coloured under-wings. Of these fifteen all have some more or less transparent spaces or colourings. In some cases portions of the under-wings are brightly coloured, though not transparent, but both in this case and when there are transparent places they appear chiefly on parts that are apparently invisible when the wings are closed. If these observations are correct, the insects are carefully protected when at rest or when they are laying their eggs. Whether they pair on the ground or with shut wings I do not actually know, for after carefully watching every butterfly I have come across for two summers, I have not succeeded in seeing any of the protectively coloured sorts pairing. It seems likely enough therefore that their protective colours come into lay then. My opportunities for observation are however extremely limited, and it is to draw the attention of those more favourably situated to the subject of the colours of our common butterflies that I write this. In the fifteen protectively-coloured butterflies mentioned above I did not include the "fritillaries," because of the strange metallic lustre on their under-wings. Still they seem suddenly to disappear when they settle, and the metallic spots may take the place of the transparent or coloured ones in other sorts by throwing off the light, and thus enable the insects to recognise each other. Eight kinds more or less transparent but not seemingly protectively coloured, and two common Blues," make up the thirty kinds I have been able to handle. The under-wings of the "Blues" are certainly protectively coloured, but there seems to be no transparency or bright markings in them. J. INNES ROGERS

Putney, February 24

Dust, Fogs, and Smoke

THE present endeavours to alleviate the smoke nuisance in London give some interest to the description of the effects of coal smoke on London life in former ages.

I do not mean to speak of the well-known petition presented to Edward the First by the nobility and gentry against the use of sea-coal in London and the consequent proclamation of that monarch interdicting its use. But I allude to the following lines written and published by Evelyn in 1661 in his "Fumifugium," but which I borrow from the History of London," by Noorthouck, London, 1773.

"The immoderate use of, and indulgence to sea-coale alone in the city of London, exposes it to one of the fowlest inconveniences and reproaches, that can possibly befall so noble, and otherwise incomparable city: and that, not from the culinary fires, which for being weak and lesse often fed below, is with such ease dispelled and scattered above, as it is hardly at all discernible, but from some few particular tunnells and issues, belonging only to brewers, diers, lime-burners, salt, and sopeboylers, and some other private trades one of whose spiracles alone, does manifestly infect the aer, more than all the chimnies of London put together besides. And that this is not the least hyperbolie, let the best of judges decide it, which I take to be our senses whilst these are belching it forth their sooty jaws, the city of London resembles the face rather of Mount Etna, the court of Vulcan, Stromboli, or the suburbs of hell, than an assembly of rational creatures, and the imperial seat of our incomparable monarch. For when in all other places the aer is most serene and pure, it is here ecclipsed with such a cloud of sulphure, as the sun itself, which gives day to all the world besides, is hardly able to penetrate and impart it here; and the weary traveller, at many miles distance, sooner smells, than sees the city to which he repairs. This is that pernicious smoake which sullyes all her glory, superinducing a sooty crust, or furr upon all that it lights, spoyling the moveables, tarnishing the plate, gildings, and furniture, and corrodding the very iron bars and hardest stones with those piercing and acrimonious spirits which accompany its sulphure; and executing more in one year than exposed to the pure aer of the country it could effect in some hundreds. It is this horrid smoake which obscures our churches and makes our palaces look old, which fouls our clothes, and corrupts the waters, so as the very rain and refreshing dews which fall in the several seasons precipitate this impure vapour, which with its black and tenacious quality, spots and contaminates whatever is exposed to it. It is this which scatters and strews about those black and smutty atomes upon all things where it comes, insinuating itself into our very secret cabinets, and most precious repositories: finally, it is this which diffuses and spreads a yellownesse upon our choysest pictures and haugings; which does this mischief at home, is Avernus to

