bridge on the 5th of next month and three THERE is a talk of putting up a monument to Longfellow in Westminster Abbey. from the imagination of an editor. The indexes of some periodicals might, so far as they were concerned, furnish an imperfect substitute; but the twenty pages could never be entirely replaced without going over from beginning to end all represented in the 'Index-over 4,000 volumes, the threeyears' work of some fifty co-operators. But fortunately, while the editors were considering how much of this could be undertaken, the manuscript was found under a street counter, where it had been thrown by the disappointed thief. MESSRS. HANSARD'S Monthly List of Parliamentary Papers for July, 1882, contains the titles of 51 Reports and Papers, 35 Bills, and 49 Papers by Command. Under the first head we call attention to the Report and Evidence (with plans) on Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings; to Report and Evidence (with plans) on the Public Offices Site Bill; to the First Report, with Evidence, of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Land Law (Ireland); and to a Return of all Real Property held in Mortmain, or THE work on Folk-Etymology by the Rev. for Charitable, Public, or Perpetual Uses. A. Smythe Palmer, for which the author Among the Bills is one headed Parcels Post. has been long collecting materials, will be The Papers by Command comprise the Re-published this autumn by Messrs. Bell & ports of the Inspectors of Mines for the Sons. There has hitherto been no book in Year 1881 (with plans); Reports as to the English devoted to this interesting subject Hours of Labour permitted by Law in of the influence of popular speech upon Factories, and the Regulations as to the language. Employment, by Relays or during the Night, of Men, Women, and Young Persons in the United States of America, and in France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Belgium; the Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom (twenty-ninth number); and Returns of Traffic, and General Report on Accidents, on the Railways of the United Kingdom for the Year 1881. | IT is stated that the Madras Government has granted a subsidy to meet the expenses WE are informed that M. Maspero, before he left Cairo, found several hundreds of Coptic MSS., which had been walled in since Woide's time. Unfortunately they are not Sahidic, and are therefore of no great value for the New Testament text. FROM the report of the Record Society, read at the fourth annual meeting, recently held in Manchester under the presidentship of Mr. James Crossley, F.S.A., we learn that the seventh and eighth volumes of the Society's publications will shortly be in the hands of the members. They will contain an account of the various classes of records issue during September a new novel by the relating to Lancashire and Cheshire which Detmold, of New York. 'Gabrielle de BouRDAINE' is the title of a new novel by Mrs. Spender, the author a new novel by Mrs. Spender, the author of Godwyn's Ordeal,' &c., to be shortly published by Messrs. Hurst & Blackett in three volumes. The same publishers will Right Hon. A. J. B. Beresford Hope, M.P., author of Strictly Tied Up,' under the title of 'The Brandreths.' ་ THE latest additions to the Egerton Library of MSS. in the British Museum comprise a Liber Prosarum' for the use of the Dominican nuns of Poissy, fifteenth the Dominican nuns of Poissy, fifteenth century; a 'Missale Parvum from the convent of the Cellites of Ghent, also of the fifteenth century; an interesting collection of miscellaneous historical and other letters and papers, 1494-1696, from the Ouvry sale; a Royal Household Book, 17 Henry VIII., 1525-1526; the Expenses of the Revels at Richmond and Greenwich, 1527; the Earl of Essex's Rebellion, 1601; Rules for the Office of Ordnance, 1683; curious domestic recipes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and the four Gospels in Greek, with illuminations of the twelfth century. MR. J. H. ROUND, to whose paper on "The Barony of Arklow' we lately called attention, has been continuing his researches among the Irish dignities, and will contribute studies on 'The Earldoms of Ormonde' and on The Baronies of Kingsale and Howth' to the forthcoming numbers of Mr. Foster's Collectanea Genealogica. THE death is announced in his eightieth year of Mr. James Murray, author of The Maid of Galloway,' a tale of Thrieve and Otterburn-a poem which some thirty years ago attracted considerable attention. The deceased, who lost his sight at the age of five years, was known as 66 the blind poet of Galloway." London. The balance sheet was said to be ་ THE Rev. J. R. Boyle, of Cottingham, near Hull, of whose forthcoming History of Accrington' we recently made mention, has in preparation a comprehensive bibliography of Swedenborgian literature. SIR J. H. RAMSAY has continued his investigations of the national finances in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and an article on the accounts of Henry IV. (in continuation of a former one on the accounts of Richard II.) will appear in the September number of the Antiquary. THE publication of a curious collection of the London signs of booksellers, publishers, and printers, up to the end of the seventeenth century, will be commenced in the September number of the Bibliographer. MESSRS. MARCUS WARD & Co.'s Christmas book 'At Home,' issued last season, is to be followed this year by a companion volume, entitled 'Abroad.' The subject of the book is a trip to Paris and through old towns of Normandy, supposed to be made at Easter time by English children. It is to be full of pictures from drawings specially made on a recent sketching tour. Mr. Thomas Crane is the chief designer of the book, which will be printed