sree eneawnetn neha, pee = Foe Sn oa ra ero a Ftor hyneunts lefere to have at hese bedis hed Gienty bokis belad in blak ar red Of Aristotle % his phtlosa-plrie Chanrobis ruche orfedele or gay sautri in tina ee fi i INGLE honey ai bang a [ ii ea tint fas & ah | dee NATURE A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE VOLUME ev I. MAY 1877 to OCTOBER 1877 “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”’- WorDSWORTH London and Aebo Jork: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1877 LONDON R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET Nature, Now. 15, 18771 IN DEX Assay (Rey. R.), Patenas in Ceylon, 42; Restoration of the Ancient Tank System of Irrigation in Ceylon, 509 Abel (Prof, F.RS.), Opening Address in Section B at the meeting of the British Association at Plymouth, 314 Aberdeen University and Indian Civil Service Students, 566 Aberystwith, University College, 153 Abyssiniens in Paris, 279 Acarians and Hyrfopes, 133 Acclimatisation Society of Paris, 53 Acid, a New, 442 Aconitic Acid in Cane Juice and Raw Sugar, 167 Aconite, Alkaloids of, 378 Adams (Prof. J. C.), on Leverrier, 462, 478 Adams (Prof. W. G.), New Form of Optical Bench, 219 Adelaide, University of, 154 : Report on the Botanic Garden, 297 Admiralty Islands, Deformity of Teeth among the Inhabitants of, 251 Advertising and Magic Lanterns, 91 /Eronautics, ‘* Société Francaise de Navigation Aérienne,” 93 Africa: Exploration of, 17 ; Bishop Crowther’s Notes on Journeys in, 131; R. G. S.’s African Exploration Fund, 173, 236; International Association for Exploring Central Africa, 217 ; Portuguese Exploration of, 236 ; Italian Exploration of, 257 ; the proposed Saharan Sea, 336, 353; Steamers for Exploring Albert Nyanza, 351 ; Stanford’s Library Map of, 351; Com- * mander Cameron onthe Exploration of, 409; International Station in, 429 ; Stanley’s Exploration of, 465, 529; Belgian Exploration of, 529; and Madagascar, Zoological Relations of, A. R. Wallace, 548 Agassiz (Prof. Alex.), on Deep-Sea Dredging, 149 Agathocles, the Solar Eclipse of, Prof. Haughton, F.R.S., 563 Agriculture : in Wales, 153 ; Collections of Grain, 351 ; Experi- ments at Woburn, 129 Air, Temperature and Humidity of the, at Different Heights, Dr. H. E, Hamberg, 369 Albert Hall, Proposed Pneumatic Railway to, 217 Albumen of Commerce, Kingzett and Zingler on, 378 Aldebaran, the Herschelian Companion of, 266 Alexandra Palace : Nubians at the, 447; Rhinoceroses at, 466 Algebra, Fisher’s Book of, 437 Algiers, the Longitude of, 53 ; an Algerian Inland Sea, 353 “* Alkali Trade,” C. T. Kingzett, 180 Alkali Manufacture, Improved Systems of, James Mactear, 377 ’ Allan (Grant), ‘‘ Physiological Aisthetics,” G. J. Romanes, 98 Allen (T. Romilly), Local Museums, 266 Alps, Pfaff’s ‘* Naturkrifte in der Alpen,” 542 America : Mathematics in, 21 ; Cretaceous Flora of, J. S. New- berry, J. Starkie Gardner, 264, 285 ; Across Central, J. W. Boddam Whetham, 339; Fish and Fisheries of, 395 ; Verte- brate Life in, Prof. O. C. Marsh on, 448, 470, 489 ; American Association at Nashville, 446, 469 ; The American Insectivora, 504; American Science, 515. See a/so United States, &c., &c. American Journal of Science and Art, 18, 114, 154, 355, 432 Americanists, International Congress of, 465 Amherst (U. S.), The Shepard Scientific Collections at, 389 Amis des Sciences, the French, 112 Ampére, Statue to, 131 “* Anatomy of the Invertebrated Animals,” Huxley’s, 517 Anchor-Ice, Influence of, upon Fishing Grounds, 148 Ancient Characters at Cissbury, J. Park Harrison, 8 Angara, the Exploration of the, 92, 113 Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 18, 218, 355, 432 Anthelm’s Star of 1670, 102 Antibes, Thunderstorm at, 51 Antiquity of Man, 69, 97, 106 ; Dr. James Geikie, F.R.S., 141 ; Sydney B. J. Skertchley, 142, 163 ; Thomas Belt, 162; Rev. O. Fisher, 182 Anthropological Exhibition, proposed, in Paris, 111 Anthropological Institute, 36, 53, 55, 69, 155, 220 Anthropology of New Guinea, 54 Ants : Domestic Animals, 399; Great Vitality of Ants, 523; Importation of Australian, 556 Apple Tree, Curious Change of Character in an, 288 Aquamarine, Discovery of a Large White, 237 Aquarium, Tynemouth, 410 Aquatic Plants, Movements of Submerged, 554 Arago, Statue to, 131 Aralo-Caspian Region, 411, 474 Araucarla, the, 43 Archeological Society of Great Britain, Annual Congress at Hereford, 296 Archaeopteryx lithographica, 297 Archibald (E. Douglas), Sun-Spots and Rainfall of Calcutta, 267 ; Relations between Sun and Earth, 339, 359; Indian Rainfall and Sun-Spots, 396, 438 Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, 218, 355 Arctic Expedition: Coal brought Home by the Late, 377; Fossils brought Home by, 378 ; Photographs of, 526, 529 Arctic Exploration, Capt. Howgate’s Expedition, 412, 487 Arctic Meteorology, 358 Arcturus and a Ursa Majoris, the Colours of, 330 Argentine Republic, Science in the, 395 Arran, Dredging in, 466 Arrow Poison, the Gombi, 504 Artesian Wells in America, 149 Ascension, Mr. Gill’s Expedition to, 14 Ascidians, the Eggs of, 568 Asoka, Jainism, or, the Early Faith of, by E. Thomas, 329 Assab, Chart of the Bay of, 487 Astronomy : Meteoric Astronomy, 441 ; Astronomical Column, 14, 29, 49, 70, 93, 102, 124, 143, 169, 194, 212, 234, 255, 266, 287, 330, 341, 363, 397, 427; 441, 450, 477, 522, 551 Astronomical Society, see Royal Astronomical Symbolism of the East, 258 Astronomy, Ancient, 155 Astronomy in the Classics, 155 Atkins’s ‘‘ Elements of Geometry,” 226 Atkinson (R. W.), Japanese Mirrors, 62 Atlantic : Passage of Plants across the, Henry H. Higgins, 41 ; the Norwegian Exploring Expedition, 271 ** Atlas Meteorologique ” of the Observatory of Paris, 89 Atmospheric Currents, Wordsworth Donisthorpe, 83 Atoms and Equivalents, 293 Attraction, the Influence of the Form of Bodies on their, 485 Auroras and Sun-Spot Periods from 1743 to 1827, 167 “ Auster und die Austernwirthschaft,” von Karl Moebius, 499 Australia: Weather Maps in, 90; Adelaide University, 154 ; Meteorology in South Australia, 169 ; Forests and Climate of, 217; the Iron in Australian Wines, 237 ; Exploration of, 409 ; Importation of Ants from, 556 Austria, Geological Survey of, 254 Automatism, Dr. Sharp, 286 Avogadro’s Law, Vapour Volumes in Relation to, 442 Axis of the Earth, the Shifting of the, 406 Ayrton (W. E.) and John Perry, Lightning Conductors, 502 Backhouse (T. W.), the Colours of a Ursce Majoris and Arc- turus, 330 1V INDEX [Nature, Nov. 15, 1877 Bacteria, the Influence of Light upon the Development of, Dr. Arthur Downes and T, P. Blunt, 218 Balances, 557 Balloons: the Balloon of the Paris Exhibition, 279 ; in Japan, 297; Balloon Ascent by M. W. de Fonvielle, 557 Baltic, Hydrographic Survey of the, 460 Bamboo, Paper made from, 198 Baptornis advenus, Discovery of, 336 Barbot-de-Marny (Prof. N. P.), Death of, 31 Barff (Prof. M. A.), Prevention of the Corrosion of Iron, 378 Barlow and Laslett’s Determination of Strength of Timber, 61 Barometers, Artificial Flowers as, 54, 390 Barrett (Prof. W. F.), the Effect of Inaudible Vibrations upon Sensitive Flames, 12 ‘* Barrows of Derbyshire,” Rooke Pennington’s, 416 Basking Shark, Prof. E. Perceval Wright, 61 ; Prof. Bocage, 61 Bastian (Dr. H. Charlton, F.R.S.), the Commission of the French Academy on the Pasteur-Bastian Experiments, 276 Batalin (A.), ‘‘ Mechanik der Bewegungen der Insektenfressen- den Pflanzen,” 359 Batrachians, the Development of, 420 Beetle, Rare Species of, 515 Belgium, Geological Map of, 51 Bell (Prof, Graham), on Recent Experiments in Telephones, 383 Belt (Thomas), Quartzite Implements at Brandon, 1o1 ; Nectar- Secreting Glands, 122; Antiquity of Man, 162; Protective Colouring in Birds, 548 Bennett (A. W.), Reproduction by Conjugation, 340; the Sensitive Plant, 348 ; Thome’s Text-Book of Botany, 453 Bennett (Dr. George), the Australian Monotreme, 475 Berg (C.), European Plants in Buenos Ayres and Patagonia, 264 Berlin: Anthropological Society, 54; University, Statistics of, 154; Photographic Society, 257 ; Expulsion of Dr. Diihring from the University, 259; Salaries of Professors at, 259 ; Physiological Laboratories, 299 ; Geographical Society, 429 Bermudas, Mr. Brown Goode’s Collections from the, 152 Bessels (Emil), Results of the Po/aris Arctic Expedition, 358 Bhawnepoor, Fall of a Meteor at, 375 Bibliography of Science, 467, 530 Bichromatic Battery, a New, 411 Bicknell (Edward), Death of, 515 Biel, Lake of, Implements from, 530 Binary Stars, 256, 441, 477 ; a Centauri, 235, 522 Biological Notes, 30, 146, 288, 364, 399, 504, 523 Biology of Plants, Cohn’s, 435 Birds : Colour-Sense in, 83, 142, 163; Vish-eating, 399; Dr. H. B. Mayer’s New Work on, 399; Fertilisation of Flowers by, A. H. Everett, 476; Sharpe’s Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, 541 ; Protective Colouring in, Thomas Belt, 548 ; the Towering of Wounded, Sir J. Fayrer, F.R.S., 550 Birmingham : Domestic Economy Congress at, 151, 216, 236; Natural History Society, 237, 429 Bischof’s Spongy Iron Filters, 48 Blue Gum Tree, 443, 558 Blue Nile, De Cosson’s Cradle of the, 226 Blood, Copper in the, 30; Coagulation of, 504 Blow-pipe Apparatus, Prize for, 32 Bocage (Prof.), Basking Shark, 61 Body-Cavity in the Head of Vertebrates, 399 Bogdanoff (M,), Researches in the Aralo-Caspian Region, 411 Bogen’s Hygrometer and Siphon Barometer, 260 Bohn (Dr. C.), ‘‘ Ergebnisse physikalischer Forschung,” 430 Bolides in France, 556 Bone-Caves of Creswell Crags, 19 ‘*Bone-Caves and Barrows of Derbyshire,” Pennington’s, 416 Bonney (Rev. T. G.), the Rocks of Charnwood Forest, 8 ; Ser- pentine Rocks of the Lizard Districts, 135 Boric Acid, 516 Borodin (Prof.), on Respiration of Plants, 31 Botany : of New Guinea, 31 ; Buckley’s Botanical Tables, 133 ; Dr. Crespigny’s ‘‘ New London Flora,” 338 ; Thome’s Text- Book of Botany, translated by A. W. Bennett, 453 Boucard (A.), Ornithological Specimens from Costa Rica, 446, 521 Boulders in Orkney and Shetland, David Milne Home, 476 Boulger (G. S.), Proposed Flora of Gloucestershire, 351 Brahe (Tycho), his Meteorological Journal, 89 ; the Portrait of, Dr. Samuel Crompton, 501 Brain, Prof. Rolleston on the Vascular Supply of the, 408 Brakes, the Vacuum, 73 ; E. Woods, C.E., on Railway Brakes, 347 ; New Steam Brake, 390 Branchipus, Fossil, in the Isle of Wight, 381 Brazil: Emperor of, and Science, 72, 173 ; Geological and Geo- graphical Survey of, 467, 488 Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society, 390 Brisinga, 249 Bristol University College, 55, 198, 355 British AssociaTIoNn : Plymouth Meeting, Officers, &c., 151 ; Proposed Programme, Excursions, &c., 169; Preliminary Arrangements, 197 ; the Daily Programme, 216 ; the new Assistant Secretary, 295 ; General Arrangements, 249, 341, 370; Daily Arrangements, Excursions, &c., 301, 302; Sir William Thomson’s Pianoforte Wire-sounding Apparatus, 301; his Compass, 301 ; Inaugural Address of the Pre- sident, Prof. Allen Thomson, M.D., F.R.S., 302; Report of the Committee appointed to consider what Effect Revers- ing of the Screw had on the Steering of a Steamer under Full Way, 370; Report of the Committee for commencing Secular Experiments on the Elasticity of Wires, 371; Re- port of the Committee on Luminous Meteors, 371 ; Report of the Committee appointed to consider the Ordnance Datum Level, 371 ; R2port on the Conditions under which Liquid Carbonic Acid exists in Rock and Minerals, by W. Noel Hartley, F.R.S.E., 371; Report on some Double Compounds of Nickel and Cobalt, by J. M. Thomson, 372 ; Report of the Committee for Exploring Kent’s Cavern, 272; Report of the Committee for Assisting in the Exploration of the Victoria Cave, 373; Report of the Committee for Investigating the Circulation of Underground Waters in the New Red Sandstone and Permian Formations of England, 374; Report on the South-West Lancashire Wells, 374 ; Report of the Committee on establishing a Close Time for Indigenous Animals, 404 Section A (Mathematical and Physical).—Opening Address of the President, Prof. G. Carey Foster, F.R.S., 311; Prof. Osborne Reynolds, F.R.S., on the Rate of Progression of Groups of Waves, and the Rate at which Energy is transmitted by Waves, 343 ; Silvanus P. Thompson on the Relative Apparent Brightness of Objects in Binocular and Monocular Vision, 374; C. Meldrum on Diurnal Variation of the Barometer and Wind in Mauritius, 375 ; Major G. Noel Money’s Account of a Meteor which passed over Bhawnepoor, in India, 375; T. T. P. Bruce Warren on the Determination of Temperature Coefficients for insu- lating Envelopes, 375; J. A. Ewing and J. G. Macgregor on the Volumes of Solutions, 376; Charles Chambers, F.R.S., on Magnetic Induction as affecting Observations of the Intensity of the Horizontal Component of the Earth’s Magnetic Force, 376 ; Prof. S. Haughton, F.R.S., on the Tidal Observations made in the recent Arctic Expedition, 405; Sir William Thomson, F.R.S., and Capt. Evans, on the Tides of Port Louis and Freemantle, 405. Section B (Chemical Science).—Opening Address by the President, Prof. Abel, F.R.S., 314; James Mactear on a New Mechanical Furnace used in the Alkali Manufacture, and for Calcining Purposes Generally, 377 ; James Mactear on an Improved System of Alkali Manufacture, 377 ; James Mactear on the regeneration of the Sulphur employed in the Alkali Manufacture, 377; W. H. Watson on the Action of Various Fatty Oils upon Copper, 377; Prof. Gladstone, F.R.S., on Changes in Candles produced by Long Exposure to Sea-Water, 377; C. R. Alder Wright and A. P, Luff on Chemical Dynamics, 377 ; T. Wills on the Coal brought Home by the late Arctic Expedition, 377 ; C. T. Kingzett on Hederic Acid and Resin of Scammony, 378; C. T. Kingzett and M. Zingler on Albumen of Com- merce, 378 ; Dr. Paul and C. T. Kingzett on Alkaloids from Japanese Aconite, 378; C. R. Alder and A. P. Luff’s Further Researches on Aconite Alkaloids, 378 ; Dr. John Watts on Pyrocatechin as a Derivative of Certain Varieties of Tannic Acid, 378 ; Prof. Barff on the Formation of the Black Oxide of Iron on Iron Surfaces for the Prevention of Corrosion, 378. Section C (Geology).