certain, therefore, that these young sardines were derived from the previous year's spawning, and were between twelve and seventeen months old, probably thirteen to fifteen months. This being the case, the young pilchards hatched the same year ought to have been discoverable. Day states, doubtless on Mr. Dunn's authority, that young pilchards are first seen in September, 3 or 4 inches long-that is, 7'5 to 10 cm. Mr. Dunn himself tells me that the young pilchards about this size regularly occur off this coast in autumn, and that he has seen them taken in seines and in the stomachs of whiting. I found young pilchards myself in the stomachs of the young mackerel taken in the anchovy nets at the dates above mentioned, and in full-grown mackerel examined at the same time. These young pilchards measured 6 to 9 cm., and were doubtless derived from spawn shed the previous summer. It is, of course, possible that the pilchards measuring 13 to 16.5 cm. in length at the beginning of November were derived from spawn shed rather late in the spawning season of the previous year, and that their age was nearer twelve than seventeen months. But the above facts indicate clearly that the pilchard does not reach adult size in one year, and is not capable of spawning until it is two years old, while the larger spawners are probably three years old.

If we compare the data and inferences just given with the facts concerning the sardine of the French coast recorded by Pouchet, we find that the data agree and the inferences are confirmed. Pouchet, it is true, denies that the eggs of the sardine are pelagic, and has not defined the spawning period. But he tells us that he has only seen eggs approaching maturity in fish taken in April and May, when the fishing for sardines de dérive ceases, and that for sardines de rogue commences. There can therefore be no doubt that near Concarneau the sardine spawns in the months following May. Pouchet's records of the fish captured are somewhat difficult to interpret. He publishes in his Reports the records kept by the manufacturers, in which the size of the fish is registered according to the number required to fill a tin of a certain size. Two processes of calculation have to be carried out in order to get approximately the length of these fish. Having made these calculations, we find that at Concarneau in 1888, in June, the sardines de rogue were 12.5 to 14 cm. long; in July, 13 to 14'3 cm. ; in August and September about the same; in October, for the most part 15 or 16 cm., though some were still taken of 13 to 14 cm. In some of his reports Pouchet gives the dimensions according to actual measurement of two or three sardines taken nearly every day throughout the season, but nowhere does he give the range of sizes of the total number of fish taken on one day. Thus in the year 1888 he obtained sardines of 10 to 115 cm. in March, 11 to 14 cm. in April, 15 cm. in May, 13 to 15 cm. in June, 13 to 16 cm. in July, 13 to 14 cm. in September, 14 to 18 cm. in October. On the whole, the sardine de rogue gets larger towards the end of the season, though it is obvious that the shoals in a given place replace one another, so that fish taken in September at Concarneau may be of the same age and size as others taken in June. This phenomenon is a necessary consequence of the extended spawning period of the species. But I think there can be no doubt that the sardines de rogue caught in such numbers along the coast of Finisterre in summer are yearling fish, which in the following_summer reach maturity at a length of 20 to 22 cm. There is one consideration which may give rise to a doubt as to the general validity of this conclusion. According to Pouchet, sardines 15'7 cm. long are taken at the end of May would not these reach a length of 19 or 20 cm., and be capable of spawning, by the end of October, when the spawning period for the year is not yet terminated? This question cannot be definitely answered in the negative at present. I will merely point out that the incre

:

ment of length corresponding to the same increment of weight becomes smaller as the fish grows larger. Thus at 13 cm. a sardine weighs about 15 grammes; at 16 cm. about 30 gms., an increase of 15 gms. ; at 19 cm. it weighs about 60 gms., an increase of 30 gms.

If, as the above considerations indicate, the sardine of the Cornish and French coasts reaches a length of 13 to 16 cm. at one year of age, it is surprising that the Mediterranean sardine should reach the same length at the same age, since its maximum length is so much less than that of the more northern fish. But Marion finds that the sardine at Marseilles grows at the rate of 1 cm. per month, starting from a length of 3 cm. at one month old. Thus, according to his table of growth, the sardines hatched in December are 14 cm, long in the following December. I cannot help thinking that Marion has over-estimated the rate of growth, but it may prove that the fish reaches maturity more quickly in the Mediterranean, although it does not grow so large. Marion has conclusively shown that the spawning period at Marseilles extends from December to May, instead of from May to October. J. T. CUNNINGHAM.

