the Count de Puynaigre, &c. THE Cape Monthly Magazine, a well-edited periodical, has undertaken to chronicle from time to time some of the best of the "Volksliedjes" written in the Cape Dutch patois, which are now so prevalent among the descendants of the old Dutch settlers. In the April number, two of these "Volks-liedjes" are given; one bearing the title of 'Die Steveltjes van Sannie,' and the other of Klaas Gezwint en zijn Paert,' said to be "a charmingly perverse rendering of Tam O'Shanter.'" The version was made by the Chief Justice elect of the Free State, and it was recited with much applause by the Attorney-General of the Transvaal at a public entertainment in Cape Town. THE Album of the Students of Leyden University, of which we spoke some months ago, is said to be approaching completion. It contains 70,000 names. EARLY in June will appear a volume of the lectures on Financial Reform' which Mr. Wm. Trant has recently delivered for the Financial Reform Association. WE are glad to learn, from the Bulletin du Bibliophile, that the printing of the Catalogue of MSS. in the Municipal Library at Bordeaux has been resumed. M. Jules Delpit is the compiler, and the expenses are defrayed by the Municipal Council. The Council also supply the funds for a series of valuable publications relating to the history of Bordeaux, two volumes of which are already published, and two others are in the press. One of these latter is in illustration of the topography of the city in the fourteenth century; each street and place being marked and described according to authentic documents of the time. ing to have been made by King Janamejaya, was considerately and rightly rejected as a forgery by so high an authority as Colebrooke. The one redeeming point in favour of Col. Ellis's correspondence with the Bombay Asiatic Society on the subject is, that it has given rise to so admirable a summary of the evidence hitherto available in Sanskrit literature, on the existence of at least the groundwork of the great epic, from the AitareyaBrahmana and Asvalâyana's Manual of Domestic Rules,' written several centuries before the Christian era, down to Sârngadhara in the fourteenth century after Christ. Dr. Bhau also gives an analysis of Bâna's HarshaCharita,' based on the first complete manuscript, procured in Kashmir. The work is divided into eight chapters. It was hitherto supposed that the author did not live to complete his work. The manuscript is the more valuable, as it also contains a mentary on the work by one Sankara Pandita. A paper by Dr. G. Bühler discusses the age of the 'Naishadha-Charita' of Srî-Harsha, on the authority of the 'Prabandha-Kosha,' a work containing biographical notices of twenty-four famous men, composed by the Jain Rajasekhara Dr. Bühler arrives at the conin A.D. 1348. clusion that Sri- Harsha wrote his work The library between A.D. 1163 and 1174. of the Bombay Asiatic Society has lately suffered a serious loss, by the destruction, through a heavy shower of rain, of a large carried on with a view to the amalgamation of number of valuable works. Negotiations are that institution with the Bombay Geographical Society. com M. DESJARDINS has read before the Institute of Paris an interesting memoir on the glandes, or leaden sling-bullets used at the time of the civil wars in Italy. Some of these bear inscriptions, which throw light on the battle with Spartacus at Asculum, B.C. 72. THE newspapers published in the German language, passing through the post-office of the Empire, now amount to 3,895. Among them 46 appear more than seven times in the course of the week, 80 are issued seven times, 460 six times, 3,299 less than six times; 3,398 are published in the empire, 213 abroad, especially in Switzerland, 36 in America. Crystal Palace, May, 1874. MR. E. RAY LANKESTER, in his very interesting of May 9th, belonging to my friend, Dr. Anton account of the aquarium at Naples, in the AthenouE Dohrn, and recently opened, inadvertently omitted to say that the general system adopted at the esta blishment was devised by me, and is the same as that so successfully employed in the Crystal Palace Aqua rium, a description of which I gave in the Athe næum of April 1st, 1871. Also that I selected the machinery, the glass, and much else of the materials at Naples, and sent them from London, with Eng lish workmen to put the whole together. In this I was most ably assisted by Messrs. Leete, Edwards, Norman & Co., who are making great progress as aquarium engineers in these times of many public aquaria; and by Messrs. Pickernell liberal spirit, conveyed the materials at rates much Brothers, and A. Laming & Co., who, in a most under the ordinary terms, in consideration of the scientific purposes in view. Not content with this service, these two firms of shipowners have for the last two years brought over many marine animals from Naples for the Crystal Palace aquarium, absolutely free from all charge, and they are continuing in the good work. It is very gratifying indeed for me to see so many aquaria now being made. Almost a quarter of a century ago, it was the Athenæum which first advocated the establishment of aquaria in zoological gardens as a means of showing to visitors the lower aquatic animals, as well as the exhibition of the higher terrestrial creatures; and just twentyone years have elapsed since this journal announced that the first public aquarium ever made was opened in Regent's Park. At the same time it recommended the delivery in the Gardens of the series of natural history lectures which have just been given. Twenty years ago, also in the Atheneum, I recorded my own earliest experiments in this line, made under circumstances which would have delighted David Copperfield when he so eagerly sought to hew his way through forests of difficulties previous