fowl, and kills our bees and flowers abroad, suffering nothing in our gardens to bud, display themselves or ripen; so as our anemonies and many other choycest flowers will by no industry be made to blow [sic] in London, or the precincts of it, unlesse they be raised on a hot-bed and governed with extraordinary artifice to accellerate their springing; imparting a bitter and ungrateful tast to those few wretched fruits, which never arriving to their desired maturity seem, like the apples of Sodome, to fall even to dust when they are but touched. Not therefore to be forgotten is that which was by many observed, that in the year 1644 when Newcastle was besieged and blocked up in our late wars, so as through the great dearth and scarcity of coales, those fumous works many of them were either left off, or spent but few coales in comparison to what they now use; divers gardens and orchards, planted even in the very heart of London (as in particular my lord Marquesse of Hertford's in the Strand, my lord Bridgewater's and some others about Barbican), were observed to bear such plentiful and infinite quantities of fruits, as they never produced the like either before or since to their great astonishment: but it was by the owners rightly imputed to the penury of coales and the little smoake, which they took notice to infest them that year; for there is a virtue in the aer to penetrate, alter, nourish, yea and to multiply plants and fruits, without which no vegetable could possibly thrive:"

The improvement mentioned by Evelyn, when the use of coal was for a time less extensive in London, is particularly worthy of notice, and ought, I think, to be considered as an encouragement to persist in the attempt of rendering London as smokeless as possible. CHATEL

jersey, February 25

ΟΝ

THE GERMAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

N November 11, 1867, a meeting of about eighty chemists was held in Berlin to take steps for inaugurating a new Chemical Society. On January 13 of the succeeding year (1868) the first meeting of the Society was held, when Prof. A. W. Hofmann was elected president, and the roll call of the Society contained 105 names. During the first year of its existence 97 papers were read before the Society; at the close of the year the membership had increased to 275, and the Society found that a volume of 282 pages was needed to contain the papers communicated to it.

Since 1868 the German Chemical Society has steadily increased in size and in usefulness; the Berichte for 1880 consists of two large volumes numbering, between them, 2473 pages, and containing the 563 papers communicated to the Society during the year, besides numerous abstracts of papers published elsewhere. The income of the Society for 1880 amounted in round numbers to the sum of 2000/., and of this about 1400l. was set against the cost of publishing the Berichte.

During the thirteen years of its existence the German Chemical Society has published in its Berichte most of the important discoveries in pure chemistry made in that period. It has been the aim of the Society to publish papers communicated to it with as little delay as possible. Meetings are held twice monthly during the session, and the papers read at one meeting are published in the Berichte, which appears on the day on which the next meeting takes place. Papers appearing within so short a time after they are communicated are necessarily brief and concise; but this rapid publication confers a great benefit on all chemists, as they are thus put in possession of at least the leading facts concerning all recent work almost as soon as these facts have been established by the workers. If papers in the Berichte are sometimes wanting in completeness and symmetry, many of them are full of life and stir, telling as they do of work actually proceeding in the laboratory; appearing sometimes in short abrupt snatches, they convey something of the enthusiasm of the worker as he compels nature, bit by bit, to yield her treasured secrets.

The system of printing abstracts of papers published in the various chemical journals has recently been adopted

by the Society; formerly a correspondent in London or Paris, &c., sent a general account of chemical work published in the country from which he wrote. The abstracts of the German Society are on the whole shorter than those which have for many years made the Journal of our own Chemical Society of such great value to the student; they are, however, published at a shorter interval after the appearance of the original paper.

Brief accounts are given of recent chemical patents, but little space is devoted to purely technical chemistry. Is not the Journal of the Chemical Society sometimes overburdened by abstracts which might better find a place in a book professing to collect receipts for the purely "practical man"?

The German Chemical Society in 1877 appointed Dr. C. Bischof of Berlin to prepare a general index for the first ten volumes of the Berichte. The arduous task has been admirably fulfilled. Fellows of the Society have now in their hands not only an index to the Berichte, but a volume which is really a general guide to the chemical work published during the period 1868-1877.

The "Generalregister" extends to 1020 pp.; of these, 162 pp. are devoted to an index of authors, 732 pp. to an index of subjects, 42 pp. to an index of patents, and 84 pp. to a systematic classification of the carbon compounds referred to in the index.