—Opening Address by the President, W. Pengelly, F.R.S., F.G.S., 318; Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., on the Post-Tertiary Fossils procured in the late Arctic Expedition, with Notes on some of the Recent or Living Mollusca from the same Expedition, 378; W. Pengelly, F.R.S.,on the Geology of the Coast from the Rame Head to the Bolt Tail, 378; J. H. Collins on the Drift of Plymouth Hoe, 379; H. B, Woodward on the Devonian Rocks near Newton Abbot and Torquay, 379; Prof. G. Nature, Nov. 15, 1877] INDEX Vv Dewalque on the Devonian System in England and Belgium, 379 ; A. Champernowne on the Succession of the Palzeozoic Deposits of South Devon, 379 ; S. R. Pattison on the Car- boniferous Coast Line of North Cornwall, 379; R. N. Worth on the Palzontology of Plymouth, 380; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., on the Geological Significance of the Result of the Boring at Messrs, Meux’s Brewery, Totten- ham Court Road, 380; H. C, Sorby, F.R.S., on a New Method of Studying the Optical Characters of Minerals, 380; C. Le Neve Foster on the ‘Great Flat Lode” South of Redruth and Camborne, 381; G. H. Morton on the Carboniferous Limestone and Millstone Grit in the Country around Llangollen, 381; Henry Woodward, F.R.S., on the Occurrence of Branchipus or Chirocephalus in a Fossil State in the Upper part of the Fluvio-Marine Series at Gurnet and Thomess Bays, Isle of Wight, 381 ; T. Plunkett on the Exploration of some Caves in Fermanagh, 405 ; Prof. J. W. Clarke on the Mounds of Arkansas, U.S., 406; W. Gunn on the Finding of Silurian Rocks in Teesdale, 406 ; C. E. De Rance on Post-Glacial Deposits in Lancashire, 406 ; A. W. Waters on the Influence of the Positions of Land and Sea upon a shifting of the Axis of the Earth, 406; A. J. Mott on Carbons in the Crusts of the Earth, 406 ; G. A, Lebour on Pebbles in the Carboniferous Shales of Westmoreland, 406; G. A. Lebour on the Age of the Cheviot Rocks, 406 Section D (Biology).—Opening Address by the President, J. Gwyn Jeffreys, LL.D., F.R.S., 323 Department of Anthropology.—Address by Francis Galton, F.R.S., 344; Prof. Rolleston on the Fauna and Flora of Prehistoric Times, 408 ; Miss Buckland on the Stimulants of Ancient and Modern Savages, 408 ; Dr. Beddoe on the Bulgarians, 408 Department of Anatomy and Physiology.—Address by Prof, Macalister, 406; Prof. Haughton on the Best Possible Number of Limbs for an Animal, 407; Rev. W. H. Dallinger on the Life History of the Simplest Organisms, 408 ; Prof. Rolleston on the Vascular Supply of the Brain, 408; G. T. Bettany on the Vertebrate Skull, 408 Department of Zoology and Botany.—Mr. McLachlan on the Colorado Beetle, 408 ; Prof. McNab on the Movement of Water in Plants, 409 Section E (Geography).—Lieut. Kitchener on the Line of Levels from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee, 409 ; Commander Cameron on the Exploration of Africa, 409 ; W. H. Tietkens on the Latest Exploring Expedition across Australia, 409 Section G (Mechanical Science).—Abstract of the: Opening Address of the President, E. Woods, C.E., 3473; Prof. Reynolds on Compound Turbines, 382 ; Prof. Reynolds on the Difference of the Steering of Steamers with the Screw Reversed when under Full Way, and when Moving Slowly, 382; William Froude, F.R.S., on the Resistance of Ships, 382; Capt. Douglas Galton on the Elevated Railway of New York, 382; Sir Wm. Thomson on the Importance of giving a Distinctive Character to the Needles Light, 382 ; J. N. Douglas on the Eddystone Lighthouse, 383; Prof. Graham Bell on Recent Experiments in Telephones, 383 British Flora, the Future of Our, J. Shaw, 550 British Medical Association, 296; Meeting at Manchester, 327 British Museum, Sharpe’s Catalogue of Birds in the, 541 Britten (James), ‘‘ Popular British Fungi,” 519 Broca (M.), Fossil Human Races of Western Europe, 383 Broun (Alexander), Proposed Statue to, 296 Broun (J. Allan, F.R.S.), the Decennial Period of Magnetic Variations, and of Sun-spot Frequency, 62; Rainfall and Sun-spots, 251; Rainfall in South India, 333; Reports of the Mauritius Observatory. 337 Brown (F.D.), Physical Properties of Homologues and Isomers, 175 Brown (J. C., LL.D.), the Schools of Forestry in Europe, 41 Bruijn’s (Herr) Expedition to New Guinea, 446 Bryce (Dr. James), Death of, 236 Bubbles : W. Noel Hartley on the Constant Vibrations of, 34; Attraction and Repulsion of, by Heat, 34 Buchan (Alex.), the Indian Famine and Meteorology, 425 Buckingham (C. P.), ‘‘ Differential and Integral Calculus,” 21 Buckley’s Botanical Tables, 133 Buenos Ayres and Patagonia, European Plants in, 264 Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Bu'letin of, 259 Bulletin de Y Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique, 391 Bunsen (Emest de), Astronomical Symbolism in the East, 258 Burbidge (F. W.), ‘* Cultivated Plants,” 60 Burmeister (Prof.), Works on the Argentine Republic, 395 Butler (A. G.), Bulletin of United States Geological Survey, 437 Calcutta: New Zoological,Gardens at, 28 ; Sun-Spots and Rain- fall of, 267 Calderon (Don Salvador), Vertebrated Fishes of Spain, 140 Calico Printing, Henry Cecil, 207, 228, 248 Cambridge: the Universities Bill, 1 ; University Intelligence, 33, 54) 74) 94, 133, 172; Philosophical Society, 76, 155; Report of the Botanic Gardens, 114. Cameron (Commander), on the Exploration of Africa, 409 Campanulariz, Luminous, 30 Canada : Geological Survey of, 40, 235 ; Drought in, 268 Candles, Action of Sea- Water upon, Prof. Gladstone, 377 Caoutchouc, the Heat Conductivity of, 257 Cape Town, the South African Museum, 47 Cape Astronomical Results for 1874, 169 Capercailzie in Northumberland, 288 Carbon of Plants, the Source of, 210 Carbons, the Source and Functions of, in the Crust of the Earth, A. J. Mott, 406 Carbonic Acid, Amount in the Air, 73 Carbonic Acid Liquid, in Rocks and Minerals, W. N. Hartley, 371 Carbonic Anhydride, the Critical Point of the, R. Garnett, 23 Carboniferous Group, on a Middle, Prof. E. Hull, F.R.S., 35 Carboniferous Flora of Central France, by M. Grand’ Eury, Prof. W. C. Williamson, F.R.S., 138 Carboniferous Coast-Line of North Cornwall, 379 Carnivorous Plant, a Tasmanian, 31 Carpenter (Dr. Philip P.), Obituary Notice of 84 Carpenter (Dr. W. B., F.R.S.), the Radiometer and its Lessons, 544; Mr. Wallace and Reichenbach’s Odyle, 546 Carrier Pigeons, 556 Cartridges, Singular Accident with, 237 Cast Iron, Floating, W.J. Millar, 23 Caterpillars, J. A. Osborne, 502 Cave Dwellings and Cliff Houses, Models, at Kensington, 389 Cave-Men of Western Europe, 53 Caves : Discovery of Implements, &c , at Kief, 132; in Ireland, Exploration of, 318, 405 Caxton Exhibition, 177, 213 Cecchi (Father), Seismograph, 17 Cecil (Henry), Printing and Calico Printing, 207, 228, 248 ; Sense Perception of Electricity, 549 Centroids, Prof. A. B. W. Kennedy, 48 Century of Discovery, 284 Ceratophyllum demersum, Movements of, 554 Cerebral Centres, Localisation of, 336 Ceylon: Patenas in, Rev, R. Abbay, 42; Colombo Museum, 352; Restoration of the Ancient Tank System of Irrigation, Rev. R. Abbay, 509 Challenger Collections, 117 “Challenger-Briefe,” Dr. Kk. von Willemoes-Suhm’s, 556 Chamberlain (Mr.), on Local Museums, 221 Chambers (Charles, F.R.S.), Magnetic Induction and Observa- tions of the Earth’s Magnetic Force, 376 Charlemagne College, Paris, 173 Charlesworth (Mr.), Boring Power of Magilus, 523 Charnwood Forest : the Rocks of, 8, 199 Cheetah, a New, 147 Chemical Action, Effect of Pressure on, 255 Chemical Compounds, the Spectra of, Dr. Arthur Schuster, 193 Chemical Dynamics, C, R. Alder Wright and C. P. Luff, 377 Chemical Elements and their Compounds, the Spectra of, 531 “ Chemical Handicraft,” J. J. Griffin, 285 Chemical Notes, 167, 254, 442 “* Chemical Physics,” by N. N. Lubasin, 140 Chemical Society, 31, 34, 75, 134, 199 ; Research Fund Grants, 215 Chemistry of the Grape, 71 Chemistry, Technological, Dr. Jul. Post, 83 Chester Society of Natural Science, 513, 557 Cheviot Rocks, Note on the Age of the, 406 China,” von Richthofen’s, 206 Chloride of Cobalt, Barometer Flowers of, 390 Chlorophyll in Coniferz, 71 Chromatic Aberration of the Eye, S. P. Thompson, 84 Chromium and Manganese Compounds, 254 Chronometers of Switzerland, 369 vi INDEX [Nature, Now. 15, 1877 Church (Prof. A. H.), ‘‘ Laboratory Guide,” 160 Ciamician (M.), the Spectra of Chemical Elements and their Compounds, 531 Cincinnati Observatory, Double Star Measurements at, 29 Cissbury, Ancient Characters at, J. Park Harrison, 8 City of London College, New Buildings, 236 Civil Engineers, Institute of, see Institute Cleopatra’s Needle, 388 : Climate, Influence of, on Pulmonary Consumption, Dr. C. T. Williams, 59; Climate of Europe, 467 Clocks, Paris, 91 Close Time for Animals, Report on, 404 Cloud Colours, 43 Clouds, Heights of, Measuring the, 558 Clowes’ ‘‘ Type-Setter,” 215 Coagulation of Blood, 504 Coal, the, brought Home by the late Arctic Expedition, 377 Coefficient of Capillarity for Certain Liquids, 167 Cohn (Prof.), the contractile Filaments of Teasel (Difsacus), 339 ; Biology of Plants, Prof. McNab, 435 Collett (Henry), Adaptation of Plant Structure, 266 Collins (J. H.), the Drift of Plymouth Hoe, 379 Colombo Museum, 352 Colonial Museum for London, 216 Colorado, Tertiary Leaf-beds of, 148 Colorado Beetle, 174, 196, 334, 390, 408, 430 Colour-Sense in Birds, 83, 142, 163 Colours: Prof. O, N. Rood on, 150 ; Complementary, 208 Columbia College, U.S., School of Mining at, 411 Columbium: Minerals containing, from New Localities in the United States, 167 Combustion: Action of Light on, Charles Watson, 341; G. Savary, 441 ; Dr. C. M. Ingleby, 477 ; C. Tomlinson, F.R.S., 21 Comets, 30; Guillemin’s ‘* World of Comets,” 5 ; Winnecke’s Comet of 1877, II., 15 ; Comets observed by Hevelius, 93 ; D’Arrest’s Comet, 102, 234, 256; the D’Angos Comet of 1784, 102, 124, 398; Comet of Short Periods and Minor Planets, 143 ; De Vico’s Comet of Short Period, 212; the Third Comet of 1759, 267; the First Comet of 1877, 398; a New Comet, 442, 504; the New Comet (1877, IV.), 460; the Present Comets, 522 Commensals, Fish, of Medusze, Prof. Theo. Gill, 362 Compass Adjustment on the Clyde, 132 Complementary Colours, J. J. Murphy, 208 Complex Inorganic Acids, 254 Comstock (Prof. Theodore B.), his ‘*‘ Summer School, 92 Coniferze, Chlorophyll in, 71 Conjugation, Reproduction by, A. W. Bennett, 340; Rev. George Henslow, 397 Consumption, Influence of Climate on Pulmonary, by Dr. C. T. Williams, 59 Contagious Diseases: the Glandular Origin of, Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., 480; Origin of, 547 Copper : in the Blood, 30; Action of Various Fatty Oils Upon, W. H. Watson, 377 Corals, Palaeozoic, Charles Wachsmuth on, 515 Cornish (Thos.), Blue and Yellow Crocuses, 227 Cornwall: Carboniferous Coast-Line of North, 379; the “Great Flat Lode” south of Redruth and Camborne, 381 ; Tin Mines of, 381 Costa Rica, Ornithology of, 446, 521 Cotopaxi, Eruption of the Volcano, 297, 335 Crag Fossils in the Ipswich Museum, 351 Crespigny (Dr. E. Ch), ‘‘ New London Flora,” 338 Creswell Crags, the Bone-caves of, 19 Cretaceous Flora of America, J. S. Newberry, 264 ; J. Starkie Gardner, 285 Crocodile at the Royal College of Surgeons, 488 Crocuses, Blue and Yellow, 8, 43, 84, 163, 227 Crompton (Dr. Samuel), the Portrait of Tycho Brahe, 501 Cronicon Cientifico Popular, Huelin’s, 418 Crookes (William, F.R.S.), the Otheoscope, 12; Rainbow Reflected from Water, 329 Crow Blackbirds of Florida, 399 Crowther (Dr.), a Tasmanian Carnivorous Plant, 31 Crowther (Bishop), Notes on the Niger Country, 131 Cryptogamy ; Cryptogamic Society of Scotland, 428 ; ‘‘ Crypto- gamic Flora of Silesia,” 543 Crystalline Lens and Periscopism, 151 Crystallisation under Galvanic Currents, 71 “* Cultivated Plants,” F. W. Burbidge, 60 Cumberland Literary and Scientific Association, 53 Curious Phenomenon during a Gale, 551 Cyclones and Sunspots in Mauritius, 375 Cygnus, the New Star in, J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., 413 Daguerre and the Discovery of Photography, 501 Dallinger (Rev. W. H., F.R.S.), Spontaneous Generation, 24 ; and Dr. J. Drysdale, the Development of the Ovum, 178, 203; on the Life History of the Simplest Organisms, 408 _ D’Altertis (Signor), Exploration of New Guinea, 296 D’Angos’ Comet of 1784, 102, 124, 398 Daphniadz, the, 504 Darbishire (R. D.) Japanese Mirrors, 142 Darby (A. M.), Purple Verbenas, 163 D’Arrest’s Comet, 102, 234, 256 Darwin (Charles, F.R.S.), Contractile Filaments of Teasel, 339 Darwin (Francis), Nectar-Secreting Glands, 100 Davyum, the New Metal, 236, 255 Dawkins (Prof. Boyd, F.R.S.), Museum Reform, 78 ; the Value of Natural History Museums, 98 ; the Organisation of Natural History Museums, 137 Dawson (J. W.), Fossil Floras and Glacial Periods, 67 Decennial Period of Magnetic Variations, and of Sun-spot Frequency, Dr. J. Allan Broun, F.R.S., 62 De Cosson (E. A.), the Cradle of the Blue Nile, 226 Deep-Sea Dredging, Prof. Agassiz on, 149 Deep-Sea Expedition, the Norwegian, 110 Deep Well Borings, 53 De la Rue (Dr. Warren, F.R.S.), ‘* Centigrade Tables,” 93 Delille (M.), the Professor of Legerdemain, his Death, 217 Denning (W. F.), New Meteor Radiant, 102 ; the July Shooting Stars, 286 ; Radiant Centre of the Perseids, 362 ; Meteors, 550 