to his marrying Dora. One cannot imagine a more wildly unsuitable place for the study of living marine animals than St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, at a time when, unlike the present period, no one made the inland supply of such things a trade. Yet I there first began, and I even gathered living sea creatures-sea-anemones and the like-in the streets of London, attached to thrownaway oyster-shells, and kept them alive and well in sea-water made from salts got at a London chemist's shop, dissolved in water from a London pump. It is very odd for me to remember that I then did with a few glass cylindrical confectioner's jars and wide-mouthed bottles standing on the window-sill of this Clerkenwell room, and with a foot-pan on the floor (it was a big blue and white one, I recollect), all I have ever done since with elaborate machinery costing thourington (now dead), and Mr. P. H. Gosse, still sands of pounds. At that time, Robert Waliving, were the known authorities on the subject, both publishing their experiments at considerable length in the Zoologist and other publications, and in separate books. In some matters I differed from them, while yet holding them in the great respect I still entertain for them. For example, I held that while vegetation in aquaria was essential, it was needless to introduce it, as they did, in a ready-grown form, as it would come in the water by the action of light. Then I maintained that, in addition to the water in which I kept my bulk of water in a separate but connected vessel, specimens, it was necessary to have a much larger containing no animals, and to which light has no access, for the more speedy purification of the whole mass, and for the prevention of the excessive formation of the locomotive zoospores of sea-weeds which make the fluid greenly opaque. Perhaps I could not reason on the why and the wherefore of these things, but somehow I arrived at results by a kind of intuition, with my jars, and bottles, and foot-pan; and though want of space, and general want of means, prevented my keeping the higher and more difficult organisms, such as fishes, yet I had firm hold of the chemistry of the matter, and I cannot remember having since done one single thing which in general principle has differed from what I did at these very beginnings of my life-work. And now I find that every one who does well in such things, and who gathers the largest results in proportion to the means expended, follows me exactly as to general law, differing, of course, in the details of application. My essentially retrospective nature causes this to be a source of great and lawful pleasure, which in me finds its highest expression when I do anything for the forwarding of my cause in the Italy which I have not yet seen, but hope to do so soon, and which for me still exists only in pictures of Turner, and in the poetry of Byron and Rogers. Mr. Lankester has alluded to the necessity which exists of getting more money for this Naples Aquarium. Several hundreds of pounds have passed through my hands for it, including 1007. from the Crystal Palace Aquarium, and 1007. each from the University of Cambridge and the Royal Society, with similar amounts from various private individuals. I shall be glad to receive any more contributions, and to place them at Dr. Dohrn's disposition, as before; thus giving me yet more evidence of the great and disinterested kindness which I have always found to be characteristic of nearly all men towards naturalists, and of all genuine naturalists towards each other. Speaking for myself, I here wish to gratefully put on record the invariable kindness I have met in many countries from many persons; and this makes me to remember the very much that is pleasant, and to forget the very little that is unpleasant, in my thrice seven years' service in the cause of natural history. My intensely Cockney predilections cause me to say with delight, that the very best private chamber marine aquarium known to me is in the office of Bradshaw's Railway Guide, in Fleet Street, close to where Johnson and Boswell have often dined together after crossing the road from Johnson's house in one of the courts opposite. Also, that all the early marine aquarium experiments were made, not by the seaside, but within, or close to, London-in Shoreditch, Wellclose Square, Ludgate Hill, Islington, Clerkenwell, and Regent's Park. The very preciousness of seawater in such places led to the invention of means of preventing the necessity of changing it, and this no change is the main principle of the whole thing. W. A. LLOYD. THE PALESTINE SURVEY. THE greater portion of the work connected with the Ordnance Survey of Palestine, executed during the last two years, has just been brought here by Lieut. Conder, the officer in charge, and is now lying at the office of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The staple of the work consists of the map, which is executed on the one-inch scale, and aims at being exhaustive, especially as regards the points of antiquarian and Biblical interest. Every ancient road, aqueduct, and line of communication has been most minutely traced, and all ruins, of whatever date, from the earliest Jewish and Canaanite remains, down to the latest Saracenic work of interest, has been visited, and is fixed in situ. In addition to these sheets, which now include about half Palestine, from Dan to Beersheba (3,000 square miles), two volumes of detailed notes made on the spot, and daily transcribed, furnishing exact information as to all that is visible above the present surface, have been prepared, to which geological and other observations are added. But perhaps the most valuable part of the collection is the series of special surveys and large scale plans of all buildings of interest yet come