SCIENCE IN JAPAN1

THE growth of modern science in Japan is one of the most interesting phenomena connected with the history of civilization. The Japanese, and the Magyars of Hungary, are the only peoples of other than Aryan stock who have founded Universities and taken part in the development of the historical and physical sciences. The University of Buda-Pesth dates from the fifteenth century, and at the present moment its large staff of eminent Professors contains but few names which are not distinctively those of Magyar nationality. The University of Tokyo was founded in the year 1868 by the union of the Tokyo Daigaku and the Kobu Daigakko. It has more than seven hundred students, and comprises a College of Law, with eleven Professors, of whom one only is a European; a College of Medicine, with sixteen Professors, all native Japanese; a College of Engineering, with eighteen Professors, three of whom bear English names; a College of Literature, with ten Professors, of whom two are Englishmen and two Germans; a College of Science, with fifteen Professors, amongst whom one-a chemist-is English, the rest being Japanese.

The present volume bears testimony to the high qualifications and serious work which distinguish the Japanese Professors and their assistants in the College of Science of Tokyo. It contains seven memoirs on biological subjects-a branch of study for which the Japanese have proved themselves during the last fifteen years to have a special and indeed a remarkable aptitude. The names of Mitsukuri, Ishikawa, Iijima, and Watase, not to mention others, are known and esteemed in every laboratory in Europe and America where the study of embryology and comparative anatomy is cultivated.

The list of papers in the present volume is as follows:(1) The foetal membranes of the Chelonia, by K. Mitsukuri, with ten plates; (2) The development of Araneina, by K. Kishinouye, with six plates; (3) Observations on fresh-water Polyzoa, by A. Oka, with four plates; (4) On Diplozoon nipponicum, n.sp., by Seitaro Goto, with three plates; (5) A new species of Hymenomycetous Fungus injurious to the mulberry-tree, by Nobujiro Tanaka, with four plates; (6) Notes on the irritability of the stigma, by M. Mujoshi, with two plates; (7) Notes on the development of the suprarenal bodies in the mouse, by Masamaro Inaba, with two plates.

Some of the authors of these admirable papers bear the title "Rigakushi," whilst Prof. Mitsukuri alone is styled "The Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University, Japan," vol. iv., Part 1. (Tokyo, Japan, 1891.)

"Rigakuhakushi." All the memoirs above named are valuable contributions to science, and are profusely illustrated by lithographic plates, which compare favourably with the best European work. Prof. Mitsukuri's memoir on Chelonian development is the most important; it forms a continuation of a memoir on the germinal layers of the Chelonia, published by him in conjunction with Mr. Ishikawa in 1887 in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.

English-speaking naturalists may congratulate themselves on the fact that the English language is chosen by our Japanese confrères as their medium of publication: English, indeed, appears to be the official language of the Imperial University of Tokyo throughout. Whilst the Russian Government encourages its scientific protégés to withdraw themselves more and more from European intercourse by publishing their investigations in the Russian language, the Far East steps gladly into the place among civilized nations vacated by the long-suffering subjects of the Czar. E. RAY LANKESTER.

EVIDENCE OF A WING IN DINORNIS.

IN 1889, Mr. A. Hamilton, of the Otago University, submitted to me some of the Moa bones he had exhumed from a swamp near Te Aute, in the North Island of this colony. Among them there were several very diminutive scapulo-coracoids and sterna, which I hope soon to figure and describe. Among the former was one which presented a small but distinct hollow in the situation where the glenoid cavity occurs in the winged Ratitæ. I made a sketch at the time, and exhibited the bone at one of the meetings of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. Though satisfied in my own mind that this hollow did represent a humerus articulation, I have been unable to find confirmation of its existence in any other scapulocoracoid among the Moa collections I have examined. Among the bones, however, which I lately dug up from a peaty hollow near Oamaru, in the South Island, I have found a large scapulo coracoid presenting a deep, wellmarked depression, with a beautifully smooth and polished concavity, which leaves no room for doubt that it has

Scapulo-coracoid of Dinornis sp., showing the glenoid cavity.

been a functional glenoid cavity for a humerus possessing a head not less substantial at least than that in the Cassowaries. The accompanying drawing (half the natural size), made by camera lucida, will convey better than a description the form and position of the depression. Proximally to the cavity, and separated from it by a smooth ridge, there is a shallow impression (not seen in the figure), as if it were an antitrochanter for some tuberosity on the humerus. The coracoidal termination of the bone fits perfectly into a deep and rounded depression in a sternum obtained at the same time and place as the scapulo-coracoid, belonging to Dinornis maximus of Owen. Prof. T. J. Parker has proved that the Apterygide are undoubtedly descended from birds that could fly: the finding of so unmistakable a glenoid cavity in the present bone confirms the generalization for the Dinornithidæ. HENRY O. FORBES. Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, N.Z., November 4, 1891.