Under an author's name are given, not the exact title of his paper, but a very succinct statement of the leading points in the paper. The same method is pursued in the subjects-index. Taking, for instance, such a general subject as "Dissociation," one finds, first, references to work on the general Theory of Dissociation, e.g. connection between dissociation and temperature, tension, &c.; then follow special instances of dissociation, inorganic compounds preceding organic. In the case of individual elements or compounds, the references begin with those papers on the existence of the substance in question, then follow its preparation and formation, its properties, its action on other substances, the action of other bodies on it, its estimation, &c., &c.

A systematic nomenclature is adopted, more especially for the carbon compounds: the principles which guided the compiler are stated in a few introductory pages.

The "Generalregister" cannot but be of the greatest value to chemists generally. Almost every chemist is a Fellow of the German Society; many possess the Berichte complete up to date; with the Berichte and this admirable guide which Dr. Bischof has supplied, they can find almost everything that has been done in experimental chemistry within the period 1868-1877. M. M. P. M.

IRISH ESPARTO GRASS

IT T is now over two years ago since attention was called in our pages to the importance of the purple Molinia (Molinia cærulea) as a material for making paper. Mr. Christie of Edinburgh sent a small quantity of it to be operated on by Mr. T. Routledge of Sunderland, and the report on this was most favourable. In January, 1879, a notice appeared in the Times also calling attention to the subject, and referring to the above favourable report; it expressed the hope that some effort would be used to have this grass collected on an extensive scale. It would seem to be ripe for gathering in the early autumn, when some hands could be spared for such work, and as the ground on which it flourishes-wet or partially drained bogs-pays, at least in Ireland, little if any rent, the crop would cost little over the expense of reaping it. Since the first notice appeared in our columns, the Spanish and African Esparto grass has been getting more difficult to obtain, and the demand for it has been steadily on the increase. It is said that the greater part of what is gathered in Morocco finds its way to the Times papermills, and its value for paper-making is now known in

This freedom from silica of the purple Melic grass is very remarkable.

From a paper by Mr. W. Smith in the recent number of the Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, we learn that a very successful trial has been made in the county of Galway to grow this grass in some quantity. As a native plant it is found in every county in Ireland, both on wet heaths and boggy pastures. It flowers in July and August, and its seeds are ripe early in September; it would seem to grow well on partially drained bogs, and if the surface of these has been burnt, the purple Melic grass grows thereon most luxuriantly. It seems fond of growing in tufts, of somewhat large size, and it does not form a sod like so many other grasses. It would appear that in Ireland alone there are over 1,000,000 acres at the present moment not worth sixpence a year each for any agricultural purpose; each acre would easily grow half a ton weight of dried Melic grass, which at its lowest value would be worth 27. Would not this crop, in time, more than compensate for the loss of the potatoe? It seems a pity that the manufacturer should have to go to the Port of Mogador for what he might get with so much greater ease at the Port of Dublin.

UP

SIBERIAN METEOROLOGY

P to the present time Yakutsk, in North-east Siberia, has often been cited as the place of our earth where the winter is coldest, while the minima observed during Arctic expeditions are believed to be the lowest known. Neither the one nor the other is true. In Maak's book, "Olekminski Okrug," I find many data which prove that the coldest winter as well as the lowest well-authenticated minima were observed at Werkhojansk, to the north-east of Yakutsk. The name of the author gives us some guarantee that the observations are trustworthy. I give below the minima at some places cited by Maak, and compare them with those observed in Central and Western Siberia, and the Arctic Archipelago of America:—

Arctic Archipelago

British Expedi- 831° N. Floeberg Reach (Nares) - 737 F. tions, 1875-76. 81 N. Discovery Bay (Nares) - 707 F.

The temperature at Werkhojansk is the lowest of all given here, and it must be borne in mind that the observations lasted but one year, while we have more than thirty-five years at Yakutsk, and eight and a half at Yenisseisk.

The mean temperatures are as follows:

Serdze Kamen 1 yr.