across by the party. There are from seventy to eighty of these, being all of places either entirely unknown, or, at all events, never previously examined with sufficient attention. They include every kind of architectural detail likely to be of service in the comparison of the various examples. Among the most interesting of these may be noted the exploration of Cæsarea Palestina, where the Temple of Herod was discovered almost beneath the remains of the Crusading Cathedral, with the great aqueducts which brought water from the Crocodile River Zerka and from the hill springs, whilst on the south of the town the ruined amphitheatre, described by Josephus, was examined and its plan traced. Not far north, in the wildest part of Carmel, the ruins of a Roman town previously unknown were discovered, foundations and bases of columns a site requiring examination and excavation. Again, in the hills west of Samaria, a small town, not even marked on the best map, was discovered. The stones of its buildings are, some of them, ten feet long, and there is a public edifice, the foundations alone remaining, of fine masonry, but differing essentially from the usual plan of either a church or a temple, yet evidently intended for some religious purpose. The intricate windings of the traditional cave of Adullam have been followed out to the end. The summer-palace of Herod at S. Fureidis was visited and planned, and Joshua's tomb at Tibneh, with its two hundred lamp niches, was explored. Near Nazareth, another site of much importance, belonging to the later period of Greek influence in Palestine, was, for the first time, described, but has not as yet been identified. To these we may add no fewer than seven new churches not explored by the Comte du Vogüé, and a still larger number of early Christian monasteries, some with curious frescoes and principally new discoveries. The value of the work, beyond its intrinsic worth, lies in the fact that it furnishes an exact basis for further labours. The officer in charge will be able to say decidedly what points would be likely to furnish interesting results, and what would not repay the labour of excavation. The final result of the works of the Fund will thus be an exhaustive account of all that is of interest in Palestine. In addition to the maps and plans, there is a collection of water-colour sketches, by Lieut. Conder, illustrating places, manners and customs, natural history, &c. PHYSICAL NOTES. M. BECQUEREL has continued his interesting researches "on Electro-Capillary Phenomena, and the Formation of Various Crystalline Substances in the Capillary Spaces." A memoir bearing this title was read before the Académie des Sciences at the Séance of the 20th of April. It has been found by Herr A. Kundt that a temporary dichroism may be induced in certain bodies by stretching or by pressure. A piece of india-rubber or of gutta-percha, when in a state of tension, exhibits in the dichroiscope two images of distinct colours-the one a dark brown and the other a straw-yellow. As soon as the substance is released from strain, the dichroism disappears. Some researches on galvanic polarization, and on the distribution of the current in electrolytes, have been recently conducted by Herr F. Č. G. Müller, of Osnabrück, and are in course of publication in Poggendorff's Annalen. A simplified form of direct-vision Spectroscope has been devised by Herr H. Emsmann, of Stettin, and is described by him in Poggendorff's Annalen. The chief merit is that of employing only a single prism, which consequently allows the instrument to be constructed at a low price. It is made by Messrs. Kuhlo & Bonzel, of Stettin. At the Séance of the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle of the 5th of February, M. Émile Gautier gave a résumé of his spectroscopic observations of the Sun, made at Geneva. This communication is printed in the Bibliothèque Universelle et Revue Suisse, for March 15. Although many physicists have studied the curious phenomena of phosphorescence exhibited by certain mineral substances when heated or subjected to electrical influences, the subject still remains one of considerable obscurity. A lengthy paper, entitled 'Die Phosphorescenz der Mineralien,' by Herr D. Hahn, will be found in the last number of Giebel's Zeitschrift für die gesammten Naturwissenschaften. The American Journal of Science and Arts, for May, contains an article, by Prof. Arthur W. Wright, On the Polarization of the Zodiacal Light.' The results drawn from Prof. Wright's experiments, are that the zodiacal light is derived from the sun, and is reflected from solid matter. This solid matter consisting of small bodies (meteoroids) revolving about the sun in orbits, crowded together toward the ecliptic. 'On the Amount of Pressure in the Sap of Plants,' is the title of a communication by Prof. W. T. Clarke of Amherst, in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural College for January. Many of the results obtained are very remarkable. The application of a mercurial gauge to the grape vine was first made in this country by the Rev. Stephen Hales, 150 years since. The same experiment was made in May, and a pressure of 49.52 feet of water was obtained. This is 6 feet higher than the pressure observed by Hales. An elaborate paper, by M. L. Joulin, containing the results of some original researches on the development of electricity by mechanical action, forms the opening article in the May number of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique. In these experiments, the electricity was generated by the friction of leather bands or belts rapidly moving over metal pulleys, such as are commonly used for the transmission of motion in machinery. The conditions of the experiments were varied by employing pulleys of different metals, and belts