Deutsche geologische Gesellschaft, Annual Meeting at Vienna, 29 De Vico’s Comet of Short Period, 212 Dewalque (Prof, G.), the Devonian System in England and Belgium, 379 Devonian System in England and Belgium, Prof. G. Dewalque, 379 2 Deyrolle (M.), New Process in Photography, 352 Diapason Normal, the French, and Kénig’s Tuning Forks, Alex. J. Ellis, 85 Dictionary, Latham’s English, 3 “* Differentials of Functions,” Rice and Johnson, 21 “ Differential and Integral Calculus,” Buckingham’s, 21 Digala, Excavations near, 92 Dipsacus, the Contractile Filaments of, Prof, Cohn and Charles Darwin, F.R.S., 339 Disease: Prof. Tyndall on the Spread of, 9 ; the Glandular Origin of Contagious, Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., 480 ‘* Dismal Swamp,” the, 556 Dixon’s Geology of Sussex, New Edition of, 91 Dohm’s (Dr.), Zoological Station at Naples, 91 Dombosk (Mathieu de), Statue to, at Nancy, 197 Domestic Economy, Congress on, at Birmingham, 151, 216, 236 Donisthorpe (Wordsworth), Atmospheric Currents, 53 Dorpat, Report of the University of, 133 Double Stars: M. Flammarion’s Investigation of, 15 ; Double Star Measurements at Cincinnati, 29; Revolving, 70; 72 Ophiuchi, 194 Dove (P. A.), Weisbach’s ‘‘ Mechanics of Engineering,” 81 Downes (Dr. Arthur) and T. P. Blunt, the Influence of Light upon the Development of Bacteria, 218 Draper (Prof. Henry, M.D.), Discovery of Oxygen in the Sun by Photography, and a New Theory of the Solar Spectrum (With a Photograph), 364 Dream Phenomenon, Strange, 329, 397 Dredging, Deep-sea, Prof. Agassiz on, 149 Dredging Excursion to Arran, 466 Dresden Naturalists’ Society, “Isis,” 514 Dresser’s “ Birds of Europe,” 297 Dreyer (J. L.), Early Observations of the Solar Corona, 549 Drops, A. M. Worthington, 165 Drosera: A, Batalin on, 359; Wright Wilson, 361 Droughts and Famines in Southern India, 14 Drysdale (Dr. J.) and Rev. W. H. Dallinger, the Development of the Ovum, 178, 203 Dublin Royal Society, 135 Diibring (Dr.), Expulsion from the University of Berlin, 259 Durham (Jas.), Hog-Wallows and Prairie Mounds, 24 Nature, Nov. 15, 1877] INDEX vii Durham University Intelligence, 114 Dust, Malet’s Incidents in the Biography of, 139 Dyer (Prof. Thiselton), Greening of Oysters, 3973) Dynamometer, Mr. Froude’s New, 272 Eardley- Wilmot (Maj.-Gen., F.R.S.), death of, 529 Earth: Life-History of the, Prof. H. Alleyne Nicholson, 39 ; International Congress for Measuring the Figure of the, 298 ; The Earth’s Rotation, 390; Shifting of the Axis of the Earth, 406; Earth and Moon, Richard A. Procter, 227 ; Earth and Sun, Suspected Relations between the, Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., 9, 26, 45; E. D. Archibald, 339, 559; Dr. Wm. Hunter, 359 Earthquakes: at Marano Marchesato, 54; in Peru, 54; in Scotland, 73; and Tidal Wave in South America, 174; in France, 175 ; at Geneva, 513 Eaton (H. S.), Greenwich as a Meteorological Station, 7 Eclipses: Total Solar Eclipse of 1889, 124; Total Solar Eclipse of 1605, 255; Total Eclipse of the Moon August 23, 1877, 287; Meteorological Effects of, J. J. Wild, 419 Ecuador, Volcanic Eruption at, Cotopaxi, 297, 335 Edelweiss, the Wild-flower, 298,°329 Edgeworth (M. P.), Pollen, 499 Edinburgh : University Intelligence, 34, Society, 135 ; Rainfall of, 352, 389 Education : Sir John Lubbock on the Teaching of Science, 216 ; University, 486 ; Mr. Forsteron, 512 Electricity: in War, H. Baden Pritchard, 281; Sense Per- ception of, Henry Cecil, 549 Electric Currents of High Tension, M. Planté on, 516 Electric Eel, Dr. Sach’s Researches on the, 296 Electric Light, 197; M. Jablochkoff’s Apparatus, 32, 91, 113, 131, 152; Experiments in Paris, 113 ; Experiments on, at St. Petersburg, 132; at Lyons Station, 297; New, 422, 459, 502; for Lighthouses, 552 ; Experiments on, 530 Electric Spark, Spectrum of the, 531 “« Electro-Metallurgy,” Dr. Gore, F.R.S., 263 Elliot (James), The Araucaria, 43 Ellis (Alex. J., F.R.S.), Konig’s Tuning-Forks and the French Diapason Normal, 85 ; K6nig’s Tuning-Forks, 227 Elsden (J. Vincent), Strange Dream Phenomenon, 329 LEmbide, the Nymph Form of, 154 Embryology, Prof. Macalister on, 406 Endowment of Research, 117 Energy, Potential, 439, 457, 500, 520, 547 Engineering Education in Japan, 44 English Dictionary, Latham’s, 3 English Names of Wild Flowers and Plants, 385, 439 Entomological Society, 20, 75, 155, 219, 391, 496, 567 Equivalents and Atoms, 293 Eridani, 40 0°, the System of, 330 Erman (Prof. Adolph), Death of, 256 Esmeraldas, the Province of, 447 Ethnographical Map of France, 467 Eucalyptus globiulus, 153, 443, 558; in the United States, 288 Europe, Prehistoric Steppes of Central, 195 ; Climate of, 467 European Plants in Buenos Ayres and Patagonia, 264 Everett (Prof. J. D.), “ Elementary Text-Book of Physics,” 518 Everett (A. H.), Fertilisation of Flowers by Birds, 476 Evolution : the Progress of, 44 ; Evolution of Nerves and Nervo- Systems, G. J. Romanes, 231, 269, 289 ; Evolution by Leaps, 288, 361; the Present Position of the Evolution Theory, Prof. Haeckel, 492 Ewing and MacGregor on the Volumes of Solutions, 376 Excrementitious Deposits in the Rocky Mountains, 235 Explosives and the Loss of the Great Queensland, 256 Eye, Chromatic Aberration of the, S. P. Thompson, 84 Eyes, Prof. Virchow’s Researches on the Colour of, 530 94, 298; Royal Famines and Droughts in Southern India, 14 Famines and Shipwrecks, Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., 461 Famines in India and the Monsoons, 465 Faré, Notes on the Weather of, 89 Fayrer (Sir J., F.R.S.), the Towering of Wounded Birds, 550 Fertilisation of Flowers : Oscar Hertwig, 147 ; Thomas Meehan, 364; by Birds, A. H. Everett, 476; by Insects, Dr. Hermann Miiller, 265, 507 Fertilisation of Orchids, Henry O. Forbes, 102 Figee (S.), Barlow and Laslett's Determination of the Strength of Timber, 61 Figure of the Earth, International Congress for Measuring, 298 Filters : Spongy Iron, 48 ; Major Crease’s New, 486 Fingers, the Relative Length of the Index and “ Ring,” 444 Fire, Does Sunshine Extinguish ? see Combustion Fish Commensals of Medusz, Prof. Theo. Gill, 362 Fish and Fisheries, United States Commission on, 395, 487 Fishes: the Vertebrated, of Spain, 140; of Lake Nicaragua, 505; Fish-eating Birds, 399 Fisher (A. T.), “‘ The Book of Algebra,” 437 Fisher (Rev. O.), Antiquity of Man, 182 Flames, Resistance of, and the Galvanic Current, 448 Flamingo, the, 30 Flammarion (M.), Investigation of Double Stars, 15 Flax, Cultivation of New Zealand, 92 Fleischer’s ‘* Volumetric Analysis,” 497 Floating Cast Iron, W. J. Millar, 23 Florida: Casts of Indians confined in, 335; the Crow Black- birds of, 399 Flowers, Fertilisation of, sve Fertilisation ' Fluor Spar, Photo-electricity of, M. Hankel on, 558 Foehn, Greenland, 294 ; J. J. Murphy, 340; W. Hoffmeyer, 361 Fonvielle (M. W. de), Balloon Ascent, 557 Forbes (Henry O.), Fertilisation of Orchids, 102 ; Meteorologi- cal Notes from Lisbon, 265 Forel (Dr. F. A.), Natural Selection and the Diseases of Silk- worms and Phylloxera, 488 Forestry : the Schools of, in Europe, Dr. J. Croumbie Brown, 41 ; a New Journal of Forestry, 153 Forests of Pegu, Sulpice Kurz, 58 Form of Bodies, the Influence of the, on their Attraction, 488 Forster (Right Hon. W. E.), on Education, 512, 556 Fossil Floras and Glacial Periods, J. W. Dawson, 67 Fossils brought Home by the Late Arctic Expedition, Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 378 Foster’s Text-Book of Physiology, E. A. Schafer, 79 Foster (Prof. G. Carey, F.R.S.), Opening Address in Section A at the Meeting of the British Association at Plymouth, 311 ; the Radiometer and its Lessons, 546 “Fowne’s Inorganic Chemistry,” edited by Watts, 6 Fox (Col. Lane, F.R.S.), Excavations into Mount Caburn, 429 Fox (Robert Were, F.R.S.), Death of, 296 France: French Transit Medal, 11 ; Meteorology in, 51 ; French Physical Society, 92; Progress of Industry in, 92 ; Zoological Society of, 112 ; Carboniferous Flora of Central, 138; Origin of the Trees and Shrubs in the South of, 148 ; Rainfall Obser- vations in the East of, from 1763 to 1870, 168; the Inter- national Exhibition, 217, 237, 351; French Association for the Advancement of Science, Meeting at Havre, 236, 279, 351, 383, 409 ; Defective Vision in the French Army, 279 ; Meteoro- logical Institute for, 334 ; Agricultural Meteorological Service, 334; Ethnographical Map of, 467 ; French Geological Society and the International Geological Congress, 513; French Société d’Hygiéne, 529 Frankland (Prof., F.R.S.), his New Work on Chemistry, 130 Franklin Expedition, Relics of the, 488 Freeden (W. von), Yellow Crocuses, 43 Free-Will, on the Question of, 549 Friswell (R. J.), Higgins’ Treatise on the Pollution of Rivers, 225 Frogs, Respiration in, 30 Froude (Wm., F.R.S.), New Dynamometer, 272 ; Resistance of Ships, 382 On the Gabb (Wm. M.), Hog Wallows, 183 Galileo’s Claim to be the Inventor ot the Telescope, 390 Galton (Capt. Douglas), the Elevated Railway of New York, 382 Galton (Francis, F.R.S.), Address in the Department of Anthro- pology at the British Association, 344 Galton (J. C.), Mantegazza on the Relative Length of the Index and ‘‘ Ring” Fingers, 444 Galvanic Current and the Resistance of Flames, 448 Gannett (Henry), ‘‘ List of Elevations principally in that Portion of the United States West of the Mississippi,” 218 Gardner (J. Starkie), the Cretaceous Flora of America, 285 Garnett (Richard), the Critical Point of Carbonic Anhydride, 23 Gases, Refraction of, 152 Gases, Watson’s Kinetic Theory of, 242 Gassiot (J. P., F.R.S.), Death of, 388 ; Obituary Notice of, 399 Gauss, Centenary Celebration, 131 ; Interesting Letters of, 237 Gay-Lussac, Centenary of, 16 Gazetteer, Keith Johnston’s, $2 Gee (William), Museum Reform, 140 vill INDEX [Nature, Nov. 15, 1877 Geikie (Prof. A., F.R.S.), ‘Physical Geography,” 158 ; the Glacial Geology of Orkney and Shetland, 414; Zirkel’s Microscopical Petrography, 473 Geikie (Dr. James, F.R.S.), Antiquity of Man, 141 Gelada, the, 504 Geneva: Physical and Natural History Society, 136, 391, 568 ; Medical Congress at, 296; Earthquake at, 513 Geodetic Congress, the International, 279, 297 , Geography: Geographical Society, see Royal; Geographical Work in Russia during 1876, 209 ; Geographical Society of Paris, 556; Geography and War Maps, 16 Geology : German Geological Society, 53 ; Geological Map of Belgium, 51 ; Geological Notes, 51, 147, 235, 2543; Geological Society, 19, 35, 96, 134, 199, 239; Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, 235 ; Geological Survey of Canada, 235 ; International Geological Congress, 513 Geometrical Methods for approximating to the Value of 7, Rev. G. Pirie, 226 Geometry : Atkin’s Elements of, 226 ; Mault’s Natural, 455 Germany: German Anthropological Society, 530; German Astronomical Society, 216, 428 ; German Geological Society, 53; German Geological Society, Annual Meeting at Vienna, 529 ; German Geological Surveys, 254; Meeting at Munich of German Naturalists, 389, 428, 491 ; German Society for Mental Work, 556 “*Gezetzmiszigkeit im Gesellschaftsleben,” Dr. Georg Mayr, 00 Gessi (Capt. R.), Exploration of Lake Nyanza, 72 Gilchrist Trust Funds, 74 Gill (Mr, ), Expedition to Ascension, 14 Gill (Prof. Theo.), Fish Commensals.of Medusz, 362 Glacial Geology of Orkney and Shetland, Prof. A. Geikie, F.R.S., 414; S. Laing, M.P., 418 Glacial Period, Kropotkin’s Researches on the, 161 Glacial Periods and Fossil Floras, J. W. Dawson, 67 Glaciers, the Ancient, of New Zealand, J. C. Russell, 100 Gladstone (Prof, F'.R.S.), on Changes in Candles produced by Long Exposure to Sea- Water, 377 Glaisher (James, F.R.S.), Guillemin’s ‘‘ World of Comets,” 5 ; Nocturnal Increase of Temperature with Elevation, 450 Glandular Origin of Contagious Diseases, Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., 480 Glands, Nectar-Secreting, Thomas Belt, 122 Glasgow, Meteorological Observations at, 16 ; University Intel- ligence, 55 ; University Bursaries, 516 Gloucestershire, Proposed Flora of, 351 Godwin-Austen (R. A. C., F.R.S.), the Boring at Meux’s Brewery, 380 Gold in Carboniferous Conglomerate, D, Honeyman, 62 Gold Mining in Russia, 133 **Golden Bough,” Henry ‘’, Wharton, 24 Gombi Arrow Poison, 504 we (G., LL.D., F.R.S.), ‘The Art of Electro-Metallurgy,” 203 Gorilla, the, at the Westminster Aquarium, 249 Gossage (William, F.C.S.), Death of, 16 Gottingen, Academy of Sciences, 496 Graber (Prof. Vitus), ‘‘ Die Insekten,” 418, 489 Grand’Eury (C.) Carboniferous Flora of Central France, 138 Grape, Chemistry of the, 71 Great Guns, 25 Great Queensland, the Loss of the, 256 Greening of Oysters, Prof. Thiselton Dyer, 397 Greenland Foehn, 294 ; J. J. Murphy, 340 ; W. Hoffmeyer, 361 Greenland Seal Fishery, Thomas Southwell, 42 Greenwich as a Meteorological Station, H. S. Eaton, 7; Green- wich Observatory Report, 109 Greenwood (Col. George), ‘‘ River Terraces,” 181 Griffin (J. J.), ‘‘ Chemical Handicraft,” 285 Grove (Dr. John), Origin of Contagious Diseases, 547 Guillemin’s ‘‘ World of Comets,” J. R. Hind, F.R.S., 5 Guns, Great, 25 Gwynne (W., M.D.), Translation of Lagout’s Takimetry, 226 Gymnasium Swing, Proper Length of the, F. E. Nipher, 90 Haeckel (Prof.), Present Position of the Evolution Theory, 492 Hemoglobin in Red Blood Corpuscles, 336 Hall (Prof. Asaph), the Rotation of Saturn, 363 Hall (Capt. C. F.), Narrative of the 7o/2vis Expedition, 225 Hall (Marshall), Edelwe'ss, 329 Ilamberg (Dr. H. E.), ‘Cemperature and Humidity of the Air at Different Heights, 369 Hamburg, Astronomical Institute for, 334 Hammock, Seydel’s Pocket, 209 Hankel (M.), Photo-Electricity of Fluor-Spar, 558 LHaplomitrium hookeri, Henry UW. Higgins, 41 Harris (Dr. G.), ‘‘The Nature and Constitution