SPHYGMOGRAPHY

Ustjansk 2 years Werkhojansk 1 year Yakutsk 10 years I Yakutsk 24 years 2

2.8

52 7

Floeberg Beach 1 yr. Discovery Bay 1 yr.

9'0 -13'1 -13 2 6'9 2'2 -330-389-369 -17 5 -292-46'8 -55'5 -545-29'0 -419 -468-37'7 0'0 -37 8 -41'4 -30'8 8.7 -330-380 -39 - 40'7 -35'0 37 4

Though the observations were made only during one year at Werkhojansk, it is probable that it would have the coldest winter of all observed till now, as even at Yakutsk, which is the next coldest, January and February were in no single year colder than at Werkhojansk in 1869. From a comparison with the other stations of North-east Siberia it is probable that here in 1869 February was too cold and December too warm.

Now as to the reason why the winter should be colder in North-east Siberia than on the North American Archipelago farther to the north, it is to be found in the extent of the continent, the distance from any sea open in winter, and the prevailing calms. How important is the last reason is best seen by the comparison of the December and January temperatures of the last British expedition. The more northerly Floeberg Beach is warmer, because more exposed to winds. Now in Eastern Siberia calms prevail to a large extent in winter, except near the coast.

There is a phenomenon to be considered, which is noticed everywhere in winter in high latitudes : during calms with clear sky the valleys are colder than the surrounding bills and slopes, because the cold air sinks downwards and stagnates there. This is confined to the night where the mid-day sun rises high enough, but in high latitudes during some months the mid-day heat of the sun is too small and the day too short to interfere much with the equilibrium of the strata of air established during the night. Even in middle latitudes (45°-50°), when calms and clear weather prevail very largely in December, the valleys are regularly colder than the hills. So it was felt in December, 1879, in Central Europe. What is an exception here is the rule in North-East Siberia, because calms and clear sky are the rule in winter; the valleys are much colder than the hills. On this account the exceedingly low temperature of Werkhojansk in winter is probably not common to the whole surrounding country, and especially in the mountains rising to a short distance south we may expect a much higher temperature. The more we consider the conditions of the winter temperature of North-East Siberia, the more difficult it seems to draw isotherms. We know that plains and valleys there are colder than hills and mountain-slopes, but how much, and what conditions are most favourable to that so-called interversion of temperature? I consider it as highly probable that both at Yakutsk and at Werkhojansk the local topographical conditions are very favourable to winter cold. This being the case, it is quite natural that the latter place is colder in winter than the former, being situated 5° farther to the north, and yet far enough from the west to have a continental climate. A. WOEIKOF

departure from the normal standard of each of their component elements. The sphygmograph, which is quite a modern invention, causes the pulse to write its own autograph, enables us to see at a glance the peculiar characters of the pulse, and to ascertain how and where it differs from the healthy or normal pulse.

Hitherto, however, the sphygmograph has been but little used, for those that have been introduced are large and expensive instruments, requiring a great amount of skill and trouble to fix them on the arm and bring them into action; and for these reasons they are not available for general or private practice. Hence their use has almost been confined to hospital practice; but even here

they are not always available, for Dr. B. Bramwell, who is a strong advocate for employing the sphygmograph, relates that a patient of his was so terrified by the proposal to employ the instrument that he preferred leaving the hospital to allowing it to be fixed on his arm.

The objections to the general use of the sphygmograph do not apply to the instrument recently introduced into medical practice by Dr. Dudgeon, and from its portability called "the pocket sphygmograph." Though this instrument is so small as to deserve the name of "pocket," it is not inferior in sensitiveness to the most elaborate and complicated of the cumbrous instruments hitherto in use, indeed in some respects it is greatly superior in accuracy to any that have yet appeared. Its size is 2 by 2 inches; its weight only four ounces. It magnifies the movements of the artery exactly fifty times. The spring that presses on the artery can be regulated to press with a weight of from one to five ounces, and the pressure can be altered at will while the instrument is in situ. It requires no wrist-rest; all the other sphygmographs have to be used with wrist-rests of more or less complexity. It can be used with equal facility whether the patient is standing, sitting, or lying. With it an accurate and extremely distinct tracing of the pulse can be made almost as quickly as the pulse can be felt with the finger. Its