coated with various substances; whilst the velocity of rotation, the pressure of the bands, and the temperature of the apparatus were variously modified. It has been inferred, especially from some of Péclet's experiments, that neither the rapidity nor the nature of the friction, nor the pressure of the bodies rubbed, affected the development of electricity; but Joulin, in experimenting on electricity of high tension, finds, on the contrary, that enormous influence is exerted on the electric tension by the rapidity of motion and by the mechanical traction of the revolving belts. Attention has been directed by P. Reiss, of Berlin, to the induction which a non-conductor, when electrified, can exert upon itself. If a nonconducting plate, with two parallel faces, have one face charged with electricity, the opposite face exhibits the same electric state. Thus, if the upper surface of a glass plate be positive, the lower surface becomes also positive; but it is believed that immediately above the lower face there is a layer which is negatively electrified. It is well known that glass varies considerably in its power as an insulator of electricity. The conditions on which its conductivity dependsapart from mere external conditions, such as moisture of surface-have been studied by W. Beetz, of Munich, who has examined three kinds of glass of known chemical composition, and determined not only their electric conductivity under varying conditions of temperature, but also their relative powers of conducting heat. According to R. Boettger, of Frankfort-on-theMain, a thin plate of electro-deposited cobalt, when used as the cathode of a battery in electrolyzing water, becomes charged with nascent hydrogen, just as the late Prof. Graham showed was the case with palladium. Pure tin also absorbs hydrogen to a slight extent. Boettger has examined one of Graham's small palladium medals charged with hydrogen, and finds that after the medal had been carried in a porte-monnaie for two years it had lost all traces of the hydrogen originally occluded in the metal. Some new determinations of the co-efficients of expansion of various gases have lately been made, with great care, by P. Jolly. He employed a simplified form of Rudberg's apparatus, which may also be used as an air-thermometer. Jolly's researches extended to atmospheric air, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, and nitrous oxide. They confirm the well-known law that the most easily condensible gases are the most expansible. Among the non-condensible gases oxygen stands nearest, in respect of its expansibility, to those gases which have been liquefied. The coefficient of expansion of oxygen had not been previously determined directly. Pursuing his studies on fluorescence, E. Hagenbach has examined a number of substances, including the interesting group of metallic platinocyanides. Each of these salts furnishes several hydrates, distinguished by differences in their fluorescent properties. It should be mentioned that some of the memoirs referred to in these notes will be found in the recently-published jubilee volume of Poggendorff's Annalen. Mr. Henry H. Howorth read recently before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society a paper on the question 'Does the Earth receive any Heat directly from the Sun?' which he answers by saying "I hold that the Earth receives no heat directly from the Sun, the Sun only supplying the contractile force which induces terrestrial heat." This hypothesis is, as Mr. Howorth puts it, sufficiently ingenious to attract some attention, but it remains purely an hypothesis ! The occlusion of hydrogen by palladium was one of the most remarkable discoveries of the late Prof. Graham. We have recently drawn attention to the absorption of hydrogen by mercury, and now we cannot but notice Mr. John Parry's remarkable paper, 'On the Absorption of Hydrogen by Grey Pig Iron,' read before the Iron and Steel Institute at its recent meeting. Mr. Parry thus adds another example to the accumulating evidence of the metallic nature of hydrogen gas. Mr. Parry also shows that the vapours of zinc, cadmium, bismuth, and magnesium are absorbed in like manner by iron, and occluded by it. The high scientific value of this communication was scarcely appreciated by the iron-masters of the Institute. DR. GERHARD ROHLFS' LIBYAN DESERT EXPEDITION. WE regret to learn from the last number of Signor Guido Cora's Cosmos, that the important expedition which left Egypt last December, under the leadership of Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs, for the purpose of exploring and traversing the Libyan Desert, has been forced to return re infecta. It cannot, however, be said that the expedition has been altogether fruitless. It is asserted, in the first place, to have established the non-existence of the so-called Waterless River,-"Bahr belà mâ" of the Arabs,—the long narrow valley, or river-bed, marked on most maps as running to the north of the Oasis of Dakhel; it has also closely examined the five principal oases situate to the west of Egypt, and has penetrated into the Libyan Desert by roads which were not previously known. In these respects, therefore, it has collected geographical information which cannot fail to be valuable. The aridity of the country, and the serious and (as it would seem) insurmountable dangers which meet all attempts to traverse that most barren portion of the Sahara lying to the west of Dakhel, absolutely prevented the advance of the expedition in the direction of the unknown Oasis of Kufara; so that, before reaching the forty-fifth meridian east of Ferro (about 27° 20′ E. of Greenwich), Dr. Rohlfs and his companions decided on retracing their steps. The circumstances which compelled them to adopt this deplorable course are thus stated by Dr. Rohlfs himself: water by carrying with us a supply of that element Thence the expedition proceeded towards the In the Athenæum of Jan. 24, Dr. Beke stated that he had met Dr. Schweinfurth at Cairo at the end of December, on his way to the Great Oasis. It is not improbable that the two German travellers may have met; but no mention is made of their having done so. As Dr. Rohlfs' expedition contained all the practical and scientific elements of success, its failure serves to demonstrate the little likelihood of it being possible to open a direct communication between Dakhel and Kufara, and to show that the exploration of this latter oasis can only be attempted by the way of those of Augila and Jalo, or from Murzuk in Fezzan. SOCIETIES. -- ROYAL.