of Man,” 393 Harrison (J. Park), Ancient Characters at Cissbury, 8 Hart (W. E.), Phyllotaxis, 248 Tlartley (W. Noel, F.R.S.E.), the Constant Vibration of Minute Bubbles, 34; Report on the Conditions under which Liquid Carbonic Acid exists in Rocks and Minerals, 371 Harvard College (U.S.): Resignation of Prof. M’Crady, 31 ; Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of, vol. xiii., 60 ; Report of the Peabody Museum, 335 Hatchetolite and Samarskite, Chemical Constitution of, 442 Haughton (Prof. Samuel, F.R.S.), Soldiers’ Rations, 207 ; Tidal Observations by the late Arctic Expedition, 405; on the best possible Number of Limbs for an Animal, 407; the Solar Eclipse of Ayathocles, 563 Hartlaub’s Birds of Madagascar, 498 Havre, French Association at, 279, 351, 383, 499 Head, the Segmentation of the, 28 Heat Phenomena Accompanying Muscular Action, 451; A. R,. Molison, 477 Hederic Acid and Resin of Scammony, C. T, Kingzett, 378 Heidelberg, Bunsen Festival at, 299 Heis (Prof. Edward), death of, 213 Helvetic Society of Natural Science, 152 Henslow (Rev. Geo.), Migration of Swiss Miocene Flora, 101 ; Reproduction by Conjuzation, 397 ‘* Herefordshire Pomona,” proposed, 514 Herschel (A.S.), Visibility of the Ultra Violet Rays of the Spectrum, 22 Herschelian Companion of Aldebaran, 266 Hertwig (Oscar), the Phenomena of Fertilisation, 147 Heuglin (Th. v.), Proposed Monument to, 280 Heyvelius, Comets observed by, 93 Hibernation of Swallows, 43; of Birds, 61 Hidatsa Indians, the Ethnography and Philology of the, 338 Higgins (Clement), Treatise on the Pollution ot Rivers, 225 Higgins (Henry H.), Passage of Plants across the Atlantic— LHaplomitrium Hookeri, 41 Higgs (Dr. Paget), the Telephone, 359 Highley (Samuel), Japanese Mirrors, 132 Hill (E.), the Rocks of Charnwood Forest, 8 Hill (S. A.), Solar Radiation and Sun-spots, 505 Hind (J. K., F.R.S.), Guillemin’s ‘* World ot Comets,” 5 Hissar and Kolab, the Land of, 144 Hoffmeyer (W.), the Greenland Foehn, 361 Hog-Wallows, Wm. M. Gabb, 183 Hog-Wallows and Prairie-Mounds, W.. Mattieu Williams, 7 ; G. H. Kinahan, 7: Jas. Durham, 24 Holden (Prof. E.S.), List of the Principal Telescopes, 33 Holland, Meteorology of, 89 Hollis (W. Ainslie), Meteors, 266 Home (David Milne), are there no Boulders in Orkney and Shetland ? 146 Homologues and Isomers, the Physical Properties of, F. D. Brown, 175 Honeyman (D.), Gold in Carboniferous Conglomerate, 62 Hooker (Sir J. D., F.R.S.), his Tour in America, 445 ; Notice of, by Prof. ‘Asa Gray (with Portrait), 537; Notes on the Botany of the Rocky Mountains, 539 Hoppe-Seyler (Mons.), on Zoological Classification, 30 Horner (A. C.), on Respiration in Frogs, 30 Hornstein (Prof.), Sun-spots and Wind, 352 Hotel Dieu, Paris, 335 Tow to Draw a Straight Line, A. B. Kempe, 65, 86, 125, 145 Howard Medal of the Statistical Society, 557 Howorth (Henry H.), a Proposed New Museum, 226 Huelin (D, Emilio), “ Cronicon Cientifico Popular,” 418 Hugo (Leopold), ‘‘ La Théorie Hugo décimale,”’ 359 Hull (Prof. E., F.R.S.}, on a Middle Carboniferous Group, 38 Human Remains in a Raised Beach, 52 Humidity and Temperature of the Air at Different Heights, 369 Hunter (Dr. W. W.), Droughts and Famines in Southern India, 14; Relations between Sun and Earth, 359; the Cycle of Sun-spots and Rainfall, 455 Huxley (Prof. T. H., F.K.s.), on Elementary Instruction in Physiology, 233; ‘* Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals,” 517 Nature, Nov. 15, 1877] INDEX 1X Hydrographic Survey of the Baltic, 460 Hyperion, the Saturnian Satellite, 169, 460,552 _ Hypopes, 133 3, Ice-age in Shetland, 501 Ice-work in Labrador, 52 Iceland, Notes on the Weather of, 89; the Volcanoes of, 105 Illimani, Ascent of, 297, 446 Inaudible Vibrations, the Effect of, on Sensitive Flames, Prof. W. F. Barrett, 12 India: Droughts and Famines in Southern, 14 ; Indian Rainfall and Sun-spots, 171 ; Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S, 161; E. D. Archibald, 267, 396, 438; Raiofall in South, J. Allan Broun, F.R.S., 333 ; Russian Account of Scientific Progress in, 425; Indian Famine and Meteorology, Alex. Buchan, 425; the Famine and the Monsoons, 465; Indian Rainfall Statistics, 519 Indians, North American, Casts of, 335; the Nez Percés, 33 Indians, the Hidatsa, Ethnography ani Philology of the, 338 India-Rubber Toys, 113 Individual Variations in Animals, 147 Infant Mor ality in Tasmania, 90 Infectious Diseases, Prof. Tyndall on, 9 Infinitesimal Calculus, James G. Clark, 21 Inflexible, the, 201, 221; Dr. Joseph Woolley, 247 Ingleby (Dr. C. M.), Does Sunshine Extinguish Fire? 477 Inorganic Acids, Complex, 254 Inorganic Chemistry, Fownes, edited by Watts, 6 Insanity, Statistics of, 32 Insects: Our Insect Foes, 104; Injurious Insects, 113 ; Fer- tilisation of Flowers, by Dr. Hermann Miiller, 265, 507 ; Mayer’s ‘‘Organismus der Insekten,” 418; Selective Dis- crimination of, 522; Stamping Out Noxious Insect Life, 207 Insectivora, American, 504 Insectivorous Plants, 364 ; Spontaneous Movements in, 364 Institute of Civil Engineers, 20, 116 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Annual Meeting, 256 Institution of Naval Architects, 411 International Geological Congress, 1878, 513 Invertebrated Animals, Huxley’s Anatomy of, 517 Iowa Weather Report, 169 Ipswich Museum, the Crag Fossilsin the, 351 Ireland, Queen’s University, 516 Iris, the Approaching Opposition of, 477 5 Iron, Floating Cast, W. J. Millar, 23; Prevention of the Cor- rosion of, Prof. Barff, 378 Iron and Steel, Molecular Changes in, during Heating and Cooling, 55 Tron and Steel, Direct Process in the Production of, Dr. C. W. Siemens, F.R.S., 467 Tron and Steel Institute, 426, 433, 446 Irrigation in Ceylon, Restoration of the Ancient Tank System, Rev. R. Abbay, 509 Isomers and Homologues, the Physical Properties of, 175 Italy, Meteorology in, 51 Ivy, Wine-coloured, J. J. Murphy, 551 Jablochkoff Electric Light, 91, 113, 131, 152, 422 Jack (R. L.), Geological Survey of Canada, 4o Jahrbuch der k.k. geologischen Reichsanstalt, 154 Jainism ; or, the Early Faith of Asoka, by E. Thomas, F.R.S., 329 Jamaica, The Botanic Gardens and Public Plantations of 73 James (Lt.-Gen. Sir Henry), Death of, 152 Janssen (Dr.), his Observatory, 556 Japan: Exploration of, 32; Engineering Education in, 44 ; War Balloon, 297 Japanese Mirrors: R. W. Atkinson, 62; Samuel Highley, 132; R. D. Darbishire, 142; S. P. Thompson, 163; J. Parnell, 227 Jeans (L.), Science Lectures in London, 329 Jeffreys (J. Gwyn, F.R.S.), Opening Address in Section D at the Meeting of the British Association at Plymouth, 323 ; On Deep-Sea Mollusca, 323 ; the Fossils and Mollusca brought home by the late Arctic Expedition, 378 Jenissei, the Natural History of the, 367 Jenkins (B. G.), Lumiére Cendiée, 502 Jeula (Henry), Sun-Spots and Wrecks, 447 Johnston (A. Keith), General Gazetteer, 82 Jones (Prof. Rupert, F.R.S.), New Edition of ‘* Dixon’s Geology of Sussex,” 91 Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 299 Journal of Forestry, 153 Journal de Physique, 18, 134, 218, 432, 566 Judd (Prof. J. W., F.R.S.), Deep Well-Borings in London, 2 “Jukes Family,” Francis Galton, F.R.S., on the, 347 Julius (Dr. V. A.), on Time, 122, 420 July Shooting Stars, W. F. Denning, 286 Jupiter’s Satellites, 522 Kalocsa, Observatory at, 112 Karrer (Felix), Geology of the Vienna Water Supply, 282 Karsten (Dr. Hermann), Death of, 513 Kay-Shuttleworth (Sir James), Death of, 94 } Kazan, Archeological Congress at, 389 Keeping (Walter), Meteors, 551 Kempe (A. H.), How to Draw a Straight Line, 65, 86, 125, 145 Kennedy (Prof. A. B. W.), Centroids and their Application to some Mechanical Problems, 48 Kent’s Cavern, the Exploration of, 372 Kew Gardens, Report for 1876, 246 Key (Rev. Henry Cooper), the Satellites of Mars, 457 Kibalchich (M.), Discovery of Caves, Implements, &c., at Kief, 132 Kief, Discovery of Cave Remains, &c., at, 132 Kilbum, Severe Thunderstorm at, 218 Kinahan (G. H.), Hog-Wallows and Prairie Mounds, 7 ‘Kinetic Theory of Gases,” Watson’s, Prof. Clerk Max well, F.R.S., 242 King’s College, London, Science at, 298 Kingsley Memorial Prizes, 557 Kingzett (C. T.), the Alkali Trade, 180; Hederic Acid and Resin of Scammony, 378 Kingzett and Zingler on Albumen of Commerce, 378 Kirkwood (Prof. Daniel), Meteoric Fire-Balls in America, 143 Kischeneff, Discovery of Skeletons near, 17 Konig’s Tuning-Forks, 162, 227; and the French Diapason Normal, Alex. J. Ellis, 85 Kolab and Hissar, the Land of, 144 Kosmos, 44 Kosseir, Climate of, 268 Kropotkin (P.), Researches on the Glacial Period, 161 Kryptogamien Flora von Schlesien, 543 Kurl, Exploration of, 113 ‘ Kurz (Sulpice), the Forests of Pegu, 58 ‘‘ Laboratory Guide,” Prof. Church’s, 160 Labrador, Ice-Work in, 52 ; Thermometric Observations in, 431 Ladies’ Educational Association, 566 Lagout (E.), ‘‘ Takimetry,” Translated by W. Gwynne, 226 Lagrange (M. C.), the Influence of the Form of Bodies on their Attraction, 488 Laing (S., M.P.), the Glacial Geology of Orkney and Shetland, 414, 418 Langley (Prof. S. P.), Proposed New Method in Spectrum Analysis, 150 Lankester (Prof. E. Ray, F.R.S.), Dealers in Zoological Speci- mens and Models, 521 Laslett and Barlow’s Determination of the Strength of Timber, 61 Latham’s English Dictionary, 3 Laticiferous Vessels in Plants, 288 Lauiloch, the Grotto, 298 Lavoisier Medal, Award of the, 334 Lawless (E.), on a Fish-Sheltering Medusa, 227 Leading Articles, the Manufacture of, H. Baden Pritchard, 248 Leaf-Beds, Tertiary, of Colorado, 148 Leamington, Sanitary Congress at, 514 Lebour (G. A.), Geology of the Vienna Water Supply, 282 Leeds, Yorkshire College of Science: Distribution of Prizes, 173; Proposed Incorporation of, 355 ; Calendar of, 496 Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, 152, 411 Lepidoptera, North American, 147 Level, the Ordnance Datum, 371 Leverrier (M. Urban J. J.): Ill-health of, 71, 351, 428; and Meteorological Stations, 91; Obituary Notice of, 453 ; Prof. Adams on his Planetary Theories, 462, 478 Lewes (G. H.), ‘‘ Physical Basis of Mind,” 32, 261 Lewis (Bevan), on the Nerve Cells of the Cortex, 355 Leyden Jars, 18 Librarians, the Conference of, 457, 487 x INDEX [Wature, Nov. 15, 1877 Mars: the Opposition of, 1877, 14, 341; Physical Observations of, 70; Reported Occultation of, by Venus, A.D. 368, 195; the Satellites of, 341, 364, 397, 427, 441, 477, 503, 5513 the Envelope of, 446; Prof. Simon Newcomb, 456; Rev. Lichens, Dr. Lauder Lindsay’s Collection of, 73 Lick Observatory, the Great Telescope for, 216 ‘* Life-History of the Earth,” Prof. H, Alleyne Nicholson, 39 Light, the Velocity of, 229 Light, Supposed Influence of, on Combustion, 341, 477, 521 Light and Sound, Dr. Henry Muirhead, 43 Lighthouses: the Needles Light, 382; the Eddystone, 383; Electric Lights for, 552 Lightning Conductors, John Perry and W. E. Ayrton, 502 Lightning Stroke, the Effects of, 568 Limbs, Prof. S. Haughton on the best possible Number of, for an Animal, 407 Limestone, Discovery of a Precious, 515 Limits of Natural Knowledge, Prof. C. von Niageli, 491, 531, 559 Linnzean Society, 55, 75, 115, 154 ; New Foreign Members, 91 Linnzus, Proposed Monument to, in Stockholm, 257 Lisbon: Annals of the, Observatory, 139; Meteorological Notes from, Henry O. Forbes, 265 Lithornis emuinus, Discovery of Bones of, 152 Little (W.), Stamping-out Noxious Insect Life, 207 Liverpool Geological Society, 92 Llangollen, the Carboniferous Limestone and Millstone in the Country near, 381 Local Museums, 228, 266, 286; in Switzerland, 429 Lockyer (J. Norman, F.R.S.), Star or Nebula? 413 Locusts in Algeria, 72 Lodighin’s New Electric Light, 422 Logarithms, Namar’s Tables of, 197 London University Intelligence, 33, 94, 172 London Flora, Dr. Crespigny’s New, 338 Longitude, Determinations of, 153 ; European Bureau of, 530 Lovett (W. Jesse), a Simple Wave Motion Apparatus, 83 Lubavin (N. N.), ‘‘ Chemical Physics,” 140 Lubbock (Sir John, F.R.S.), on the Teaching of Elementary Science, 216 ; Selective Discrimination in Insects, 548 Lumiére Cendrée, B. G. Jenkins, 502 Luminous Campanulariz, 30 Luminous Meteors, 371 MacAlister (Prof.), on Embryology, 406 Maclvor (Mr.), Statue to, 131 McCook (Rev. H. C.), on Great Vitality of Ants, 523 McKenzie (John L.), Meteors, 551 McNab (Prof.), on the Movement of Water in Plants, 409 ; Cohn’s “ Biology of Plants,” 435 M‘Crady (Prof.), Resignation of, 31 Mackay (Rev. A.), Physiography and Physical Geography, 437 Mackie’s Composing Machine, 214. Machinery, Apparatus for Determining the Speed of, 35 Mactear (James), Improvements in Alkali Manufacture, 377 Madagascar, Hartlaub’s Birds of, 498 Madagascar and Africa, Zoological Relations of, 548 Madan (Rev. H. G.), the Satellites of Mars, 475 Madder, as a Dye, 297 Maggot-Breeding in Paris, 298 Magic Lanternsand Advertising, 91 Magilus, Boring Powers of, 523 Magnetic Induction and Observations of the Earth’s Magnetic Force, Charles Chambers, F.R.S., 376 Magnetic Needle, Early Allusions to the, 268 Magnetic Observations, Stoneyhurst, go Magnus (Rev. P.), Address at University College School, 336 Major (Richard H.), ‘‘The Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator,” 284 Malet (H. P.), ‘‘ Incidents in the Biography of Dust,” 139 Mallet (J. W.), the Conference of Librarians (a Good Sugges- tion), 457 Malvern, the Forest and Chase of, 559 Mammoth Carcase, Discovery of, in Siberla, 113 Man, Antiquity of, 69, 97, 106 Man, Dr. G. Harris’s Work on the Nature and Constitution of, 393 Manchester : Trees in, 174 ; a University for, 241, 279 Manganese and Chromium Compounds, 254 Mangon (Hervé), New Registering Thermometer, 237, 421 Mantegazza on the Relative Length of the Index and ‘* Ring ” Fingers, J. C. Galton, 444 