in colours. A PARCEL of manuscript of Poole and Fletcher's Index to Periodicals,' containing the material for about twenty printed pages, was stolen on its way to the printer. Manuscript of that kind cannot be written out FROM the United States comes the announcement of a translation of 'The His torical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings of Nicholas Machiavelli,' by Mr. Charles E. PROF. WELLHAUSEN, the well-known theologian, has removed of his own motion from Greifswald to Halle. THE deaths are announced of M. le Comte F. de Bourgoing, the diplomatist, and author of a Histoire Diplomatique de l'Europe pendant la Révolution Française,' of which the fourth volume is in the press; of Hermann Francke, a high official in the Prussian Post Office, known as a poet and dramatist under the pseudonym of "Heinrich Lindau"; and of Frédéric Gaillardet, the inventor of 'La Tour de Nesle.' THE late well-known Russian Orientalist, V. V. Grigorief, during his official career as chief administrator of the border Kirghiz tribes, drew up a scheme for a Kirghiz training school for teachers. After twelve years' delay this project is about to be realized, and a Kirghiz school is to be opened this autumn in the town of Orsk. IN Turkey the political poet still exists, and the poet is a politician subject to party vicissitudes, and may meet the fate of Ovid. Khairi Effendi, one of the most distinguished poets, was a few years ago, like some of his predecessors, exiled to Kasireyeh. present Sultan having recalled him, he immediately on landing proceeded to the palace, and we may next hear of him as a guest in the palace and favourite of the sovereign. The THE Eastern Express announces three Turkish illustrated publications. The Mirat-ialem is a fortnightly quarto of sixteen pages, copiously illustrated, issued by the Society of Arts and Sciences. The engravings do not appear to be original. The Chojuklarara Kraat is a child's paper. In Turkish with Armenian characters is the Felek. The subjects of these papers are miscellaneous. A HISTORY OF THE MATHESONS,' by Mr. A. Mackenzie, editor of the Celtic Magazine, will be published shortly. SCIENCE Address delivered at the Southampton Meeting An address to be successful must therefore be in the main within the comprehension of the associates, and yet be of interest to the specialists and scientific men who form the great body of the members. In the address delivered at Southampton last Wednesday, Dr. Siemens has very wisely made no attempt to review the whole domain of science, but has confined himself almost entirely to a subject which interests alike all classes of his audience, namely, the relation between scientific investigation and practical engineering, or, as it may be called, "applied science." The change which has taken place in this relation in the last fifty, or we might almost say in the last ten, years amounts to little less than a social and industrial revolution. and the market-place, and has found herself all But if the more intimate connexion be- Not many years ago scientific men were a class apart, enunciating their discoveries in terms comprehensible only to themselves and to their colleagues, and looking down upon the engineering and industrial classes in much the same spirit as a Hypatia might have looked Turning now to the more technical portion them, as "the many ignoble of the address, we see that Dr. Siemens has who toil for the noble few." ShallScience taken as an illustration of the application of descend from her imperial throne," wrote science to engineering the system of electrical one of them, "and mix with the base ambi-units adopted by the International Congress tion of the world?" upon a of Electricians which met in Paris last year. On the other hand, engineers and work- Dr. Siemens proposes to add to these units men groping along without scientific guid- four new ones, as follows: (1) a new unit ance made blunder after blunder, and conof power, to be called a sequently the progress of the nation to equal to of a horse-power; (2) a unit of Watt," and to be wealth and prosperity was pitiably slow, magnetic pole, to be called a "Weber"; and its manufacturers had to be protected (3) a unit of magnetic field, to be called against foreign competition not by the Gauss "; (4) a unit of heat, to be called a superiority of their products, but by duties imports, with the natural accompaniment of heat generated by an ampère flowing "Joule," and to be defined as the quantity of dearness of all the necessaries of life. through an ohm for one second. And, further, it must be remembered that progress in culture and civilization, for a The first unit, the Watt, would be very eliminate the factor 746, which often has to of a few men of Gradually, however, a change has oc- that the most useful unit of this kind would be a unit of magnetic field based on its action on a moving wire. We would suggest that the unit magnetic field should be the field in which a wire one centimètre long, moving at right angles to the lines of force with a velocity of one centimètre per second, should have an electro-motive force of one volt induced between its ends. As this unit would be inconveniently large, its millionth* or ten-millionth part might be used in practice. The unit of pole could then be derived from it. The proposed Joule, or heat unit, is, we venture to think, unnecessary, as it is merely the Watt under another name with the element of time added. A Joule would be simply the heat generated by a Watt in specific heat of water is to be omitted from one second. If the factor introduced by the the definition, it would be better to express the heat unit simply in foot pounds. The common practice of engineers at present in determining, for instance, what