-May 21.-W. Spottiswoode, Treas. and Romano-British fictilia, found at Colchester and in London.-Mr. Watling exhibited a series of coloured drawings of an ancient chapel at Bare St. Mary, Suffolk, the old hall of Wrentham, the seat of the Brewster family, and various other views and rubbings of brasses, illustrative of the antiquities of Suffolk.-Mr. H. W. Henfrey exhibited a rare contemporary broadside of a letter from Richard Cromwell, "showing his willingnes to submit to this present government, attested under his owne hand, and read in the House r Wednesday, 25 May, 1669. London, printed by D. Maxwell, 1659."—Mr. L. E. P. Brock exhibited drawings and engravings, and read a paper upen the old church of St. Martin Outwich.-M: Cuming exhibited and made remarks upon a sketch by Mr. Watling, of the figure of St. Pancras in the south window of Blythburg Church, Suffol and read notes upon 'The Game of Pope Joan' NUMISMATIC.-May 21.-W. S. W. Vaux, Esq President, in the chair.-Major Hay exhibited some Greek Imperial coins of Alexandria; and Mr. H. S. Gill, a Scotch ten-shilling piece a James the Second, and a set of card-markers a counters of the time of Charles the First-Mi Cochran-Patrick communicated a note on the Scottish coinage of James the Sixth after his accession to the English throne, in which he proved, by documentary evidence, that the coins issued by the Scottish Mint between the years 1605 and 1609 did not bear the arms of Scotland in two quarters of the shield, the characteristic mark of all coins minted in the northern capital after the latter date; the earlier coins being only distinguished from the English by the thistle mintmark, and the style of their workmanship.—Mr. H. W. Henfrey read a paper 'On some Plates of Gold and Silver Coins, published for the first time by Snelling in 1757.' These plates Mr. Henfrey proved to have been originally engraved on copper, by order of the Committee of the Mint, in 1652, but not then printed from, in consequence of the dissolution of Parliament in the following year.-M. Henfrey also contributed a note on the half-crowns of Charles the First issued, from the mint erected by him at Shrewsbury in 1642, for the purpose of coining into money his own household plate and that which he had received from the Universities. ZOOLOGICAL.-May 19.-Dr. E. Hamilton, V.P., in the chair.-Mr. Sclater exhibited a skin of the new Japanese Stork (Ciconia Boyciana), and read GEOLOGICAL.-May 13.-J. Evans, Esq., Presi- an extract from a letter from M. Taczanowski, dent, in the chair.-Messrs. A. Browning and relating to its occurrence in the Amoor territory. L. Rhys were elected Fellows; and Dr. T. C.-Letters were read from Dr. W. Peters, relating Winkler, of Haarlem, and Dr. J. S. Newberry, of Washington, Foreign Correspondents of the Society. The following communications were read: 'Note on some of the Generic Modifications of the Plesiosaurian Pectoral Girdle,' and 'Muranosaurus Leedsii (Seeley), a Plesiosaurian from the Oxford Clay,' Part I., by Mr. H. G. Seeley, and 'On the Remains of Labyrinthodonta from the Keuper Sandstone of Warwick, preserved in the Warwick Museum,' by Mr. L. C. Miall. SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. May 21.Stanhope, President, in the chair. The evening Earl was occupied with business of a private character, which precluded the reading of any papers. BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.-May and his consort Maria Theresa.-Mr. J. T. Irvine Dr. Hector containing a correction to his article Central.' CHEMICAL.-May 21.-Prof. Odling, President, in the chair. - Dr. Corfield delivered his lecture On the Sewage Question from a Chemical Point of View.' The lecturer, after remarking that he was going to consider the question of the value of chemical evidence on the sanitary view of the subject, compared the various systems for treating sewage, of which might be reduced to two classes: the rst, that of conservancy, where more or less of the lid matter was retained in the neighbourhood of bitations; and the other, where the whole of the xcretal matter was removed along with the foul ater by means of sewers. He emphatically conemned the former as poisoning the wells in the eighbourhood and liable to give rise to disease, pr it was a fact that the smallness of the death-rate any large town was proportional to the efficiency the means used for the removal of the sewage. Te subsequently discussed the various methods of endering sewage innocuous, showing that the nly one of any value for this purpose was that of atermittent surface irrigation. and Cambodia (Kemer). Thence traversing the that sixteen new Members had NEW SHAKSPERE.-May 22.—Tom Taylor, Esq., METEOROLOGICAL.-May 20.-Dr. R. J. Mann, 'resident, in the chair.—Mr. D. G. Briggs was elected Fellow; and the names of fourteen candidates for rom the Council on the observation of natural periodmission were announced.-A Report was read ical phenomena.