Manures : Experiments on the Value of, 129; Prizes for Best Work on, 132 Markham (Capt. Albert), Presentation of Gold Watch to, 16 Henry Cooper Key, 457; Lord Rosse, 459; Rev. H. G. Madan, 475; John Brett, 503 Marsh (Prof. O. C.), Discovery of Baptornis advinus, 336 ; Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America, 448, 470, 489 : Marsh on Physical Observations of Mars, 70 Mason (Dr. Otis T.), Rate of Mound-Building, 503 Massee (G. E.), Phyllotaxis, 208 Mathematical Society, 95, 176, 556 Mathematics in America, R. Tucker, M.A., 21 ‘*Matter and Motion,” Prof. Clerk Maxwell’s, 119 Matthews (Washington), Ethnography nnd Philology of the Hidatsa Indians, 338 Mault (A.), ‘*‘ Natural Geometry,” 455 Mauritius, Sun-spots and the Weather at, 168 ; the Observatory Reports, J. Allan Broun, F.R.S., 337 ; Cyclones in, 375 Maxwell (Prof. Clerk, F.R.S.), ‘f Matter and Motion,” Prof. P. G. Tait, 119; Watson’s ‘‘ Kinetic Theory of Gases,” 242 Mayer (Dr. A. B.), New Work on Birds, 399 Mayr (Dr. G.), ‘Die Gesetzmiszigkeit im Gesellschaftsleben,” 500 ‘“ Mechanics of Engineering,” Weisbach’s, 81 Mechanics’ Institutes in Towns, Mr. Swire Smith on, 411 Medal to Commemorate the Transit of Venus, 11 Medical Congress at Geneva, 296 Medical Sciences, International Congress of, 131, 428 Mediterranean, a True Whale in the, 309 ; the Flora of, 523 Medusa, on a Fish-Sheltering, 227, 248, 362 Meehan (Thomas), Fertilisation of Flowers, 364 Meguin (M.), on Acarians and Hypopes, 133 Meissen, Mines of. 514 Melbourne Observatory, Report of, 503 Meldrum (Dr.), Reports of the Mauritius Observatory, 337 Memorie della Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, 134 Mental Work, German Society for, 556 Metallic Films on Glass Tubes, 430 Metals, Influence of Light on the Electrical Resistance of, 447 Meteors, 43, 266, 550, 551; at the Cape of Good Hope, 72; New Meteor Radiant, W. F. Denning, 102; Luminous Meteors, 371 ; Meteor at Bhawnepoor, India, 375; Meteoric Fire-Balls in America, 143; Meteoric Masses, Heat of, 431 ; Meteoric Astronomy, 441; Meteoric Phenomenon during a Gale, 551 ; Meteoric Stones in America, 558 Meteorite, the Stalldalen, 238 Meteorology : Greenwich as a Meteorological Station, 7 ; Prof. Balfour Stewart on Suspected Relation between the Sun and the Earth, 9, 26, 45 ; Observations at Glasgow, 16 ; Meteoro- logical Society, 20, 115, 259; Meteorological Notes, 50, 89, 267 ; Meteorology in Italy, 51; in France, 51, 513; Grant to the Scottish Meteorological Society, 53; Paris Observa- tory, 71; Meteorology of Holland, 89; Tycho Brahe’s Meteorological Journal, 89; ‘‘ Atlas Météorologique,” 89 ; Weather Maps in Australia, 90 ; Stoneyhurst Meteorological and Magnetic Observations, go ; Climate and Infant Mortality in Tasmania, 90; Meteorology of South Australia, 168 ; Meteorology of the Future, a Vision, 193; Meteorological Council, the New, 224; Notes from Lisbon, Henry O. Forbes, 265 ; Agricultural Meteorological Service, 334; Pro- posed Institute for France, 334; Arctic Meteorology, 358 ; Dr. J. J. Wild on the Meteorological Effects of Eclipses, 419 ; and the Indian Famine, A. Buchan, 425; the Pic du Midi Observatory, 513 Meux’s Brewery, Deep Well-Boring at, 2, 380 Meyer (Dr. A. B.), Museum Reform, 227 Mice, the Singing of, 558 Micrometer, a New Form of, 115 Microscope, Prof. A. Mayer’s Vernier, 151 Microscopical Society, see Royal Microscopist, the, by Dr. W. H. Wythe, 6 Millar (W. J.), Floating Cast Iron, 23 Miller (W. J. C.), ‘* Mathematical Questions,” 417 Mimulus luteus, the Electrical Disturbance which accompanies the Excitation of the Stigma of, Prof. Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S., 163 Minchin (G. M.), Potential Energy, 547 ‘* Mind,” 32 ‘* Mind, the Physical Basis of,” by George Henry Lewes, 261 - Nature, Nov. 15, 1877] INDEX X1 Minerals, Rare, in the North of Scotland, 147; the Optical Characters of, H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., 380 Mines of Meissen, 514 Mining, School of, at Columbia College, U.S., 411 Minor Planet, a New, 287, 330 Minor Planets and Comets of Short Period, 143 Miocene Flora, Migration of Swiss, Rev. Geo. Henslow, rot Mirrors, New, for Reflecting Sextants, 429 Missouri, Noxious and other Insects 0, Report on, 132 Mitchell (Dr. Arthur), Cave-Men of Western Eurepe, 53 Mobius (Karl), ‘‘ Die Auster und die Austernwirthschaft,” 499 Moguil Liondia, Discovery of Tumulus at, 17 Mohn (H.), the Norwegian Deep-Sea Expedition, 110, 526 Molison (A. R.), Heat Phenomena and Muscular Action, 477 Mollusca, Deep-Sea, J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 323 Mollusca brought Home by the late Arctic Expedition, Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 375 Money (Major G. Noel), Meteor at Bhawnepoor, 375 Monkeys, the Gelada, 504 Monotremata: Notes on the North-East Australian, 420; the Australian, 439 ; W. A. Forbes, 439; Dr. G. Bennett, 475 Monro (Sir David), Death of, 15 Mont Blanc, the Geology of, 174 Montsouris Observatory, Lectures at the, 334 Montucci (M.), Death of, 335 Moon: Total Eclipse of the, August 23, 1877, 287, 335 ; Tem- perature of the Moon’s Surface, Earl of Rosse, F.R.S., 435 Morgue, the, Paris, 257 Morphologisches Jahrbuch, 134, 299 Morphology of Primroses, Dr. Masters, 154 Morse (Prof. E. S.), in Japan, 388 Moscow, Museum of Applied Sciences, 32 Moseley (H. N.), Urticating Organs of Planarian Worms, 475 Moser (James), the Spectra of Chemical Compounds, 193 Moths, Zygana filipendule, 361 Mott (A. J.), the Source and Functions of Carbons on the Crust of the Earth, 406 Mound-Building, Rate of, Dr. Otis T. Mason, 503 Mount Caburn, Excavations into, 429 Mount Carmel, U.S., Tornado at, 112 Mount Illimani, Ascent of, 297 Mountain, Fall of a, in Tarentaise, Savoy, 279 Movements of a Submerged Aquatic Plant, 554 Muir (M. M. Pattison), Kingzett’s ‘‘ Alkali Trade,” 180 Muirhead (Dr. Henry), Sound and Light, 43 Miiller (Baron F. von), Select Plants readily Naturalised in Victoria, 100 Miiller (Dr. H.), Fertilisation of Flowers by Insects, 265, 507 Mullet, the Striped, 523 Munich : Meeting of German Naturalists, 380, 428, 491: Society of Antiquaries, 428 Munro (J.), New Electric Lights, 422, 502 Miinster, New Lecture-Rooms at, 299 Murphy (J. J.), on Time, 182 ; Complementary Colours, 208 ; the Greenland Foehn, 340 ; Wine-Coloured Ivy, 551 Murray (Andrew), Drawings of the Colorado Beetle, 430 Muscular Action, Heat Phenomena accompanying, 451; A. R. Molison, 477 Muscular Contraction, Experiments on, 133 Museum Reform, 183 ; Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 78; F. W. Rudler, 140; Dr. A. B. Meyer, 227 Museums of Natural History, Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 98, 137; William Watts, 161 Museums, Local, 266, 286, 360 Museums in Switzerland, 429 Nageli (Prof. Dr.), Limits of Natural Knowledge, 491, 531, 550 Naples, Dr. Dohrm’s Zoological Station at, 91 Nares (Sir George), Geographical Society’s Royal Medal to, 16 National Health Society, 257 Natural History Museums, Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 98, 137 ; Wm. Watts, 161 Natural History Societies, proposel Amalgamation of the Midland, 297 Naturforscher, Der, 18 Naturkrafte, Die, 418 Naval Architects, Institution of, 411 Nawalichin (M.), Heat Phenomena accompanying Muscular Action, 451 Nebulz, Messier, 8, 522; the Variable Nebula in Taurus, 552; Nebula or Star? J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., 413 Nectar-Secreting Glands, Francis Darwin, 100 ; Thos. Belt, 122 Needles Light, Sir Wm. Thomson, F.R.S., on, 382 Nehring (Dr. A.), Prehistoric Steppes of Central Europe, 195 Neptune, the Satellites of, 441 Nerve-cells of the Cortex, the Relationships of the, to the Lymphatic System of the Brain, by Bevan Lewis, 355 Nerves and Nervo-Systems, Evolution of, G. J. Romanes, 231, 269, 289 Nerves in Vertebrates, the Development of, 364. New Guinea, Botany of, 31 ; Anthropology of, 54; Flora of, 208 ; D’Albertis’, Exploration of, 296 ; Zoology of, 489 New South Wales, Royal Society, 279 ; Linnean Society, 466 New York, the Elevated Railway of, Capt. Douglas Galton, 382 New York Herald, Weather Telegrams, 72 New Zealand, the Ancient Glaciers of, 100 ; Auckland Institute, 131; Rock-paintings in, 175; High Tide on the Coast of, 198 ; Wellington Philosophical Society, 567 | Newall (R. S., F.R.S.), on Mars, 446 Newberry (J. S.), Cretaceous Flora of America, 264 Newcomb (Prof.), on the Satellites of Mars, 398, 456 Newfoundlznd, Geological Survey of, 254 Nez Percé Indians, 335 Nicaragua, Lake, the Fishes of, 505 Nicol Prism, Interference Fringes in the, 135 Nicols (Arthur), the Ship-worm, 8 Nicholson (Prof. H. Alleyne), ‘* Life-history of the Earth,” 39 Nicholson (Hunter), Rattle Snakes in Wet Weather, 266 Nickel and Cobalt, Double Compounds of, J. M. Thomson, 372 Niepce (Nicephore ), Statue to, 131, 142; H. Baden Pritchard on, 142; and the Discovery of Photography, 501 Niger, Bishop Crowther’s Notes on the, 131 Nipher (Francis E.), the proper Length of the Gymnasium Swing, 90 ; Tait on Force, 182 Nordenskjold (Prof.) : the Sialldalen Meteorite, 238 ; his Expe- dition, 513 Noggerath (Prof. Jacob), death of, 445 Norris (Prof. M. B.), Molecular Changes in Iron and Steel during Heating and Cooling, 55 North American Lepidoptera, 147 North Sea, Norwegian Expedition to, 258 ; Dredgings io, 296 Norwegian Deep-Sea Expedition, 110, 258, 271 : Dr. Mohn, 526 Nottingham New University at, 452 Noxious Insect Life, Stamping out, W. Little, 207 Nova Cygni, the Spectrum of, 400 Nubians at the Alexandra Palace, 447 Niirnberg, Germanic Museum at, 429 Ober (F. A.), Exploration of the West Indies, 515 Obi, M. Poliakot’s Exploration of, 17 Observatories: Paris, 15; Cincinnati, 29; Annals of the Harvard College, 60 ; Greenwich Observatory Report, 109 ; at Kalocsa, 112; Lisbon, 139; Cape of Good Hope, 169 ; Oxford, Report of the Director, 197: Montsouris, 334 ; Mauritius, 337 ; Melbourne, 503 * Observatory,’ The, 93 Oersted (Hans Christian), Centenary of, 428 Ogové, Exploration of the River, 216, 487, 556 Opiliones, Persian and Sardinian, 504 Oppenheim (Prof. Alphons) : Death, 464 ; Obituary Notice, 552 Optical Bench, New Form of, 219 Orchids, Fertilisation of, Henry O. Forbes, 102 Ordnance Datum Level, 371 Orkney and Shetland : the Glacial Geology of, Prof. A. Geikie, F.R.S., 414; S. Laing, M.P., 418; Are there no Boulders in? David Milne Holme, 476 Osborne (J. A.), Caterpillars, 502 Ostiaks, the Life of the, 17 Otheoscope, the, William Crookes, F.R.S., 12 O'Toole (John), Some of the Troubles cf, respecting Potential Energy, 439, 457 Our Insect Foes, 104 Ovum, the Development of the, Rev. W. H. Dallinger and Dr. J. Drysdale, 178, 203 Owens College, Manchester, 153 ; the University (Question, 38 ; Scholarships, Prizes, &c., 172 Oxford : the Universities Bill, 1; Scholarships at Daliio’, 114; Report on the University Ooservatory, 197 ; University Co n- mission, 516 ; University [ntelligence, 33, 54, 94, 133, 153,193 Oxygen in Tea- Water, 255 Oxygen in the Sun, Discovery of, and a New Thecry of the Solar Spectrum (wth @ Photograph), by Prof. UW. Drap2r, 364 Xi INDEX [Nature, Nov. 15, 1877 Oxygen and Hydrogen, Heat of Combustion of, in Closed Ves- sels, 442 Oxy-zirconium Lights for Lecture Demonstrations, 515 Oysters : Greening of, Prof. Thiselton Dyer, 397; and Oyster- Culture, 499 Ozone, Thermic Formation of, 71 Palzeozoic Corals, Charles Wachsmuth on, 515 Palzeozoic Deposits of South Devon, 379 Palestine : German Society for Exploring, 280; Levels of, 409 Pandora, the, and Arctic Exploration, 513 Panceri (Prof. Paolo), Campanularia, 30 Paris : Academy of Sciences, 36, 56, 76, 96, 116, 136, 156, 176, 200, 220, 240, 260, 280, 300, 336, 356, 392, 412, 432, 452, 472, 516, 536, 568 ; the ‘Observatory, 15 ; International Ex- hibition, 17, 32, 430; Gigantic Balloon at, 279; Paris Accli- matisation Society, 53; the Public Clocks of, 91 ; Charle- magne College, 173 ; Hotel Dieu, 335 ; Pneumatic Apparatus at the National Library, 529 Parlatore (Filippo), Death of, 445 Parnell (J.), Japanese Mirrors, 227 Pascoe, (F. C.), ‘* Zoological Classification,” 82 Pasteur-Bastian Experiments, the Commission fof the French Academy and the, 276 Patagonia and Buenos Ayres, European Plants in, 264 Patenas in Ceylon, Rev. R. Abbay, 42 Patent Museum, the, 112 Pattison (S. R.), the Carboniferous Coast-line of North Corm- wall, 379 Peabody Museum, U.S.: Tenth Report of the, 335; New Building for the, 352 Pegu, the Forests of, Sulpice Kurz, 58 Pekin, Climate of, 50 Pele’s Hair, H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., 2 3 Pengelly (W., F.R.S ), Opening Address in Section C at th Meeting of the British Association at Plymouth, 318 ; Geology of the Coast from Rame Head to the Bolt Tail, 378 Pennington (Rooke), ‘‘ Barrows of Derbyshire,” 416 Pens, Mawson and Swan’s Magic, 297 Periscopism and the Crystalline Lens, 151 Perry (John) and W. E, Ayrton, Lightning Conductors, 502 Perseids, the Radiant Centre of the, W. F. Denning, 362 “Personal Equation,” Francis Galton, F.R.S., on, 345 **Peru, Squier’s,” Edward B. Tylor, F.R.S., 191 Peschel (O.), “‘ Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen,” 284 Petermann’s Mittheilungen, 17, 216, 296, 351, 447 Petrography, Microscopical, Zirkel’s, 473 Pfaff (Dr. F.), “Die Naturkrafte in der Alpen, oder physika- lische Geographie des Alpengebirges,” 542 Philadelphia Academy, 240, 536 Photo-Electricity of Fluor Spar, M. Hankel on, 558 Photography : Photographic Society, 200; Photography in Germany, 257; New Processes in, 3523; the Discoverer of, J. Smith, 501 ; Photographic Exhibition, 525 ; Photography of Luminous Objects, 558 Phyllotaxis: G. E, Massee, 208; W. E. Hart, 248 