NOTES.

THE medals and funds to be given at the anniversary meeting of the Geological Society, on February 19, have been awarded as follows:-The Wollaston Medal to Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen; the Murchison Medal to Prof. A. H. Green, F.R.S.; and the Lyell Medal to Mr. George H. Morton; the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund to Mr. O. A. Derby; that of the Murchison Fund to Mr. B. Thompson; that of the Lyell Fund to Mr. E. A. Walford and Mr. J. W. Gregory; and a portion of the Barlow-Jameson Fund to Prof. C. Mayer-Eymar.

PROF. WILLIAMSON, F. R. S., has been elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg.

THE Belgian Academy is preparing to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of M. Van Beneden's membership. He is the Professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Louvain.

THE private or preliminary installation of the Duke of Devonshire as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, in succession to his father, took place at Devonshire House on Tuesday. An admirable speech was delivered by the new Chancellor in reply to addresses by the Vice-Chancellor and the Public Orator Speaking of the University of Cambridge as it was it was in his undergraduate days, he said that the University did not at that time present in so attractive a form as she did now that instruc, tion in the study of history, constitutional law, political economyand natural sciences, which perhaps, at the present day, formed the best preparation for one who intended to aspire to take part in the management of the affairs of his country. He believed that the estimation in which high education was held had been so greatly enhanced that the Universities had nothing to fear from attacks of cupidity, envy, hostility, or ill-will. The worst they had now to apprehend was excessive zeal on the part of those who, with the best intentions, but perhaps with insufficient knowledge and experience, sought to extend more widely and more generally their influence and their usefulness. The University of Cambridge had been steadily increasing its influence and responsibility. In an expanse so wide as that covered by science and learning, the time would never come when new fields would not be open for everyone. Most of what had been done was due to the devotion and ability of their own members -men whose names were more familiar to those present than they were to himself, so that it would be invidious for him to attempt to specify them. The progress of the Cambridge University in the future, as in the past, must be mainly its own work. The time might come when their ever-extending labours -labours undertaken in response to the growing wants of the community-might be received with even wider national recognition than they had hitherto been. So far as it might be in his power, in the office to which they had done him the honour to call him, to serve as one of the links which bound the University to the great body of the people whom she existed to serve and instruct, that service, imperfect as it might be, would be cheerfully given.

THE nineteenth annual dinner of the old students of the Royal School of Mines was held at the Holborn Restaurant on Tuesday. Mr. H. Bauerman occupied the chair, Sir G. Stokes and Sir Lyon Playfair being among the guests. Responding to the toast, "The Mining and Metallurgical Industries," proposed by the Chairman, Prof. Roberts-Austen spoke of the value of metallurgical science. In illustration of its importance, he said that, if the thousands of tons of steel in the Forth Bridge had contained two-tenths less of carbon, the material would have been worthless, that thousands of tons of copper would be useless if it contained a trace of bismuth, and that the eighty millions sterling of gold coin which Sir C. Fremantle had been responsible for would have crumbled away if

it had contained one-tenth per cent. of lead. Sir Lyon Playfair, responding for the past professors, in the course of his speech remarked, "We are looking to the promise of the Government hat increased accommodation will be given by the erection of new buildings behind the British Museum at South Kensington. A public man is of no use unless he can look ahead and see the wants of the future. I can take this credit to myself, that for many years I have seen the need of your expansion, and, having some influence in the destiny of the vacant land at South Kensington, I always resisted granting any land opposite the College of Science that might prevent the natural growth of the science institutions at South Kensington. But there was a greater man than myself, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who very nearly succeeded in grabbing that land for an art gallery. I hope that project is at an end, and that the land long destined for the growth of science will only be applied to that purpose." PROF. VICTOR HORSLEY, F.R.S., will, on Tuesday next (January 19), give the first of a course of twelve lectures, at the Royal Institution, on the brain. Prof. J. A. Fleming will on Satur day (January 23) give the first of a course of three lectures on the induction coil and alternate current transformer. The Friday evening meetings will begin on January 22, when the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, F. R. S., will give a discourse on the composition of water.