construction is so simple that if accidentally broken any watchmaker can repair it. The smoked paper on which the pulse is recorded runs through the instrument in ten seconds, so that the number of the beats per minute can be reckoned by multiplying the pulse-tracings on the paper by six. The patient's name, the date, the disease, the pressure of the spring, and some conventional sign to indicate his position when the tracing was made, may be written on the marked paper with any sharp-pointed instrument, such as a pin or a toothpick, and the whole permanently fixed by dipping the paper in some quickly-drying varnish, such as is used by photographers. In this way a series of pulse-tracings taken during the course of the disease may be preserved for future study and comparison.

Dr. Dudgeon's pocket sphygmograph is manufactured by Mr. John Ganter, 19, Crawford Street, W. The woodcut represents its actual size.

NOTES

WE understand that the fifth volume of the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum will shortly be published. According to the classification followed in this work the families to be described will be the Thrushes and Warblers, and the volume will be written by Mr. Henry Seebohm, whose co-operation Dr. Günther has been fortunate in obtaining. Mr. Seebohm has devoted a close study of several years to these families of birds, and may now be considered the best living authority on the subject.

M. FLAMMARION, the author of several works in popular astronomy, has been made a Knight of the Légion d'Honneur. Admiral Mouchez, director of the Paris Observatory, has consented to act as his parrain, and to hand over to him the star and ribbon. This liberal determination has created some sensation in the French astronomical world. The work of transformation of the Observatory will begin very shortly, all the legal difficulties having been solved. The area of the establishment is now 30,000 square metres. The magnetical instruments will be placed in the deep trenches separating the old ground from the newly annexed buildings.

as real Custom-house stores, so that all the articles sent there shall be exempt from the duties to which they would otherwise have been liable. The French railway companies have consented to an abatement of 50 per cent. on the ordinary rates of transport, whether by fast or by slow trains, for all packages or boxes forwarded to the Exhibition Hall, and bearing the official labels. The Postmaster-General has been authorised by the British Government to exhibit in the name of the latter.

A COMMITTEE has been formed at Dijon for erecting a statue to Carnot, the celebrated French geometer and politician, who was born in Nolay, a small country town of Burgundy, in 1753. The youngest son of Carnot is now living, one of the members of Senate, and his grandson is M. Sadi Carnot, the present Minister of Public Works. The other son of Carnot died fifty years ago, after having written a small essay, "Sur la Puissance motive du feu." M. Carnot's brother has just published a new edition of this work, with a number of essays, mostly unpublished, by the same author, and a history of his life.

AT the conclusion of the proceedings of the Quekett Microscopical Club on February 25 occasion was taken to present to Mr. J. E. Ingpen a memorial of the esteem in which he is held and the appreciation of his services as honorary secretary for the låst eight years. After an able address by Dr. Matthews, setting forth the reasons which had led to this movement on the part of the members, and short speeches by Dr. Cobbold, Mr. Crisp, and Mr. Michael, Mr. T. C. White handed to Mr. Ingpen a beautifully illuminated and framed memorial, together with a valuable microscope by Zeiss and a handsome silver tea-service, which were accepted and acknowledged amidst hearty demonstrations of good feeling on the part of the meeting. The attendance of members was unusually large, and in the course of the evening telegrams were received from Dr. M. C. Coɔke and Mr. Henry Lee, expressing their regret at unavoidable absence.