Phylloxera, 488 Physiological Balance, M. Redier’s, 390 “Physical Basis ot Mind,”’ by George Henry Lewes, 261 “ Physical Geography,” Geikie’s, 158 Physical Society, 35, 75, 115, 135, 219 Physics : Dr. C. Bohn’s ‘ Ergebnisse physikalischer Forschung,” 430; Everett’s Text-Book of, 518 ** Physiography and Physical Geography,” Rev. A. Mackay, 437 ‘* Physiological A‘sthetics,” Grant Allan, 98 Physiology: Fosters Text-book of, 79; Prof. Huxley on Elementary Instruction in, 233 Pic du Midi Observatory, 513 Pigeons, Speed of, 237 Pirie (Rev. G.), the Principal Geometrical Methods for Ap- proximating to the Value of 7, 226 Pitch, Viscosity of Hard Black, 236 Pitury, a new Stimulant, 68 Planarian Worms, Urticating Organs of, H. N. Moseley, 475 Planets, New Minor, 287, 330 Plants: Respiration of, 31; Passage of, Across the Atlantic, Henry H. Higgins, 41; the Source of the Carbon of, 210; Adaptation of Plant-Structure, Henry Collett, 266 ; Lati- ciferous Vessels in, 288; Insectivorous, 364; Spontaneous Movements in, 364 Platoiod Nitrates, 442 Plymouth : the Paleontology of, R. N. Worth, 380; the Drift — of Plymouth Hoe, J. H. Collins, 379 Pneumatic Railway between South Kensington Station and the Albert Hall, 217 Pocket Hammock, Seydel’s, 209 Poggendorff’s Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 18, 114, 173 Polar Colony, Proposed, 296 Polaris Expedition, Report of, 358; Capt. Hall’s Narrative, 225 Polarisation of Quartz, 568 Pollen, M. P. Edgeworth, 499 Pollution of Rivers, Higgins’ Treatise on the, 225 “Pomona,” Proposed, by the Woolhope Club, 514 Pongo, the Gorilla at the Westminster Aquarium, 249 Post (Dr. Jul.), ‘* Grundriss der chemischen Technologie,” 83 “Zeitschrift fiir das chemische Grossgewerbe, 519 Post-Glacial Deposits in West Lancashire, 406 Potential Energy, 439, 457, 500, 520, 547 Prairie- Mounds and Hog-Wallows, 7, 24 Preece (W. H.), the Telephone, 403 Pressure, Effect of, on Chemical Action, 255 Prestwich (Prof.), on the Water-Bearing Strata around London, 3 Primroses, Morphology of, Dr. Masters, 154 Prince Henry, the Navigator, the Discoveries of, 284 Printing and Calico Printing, Henry Cecil, 207, 228, 248 Pritchard (H. Baden), Science and War, 37, 57; Nicephore Niepce, 142; Soldiers’ Rations, 157; the Manufacture of Leading Articles, 248 ; Electricity in War, 281 Proctor (Richd. A.), the Earth and Moon, 227 Protective Colouring in Birds, Thomas Belt, 548 Prshevalsky (M.), Exploring Expedition, 131 Prussia, Geological Survey of, 254. Pulmonary Consumption, Williams’s Influence of Climate on, 59 Purple Verbenas, A. M. Darby, 163 Pyrocatechin and Tannic Acid, Dr. John Watts, 378 Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 259 Quartz, Polarisation of, 568 Quartzite Implements at Brandon, Thomas Belt, 1o1 Queen’s University, Ireland, 516 Radcliffe Catalogue of Stars, the Third, 330 Radiometer and its Lessons, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., 544 ; Prof. Carey Foster, F.R.S., 546 Railway Brakes, E. Woods, C.E., on, 347 Rainbow reflected from Water, William Crookes, F.R.S., 329 ; Robert Sabine, 361 Rainfall Observations in the East of France from 1763 to 1870, 168; Rainfall of Calcutta and Sun-spots, 267; Rainfall in South India, J. Allan Broun, F.R.S,, 333 ; Rainfall of Edin- burgh, 352; Rainfall and Sun-spots, 251; Indian Rain- fall and Sun-spots, E. D. Archibald, 267, 396, 438; the Cycle of Rainfall and Sun-spots, Dr. W. W. Hunter, 455 Rama, Labrador, Thermometric Observations made at, 431 Rame Head to the Bolt Tail, Geology of the Coast, 378 Rattlesnakes in Wet Weather, Hunter Nicholson, 266 Rayleigh (Lord, F.R.S.), the Amplitude of Sound-Waves, 114 Reale Istituto Lombardo, 18, 114, 134, 154, 199, 355, 566 Red Sea, Climate of Kossier on the, 268 Redier (M.), Physiological Balance, 390 Reeves (J. Russell, F.R.S.), Death of, 53 Refraction of Gases, 152 Reichenbach’s Odyle and Mr. Wallace, 546 Reichert und Du Bois Reymond’s Archiv, 299 Remarkable Plants, I1I.—The Sensitive Plant, 348 ; 1V.—The Blue Gum Tree, 443 Reproduction by Conjugation, 340, 397 Research, the Endowment of, 117 ‘Researching ” and Teaching, Prof. Sylvester on, 103 Resin of Scammony and Hederic Acid, C, T. Kingzett, 378 Respiration in Frogs, 30 Respiration of Plants, 31 Revue des Sciences Naturelles, 18, 299 Reynolds (Prof. Osborne, F.R.S.), on Waves, 343 ; the Steering of Steamers, 382 ; on Compound Turbines, 352 Rhinoceros, the Tichorhine, 146 Rhinoceroses at the Alexandra Palace, 466 Richardson (Dr. B. W., F.R.S.), the Future of Sanitary Science, 184; the Glandular Origin of Contagious Disease, 480 Richardson (N. M.), Zyg@na filipendule, 361 Richthofen (F, F. von), China, 206 Nature, Nov. 15, 1877] INDEX Xili Ringwood (A.), Plan for Measuring the Heights of Clouds, 558 Rios (Francisco Ginez de Los), Science in Spain, 362 “River Terraces,” Col. George Greenwood, 181 Rivers, Higgin’s Treatise on the Pollution of, 225 Robertson (David), Yellow Crocuses, 8 Roby (H. J.), Taunton College School, 183 Rock Crystals as Weights, 447 Rock-Paintings in New Zealand, 175 Rocks of Charnwood Forest, T. G. Bonney, and E, Hill, $ Rocky Mountains, Excrementitious Deposits in the, 235 ; Notes on the Botany of the, Sir J. D. Hooker, F.R.S., 539 Rodier (Mons. E.), Spontaneous Movements of Plants, 364; the Movements of a Submerged Aquatic Plant, 554 Rolleston (Prof., F.R.S.), on the Vascular Supply of the Brain, 408 ; Zoology of New Guinea, 409 Romanes (Geo. J., M.A.), ‘‘Physiological Azsthetics,” 98 ; Evolution of Nerves and Nervo-Systems, 231, 269, 289; the Fish-sheltering Medusa, 248 Rome, R. Academia dei Lincei, 56, 76, 136 Rood (Prof. O. N.), on Colours, 150 Rosse (Earl of, F.R.S.), Temperature of Moon’s Surface, 438 ; the Satellites of Mars, 457 Rothsay Aquarium, 294 Roudaire (M.), Proposed Algerian Inland Sea, 353 Rovida (Prof. Dr. C. L.), Death of, 72 Royal Academy, Annual Dinner, 31 Royal Astronomical Society, 74, 176, 197 Royal Geographical Society, 54, 91 Royal Institution, Annual Meeting, 17 Royal Microscopical Society, 55, 536 ; Bequest to, 31 Royal Society, 18, 34, 55, 74, 114, 154, 175, 355 3 Conversazione, 16; President’s Reception, 151 Royal Society, Dublin, 135 Royal Society, Edinburgh, 135 Riicker (Prof. A. W.), On Black Soap Films, 331 Rudler (F. W.), Museum Reform, 140 Rugby School Natural History Society 133 Russell (J. C), the Ancient Glaciers of New Zealand, 100 Russia : Geographical Society of, 33 ; Population of Russia and Turkey, 174: Geographical Work in Russia during 1876, 209 ; Russian Rivers and the Earth’s Rotation, 390; Russian Account of Scientific Progress in India, 425 Rust, Prevention of, Prof. Barff, 378 Ruthenium, the Properties of, 167 Sabine (Robert), Rainbow Reflected from Water, 361 Sachs (Dr.), Researches on the Electric Eel, 296 Sager (Dr. Abraham), Death of, 488 Sahara, the Desert of, 54 Saharan Sea, the Proposed, 336 St. Andrews, the Chair of Mathematics, 198 Saint-Victor (Niepce de), Statue to, 131 Salix repens, Fertilisation of, 184 Samarskite and Hatchetolite, Chemical Constitution of, 442 Samoyede, Expedition to the, District, 430 San Francisco, Lidal Wave at, 112 Sand, Shower of, at Rome, 197 Sanderson (Prof. Burdon, F.R.S.), the Electrical Disturbance which accompanies the Excitation of the Stigma of MJimulus luteus, 163 Sandwich Islands, Tidal Wave at the, 112 Sanitary Institute, 210; Meeting at Leamington, 335, 389, 515 Sanitary Science, the Future of, Dr. B. W. Richardson, 184. Santa Barbara Islands, 431 Santa Cruz River, Exploration of, 152 Santini (Prof. Giovanni), Death of, 194 Sarcode Organisms, Recent Researches among the Lower, 110 Saturn, the Rotation of, 363 ; the Satellites of, 341; the Sa- turnian Satellite, Hyperion, 169, 460, 552 Savary (G), Supposed Action of Light on Combustion, 441 Schafer (E. A.), Foster’s Text-Book of Physiology, 79 Schmidt (Dr.), “ Unser Sonnenkérper nach seiner physikalischen, sprachlichen, und mythologischen Seite hin betrachtet,” 41 Schomburgk (Dr.), Report on the Adelaide Botanic Garden, 297 School-Board Districts, Maps of the London, 134 Schuster (Dr, Arthur), the Spectra of Chemical Compounds, 193 Schweinfurth (Dr), his Collections, 152 Science in Spain, Francisco Ginez de Los Rios, 362 Science, Sir John Lubbock on the Teaching of Elementary, 216 Science in America, 515 Science Lectures in London, L. Jeans, 329 Science and Art Department, Circular on the Teaching of Chemistry and Physics, 354 Science and War, H. Baden Pritchard, 37, 57 Scientific Club at Vienna, 112 SCIENTIFIC WoRTHIES, XI.—Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, P.R.S. (With Portrait), 537 Scientific Bibliography, 467, 530 Scorpions, Stridulating Organs in, J. Wood Mason, 565 Scotland, Notes on the Weather of, 89 Scottish Meteorological Society, 53, 257 Sea- Water, Amount of Oxygen in, 255 Seal Fishery in Greenland, Thomas Southwell, 42 Segmentation of the Head, 288 Selective Discrimination of Insects, 522; Sir John Lubbock, F.R.S., 548 Selwyn (A. R. C., F.R.S.), Geological Survey of Canada, 4o Sense Perception of Electricity, Henry Cecil, 549 Sensitive Flames, the Effect of Inaudible Vibrations upon, 12 Sensitive Plant, A. W. Bennett, 348 Serpentine Rocks of Lizard District, Rev. T. G. Bonney, 135 Serpula parallela, Dr. John Young, 460 Seydel’s Pocket Hammock, 209 Sharp (D.), Automatism, 286 Sharpe (R. Bowdler), Catalogue of Birds in British Museum, 541 Shaw (J.), Yellow Crocuses, 8 ; Future of our British Flora, 550 Shell, a New, 147 Shepard Scientific Collections at Amherst, U.S., 389 Shetland, the Ice Age in, 501 Shetland and Orkney: The Glacial Geology of, Prof. A. Geikie, F.R.S., 414; S. Laing, M.P., 418; Are there no Boulders in? David Milne Home, 476 Ships, the Resistance of, Wm. Froude, F.R.S., 382 Ship-Worm, the, Arthur Nicols, 8 Shipwrecks and Famines, Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., 461 Shooting Stars, the July, W. F. Denning, 286 Shower of Sand at Rome, 197 Siberia: Discovery of a Mammoth Carcase, 113 ; University for, 95 Siemens (Dr. C. W., F.R.S.), the Direct Process in the Produc- tion of Iron and Steel, 467 Silkworms, Diseases of, 485 Silurian Rocks in Teesdale, 406 Silver Salts, Action of Organic Substances Increasing the Sen- sitiveness of Certain, 442 Simon (John, F.R.S.), Proposed Testimonial to, 152 Singh (Pundit Nain), Geographical Society’s Royal Medal to, 16 Sirius, the Companion of, 364 Skertchley (Sydney B. J.), Antiquity of Man, 142, 163 Smith (J.), the Discoverer of Photography, 501 Smith (Strother A.), the Tiber and its Tributaries, 226 Smith (Swire), the Work of Mechanics’ Institutes, 411 Smithsonian Institution, Annual Report, 351 Smyth (Prof. Piazzi), Optical Spectroscopy of the Red End of the Solar Spectrum, 264; Rainfall of Edinburgh, 352, 389; the Coming Winter, 475 Soap Film Membranes, Sound Vibrations of, E. B. Tylor, 12 Soap Films, Black, Prof. A. W. Riicker, 331 Social Science Congress at Aberdeen, 466 Society of Arts’ Medals, 196 Sograf (Herr Nicolai), Expedition to the Samoyede District, 430 Solar Corona, Early Observations of the, J. L. Dreyer, 549 Solar Eclipses: of 1882, 49; Total, of 1889, 124; of 1605, 255; of Agathocles, Rev. Prof. Haughton, F.R.S., 563 Solar Radiation and Sun-spots, S, A. Hill, 505 ; sce Sun-spots Solar Spectrum, Optical Spectroscopy of the Red End of the, Prof, Piazzi Smyth, 264 ; a New Theory of the, Prof. Henry Draper, M.D., 364 Soldiers’ Rations, H. Baden Pritchard, F.R.S., Samuel Haughton, F.R.S., 207 Solutions, Volumes of, J. A. Ewing and J. G, Macgregor, 376 Sorby (H. C., F.R.S.), Pele’s Hair, 23; the Study of the Optical Characters of Minerals, 380 Sound-Vibrations of Soap Film Membranes, E. B. Tylor, 12 Sound-Waves, the Amplitude of, Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., 114 Sound and Light, Dr. Henry Muirhead, 43 South African Museum, 47 South Atlantic, Winds of the, 267 157; Prof. xiv INDEX | Nature, Nov. 15, 1877 South India: Droughts and Famines in, 14; Rainfall in, J. Allan Broun, F.R.S., 333 Southwell (Thomas), Greenland Seal Fishery, 42 South Kensington Museum, Models of Cliff Houses, Cave Dwellings, &c., 389 Spain: Proposed Scientific Association in, 130; the Vertebrated Fishes of, Sefior Calderon’s, 140; Science in, Francisco Ginez de Los Rios, 362 Spalding (Douglas A.), ‘The Physical Basis of Mind,” by George Henry Lewes, 261 Spectra of Chemical Compounds, Dr. Arthur Schuster, 193 Spectra of Chemical Elements and Compounds, M. Ciamician on, 531 Spectroscopy, Optical, of the Red End of the Solar Spectrum, Prof. Piazzi Smyth, 264. Spectrum : Visibility of the Ultra-Violet Rays of the, A. S. Herschel, 22; Prof. Langley’s Proposed New Method in Spectrum Analysis, 150; of Nova Cygni, 4oo ; of the Electric Spark, 531 Speed of Machinery, Apparatus for Determining, 35 Spelling Reform, 95 Spined Soldier Bug, 446 Spirogyra, Reproduction of, 340 Spongy Iron Filters, 48 Spontaneous Generation, 24; Prof. Tyndall, F.R.S., on, 127 ; the Commission of the French Academy on the Pasteur-Bastian Experiments, 276 Spontaneous Movements in Plants, 364 Spottiswoode(Wm., F.R.S.), Stratified Discharges, 18 Sprengel Air-Pump, New Form of, 514 Squier’s ‘‘ Peru,” Edward B. Tylor, F.R.S., 191 Stalldalen Meteorite, 238 Standards, Annual Report of the Warden of the, 557 Stanford’s Maps of the Seat of War, 174 Stanley’s Exploration of Africa, 465, 529 Stars: Change of Colour in a Urs Majoris, 29 ; « Centauri, 30; Double, 70; Anthelm’s Star of 1670, 102; Variable, 143, 287, 428; Mira Ceti, 256; the Triple Star 7 Camelopardi, 169; Spectrum of the New Star in Cygnus, 400; Star or Nebula? J. Norman Lockyer, 413 ; Binary, 441, 477, 522 Statistical Society, Subject for the Howard Medal, 557 Statues to Eminent Men of Science in France, 131 Steam, Temperature of, and Saline Solutions, 72 Steam-Brake, New, 390 Steamers, the Steering of, Prof. Osborne Reynold, I’.R.S., 382 Steel and Iron, Direct Process in the Production of, Dr. C. W. Siemens, F.R.S., 467 Steering of Steamers, Effect of Reversing the Screw on the, 370 | Steppes, the Prehistoric, of Central Europe, 195 Stevenson (Thomas), Reduction of the Height of Waves by Lateral Deflection under Lee of Breakwaters, 423 Stewart (Prof. Balfour, F.R.S.), Suspected Relations between the Sun and the Earth, 9, 26, 45 ; Indian Rainfall and Sun- Spots, 161 ; Famines and Shipwrecks, 461 Stokoe (P. H.), Colour-Sense in Birds, 142; Evolution by Leaps, 361 Stoneyhurst Meteorological and Magnetic Observations, go Strachey (Gen.), Indian Rainfall and Sun-Spots, 171 Strassburg, University of, 259 Stratified Discharges, Wm. Spottiswoode, I’. R.S., 18 Striped Mullet, 523 Strophanthus hispidus, 504. Stridulating Organs in Scorpions, J. Wood-Mason, 565 Sub- Wealden Exploration, Final Report, 132 Sugar, Manufacture of, 429 Sulphate of Iron, Preparation of, 17 Sulphur, Regeneration of, in Alkali Manufacture, 377 Sulphuric Acid, the Measurement of the Heat of Solution of, in Water, 516 Sumatra, Exploration of, 296 «Summer Schools” in America, 92 Sun: Discovery of Oxygen in the, and a New Theory of the Solar Spectrum (with a Photograph), by Prof. Henry Draper, M.D., 364; Mr. Gill’s Expedition to Ascension, to Measure the Sun’s Distance, 14; Suspected Relations between the Sun and Earth, Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., 9, 26, 45, E. D. Archi- bald, 339, 359, Dr. Wm. Hunter, 359 Sunshine Records at Greenwich, 259 Sunshine, Does, Extinguish Fire ? 