THE Council of the Royal Meteorological Society have arranged to hold at 25 Great George Street, S. W., from March 15 to 18 an exhibition of instruments, charts, maps, and photographs relating to climatology. The Exhibition Committee invite the co-operation of all who may be able and willing to help them, as they are anxious to obtain as large a collection as possible of such exhibits. They will be glad to show any new meteorological instruments or apparatus invented or first constructed since last March, as well as photographs and drawings possessing meteorological interest.

MEDICAL Science in France has lost one of its most prominent representatives in Prof. Richet, who died on December 30, 1891. He was seventy-five years of age. M. Richet was a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1879 acted as President of the Academy of Medicine.

mum of cloud. If this project is carried out, solar observations will be conducted there instead of at Dehra in the North-West Provinces. The Meteorological Department has arranged for a trial of observations in 1892, at Kodai Kanan, in the Pulneys, and Kotaigiri, in the Neilgherries.

IT is stated that the Japanese Budget for the next fiscal year includes an appropriation for the construction of meteorological observatories in all the prefectures not yet provided with such establishments. Should the Parliament approve this item, the Empire will be completely covered with a network of observatories.

THE Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean, in its review of December 1891, notes that along the American coast the month began with cool pleasant weather, accompanying a strong anticyclone that hung persistently about Hatteras for several days, giving northerly winds and clear weather off the Atlantic coast and as far south as the Caribbean Sea, and warm southeasterly and southerly winds in the Gulf of Mexico. On the Atlantic, however, December opened with very stormy weather, prevailing throughout almost the entire region from Bermuda to Rockall and the Bay of Biscay. One hurricane was central about 700 miles north-east from Bermuda, and another stormone of great extent and severity-central about lat. 58° N., long. 25 W. On December 6 and 7 fresh to strong southerly winds prevailed off the American Atlantic coast, whilst a norther set in over the Gulf of Mexico, attending the approach from the westward of an anticyclone that caused northerly gales in the Gulf Stream region and as far south as the Caribbean Sea on the 8th and 9th, with persistent northerly winds and cold weather until the 14th. Various storms reached the Atlantic from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. No ice was reported south of the latitude of Cape Race. There was very little fog, none having been reported until toward the end of the month. On the 22nd a large fog bank extended from about Sable Island to Sandy Hook, Reference is made by the Pilot accompanying an anticyclone. Chart to "the extremely dense fog that overhung London from the 22nd to the 26th."

He was

WE regret to have to record the death, on the 5th inst., of pneumonia, after a very short illness, of Dr. Albert J. Bernays, Lecturer on Chemistry at St. Thomas's Hospital. He was the author of several works of great value to medical students: "Household Chemistry," "Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry, ," "First Lines in Chemistry," "Notes for Students in Chemistry," &c.

THE rich collection of dried mosses formed by the late Prof. S. O. Lindberg has been acquired by the Botanical Museum of the University of Helsingfors.

DR. H. JAGOR, the well-known ethnologist, is about to proceed to Saigon, and will visit Cambodia and Tonquin. Dr. Jagor recently spent some time in Java, renewing the impressions which he formed nearly thirty-five years ago on his first extensive scientific tour through the countries of the Far East. book on the Philippines is still a work of great value.

His

THE question of removing the Madras Observatory to a station in the Pulneys or Neilgherries is occupying the attention of the Governments of India and Madras. The transfer is recommended in order to obtain an atmosphere with the mini

an average maximum temperature of 88°. The absolute maximum was 91°, in June, and the minimum 62, in April. The average rainfall at 45 stations in the island was 33 inches, and was very much below the usual amount. There were several slight shocks of earthquake during the year, but no damage was done.