dimensions will carry is to calculate how current an electro-magnet of certain proposed much horse-power will be expended in it and to compare the result with the cooling surface available. The use of the Watt in this class of calculation will be a great convenience, as a horse-power is an inconveniently large unit, but no advantage as far as we can see would be derived from a unit such as the proposed Joule. Siemens mentions without disapproval a proWhile speaking of electric units Dr. posal which was made by Prof. Clausius to base our units on the statical system, and to practical units from them. We may remind use the velocity factor (v) for obtaining the Dr. Siemens that at a meeting of the Units Committee appointed by the International Congress in Paris last year this proposition was fully discussed, and its impracticability was so completely demonstrated that Prof. Clausius himself formally withdrew it. Dr. Siemens speaks of the application of electricity to the transmission of power, and shows that, even with the large loss that now takes place, it is probably more economical to use a central steam engine, and transmit power to neighbouring shops by elecThe comparatively slow development of tricity, than to use a number of small engines. this branch of industry has been often comThe causes of the delay are not difficult mented on during the last year or two. to detect. In the first place, although the theory of transmission is now well understood, practical knowledge is wanting, and can only be obtained by experiments conducted on a large scale and in large works. Secondly, the number of engineers competent to conduct such experiments is as yet small, and all of these are entirely occupied immediate prospect of success and profit. with electric lighting, which offers a more We have no doubt that in a year or two, as soon as electric lighting work has passed trusted in its details to pupils and assistants, out of the experimental stage and can be made in the application of electricity to the an enormous and rapid progress will be transmission of power. unit of field as defined above, the field of an ordinary No address or lecture dealing with me*If the Gauss be taken as one-ten-millionth (10-7) of the Gramme machine would have a strength of from 150 to 300 chanical progress would now be considered complete if it did not contain some allusion to electric lighting, but we confess to a feeling of disappointment as we read Dr. Siemens's remarks upon the subject, as they tell his audience nothing new, and merely speak in very general terms about what has been done already. Several pages of the address are, however, devoted to gas lighting and to the importance of the waste products of its manufacture. Dr. Siemens points out the importance of gas as a heating agent, and how by the use of it London smoke may be abated. He, however, says very truly that gas as prepared for illuminating purposes is necessarily much more expensive than a gas prepared for heating only would be. He therefore suggests that two separate systems of mains should be laid, and that in one illuminating gas should be supplied, as at present, and in the other heating gas at say one shilling per 1,000 cubic feet. Very probably the second system of pipes will never be laid, as the great superiority of electricity over gas for lighting purposes will before long be universally recognized. It is not unlikely that in a very few years the supply of illuminating gas will be discontinued, that gas suitable for heating purposes will be supplied instead of it, and that all domestic lighting will be done by incandescent lamps. The address deals further with the relative values of gas and steam as motive powers, and the result of Dr. Siemens's calculations is decidedly in favour of the gas engine. This is a conclusion on which it would be premature to offer any criticism, for, granting the correctness of the theoretical conclusions, the practical considerations which limit the application of theory have not as yet in the case of the gas engine received any adequate test. We are glad to see that Dr. Siemens mentions the introduction of mild steel into engineering work as one of the most important of recent advances, for there appears no doubt that when its properties are a little better known, and when more confidence is felt in different samples being of the same nature, it will be very widely used, and will render possible methods of construction which cannot now be attempted. Dr. Siemens briefly reviews some of the more important engineering enterprises and investigations which have either recently been brought to a conclusion or are now in progress or proposed; and the address concludes with an account of some of the investigations recently made by Mr. Crookes, by Mr. De La Rue, and by Mr. Spottiswoode and Mr. Moulton, on the phenomena displayed by matter in a state of extreme subdivision. Here we are apparently deserting engineering and turning our attention to some of the most abstruse problems in purely theoretic science; but we must remember that it is only by theoretic study that the foundations of engineering are laid. A nation or a community which has no care for natural truths, irrespective of their applications, will not be successful in making those applications. The experiments in question are not only wonderful in themselves, with their beautiful complexity of radiant matter and sensitive striæ, but they even offer us a prospect of determining the nature of electricity. The practical results BOTANICAL BOOKS. What special We that might follow such a determination may literature of potato culture? be estimated by a generation which has qualification has Mr. Fekele's paper, in Hunseen electric lighting developed from Fara-garian, to be the sole, or almost the sole, day's research on electro-magnetic induction. representative of the literature pertaining to the larch? We cannot but feel that criticism of this kind, however justifiable, is, under the circumstances, ungracious. would prefer to offer our thanks to Mr. Jackson for what he has done, and trust that, so far from being discouraged, he will take new heart of grace, and, with the present work as a nucleus, and a more rigid application of his own rules of selection, produce, as he can, a thoroughly good bibliography of economic botany. Vegetable Technology: a Contribution towards a Bibliography of Economic_Botany, with a Comprehensive Subject-Index. By B. D. Jackson, Sec.L.S. (Longmans & Co.)