-The following papers were read: Some Remarks on the Estimation of Wind Force, nd the Relation between Pressure and Velocity,' y Mr. C. O. F. Cator, in which he first expressed strong opinion on the impossibility of estimating he force of the wind with any degree of accuracy; but thought that for any useful purpose it must be btained from instrumental observation. As to omparison of pressure and velocity, he thought hat simultaneous records from the instruments nd limited scales now in use are quite inconvertble; but that such a result might be practicable f an extended scale were applied to a pressurenemometer. He then referred to the different notations for describing the wind, and condemned Beaufort's (0-12) as eminently unsatisfactory, both on account of the means by which the numbers were arrived at, and especially because of the difference of standard for the lower and higher numbers. He then proceeded to account for the difference of force, as estimated, at any station from different directions, although the velocity as shown by Robinson's cups might be the samepartly by the position of the observer not being identical with that of the cups, and partly from the I surrounding objects. He then suggested a new scale, and that, whether pressure or velocity were the basis, it should increase in arithmetical progression; and concluded by expressing his preference for the former.-' On the Weather of Thirteen Winters,' by Mr. R. Strachan.-' On a New DeepSea and Recording Thermometer,' by Messrs. H. Negretti & J. W. Zambra.-'On a New Mercurial Minimum and Maximum Thermometer,' by TUES. Royal Institution, 3.-Theory of Stringed Musical Instru Mr. S. G. Denton. ANTHROPOLOGICAL Institute.—May 25.—Prof, Busk in the chair.-Mr. G. M. Atkinson was elected a Member. The paper read was by Mr. Hyde Clarke, 'On Researches in Prehistoric and Protohistoric Comparative Philology, Mythology, and Archæology, in connexion with the Origin of Culture in America, and its Propagation by the Sumerian or Accad Families.' It dealt with the relations of language to culture, as cultural philology. A sketch was given of the succession or chronology of languages, the earliest places being assigned to the pygmean and cannibal races, and the distribution of the various classes in America, Africa, and India, being dealt with. To one class were assigned the Darib, Whydan, and Aino, languages of Honduras were compared to West Africa, and the Khend to the Wolof. The Agaw languages were treated as having been introduced into South America as Guarani, Omagua, &c., and displaced by the more civilized Sumerian in Peru. Proceeding to consider the origin of the early languages, the laws of formation of animal and weapon names, and of negative words, were illustrated. With regard to the epoch of the monument-building peoples, affinities of language were shown among these; and Mr. Clarke proposed to employ Sumerian for the class, and Accad for the single language. Starting, probably, from High Asia, one branch passed as Accad to Babylonia, and another to India and Indo-China, including Pegu MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. - Institute of British Architects, 8. Geographical, 8.- Oceanic Circulation,' Dr. W. B. Carpenter. ments, with Musical Illustrations,' Dr. W. H. Stone. Biblical Archaeology, 84.- Phoenician Inscription, commonly M. P. Le Page Renouf; Cylindrical Monument of Nech WED. Microscopical, 8. = SAT. Antiquaries, 8-Election of Fellows. Linnean, 8-The Restiacere of Thumberg's Herbarium,' Dr. Cheraical, 8. Dentritic Spots,' Mr. H. Adrian; Acidity of Royal Institution, 3.-The Planetary System,' Mr. R. A. An influential Committee has been appointed in London with Dr. Dyce Duckworth and Dr. George Birdwood as Honorary Secretaries, and the arrangements for the public meeting are being rapidly matured. A NEW weekly paper, the Sanitary Record, a journal of public health, to be published by Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., is to appear soon. It will deal with the hygiene of houses, schools, nurseries, hospitals, workshops, mines, &c. It will be under the editorship of Mr. Ernest Hart. Congress in Glasgow has now been definitely fixed THE Autumn Meeting of the Social Science for the 30th September. Lord Moncrieff is to be assisted in the Presidency of the Jurisprudence Section by Lords Ardmillan and Gifford; Mr. Fredk. Hill is to preside over that on the Repression of Crime. The chairs that have still to be filled are those of the President of the Congress being made for having a Sanitary Exhibition during and of the Education Section. Arrangements are the sitting of the Congress. THE discussions which have arisen on the transit of Venus have brought the name of Jeremiah It is now Horrox before the public once more. thought that the first observer of the transit is worthy of a memorial in Westminster Abbey. A PRIZE of the value of 401. is offered by the Berlin Academy of Sciences, for the best essay on the Physical and Chemical conditions of Steel, and the changes to which it is liable. The papers are to be sent in prior to March, 1876. We have received the "Report of Progress" of the Geological Survey of Victoria, by Mr. R. Brough Smyth, for 1873. It is a very complete and valuable document. It comprehends a Report on the Mineral Resources of Ballarat, by Mr. R. A. F. Murray; and Reports on the Coal-fields of Lontit Bay, Apollo Bay, and the Wannon, by the Board appointed to report on the coal-fields of the colony. It will be remembered that the Geological Survey of this colony, which was carried on under the direction of Mr. Alfred Selwyn— now director of the Canadian Geological Surveywas suspended a few years since. It is satisfactory to find the colonial Government has again determined on completing this great work, and that it has been placed in the hands of a man of so much experience and energy as Mr. R. Brough Smyth. of MORE than the usual number of