IN the Repertorium für Meteorologie (vol. xiv. No. 10), M. E. Berg discusses the frequency and geographical distribution of heavy daily rainfalls in European Russia, excepting Finland and the Caucasus. The observations refer to the years 1886-90, a rather short period; but in previous years there were not sufficient stations for such an investigation. The paper deals exclusively with falls of between 1'4 and 3 inches, distributed according to months, for the various Governments of the Empire. The results show that the frequency of heavy falls is subject to considerable fluctuation from year to year. The regions of greatest frequency occur on the south-east coast of the Crimea and the extreme south-west of the Empire; on the eastern side of the Dnieper, the region extending to Smolensk and further northwards is also subject to very heavy falls. The northern limit of daily falls of over 3 inches, so far as relates to Central Russia, is the Government of Moscow. The yearly range of frequency reaches a

maximum in summer, and, except in the south-eastern districts, the frequency in autumn is greater than in spring. In July and August the great falls extend over very large districts, and at other seasons are generally regulated by the course of the baro. metric depressions. The following is the average yearly frequency of the heavy falls for the whole Empire, arranged according to seasons: winter, o8; spring, 14'3; summer, 1064; autumn, 20.8. The maximum amount which fell in any day was over 8 inches, in Bessarabia.

THE floating of the particles of cloud or fog, Herr von Frank, of Graz, seeks to explain (Met. Zeit.), by the presence of an envelope of aqueous vapour. As an approximate average value for the diameter of droplet with envelope he gives 0.7 mm. Supposing one cubic metre of cloud to hold 3 grammes of water, there would be an interval of 0'2 mm. between the envelopes. When clouds pass over the sun, the shadows of objects are perceptibly lengthened when the darkening occurs, and the author attributes this to refraction by the vapour envelopes. Again, it is difficult to see how water droplets in the form of cloud or fog could exist at such various temperatures, did not the vapour envelopes, as bad conductors of heat (com. pare Leidenfrost's drops), guard the droplets to some extent from evaporating and freezing. The minute particles must soon be dissipated by the sun's rays, if they were not in a kind of spheroidal state. This heating expands the envelopes, so that the cloud tends to rise; and various phenomena in Nature may be thus explained (e.g. the rise of mist in Alpine valleys). Once more, liquid droplets have been observed (by Assmann) floating in air of 10 C. On meeting a solid body these froze to icelumps without crystalline structure. Here, according to Herr von Frank, the vapour-envelopes prevent freezing, till they are ruptured by the solid; the droplet thus loses the bad conductor of heat which protected it, and solidifies so quickly that no crystals can form. The author supposes that with much aqueous vapour in the air, larger drops form, the clouds floating lower; with less aqueous vapour, the drops are smaller and the clouds higher; the thickness of envelope, however, being the same for large and small drops under like conditions of temperature and

pressure.

ON January 5 slight shocks of earthquake were felt at Verona, Peschiera on the Lago di Garda, Illasi, Parma, Modena, and Chiavari; and on January 6 slight shocks were felt at Rochester, New York. A telegram from Athens, dated January 11, states that several severe shocks of earthquake, accompanied by subterranean noises, had been felt in Thessaly, especially in the ceighbourhood of Larissa.

ON January 1 a fresh stream of lava was issuing from the base of the great cone of Mount Vesuvius on the northern side.

MR. HERBERT JONES, to whom has been intrusted the charge of the animal and vegetable remains found at Silchester during the excavations last year, writes to the Times that all the bones which are sufficiently perfect will be carefully measured for comparison with those of modern animals and with bones found on other ancient sites. This examination is yet very far from complete, but Mr. Jones is inclined to think that the remains of the red deer are those of animals considerably larger than are common at the present day. The roe deer appears to have been of about the ordinary size. The bones of the ox, of which the only variety met with is apparently Bos longifrons, and those of the sheep are very small; also the horses' bones, two varieties of which are present in the collection. It is probable that the horses were of about the size of Exmoor or New Forest ponies, the cattle much like the Kerry or Brittany breeds, and the sheep similar to those now found on the island of St. Kilda. These

results are quite tentative, but Mr. Jones points out that so far as they go they confirm the deductions made by Lieut.-General Pitt-Rivers, F.R. S., from the animal remains found by him at his excavations of a Romano-British village, near Rushmore, on the borders of Wilts and Dorset.

LAST week we referred to a "new herbarium pest" to which Dr. C. V. Riley calls attention in Insect Life. Writing on the subject in the Gardener's Chronicle, Mr. R. McLachlan points out that an insect of similar habit has been known in Europe for nearly a century. In 1798, Fabricius described a moth, now known as Acidalia herbariata, and says of it, "Habitat in herbariis folia plantarum exsiccatarum exedens, Mus. Dom. Bosc." This moth has occasionally been found in England, and has been recorded as infesting herbalists' shops; it has been found nearly all over Europe, and usually in herbaria. A complete account of its transformations by Dr. Heylaerts is given in the Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique (tom. xxi. pp. 1 to 8, 1878).