Ar the ordinary meeting of the Meteorological Society, to be held at 25 Great George Street, Westminster, on Wednesday, the 16th inst., at 7 p.m., there will be an exhibition of instru

ALTHOUGH Our Government has declared the interest which it takes in the forthcoming International Exhibition of Electricity at Paris, still it sees no necessity for appointing a Special Commissioner to take measures with regard to the participation of British subjects in the Exhibition which is to open in Paris on August I next in the Champs Elysées Palace. The French Government is nevertheless disposed to welcome all British subjects wishing to participate in the Exhibition. M. Berger, the Commissaire-Général, has placed himself unreservedly at the disposal of intending exhibitors to afford every information and assistance. He would be thankful if they would fill up and return to his address the printed form of demand of admission which accompanies the copy of the general regulations. English exhibitors will be placed in every respect on the same footing as French exhibitors. M. Berger will form a special section for the group of English exhibitors, and requests that all demands be forwarded within the briefest delay possible. The Exhibition rooms and dependencies will be considered

new instruments as have been brought out since January 1, 1880. During the evening the President will give a historical sketch o the different classes of hygrometers, and will also describe such forms as are exhibited.

THE town of Casamicciola, in the Island of Ischia, has been almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake. More than 200 houses have been thrown down, and many others are so much

damaged as to be uninhabitable. The number of persons thus

far ascertained to have been killed is 104, and very many more have been injured. The total number of victims is estimated at 300. This dreadful catastrophe was the result of two shocksthe first at half-past one in the afternoon of the 4th inst., lasting seven seconds; the second after an interval of an hour and a half. The whole upper part of the town has been destroyed. The handsome Albergo della Grande Sentinella is a mass of ruins. Clefts and fissures opened in the streets 50 centimetres in width. It was at first supposed that this disaster was connected with the partial eruption of Vesuvius on the 3rd inst., but Prof. Palmieri has stated that the seismographic instruments having given no indications, he is inclined to think the catastrophe is due to some local phenomenon, possibly to a sudden sinking of the ground through subterranean corrosion caused by the continual working of the mineral waters. Shortly before the first shock of earthquake the mineral springs were observed to be in a state of ebullition. Another shock was felt at midnight.

SHOCKS of earthquake occurred at St. Ivan-Zelina (Hungary) on February 26 at 3h. 54m., in the night of February 26-27 at

12h. 30m., and on February 27 at 5h. 28m. a.m. At Agram a rather severe shock was felt on February 25 at 3h. 45m., duration two seconds, direction west-south-west; and another at noon of March 4. Earthquakes are also reported from Kirchberg (Austria), on February 28, at 2h. 20m. a.m., duration two seconds, and from different parts of Switzeriand on March 3, e.g. Zürich and its environs, at 3b. 35m. a.m.; Aussersiehl, at 3h. 42m., direction west to east, duration two seconds; Riesbach, Selnau, Knonau, Aaran, Zofingen, Hunzenschwyl, Rapperschwyl, Glarus, Zug, Berne. The earthquake shock felt at Berne on Thursday morning last shortly after three o'clock was a very smart one. The area of disturbance was wide, extending as far as the Lakes of Geneva and Bienne.

MR. H. J. JOHNSON-LAVIS writes to us from Naples, under date March 2-Vesuvius has to-day been covered with snow, and this evening, during a short interval between the mantling of clouds, a splendid stream of lava is pouring down the northern side and has reached the Atrio del Cavallo. The stream is very liquid and very abundant, and from this it may be concluded that its course will be progressive.

M. JULES FERRY has established a number of colleges for females in several parts of France; some of them have been already opened.

THE authorities of the British Museum will very soon issue their scheme for publishing the great catalogue of printed books. The projected issue, at the rate of five volumes a year, is not expected to be completed in less than forty years. The work, however, can of course proceed no faster than the Government grant of 1600l. a year for this special purpose will permit. Altogether the catalogue is likely to comprise about 3,000,000 titles, which to put in type will cost from 4d. to 6d. each. It has already been announced that the publication will commence with volumes specially devoted to certain subjects, or rather sub-headings, which have now become too voluminous for convenient handling in their present form. Meanwhile the Trustees have adopted the plan of printing and publishing the titles of all additions to the library. It may be interesting to know that in this case all titles are stereotyped on separate plaques," and are therefore susceptible of any amount of re-arrangement.