Geological papers appear in the American Journal of Science and Arts, for April, one of the most important being 'On the Lignites and Plant Beds Western America,' by Dr. J. S. Newberry. There is a mineralogical paper of great interest, by Mr. J. P. Cooke, Jun., which was read before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, entitled "The Vermiculites, their Crystallographic and Chemical Relation to the Micas, together with a Discussion of the Cause of the Variation of the Optical Angle in these Minerals.' THE regularity with which we receive the Monthly Records of the Observations in Meteorology, Terrestrial Magnetism, &c., from Melbourne, speaks loudly in praise of the systematic regulations of that observatory, under the charge of Mr. Robert L. J. Ellery. The November Report is before us. A MEMOIR, on the chemical composition of the triclinic felspars, or plagioclase, from the volcanic rocks in the Cordilleras of Ecuador, by Prof. Vom Rath, of Bonn, has been presented to the Academy of Sciences of Berlin. AN exhaustive memoir, entitled 'Die Blei- und Galmei-Erzlagerstätten von Raibl in Kärnten,' by Herr Posepny, has been published by the Geological Institute of Vienna. The memoir, which extends to upwards of one hundred pages, describes, in much detail, the ore-deposits of lead and zinc in these Carinthian mines, and is accompanied by chromo-lithographs, illustrating the nature of the vein stones. FINE ARTS The SOCIETY of PAINTERS in WATER COLOURS.-The INSTITUTE of PAINTERS in WATER COLOURS - The The SUMMER EXHIBITION of the SOCIETY of FRENCH ARTISTS, 168, New Bond Street, is now OPEN, from Half-past Nine to Six o'clock.-Admission, One Shilling. The SHADOW of DEATH.' Painted by Mr. HOLMAN HUNT in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Nazareth; begun in 1868, completed end of 1872 NOW on VIEW at 398. Old Bond Street.-The Gallery is opened at Ten, closed at Six.-Admission, 18. DORE'S GREAT PICTURE of CHRIST LEAVING the PRETORIUM,' with The Dream of Pilate's Wife,' Night of the Crucifixion, Christian Martyrs,'' Francesca de Rimini,' &c., at the DORÉ GALLERY, 35, New Bond Street. Ten to Six.-Admission, 18. THE ROYAL ACADEMY. (Fourth Notice.) the very rigging has been slurred and smeared. This artist has a third picture, styled Waiting (387), a lady seated in a boat, better painted, and much less pretentious than either of the above. It will hardly be believed that M. Tissot is the same artist who painted a capital picture, now in the Luxembourg, Rencontre de Faust et de Marguerite,' which was in the Salon, 1861; and is totally distinct in style from the three works here. A Study (104) is by Mr. W. Small; in it is a stable, with a man, as black as a pitman, giving an old horse to drink. This is capital in its way. There is free painting in the hide, but the litter on the ground is not at all good, or like straw. There is excess of blackness throughout the picture. -Mr. G. E. Hicks's Shylock (101), a head, is simply vile in all respects.-Mr. J. Pettie is the last elected Academician. He has done better than on this occasion, or we should shudder at the prospects of English art, which he is expected to take a fortieth part in controlling and directing. His WE return to Mr. Millais's contributions in inspiration is that easy and vicious one, the very referring to the portrait of Walter, Son of N. de bane of pictorial design, the stage, or rather, to Rothschild, Esq. (No. 95), a nearly life-sized, full-speak accurately, melo-drama; witness his Juliet length picture of a boy standing with his hand behind him, in a black velvet dress with a red sash. This work, especially in the face, seems rather too thin in execution, and flat through lack of half tones. On the other hand, the painting of a large sofa behind the figure is superbly rich and solid, and could hardly be improved. The contrast in respect to solidity between the face and the accessories of this picture makes the former look less valuable than it is. A Day-Dream (1432), to which we have referred before, seems to us the only one of several pictures of the same subject and motive, now in the Academy, which thoroughly justifies its title by its expression.-M. Tissot's London Visitors (116) will please few: it is the antithesis of a picture by, as we are told, the same artist, now in the Luxembourg, and excellent both in colour and design. 'London Visitors' shows a lady and gentleman standing under the portico of the National Gallery. He looks at a book, she at nothing in particular. Her face has an unpleasing sneer, and her action is inexplicable; but her draperies, in black and white, are painted with great tact. The architecture is simply preposterous, and the wretched Blue-coat School-boy seems to shiver at the vile colour and dirty atmosphere by which he is surrounded; but why is he foolish? In choosing for a subject A Ball on Shipboard (690), this painter had an admirable opportunity; but although his picture possesses considerable merit, and although there is even a certain charm in its piquancy, he has not made the most of it. The scene is on board a big ship in harbour, the effect daylight, or, as was probably intended, sunlight; the personages are ladies, gentlemen, sailors, and servants, all of whom are grouped picturesquely on the deck, issuing from below, or sitting on benches high above the sea, so that we look down from the ship's side to the water, where a man-of-war's boat is being lustily pulled by its crew. This boat is one of the patent absurdities of the Exhibition. It could not be more reduced in size and deficient in details if the deck were a hundred feet above the waves. The effect of sunlight on sparkling and rich costumes, fabrics of many kinds, jewels, ribbons, laces,--the lustre of silk, the softness of semi-diaphanous muslin, the wealth