-This publication is issued under the auspices of the Index Society, and is based upon catalogues formed by Messrs. G. J. Symons and P. L. Simmonds. These catalogues have been edited by Mr. Jackson, who tells us he has omitted many references for various reasons and has added others. Moreover, he has given a very useful subject-index. It is a most ungracious task to criticize such a book, for, however imperfectly executed it may be, it is sure to be of service in any case, and on the whole it is calculated to save much time and trouble to the student. The work undercalculated to satisfy justifiable feelings of selftaken by an index-maker is so irksome, so little complacency, that every possible allowance ought to be made for imperfect performance, and no tribute of thanks omitted to those who undertake such tasks. While making these admissions, as in duty bound, we cannot conceal the difficulty we have in coming to the conclusion whether the volume before us is most remarkable for what it does contain, or most noteworthy for index-maker is not expected to select what he what it does not include. In ordinary cases an prescribed limitations he must insert everything, Within the without even attempting to select or gauge the relative merits of the publications he proposes to index. But Mr. Jackson has, unfortunately, not conformed to this safe and wholesome rule. He has been something more than index-maker; he has acted as editor, and as such has laid himself open to criticism. Thus a whole literature, so to speak, of some subjects is dismissed with one or two entries, as in the case of the "guaco" or the "argan tree." If it be alleged that these are among those therapeutical subjects expressly intended to be excluded, why insert any reference to them at all? By inserting one or two references only, and those not of primary importance, the student is misled, and is liable to form inadequate notions of the importance of the subject and of the extent of the literature pertaining to it. Again, the reader will sorely miss references to the annual reports of the gardens at Kew, which teem with original articles on economic plants. Surely Mr. Jackson will not allege that these reports do not contain a sufficient account of the raw products, their cultivation and origin, to warrant him in inserting them in his bibliographical list? While if it be alleged that these publications are relatively unknown and comparatively difficult of access, that would, to our thinking, only furnish an additional reason for including reference to them in such a volume as the present. On what principle, again, Mr. Jackson has omitted the name of Mr. Dyer in connexion with the subject of caoutchouc we cannot determine, unless, indeed, there be some While we cannot but think the omissions rather limitation as to date which is not made apparent. remarkable, we are even more puzzled as to the relevance of some of the matters included. Why, for instance, is the paper by Mr. Bartley on the cultivation of common fruits inserted, while the earlier and more practical papers of Mr. Roach Smith and a whole host of technical books on the same subject are omitted? How is it that Loebe's work on the diseases of plants is inserted, while Ré, Berkeley, Frank, Prillieux, Sorauer, and Paget are not so much as mentioned in this connexion? How comes it that forestry entry, and that, as it happens, an inapproin England is represented by only a single priate one? Why has Mr. Zanon's work been picked out as the sole representative of the shall or what he shall not insert. A Dictionary of Popular Names of the Plants which furnish the Natural and Acquired Wants of Economy, their History, Products, and Uses. By Man in all Matters of Domestic and General John Smith, A. L.S. (Macmillan & Co.)-From the preface we learn that this volume is a revision of the author's previously published work 'Domestic Botany'; and, if we may judge from a few articles that we have referred to for the improved. The order, as is appropriate in a dicpurpose, it is not only revised, but extended and tionary, is alphabetical. As the title by no means clearly indicates the nature of the book, we may tive notices of the principal subjects derived say that it consists of a series of short descripfrom the vegetable kingdom which are employed in medicine and the arts. Thus, under the heading "Nutmeg," we find a popular account of the tree and of the nut, the localities where it is grown, and the products derived from it. We also find that in addition to the common nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) no less than five other plants yield "nutmegs" so called. Although it makes no pretence to completeness or to scientific accuracy, this work will be found useful by the general reader, and affords another example of the undaunted spirit of the author under circumstances which would almost of necessity compel abstinence from literary labour on the part of most people. So far, however, from advanced age and deprivation of sight putting a stop to his labours, the author hopes "his book will be the forerunner of a more extensive work." It is impossible not to admire the spirit here displayed, and we may add that while many writers so circumstanced would have deprecated criticism, Mr. Smith is above any such weakness, and he is justifiably so. Micro-Fungi: When and Where to Find Them. By Thomas Brittain, President of the Manchester Microscopical Society. (Manchester, A. Heywood.)