MESSRS. PRATT AND SON, Brighton, state in the current number of the Zoologist that they have recently set up a speci men of the spotted eagle which was shot at the Sudbourne Hall Estate, Wickham Market, Suffolk, and sent to them for preservation. It proved on dissection to be a male, and its stomach contained the remains of a water rat and a partridge. It was killed on November 4. Another bird had been seen in it company, and was no doubt the one caught at Colchester, as recorded by Mr. H. Laver in the Zoologist. The bird sent to Messrs. Pratt and Son was in perfect plumage, beautifully spotted, and evidently in its second year; it weighed 31⁄2 pounds.

THE U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries has issued a full and very interesting Report on the fisheries of the Great Lakes. The review is based mainly on data obtained in 1885. While commercial fishing is the chief and practically the only subject considered, the importance of pleasure-fishing on the lakes has been incidentally referred to. Although there are no statistics to show the amount of fish caught by sportsmen and other pleasure-seekers, it is known that the quantity and value of the fish so taken are very considerable. Mr. J. W. Collins estimates, from his own observations, that no less than 10,000 dollars worth of fish is taken every year from the break. water at Chicago by men, women, and children who go there in summer for a day's "outing."

PROF. PUTNAM has received 20,000 dollars from a Connecticut gentleman, whose name is withheld, to enable him to search in South America for objects of anthropological interest, to be exhibited at the Chicago Exposition. A part of the exhibit in Prof. Putnam's department will be a fine collection of cliff-dwellers' relics, gathered by the Rev. C. H. Green in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.

MUCH interest has been excited in New York by the use of electricity in a representation of "Julius Cæsar" which is being given in that city by the Meiningen company. The thunderstorm in the third scene of the first act is said by Electricity to be the finest achievement of the kind ever seen in New York. The lightning effects are "exceptionally lurid and realistic."

THE Report of the President of the Johns Hopkins University for 1891 has been issued, and all who are interested in the higher education in the United States will be glad to learn from it that the attendance of students was larger than it had been in The any previous year, while their quality was satisfactory. number of graduates also showed a marked increase. The President notes that electrical engineering has received especial attention, at a considerable though still inadequate outlay."

IN a paper entitled "The Navajo Belt-Weaver,” published by the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Shufeldt gives an excellent account of weaving as practised by the Navajos. While living in the north-western part of New Mexico, he was able to watch native weavers preparing their beautiful blankets, belts, and sashes; and on one occasion he was fortunate enough to have an opportunity of photographing an Indian woman while engaged in weaving a belt. The reproduction of the photograph is interesting, and is said by Dr. Shufeldt to show the entire scene well. Curves are never found in the figure patterns on the belts or blankets, but horizontal stripes, diagonals, and the lozenge are interwoven with a variety that appears to be almost endless in the matter of design. The leading colours used are red, brilliant orange yellow, a blue, and by combination a green, and, finally, black, white, and grey.

MR. W. T. ROBERTSON gives in the October number of the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales a clear and interesting account of the cultivation and manufacture of tea. The object of the paper is to supply the farmers of New South Wales with information which they may be able to turn to practical advantage. Mr. Robertson does not think that the colony can ever manufacture sufficiently large quantities of tea to put it in a position to compete with China, India, and Ceylon. He sees no reason, however, why the industry should not be conducted on a modest

scale. A farmer with children could utilize their labour in the plucking and the light work in manufacture, while the heavier he could undertake himself. If the owner had, say, an acre under cultivation, it would probably bring him in 300 pounds of made tea per annum-enough for his own consumption, with a surplus which he could dispose of at a good profit.

M. PAUL TOPINARD contributes to the new number of L'Anthropologie a most interesting paper on the transformation of the animal skull into a human skull. The process may be explained, he thinks, by the influence, direct and indirect, due to the enlargement of the brain. There is also a paper, by M. G. de Lapouge, on various prehistoric skulls from the collection of M. Puech, of Montpellier; and Dr. R. Collignon brings together some facts relating to the colour of the eyes and hair of the Japanese.

A WORK on the great earthquake of Japan, by Prof. John Milne and Prof. W. K. Burton, is now in the press at Tokyo. It will be illustrated by 25 large photo-plates. For the sake of comparison, there will be two plates showing on a small scale the effects of earthquakes in Italy and other countries. All the plates are to be on the finest quality of Japanese paper.