341, 477, 521 Sun-spot Periods and Auroras from 1773 to 1827, 167 Sun-spots: and a Decennial Period, Dr. J. Allan Broun, 62; and Rainfall, Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., 161; and the Weather at Mauritius, 168 ; and Rainfall, 251; and Wind, Prof. Hornstein on, 352; E. D. Archibald, 267, 396, 438 ; and Wrecks, 447; Dr. W. W. Hunter, 455 ; and Solar Radiation, S. A. Hill, 505 Sunday Weather Warnings, 51 Swallows, the Hibernation of, 43 Swiss Miocene Flora, Migration of, Rev. Geo. Henslow, tor Switzerland, Chronometers of, 369 ; District Museums in, 429 ; the Government Map of, 447 Sydney, University of, 355 Sylvester (Prof.), on Teaching and ‘‘ Researching,” 103 Tageblatt of the German Naturalists’ Association, 216 Tait (Prof. P. G.), Prof. Clerk Maxwell’s ‘‘ Matter and Motion,” 119 Tait on Force, Francis E, Nipher, 182 “*Takimetry,” E. Lagout, 226 Peer (W. H. Fox, F.R.S,) : Death of, 464 ; Obituary Notice Of, $23 Tank Irrigation in Ceylon, the Restoration of the Ancient Sys- tem of, Rev. R. Abbay, 509 Tarentaise, Fall of a Mountain in, 279 Tasmania, Climate and Infant Mortality in, 90: Tasmanian Carnivorous Plant, 31 Taunton College School, 153, 164, 183, 199, 299 Teasel, the Contractile Filaments of the, Prof. Cohn and Charles Darwin, F.R.S., 339 Technological Chemistry, Dr. Jul. Post, 83 Teeth, Deformity of, in the Inhabitants of the Admiralty Islands, 251 Tegetmeier (W. B.), Colour-sense in Birds—Blue and Yellow Crocuses, 163 Telegraph, Subterranean, between Berlin and Hamburg, 197 Telegraph System and Commercial Traffic, 237 Telephones: Dr. Paget Higgs on, 359; Prof. Graham Bell on Recent Experiments in, 383; Practical Application of, in New York, 389 ; W. H. Preece on, 403 Telescopes, List of the Principal, 33 ; Galileo’s Claim to be the Inventor of, 390 Temperature Coefficients, on the Determination of, for Insulating Envelopes, 375 Temperature, James Glaisher, I’.R.S., on Nocturnal Increase of, with Elevation, 450 Temperature of Trees, 288 Temperature and Humidity of the Air at Different Heights, 369 Teredo navalis, Arthur Nicols, 8 Terrill (Wm.), Experiment for Proving the Compound Nature ot White Light, 42 Tertiary Leaf-beds of Colorado, 148 Thatcher (C. R.), Discovery of a New Shell, 147 Théel (Dr.), the Natural History of the Jenissei, 367 Thermic Formation of Ozone, 71 Thermometer, a New Metallic, 131 ; M. Hervé Mangon’s New Registering, 237, 421 Thiers (M.), the Late, 428 Thomas (E., F.R.S.), Jainism ; or, the Early Faith of Asoka, 329 : Thome’s Text-Book’of Botany, Translated by A. W. Bennett, 453 Thompson (S. P.), Chromatic Abberration of the Fye, 84; Japanese Mirrors, 163 ; on the Relative Apparent Brightness of Objects in Binocular and Monocular Vision, 374 Thomson (Dr, Allen, F.R.S.), Inaugural Address at the British Association Meeting at Plymouth, 302 Thomson (J. M.), Double Compounds of Nickel and Cobalt, 372 Thomson (Sir Wm., F.R.S.), on Compass Adjustment on the Clyde, 132; New Compass, 301 ; Tides of Port Louis and Freemantle, 405 Thomson (Sir C. Wyville, F.R.S.), and the ** Annals of Natu- ral History,” 53 ; Honorary Degree conferred on, 336 Thunderstorms at Antibes, 51 Tiber and its Tributaries, Strother A. Smith, 226 Tichorhine Rhinoceros, 146 Tidal Observations of the Late Arctic Expedition, 405 Tidal Wave at the Sandwich Islands, 112; at San Francisco, 112; at Callao, 132; and Earthquake in South America, 174; New Zealand, 567 Tides of Port Louis and Fremantle, 405 Nature, Nov. 15, 1877] INDEX XV ee eee Tiger Cubs and Newfoundland Dog, 54 Timber, Barlow and Laslett’s Determination of Strength of, 61 Time, Dr. V. A. Julius, 122, 420; J. J. Murphy, 182 Tithornis emuinus, 298 Tomlinson (C., F.R.S.), the Supposed Influence of Light on Combustion, 521 Tornado at Mount Carmel, U.S., 112 Torpedo, the History of the, 513 Towering of Wounded Birds, Sir J. Fayrer, F.R.S., 550 Toys, India-Rubber, 113 Transit of Venus, French Medal to Commemorate, II Trees, Temperature of, 288 Trees and Shrubs of South France, Origin of, 148 ‘© Tri-linear Co-ordinates,” Rev. W. Wright, $2 Tiibingen, University of, 259 ; gooth Anniversary of, 336 Tucker (R., M.A.), Mathematics in America, 21 Tuckwell (Rev. W.), English Names of Wild Flowers and Plants, 385, 439 Tuning-Forks, Koenig’s, 162, 227 Turbines, Compound, Prof. Osborne Reynolds, F.R.S., 382 Turkey and Russia, Population of, 174 Tycho Brahe, the Portrait of, Dr. Samuel Crompton, 501 Tylor (E. B., F.R.S.), Sound-Vibrations of Soap-Film Mem- branes, 12; Squier’s Peru, 191 Tyndall (Prof., F.R.S.), On the Spread of Disease, 9; Spon- taneous Generation, 127 Tynemouth Aquarium Winter Garden, 410 Ultra-violet Spectra of Gases, Photographic Reproduction of, 33 United Kingdom, Geological Survey of the, 235 United States: Meteoric Fireballs in, 143 ; National Academy of Sciences, 148; List of Elevations in the, 218; the Euca- lyptus in the, 288 ; Tenth Report of the Peabody Museum, 335 ; the New Building for the Peabody Museum, 352; the Fish and Fisheries Commission, Part III., 395; School of Mining at Columbia College, 411; Report of Geclogical Survey, 437 Sve also New York, Philadelphia, &c. Universities and National Life, 114 Universities’ Bill, 1, 77, 114 University College, Bristol, 336 University Education, 486 University and Educational Intelligence, 33, 54, 74, 94, I14, 133, 153, 172, 198, 218, 239, 259, 298, 336, 354, 431, 452, 496, 515, 535, 565 Upsala, the 400th Celebration of the University of, 431, 535 Ursz Majoris, a, and Arcturus, the Colours of, 330 Urticating Organs of Planarian Worms, H. N. Moseley, 475 Variable Stars, 143, 287, 428; Mira Ceti, 256 Variations in Animals, 147 Vatna Jokull, Across the, 106 Velocity of Light, 229 Venus, Transit of, French Medal to Commemorate the, 11 ; Transit of 1882, 144 Verbenas, Purple, A. M. Darby, 163 Verhandlungen der k.k. koologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 154 Vernier-Microscope, Prof. A. Meyer’s, 151 Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte, 295 Vertebrate Life in America, Prof. O. C. Marsh, 448, 470, 489 499 Vertebrated Fishes of Spain, Sefior Calderon, 140 Vertebrates, the Development of the Nerves in, 364 ; the Body- Cavity in the Head of, 399 Vesuvius Observatory, 467 Vibrations, the Effect of Inaudible, upon Sensitive Flames, 12 Vibrations, Sound, of Soap-Film Membranes, E. B, Tylor, 12 Victoria Caye, Exploration of the, 373 Victoria Institute, 116, 155 Vienna : Academy of Sciences, 200, 220, 240, 300, 391 ; the Scientific Club of, 112 ; Geology of the Water Supply, G. A. Lebour, 282 Violet Rays of the Spectrum, Visibility of the Ultra, A. S. Herschel, 22 Virchow (Prof, Rudolf), the Liberty of Science in Modern State Life, 492 Visibility of the Ultra-Violet R t A. 5S. esac, c e ays of the Spectrum, Vision, Defective, in the French Army, 279 Vision, on the Relative Apparent Brightness of Objects in Bino- cular and Monocular, Silvanus P. Thompson, 374 Vogel (Herr), the Spectrum of Nova Cygni, 400 Volcanoes of Iceland, 105 Volumes of Solutions, J. A. Ewing and J. G. Macgregor, 376 ‘¢ Volumetric! Analysis,” Fleischer’s, 497 ‘ Wachsmuth (Charles), Palaeozoic Corals, 515 Wallace (A. R.) and Reichenbach’s Odyle, W. B, Carpenter F.R.S., 546 ; Zoological Relations of Madagascar and Africa, 48 wos Electricity in, H. Baden Pritchard, 281 War Maps, 92 ; and Geography, 16 War and Science, H. Baden Pritchard, 37, 57 Water, Report on the Underground Waters of England, 374 Water in Plants, the Movement of, 409 Waters (A. W.), Museum Reform, 141 ; on the Influence of the Position of Land and Sea upon a Shifting of the Axis of the Earth, 406 Watson’s Kinetic Theory of Gases, Prof. Clerk Maxwell, 242 Watson (Charles), Does Sunshine Extinguish Fire? 341 Watson (W. H.), the Action of Various Fatty Oils upon Copper, 377 Watts (Dr. John), Pyrocatechin and Tannic Acid, 378 Watts (W. L.), ‘Across the Vatna Jokull,” 106 Watts (Wm.), Natural History Museums, 161 Wave-Motion Apparatus, a Simple, W. Jesse Lovett, 83 Waves: Prof. Osborne Reynolds, °.R.S., Paper at the British Association on, 343 ; Reduction of the [eight of, by Break- waters, 423 Weather Maps in Australia, 90 Weather Warnings, Sunday, 51 Weighing Machines, 557 Weisbach’s ‘‘ Mechanics of Engineering,” P. A. Dove, St Weka Pass Ranges, Discovery of Rock-Paintings in, 175 Well-Borings in London, Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., 2 Wellington (New Zealand), Philosophical Society, 567 West Indies, the Natural History, &c., of the, 515 Westminster Aquarium ; Maritime and Piscatorial Exhibition at the, 112 ; Large Tank at, 429 ; the White Whale at, 486 Whale in the Mediterranean, 399 Whale at the Westminster Aquarium, 486 Wharton (Henry T.), a “ Golden Bough,” 24 Whetham (J. W. Boddam), ‘* Across Central America,” 339 White Light, the Compound Nature of, Wm. Terrill, 42 Whitehaven Scientific Association, 529 Whitfield Collection of Implements, &c., 352 Wiener (Mons.), Ascent of Illimani, 446 Willemoes-Suhm (Dr. R. von), ‘* Challenger-Briefe,” 556 Williams (Dr. C. T.), Influence of Climate upon Pulmonary Con- sumption, 59 Williams (W. Mattieu),Hog-Wallows and Prairie-Mounds, 7 ; New Electric Lights, 459 Williamson (John), Death of, 236 Williamson (Prof. W. C., F.R.S.), Grand’ Eury’s Carboniferous Flora of Central France, 138 Willis (J.), English Names of Wild Flowers and Plants, 439 Wine-Coloured Ivy, J. J. Murphy, 551 Wind and Sun-spots, Prof. Hornstein on, 352 Winds of the South Atlantic, 267 Winslow (Dr. Charles F.), Death of, 430 Winter, the Coming, Prof. Piazzi Smyth, 475 Wires, the Elasticity of, 371 Woburn, Agricultural Experiments at, 129 Wojeikof (M.), Exploration of Japan, 32 ; Scientific Progress in India, 425 Woods (E., C.E.), on Railway Brakes, 347 Wood-Mason (J.), Stridulating Organs in Scorpions, 565 Woodpecker, the, 30 Woodward (H. B.), Devonian Rocks near Newton Abbot and Torquay, 379 3 Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, 466 Woolley (Dr. Joseph), the Zzflexible, 247 Working Men’s College, 466 Worth (R. N.), the Palzeontology of Plymouth, 380 Worthington (A. M.), on Drops, 165 Wrecks and Sunspots, 447 Wright (Prof. E. Perceval), Basking Shark, 61 Wright (Prof.), Metallic Films on Glass Tubes, 430 Wright (Rey. W.), Trilinear Co-ordinates, 82 xvi INDEX [Nalure, Nov. 18, 1877 Wright and Luff, Contribution to Chemical Dynamics, 377 Zoological Classification, 30 ; Pascoe’s Work on, 82 Writing, Ancient, at Cissbury, J. Park Harrison, 8 Zoological Gardens at Calcutta, 28 Wythe (Dr. W. H.), ‘‘The Microscopist,” 6 Zoological Gardens of Europe, a Description of, 29S Zoological Record for 1875, 357 Yellow Crocuses, 8, 43, $4 | Zoological Society, 19, 34, 75, 155, 219; Additions to the Yorkshire College of Science, Distribution of Prizes, 173 ; Pro- Gardens, 18, 33, 54, 73, 93, 113, 133, 153, 175, 198, 218, posed Incorporation of, 355; the Calendar of, 496 | 237, 258, 280, 298, 336, 353, 391, 412, 431, 448, 467, 489, Yorkshire Naturalists Union, 218, 556 | 515, 559; Lectures at, 16 ; Anniversary of, 17 Young (Dr. John), Serpula Parallela, 460 Zoological Society of France, 112 Zoological Specimens, Models of, Dealers in, Prof. E. Thy Zeiselberg, the Excavations near, 17 Lankester, F.R.S., 521 Zeitschrift fiir das chemische Grossgewerbe, Dr. Post, 519 Zoological Station, the, at Naples, 91 Zeitschrift fiir physiologische Chemie, 174, 257 | Zoologie in den Niederlanden, 112 Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 299, 566 | Zurich, University of, 259 Zirkel (Ferdinand), Microscopical Petrography, Prof. A. Geikie, | Zygcena Filipendule, N. M. Richardson, 361 E.R.S., 473 I We EIEN LELUSTRATEDROURNAL OF SCIENCE “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”,—WORDSWORTH THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1877 THE UNIVERSITIES BILL ERY little light has been thrown on thefuture of Oxford and Cambridge by the discussions in the House of Commons last week and this week. Harassed as they are by the difficulties of the Eastern question, our legislators could not, perhaps, be expected to devote serious thought to the fortunes of higher education in England, but as Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen said, the debate was “certainly more suited to the debating societies of Oxford and Cambridge | than to the arena of the House of Commons.” Lord F. Hervey, who opened it, had little weightier to remark than that Mr. Grant Duff was “no doubt a very learned and superior person,” and Mr. Grant Duff’s chief contri- bution was the venerable witticism that Lord F. Hervey ought to be carried round the country by himself and other advanced reformers, as “the shocking example ” of the results of the present system. Mr. Trevelyan delighted the House and the country by the amusing patriotic statement that “It would not be possible to find in any European University forty mathematicians equal to the Wranglers in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos, or | twenty classical scholars to compare with those who stood first in the Classical Tripos at Cambridge or in the School of Lztere Humaniores at Oxford;” and with an equally cheerful indifference to the facts Mr. Lowe | replied that the teaching of the Universities was “ simply disgraceful.” whether the glories of Lord Macaulay, who was not “a resident fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,” should be credited to that University, and that Sir William Har- court was delighted to hear that an overworked judge like Sir Alexander Cockburn could find time, in spite of his work, to undertake the arduous office of chairman, which would require the “constant and daily attention of one having entire and absolute leisure,” we sum up most of what was interesting and novel in the discussion before soing into Committee. On two questions, however, which are of speculative importance, much incidental light was thrown. The Bill gives large enabling powers to the Commissioners, and Vot. Xv1.