-We are loth to speak disrespectfully of a president, and, indeed, we have neither the intention nor the right to do so, but it may be permissible to remind him that to write a book is no necessary part of a president's duty, and that if he does so far commit himself he endangers his reputation. We can only congratulate the reader that the author has, as he says, carefully avoided adding scientific names and structure." What, if he had been careless in the matter, would have been the result we can hardly estimate, for as it is a very large proportion of the names he does include are misspelt. 66 By Henry Edmonds, B.Sc. Lond. (Longmans Elementary Botany, Theoretical and Practical. & Co.) The question whether it is better in teaching the elements of a science like botany to begin with the details alone, or to inculcate general principles and illustrate them by reference to the details on which they are founded, seems no nearer solution than ever it was. Moreover, in the careful study of certain representative types-a plan which finds many advocates nowadays-unless general principles are constantly referred to, and unless the types are sufficiently varied, and especially unless they are sufficiently contrasted as to their reciprocal agreements and as to their differences, there is a great risk of the pupil being quite unable to apply the knowledge he has obtained of one par The ticular type to the comprehension of another which he has not previously met with. Instruction by means of type specimens, if not very completely carried out, becomes as much an affair of "cram" as was the old system of beginning with the enumeration of all possible forms of cell, and going on to the description of all possible forms of leaves, and the classification of all possible kinds of fruit. The student who had a predilection for botany survived this ill treatment, but he who had no fancy for the subject literally learned nothing but a string of hard words, which he gladly forgot the moment that the necessity for their retention was past. little book before us, which, on the whole, is well done, is not free from the paralyzing vice of terminology. Thus we are told that "in the rose we have an eterio of achenes contained within a hollow receptacle, and the whole pseudocarp is called a cynarrhodum." What possible notion does this convey as to the real nature of the fruit of the rose, its mode of formation, or its relation to other fruits? Again, we have the old and quite incorrect definition of the term "monadelphous," and many others might be mentioned, not so much to the discredit of the compiler as of the system he has thought it right to adopt. Mr. Edmonds seems to have consulted some old and some relatively new textbooks, and to have "boiled them down" to form a text-book designed, as he tells us, primarily for students of science classes connected with the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education; and from his own point of view he has succeeded in producing a useful condensation. Whether it will be of any service in promoting a knowledge of botany out of the examination room is open to considerable doubt. Cottage Gardening. By E. Hobday.-The Art of Grafting and Budding. By Charles Baltet. Translated from the French.-Garden Receipts. Edited by Charles W. Quin. (Crosby Lockwood & Co.)-These useful and handy little books form three volumes of "Weale's Rudimentary Series." They contain a good deal of valuable information, and 'The Art of Grafting and Budding' will be found especially serviceable. One or two of the Garden Receipts,' such as "Nature Printing" and "Scalds and Burns," are a little out of place. THE RETURN OF MR. LEIGH SMITH. Ir is seldom that a private expedition receives such a spontaneous and hearty welcome as that accorded to Mr. Leigh Smith and the crew of the Eira. Their safe return has, indeed, relieved a very general feeling of serious anxiety which we now know to have been well founded. Mr. a more 66 of depôts of provisions, &c., when bound even for a summer cruise to the icy recesses of the Far North. It also strengthens the arguments already brought forward by high Arctic authorities in favour of Franz Josef Land as a basis for further exploration towards the Pole should another expedition be sent in that direction. Opinions will always differ as to the practical utility of Arctic discovery, but there can be no doubt, to quote the opinion of the late Lord Beaconsfield, that it encourages "that maritime enterprise which has ever distinguished the English people," an object which must always be appreciated by all true Englishmen in all time. The crew of the Eira have returned without accomplishing the scientific objects of their voyage, but not without giving another proof that British seamen are still animated by the same spirit that, three hundred years ago, inspired Martin Frobisher to hold on across the unknown waste of waters with one mast sprung they depended almost entirely on walrus and bear meat, which was boiled with vegetables, and served out three times a day in twenty-five plates made out of old provision tins. A few pieces of drift-wood were found, but very little coal or wood had been saved from the ship, so the fire was chiefly kept up with blubber and old rope. The cooking had to be done inside the house, and many a time all hands