It is

THE prospectus is issued of a Forstlichnaturwissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, an organ for laboratories of forest-botany, forest zoology, forest-chemistry, agriculture, and meteorology. to appear monthly in Munich, under the editorship of Dr. Carl Freiherr von Tubeuf; the first number is announced for the current month.

MM. ROUY AND FOUCAUD expect to publish the first fascicle of their new Flore de France in the course of the coming year. MR. ELLIOT STOCK has published a fourth edition of Mr. H. W. S. Worsley-Benison's "Nature's Fairy-Land.”

PART 39 of Cassell's "New Popular Educator" has been published. It includes, besides many illustrations in the text, a coloured plate representing the Great Hall, Karnac.

FURTHER details of his experiments upon the colour and spectrum of free gaseous fluorine are contributed by M. Moissan to the January number of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique. The apparatus employed was, of necessity, constructed of platinum, and M. Moissan prefaces his description of it with an account of a few later observations upon the action of fluorine on platinum. He finds that fluorine may be stored for days in his vessels of platinum without the slightest action occurring, pro

vided the precautions which he has previously described are taken to remove the last traces of hydrofluoric acid vapour from the gas. Moreover, even at 100° fluorine was found incapable of effecting the least alteration in a spiral of platinum wire immersed in the heated gas. It is not until a temperature superior to 400° is attained that corrosion commences, and the platinum. vessel requires heating to low redness before rapid action occurs.

IN order to ascertain whether fluorine, like other members of the family of halogens, was possessed of a distinctive colour, a tube of platinum, one metre long and two centimetres diameter, was procured. The two ends of this tube were closed by disks of faultlessly clear and colourless fluor-spar, a commodity of great rarity. Near the ends were inserted narrow side-tubes of platinum for the entrance and exit of the fluorine; the ends of these side-tubes were closed by small, tightly-fitting stoppers, also of platinum. The whole apparatus held about 200 cubic centimetres of gas. In performing the experiment, pure fluorine was allowed to stream through the apparatus until a crystal of silicon held at the end of the exit-tube burst into flame. The stoppers were then inserted, and the colour of the inclosed gas parison a similar observation was made with a blackened glass examined against a white background. For the sake of com tube, closed at the ends with plate-glass disks, and filled first

with air and afterwards with chlorine. The colour of fluorine is then seen to be somewhat paler than that of chlorine, and decidedly more yellow-just what one would expect from the position of fluorine at the head of the halogen family group.

A

THE experiments made with the view of determining the spectrum of fluorine were carried out in the following manner. beautiful little piece of platinum apparatus was constructed, consisting of a wide tube, brightly polished inside and supported vertically. It was closed at each end by a platinum cap, through each of which passed a stout electrode rod. Each rod was in turn connected with one of the wires from a Ruhmkorff coil, worked by six Bunsen cells. Two pairs of these rods, which served for the passing of the spark, were employed alternately, one pair made of platinum and the other of gold,

so that the lines due to the terminals could be eliminated. In order to permit the spectroscopic observation of the spark, a short horizontal tube of the same diameter was attached at the middle of the vertical tube, opposite to the two terminals; the open front end of this horizontal tube was closed with a window of perfectly colourless fluor-spar. Narrow entrance and exit tubes were also attached near the ends of the vertical tube in order to enable the apparatus to be filled with any gas at pleasure. The spectrum given by passing the spark between platinum terminals in an atmosphere of nitrogen was first observed; then the nitrogen was displaced by fluorine, and the spark again passed and observed. The two observations were then repeated with terminals of gold. The positions of the lines in the spectrum of fluorine thus obtained were finally confirmed by observations of the dissociation spectra of hydrofluoric acid and the gaseous fluorides of silicon, carbon, and phosphorus. The results show that the spectrum of fluorine consists of thirteen bright red lines, whose positions have previously been given in a preliminary note by M. Moissan, and which will be found in NATURE, vol. xliv. p. 623.

THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week include a Toque Monkey (Macacus pileatus 9 ) from Ceylon, presented by Mr. John Bell; a Vervet Monkey (Cercopithecus lalandii 8 ) from South Africa, presented by Mr. R. J. White; a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) from Moluccas, presented by Mr. J. Buckingham; a White-tailed Sea Eagle (Haliaëtus albicilla) from Asia Minor, presented by Sir H. F. de Trafford, Bart., F.Z.S.