AN important experiment in electric lighting is about to be made in the City. Hitherto the electric light has been used, as on the Thames Embankment and Waterloo Bridge, in conjunction with gas; but in the City the thoroughfares selected are to be lighted by electricity alone, which will be continued all night. The first district begins with Blackfriars Bridge, and extends along Bridge Street, Ludgate Hill, the north side of St. Paul's Churchyard, and down Cheapside as far as King Street. The distance is 1648 yards, and is to be lighted by the Brush system. At King Street the Siemens system will begin, and will extend along the rest of Cheapside, the Poultry, Mansion House Street, King William Street, and Adelaide Place, and across London Bridge. The same system will be extended down King Street, Queen Street, and Mansion House Street. The whole length of street covered by the Siemens light will be 1521 yards. Another district to the south of these will be lighted by the Jablochkoff lamps, like the Embankment. It will include Southwark Bridge, Queen Victoria Street, Queen Street Place, and part of Queen Street, a distance of 1703 yards. The experiment is to be continued for a year, at an outlay of about 8000/.

PROF. BLACKIE being unable to lecture through illness, Mr. Shelford Bidwell, M.A., LL.B., will give a discourse on Selenium and its Applications to the Photophone and Telephotography, at the Royal Institution, on Friday evening next March 11), at 9 p.m.

THE Calendar of the Mason Science College, Birmingham, is a volume of respectable size, but then it contains a full report of proceedings and addresses at the opening meeting. We are glad to see that a large number of new chairs are about to be added, including Greek, Latin, and modern languages; so that the College will shortly be as well equipped as that at Manchester. As the curriculum is being extended to include really literature, science, and art, might it not be well to drop the "science" "from its designation? it looks so one-sided.

THE Proceedings of the last Congress of Russian Naturalists, which was held at St. Petersburg, have just appeared as a separate bulky volume.

A PAPER has been published by Gustav Hauser of Erlangen, on the organs of smell in insects, in which he describes several experiments. Numerous species of insects, on approaching vessels containing turpentine or acetic acid, showed-by retreating and moving their antennæ-a distinct perception of the smell. After the ends of the antennæ had been cut off, the same insects placed close to the vessels appeared quite insensible to it. A number of flies, which had been attracted by a piece of putrid meat, showed no inclination to approach it after the third segment of the antennæ had been cut off.

WE have received a pleasant report of the Queenwood College Mutual Improvement Society for the year ending Christmas, 1880. The Society seems to have a comprehensive programme.

UNDER the title of the Northern Microscopist, and under the editorship of George E. Davis, a monthly periodical has been started, beginning with January of this year, the chief aim of which is to keep a record of the proceedings of the chief microscopical societies in the North of England, and thereby to furnish each individual member of these societies with as much permanent information as such members would obtain if the society to which they belonged published its own Transactions. There ought to be abundant support for a little journal like this, and numerous subscribers ought to be obtained from large centres like Liverpool, Leeds, Chester, Bolton, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle-onTyne, and the like. If the various Northern societies were to do nothing more than prepare local lists of all the varied species of animal and vegetable life, which come under the well-known denomination of "microscopical forms," and if this journal were to be the medium of publishing these, it would become a journal of importance, one that would be constantly referred to; and it would in the meantime be doing a good work in advancing the study of the biological sciences. We wish it every success, and trust that it will steadily pursue the path that it has marked out for itself.

A STENOGRAPHIC piano has been experimented on by the daughter of the inventor, in the French Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, and to the Municipal Council of Paris, with great success. The system consists of a combination of signs through which every sound is represented. The reproduction is as rapid as speaking, and the same operator can continue the work for hours. The signs used in this system being printed by machinery, the reading is immediate, and can be made by other people than the operator. The State stenographers propose to be trained in the use of the instrument. It is an affair of a few months of practice.

A SCIENTIFIC Society has been formed at Scarborough, called "Scarborough Scientific Society and Field Naturalists' Club." President-elect, Mr. J. Woodall, M.A.; Secretary, Mr. G. Massee.

THE excavations in the 9th region of Pompeii are being prosecuted with alacrity, and yield unexpected results. Besides a second mosaic fountain and valuable frescoes recently found,