had to rush out to escape suffocation from the smoke. The sun went down on the 21st of October and did not again appear till the 23rd of March. During the wild winter gales the house was occasionally buried in snow, and the temperature indoors went down to zero, while the thermometer outside showed 80° of frost. The only sources of excitement during these long dark days were the frequent visits of bears, which tried to scrape through the snow to get into the house. Every bear that was seen was eagerly watched, and woe to the man who missed a shot." It was fortunate for the expedi-and the other overboard, feeling confident, to tion that they had a dog with them, since he not only warned them when a bear was in the neighbourhood, but on more than one occasion saved the lives of the whole party by discovering walruses on the ice when starvation seemed imminent. Miserable, and often to all appearance hopeless, as their situation was, however, Capt. Lofley, the sailing master, says that "all the men maintained cheerful spirits, and never gave way to the least despondency." No better testimony could be borne to the high qualities of the leader of the expedition than this simple statement; and if we compare it with the account in Churchill's collection of the sufferings of the seven men who were landed in 1643 upon Amsterdam Island, and with other attempts to colonize Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen Island, we shall better appreciate the full value of this fresh page of Arctic history. Leigh Smith left Peterhead in his steam yacht the Eira on the 14th of June last year, with the intention of extending his discoveries in Franz Josef Land, for which he had already received one of the gold medals of the Royal Geographical Society. Two months later the Eira was so heavily nipped against the land-floe off Cape Flora, on the south side of Franz Josef Land, that she sank in eleven fathoms of water in less than two hours. It is difficult to imagine desperate situation than that of the men who were thus cut off from all the comforts of civilized life, and left to face the savage desolation of an Arctic winter with such stores as they had been able to snatch from the sinking ship before she went down, nothing coming up afterwards cept a few spars and a young polar bear in a cask." But they set to work with the cheerful courage and resolution which are only to be found among well-disciplined crews; and after spending sixteen nights in a tent, sometimes almost floated out by rain, at others holding on to their miserable shelter for hours together to prevent it from being blown away by the wild gales, they had the satisfaction of moving into a comparatively comfortable house built of stones and turf, a sail saved from the ship serving as a roof. For food "'ex The patience and fortitude of the Eira's crew were at last rewarded. A strong gale cleared the ice away in twenty-four hours, and walruses were swimming in the water in hundreds. Provisions for two months were laid in, and on the 21st of June the four boats of the Eira started from Cape Flora on their homeward voyage, eighty miles of water being crossed before they encountered ice. Then the troubles began again, and the boats were sometimes hauled up for days on a floe to wait for an opening in the ice, as they were too heavy to be dragged over it. But after toiling in this way for six weeks they once more reached open water, and joyfully shaped course for Novaya Zemlya, staggering before a fresh south-westerly gale. On the evening of August 2nd, twenty-four hours after leaving the ice, the boats were safely hauled up on the beach in Matoshkin Strait, and next morning the castaways were picked up by Sir Allen Young in the Hope. The interest of Mr. Leigh Smith's five Arctic voyages fairly culminates in this latest adventure, which, indeed, is in some respects without a parallel. After the ill luck of losing their vessel, "good fortune," as the leader of the expedition himself says, "seemed never to desert the party." Twenty-nine walruses and thirty-six bears were killed and eaten, and they seem not only to have kept the wolf from the door, but, in combination with active exercise, to have saved the men from even a trace of scurvy. Payer tells us that when the Tegethoff was abandoned the retreating parties were not more than eight miles from the ship after two months of incessant labour, although they had the advantage of a first-rate equipment. Mr. Leigh Smith was certainly less encumbered with luggage, but his boats were too heavy to drag, and had he not found open water his only chance of escape would have lain in the efforts of Sir Allen Young. It is not to be expected that the cause of science will have gained much from this enterprise, which has now ended so happily, but it teaches one or two useful lessons as to the absolute necessity of securing a retreat by means use his own words, "that the sea at length must needs have an ending, and that some land should have a beginning that way." ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. THE August number of Copernicus contains a very elaborate 'New Determination of the Constant of Precession,' by Dr. Dreyer, of the Dunsink Observatory. It is satisfactory to find it in such close agreement with the value found by Struve and Peters, which has been used in the Nautical Almanac since 1857, and is now also used in all the other large national ephemerides. For the year 1800 Dr. Dreyer's value amounts to 50"-2365. Mr. C. E. Burton, who was shortly to have started for South Africa to observe the transit of Venus in December, and who observed that in 1874 at the island of Rodriguez, died very suddenly in Castleknock Church, co. Dublin, on Sunday, the 9th of July. He was born at Barnton, in Cheshire, on September 16th, 1846; worked at Lord Rosse's Observatory in 1868-9, and at Dunsink from 1876 to 1878; but ill health interfered much with his scientific labours. On his return from the transit of Venus expedition to Rodriguez, he remained nearly a year at Greenwich, occupied in the measurement of the British photographs of the transit. The two Belgian expeditions for the observaunder M. Houzeau for Texas, and the other, tion of the approaching transit have started-one under M. Niesten, for Chili. "Signor Baccelli, Minister of Public Instruccomplied with an invitation recently made to the tion," says our Naples Correspondent, "has Italian Government to take a part in the scientific international expedition to the Marquesas Islands in 1883. The object of the expedition month of May of that year. Prof. Pietro Tacwill be to observe the eclipse of the sun in the chini, Director of the Astronomical Observatory of the Collegio Romano in Rome, has been charged with making all the necessary preparations, and for this purpose he is about to visit London, to purchase a photographic equatorial and other instruments required for the observation of the important phenomenon. 'Italy,' says the Roma, is the first of the powers to offer to take a part in the scientific expedition of 1883.'" The August meteors appear to have been less numerous this year than usual. Vice-Admiral Stephen C. Rowan has been appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory at Washington, in succession to RearAdmiral John Rodgers, who died on the 5th of May. Prof. H. A. Newton has been appointed Director of the new observatory of Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut, which possesses a heliometer by Repsold and an eight-inch refractor by Grubb. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. Ir is not likely that Mr. Leigh Smith will be able to accept the invitation he has received to be present at the Southampton meeting of the British Association. We have given in another column an account of his adventures. Sir Richard Temple took for the subject of his able address to the Geographical Section of the British Association the Plateau of Mid-Asia, an area which he described as one of the most wonderful on the surface of the earth, containing nearly 3,000,000 of English square miles, and equal to three-fourths of Europe. It has, he urged, eminent claims on the attention of geographers for several reasons:-1. A mountain system which dominates the greater part of Asia, and includes stupendous ranges with the loftiest peaks yet discovered in the world. 2. A series of heights and depressions almost like the steps of a staircase within the mountainous circumvallation of the plateau. 3. The sources and the permanent supply of rivers which, passing from the plateau, flow through densely populated regions, and help to sustain the most numerous families of the human race. 4. A lacustrine system comprising lakes of which some are saline while others have fresh water, and of which many are situated at great altitudes. 5. The home of conquering races, whence warrior hordes poured during several centuries over nearly all Asia and a large part of Europe. 6. Natural products of value, variety, or interest, and pastoral resources susceptible of indefinite development. 7. An enormous field for scientific research, with many regions which, though not wholly undiscovered, yet need much further discovery. 8. An imperial jurisdiction offering many problems for the consideration of social inquirers. Sir Richard discoursed at some length on each of the eight points. In conclusion, he remarked that the annals of the Mongols reveal one of the many examples of the theory of causation, explaining how geographical surroundings affect the human character. There remain the mountains, the sea of undulating uplands, which are still among the few important regions not essentially modified by human action. The pine forests, though hardly intact, have not been extensively cleared. There is the dread desert, where to the ears of superstitious Mongols the roll of the mustering drums and the shouts of battle are audible, and which has engulfed additional tracts once productive. The pastoral resources, the nomadic diet and exercises, the tribal organization, are in kind the same as of yore, though perhaps modified in extent or degree. short-lived heat may perhaps be gaining strength, but the winters must be nearly as long and hard as ever. Thus the same physical and climatic conditions which once caused the Mongolian nation to become one of the mightiest engines ever directed by man are still surrounding the Mongols of to-day. Once audaciously ambitious, the Mongols are now sluggish and narrowminded; once passionately fond of independence, they are now submissive to the domination of races formerly despised by them as inferior; once proud of a tribal organization and a voluntary discipline that wrought worldrenowned wonders, they are now spilt up into factions like a faggot of sticks that has been unbound. A man who, though the feeblest of pedestrians, grips with his bowed legs the saddle of the most restive horse as with a vice, is all that remains of the historic Mongol. It is for the social inquirer to determine what have been the circumstances counteracting the climatic and local causes which made this nation potential in moulding mediaeval history. The A letter, dated June 30th, 1882, has recently been published in India from the Political Resident at Aden to the Bombay Government, detailing the facts that have come to his knowledge regarding the murder of the Austrian traveller Dr. Siegfried Lauger in the interior of Arabia early last June. In April last Dr. Herr Barth, of Leipzig, announces the pre- 66 'Maps of the Seat of War" abound. Mr. Stanford sends us an excellent large scale map. Unluckily, it was published without consultation with Sir Garnet Wolseley, and would only illustrate a direct advance from Ramleh or Aboukir. Col. Leake's map of Lower Egypt, sent us by the same eminent map-maker, is the best for the general reader. A useful little sketch plan of Alexandria and a small but clear map of Lower Egypt come also from Mr. Stanford; so does an excellent map of the whole country as far as 24° north latitude. -Mr. Laurie's sketch of the Delta in his shilling map is clear, and his plan of Alexandria Harbour is excellent.