and delicacy of the flesh tints, and, above all, the charm which should have been secured by painting with delight so many beautiful women, as might be gathered in splendid costumes on such an occasion as that in question, and all in bright sunlight, with the picturesque accompaniments of ship's gear, such as huge masts and mighty tackle,to say nothing of the "smartness" which makes so many uncouth things agreeable to the eye, -are lost on M. Tissot, who has given us no pretty women, but a set of rather showy than elegant costumes, some few graceful, but more ungraceful attitudes, and not a lady in a score of female figures. His sunlight is mere chalky paint, the splendid colours proper to the subject are dim and opaque, sparkle does not exist; even stagey in design, slight and flashy in execution, s At no great distance from this unfort picture is one of considerable pretensions, a l and ambitious coast scene, by Mr. P. Graba styled Our Northern Walls (20), the sea beating the base of one of those cliffs which the artist often painted, if he has not industriously shi them. The waves rush on the rocks at foot are meant to be surging in all their tumult. J man who knows anything of the character, o forms, or even of the laws of motion in water? of the colour and texture of rocks such as the nor any one who, feeling like an artist, would pa light as it is here, can call this picture anyth else than an attempt to satisfy the most supert observers by hinting at the salient features of na materials for landscape as those who run a and Friar Lawrence (132), with a design so trite readily read. It is preposterous to suppose and worn out, that we are sorry for the Academy there is in this work anything more realistic the which is called on to exhibit such a thing, by a pretences to realism. Being unfaithful then, wi man still in his prime. A slim damsel, with her is its aim? Probably sentiment, the very son back to us, clad in a "cleverly" painted white landscape painting. Is this, then, the sentimenta satin dress, leans on the shoulder of a strapping, the thundering, hissing, surging sea? Is there say jolly old friar, who seems to be scratching his reality in this bald and dingy pile of rectang elbow in bewilderment an extremely subtle brown objects which Mr. P. Graham calls rocks / Am point, and highly creditable to the genius of the these our northern walls? We are almost ashame artist. Stage properties surround them, and stage to be compelled to put such questions. The Miny proprieties rule the design. Mr. Pettie contributes Mountain-Top (494) is much more like wh a more taking picture in A State Secret (223), Mr. P. Graham is capable of doing with tolerable but it is too like a piece of stage clap-trap. It is success. It is, at the best, trivial, but its execution certainly unworthy of an artist who has some- has something of that sort of "knack" which times shown a dashing kind of ability. A red- goes far with amateurs, who have not g robed minister of state, presumably a cardinal, sits beyond admiring David Roberts, J. D. Harding, at a table, near which stands an inquisitive and the drawing-masters of the last quarter of a attendant, a monk, or something of that sort. The century. Of sentiment, said to be Mr. P. Graham's cardinal turns in his chair and burns a large forte, there is as much as generally appears in document, which he holds in his hand; while pictures which may mean everything, and really it flares, the attendant looks disgusted, as if dis- mean nothing at all, but leave all to the spectator.— appointed at losing all chance of making himself Not far from the former of these works hangs the master of its purport. His grimace would make superb, solid, and sober "From Mount to Mount the fortune of a young performer at a Trans-through Cloudland" (79), by Mr. A. W. Hunt, cruelly pontine theatre. We fear that notwithstanding the undoubted "cleverness" of some parts of the painting here, e. g., the red dress, and certain minor accessories, that this design is hardly equal to what educated people expect to find in Burlington House. Mr. Pettie has a third picture here, styled "Ho, ho, ho!" (1362), about which we shall say nothing.-Another member of the Royal Academy, but who has not in any respect yet reached the level of Mr. Pettie, is Mr. Orchardson. He has this year favoured us with four large sketches,-it would be unjust to others to call them picturesof the slightest, most theatrical, and flimsy kind. Hamlet and the King (265) is, perhaps, the most unfortunate of Mr. Orchardson's many attempts to illustrate Shakspeare. A more wretched prince than this painted one was never seen except in the "counterfeit presentment" of a booth. How vulgar and garish is the conception of the character! The tact shown in painting the black dress of Hamlet, and the dexterous flimsiness of the old tapestry behind his figure, are the sole portions of the work that do not show ludicrous incompetency; the rest is beneath criticism. A woeful being is Ophelia (380); a slatternly female, far advanced in phthisis and never well-favoured, in dirty clothes, and with a dirtier face, sits at the side of a pool. We fail to see what this has to do with Ophelia, and are certain that it does not exhibit the kind of art the Royal Academy was designed to "encourage." Mr. Orchardson may be able to do something else,indeed he used to paint with a certain amount of chic, but he cannot now paint,—at least he cannot paint either Hamlet or Ophelia. Escaped! (1415), bloodhounds halting at the brink of a stream, where a cap tells its tale, is in the true vein of this artist, and as such we are bound to accept it. It is an example of what may be called the "romantic style," dear to schoolboys and young ladies; showy, and inconsiderately hung as regards itself, and ruin- |