-Messrs. Bacon send a large "War Map" of North-West Egypt which is clear, but does not embrace the probable scene of operations. They also send a bird's-eye view of Egypt which will suit the general public.-Mr. Stanford has further sent us an excellent shilling map of Lower Egypt. The nobility of the Crimea have resolved to erect a monument in Simferopol to the Empress Catherine II., in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the annexation of the Crimean khanate to the Russian empire on April 3rd, 1783. Science Gossip. F.R. S.-The Lancashire Courses are to be held at Burnley, Bolton, Bacup, Bury, and Stockport, commencing October 4th, and continued every night save Saturdays and Sundays :-Lectures I and II: Principles of Electric Lighting and of the Electrical Transmission of Power, by W. Lant Carpenter, B.Sc. III. The Sun, by Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R S. IV. Beginnings of Animal Life: the Jelly Specks that form Chalk and Limestones, by Prof. W. C. Williamson, F.R.S. V. Beginnings of Vegetable Life, with especial reference to Fermentation and Disease Germs, by Rev. W. H. Dallinger, F.R.S. VI. Beginnings of Animal Life Infusory Animalcules, by Rev. W. H. Dallinger, F.RS.The Scotch Courses are to be held at Forfar, Brechin, Arbroath, Dunfermline, and Kirkcaldy, weeks commencing December 4th, 11th, 18th, 1882; January 8th, 15th, 22nd, 1883:-Lectures I., II, III.: Principles of the Recent Industrial Applications of Electricity, by W. Lant Carpenter, B. Sc.; IV., V., VI., same titles as the last three in the Lancashire Courses, by Dr. Andrew Wilson, F.RSE. DR. CARPENTER sailed for the United States about a fortnight ago. MESSRS. CASSELL & Co. will shortly publish in serial form a new work entitled Familiar Wild Birds,' by W. Swaysland, with coloured plates painted from nature and numerous wood engravings. HERR AUGUST VON FROY, manager of the largest Austrian iron-works, has been appointed chairman of the representative committee for making preparations for the meeting of the British Iron and Steel Institute, which is to take place at the end of September. In MR. BURT, M. P., and the officials of the Miners' National Union have issued a manifesto pronouncing the experiments with the "lime process" of getting coal a complete success. this process cartridges made of finely powdered lime compressed at a pressure of forty tons are used instead of gunpowder. When these are placed in the holes previously bored a small force-pump injects water to the back of the hole, the lime is slacked, and by the mechanical force due to the expansion thirty yards of coal are at once brought down. Thus the possibility," say the reporters, "of any further disastrous catastrophes arising from the use of powder" is entirely removed. DR. C. W. SIEMENS has founded, in connexion with the Metallurgical Department of King's College, a gold medal and prize to the annual value of twenty guineas, with the object of stimulating the students to a high standard of proficiency in metallurgical science. The first award will be made in June, 1883, for the best essay 'On the Manufacture of Steel suitable for Ship and Boiler Plates.' The essay must be forwarded to Prof. Huntingdon on or before June 30th. PROF. PRESTWICH has published through the Clarendon Press 'An Index Guide to the Geological Collections in the University Museum, Oxford.' The arrangement is excellent; the student is enabled by it to follow the succession of life forms from the earliest paleozoic periods to the most recent geological time. THE American Engineering Journal records a curious fact, which throws some light on the growth of coral. A French man-of-war on passing a reef of the Gambier Islands rubbed upon it. After a cruise in the Pacific for nine weeks a fine mass of coral was found growing on the sheathing of the ship, having a diameter of nine inches and a weight of two pounds and a half. WE have already made mention of the Gilchrist Lectures to be delivered next winter; we can now add the following details. The so-called English Courses will be held at Leicester, Lincoln, Chesterfield, York, Doncaster, Reading, and Banbury, in alternate weeks, commencing on January 8th, 1883, and concluding before Easter. They are as follows:-The Evolution of the Solar System, by Mr. R. A. Proctor, F.R.A.S. An Hour with the Modern Microscrope, by Rev. W. H. Dallinger, F.R.S. The Dynamo-Electric Machine and its Uses, by Mr. W. Lant Carpenter, B.Sc. Energies within the THE Government Astronomer of Victoria sends Earth (1) Mountain-making, (2) Volcanoes and us his Monthly Record, taken at the Melbourne their Causes; or, The Great Fossil Mammals and Observatory, for March, April, and May. It is Birds and their Teaching, and Evidence of the interesting to notice that the means of the baroAntiquity of Man, by Dr. Martin Duncan, F. R. S. meter have averaged for twenty-three years The Voyage of the Challenger: (1) Physical 29-965 inches in March, 30-019 in April, and Conditions of the Deep Sea, (2) Animal Life of 29-990 in May, the respective means of temperathe Deep Sea, by Dr. William B. Carpenter, C.B.,ture being 63-8°, 58·7°, and 53°. 5 |