—No,. 392 When we add that there was much dispute | | although, as “ An Oxford Man ” pointed out in NATURE (vol. xv., p. 391), it is very doubtful whether large reforms can be effected even on the initiative of a strong-willed and clear-headed Commission ; it is perfectly certain that little or nothing can be done if the Commissioners are feeble and without origination. In their preparation of schemes for each of the forty colleges they are to be asso- ciated with three residents from the college itself, and it is only from the colleges that they can get money to effect any reforms. It is important therefore to understand what are the views of the Government with regard to the reforms which are practical or possible, because it is to advance these views that the Commissions have been selected. Afterwards, everything depends on the Com- missioners themselves, on the spirit in which they have | undertaken their task, and on the diligence, ability, and discretion with which they are likely to execute it. The Opposition offered no formal objection to any of the names proposed by the Government, but they sug- gested the addition of three names to the Oxford and of two names to the Cambridge list. For Oxford they proposed Prof. Bartholomew Price, Prof. Huxley, and Prof. Max Miiller, and for Cambridge Dr. Bateson, the master of St. John’s College, and Dr. Hooker, the presi- dent of the Royal Society. The addition of these names would have greatly strengthened the Commissions, and those who are anxious to see the Universities question treated in a generous spirit and with a wide knowledge of the subject might have been reasonably hopeful of good results. To our mind it is a fatal objection to the Commissioners as they stand that they include no mem- bers who are not alumni of the Universities on which they are to sit. Prof. Huxley and Dr. Hooker would have been of the utmost service, because they would have approached University questions from the point of view of men whose lives have been spent outside the Universities. It is certainly important for the Commissioners to have a prac- tical acquaintance with working details, but that would surely have been sufficiently guaranteed by the presence ot nine University men on each Commission even though one outsider had been added to each. Prof. Huxley has sat on the Scotch Universities Commission, and has had the largest experience of teaching at unrestricted institutions like the School of Mines and South Kensington. Dr. BR 2 NATURE [May 3, 1877 Hooker and he would have strengthened the hands of | recklessness and folly. Nobody in his senses wants such those who wish to see science represented in our higher education, and the addition of their names would cer- tainly not have upset the balance of the Commission, as Prof. Price, Dr. Bateson, and Prof. Max Miiller, would have adequately maintained the interests of the older studies. Surely, when we are setting about the reform of our universities, we want all available information about the systems of foreign countries, and Prof. Max Miiller could have told the Commissioners many things they have not learnt from their own experience of Oxford and Cambridge. The refusal of the Government to add any names to the original list was an unfortunate sign of the spirit in which they have framed it, and of the attitude in which the Commissioners will face the problems before them. Ministers were successful, but their majorities were so small as to show that the sense of the few members who will not consent as partisans to vote on such questions was decidedly against them. 34, 24, 26, 32 votes on the successive divisions. their success nobody will care much what becomes of a bill which is meant to change as little as possible, when every crevice that could let in light from the outside world is carefully stopped against it. The speech of the Secretary of War, who is Member for the University of Oxford, and the general tone of the | debate, clearly confirm these anticipations. There will be a slight restriction of the “ prize fellowships,” the new Government name for the “idle fellowships” of Lord Salisbury. There will not be a great extension of the pro- fessoriate, provision even having been made for the amalga- mation of several professorships into one. Some money—- 5 per cent. from some colleges, 10 per cent. from others, nothing perhaps from a third class—will be taken from the colleges for university purposes. There is a provision “for the extension, not for the suppression,” of scholar- ships. the University, and Mr. Hardy has never had but one opinion on “what some people called the endowment of research.” He did not state that opinion so frankly as They carried their point by 11, | After | Only the superfluities of_the colleges are to go to | Mr. Trevelyan, but there was little doubt from the tone of his remarks that it was substantially the same :— “Tt was a mistake, therefore, to assume that we could create in men such qualities by merely endowing old men, and in his opinion it would be better to throw the funds of the Universities into the sea rather than to bestow them in the manner which had been proposed. people whose prayers the House should listen to were the practical teachers of the University, who were bound to celibacy, and who asked them to make their career a better one, to give them a reasonable income, and to allow them to marry without being compelled to resign their positions. These gentlemen would have six months in the year, which they would be able to devote to the pursuit of science and literature, What they had to do was to find men for the places, and not places for the men. He begged them to consider weil before they created a sort of hierarchy of sinecures and semi-sinecures which unless human nature was radically altered by this Bill would only lead to academical jobbery and intellectual stagnation.” No doubt the wholesale conversion of the fellowships of residents and, for that matter, of non-residents into profes- sorships, created in a doctrinaire spirit, and apart from the gradual development of literature and science, would be The | athing. The real note of despair in the whole debate is that Oxford and Cambridge wish to be let alone, and Oxford and Cambridge men in the House are determined that they shall be let alone to consider every question as it comes up from the mere local point of view of Oxford and Cambridge. The jealous exclusion of outsiders is the surest proof of the intention of the framers of the bill and the clearest prophecy of its issues. The Committee made no real alterations in the bill. There was a desperate attempt to maim it by striking out even the possibility of endowments for research. It was | resisted and defeated by an overwhelming majority. Mr. Hardy said “the noble lord and the hon. gentleman seemed to be under the apprehension that if research were brought into the University education would be driven out. On the contrary, he held that no teaching | could be successful that was not founded on the most minute research. There were, no doubt, many subjects of research which by their nature were not lucrative to those who prosecuted them but the prosecution of which was of great’importance to education throughout the country, and especially to the University in which they | were carriedon, There was, however, no intention to carry research to the extravagant lengths which some speakers and writers feared would be the case, and which would utterly pervert the purposes of the University. So far from diminishing the educational power of the Univer- sity, that which was proposed would give to education a more solid basis than it now possessed.” Mr. Trevelyan | accepted Mr. Hardy’s statement as “in all respects satis- factory,” and added a remark none the less valuable that it is almost a truism, “ They could not have a University where education was proceeding without research proceed- ing at the same time.” The Commissions will thus be left at liberty to use the funds they can detach from the Col- leges for the endowment of research. But ‘“‘ Researchers,” as Prof. Sylvester calls them, will not for many years to come, grow very fat on the good things of Oxford and — Cambridge. DEEP WELL-BORINGS IN LONDON Pee constantly increasing wants of our English metro- polis were very amply provided for during all the earlier stages of its history by the stores of water con- tained in the extensive beds of gravel lying within the Thames Valley. These stores of water could be reached by means of shallow wells, and all the ancient and famous pumps of our city drew their supplies from this source. But, as the population of the district increased, the value of this source of water-supply became greatly im- paired from two causes ; firstly, the excessive drain upon it, caused by the rapid multiplication of wells; and secondly, the pollution of its waters by the refuse-matter of a great city. Hence it became necessary to seek for new sources of water-supply, and the success which had already attended the construction of Artesian wells in the Tertiary districts of Northern France, led to attempts being made to obtain supplies in a similar manner by putting down borings through the impervious London Clay into the water- bearing beds of the Lower London Tertiaries. A aE ——— May 3, 1877] : NATURE 3 For a time the quantity of water thus obtained, as at Merton, Garrett, and many other points, seem to have induced the belief that an inexhaustible source of the all- essential element had been discovered ; but the rapid multiplication of these Artesian wells soon revealed the fact that the new and valuable stores had their limit, and that this limit was being very rapidly approached in con- sequence of the excessive demands which were now being made upon the new source of supply. The deepening of the wells, by which means water was drawn from the Chaik, as well as from the Tertiary strata, promised, how- ever, to do something towards staving off the evil day when London would no longer be able to depend on drafts being honoured by her great subterranean bank. Such was the state of the question when Mr. Prestwich, now the Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford, undertook its complete investigation as an important geological problem. No one more competent for the task could possibly have been found, for during many years Mr. Prestwich’s studies had been devoted to the Tertiary deposits of the London and Hampshire basins ; and his great work—“ A Geological Inquiry respecting the Water-bearing Strata of the country around London, with Reference especially to the Water-supply of the Metro- polis,” which was published in 1851—is a masterpiece of minute observation and close and accurate reasoning. More than this, the geologist points to the work with pardonable pride, as affording convincing proof that his science has now acquired a character for exactness, analo- gous to that which is justly regarded as the crowning attribute of astronomy. After a most elaborate study of the nature and relations of the various strata which crop out all round the London Basin and of the disturbances to which they have been subjected since their deposition, Mr. Prestwich ventured on a bold frediction, namely, that the Chalk beneath London would be found to have a thickness of 650 feet, the Upper Greensand of 4o feet, and the Gault of 150 feet. (Of. ct¢. p. 142.) At the time when this announcement was made no well in London had been sunk to a greater depth than 300 feet in the Chalk, but now we can appeal to no less than four deep borings in the metropolis, which afford the most convincing proof of the reliability of the data, and the accu- racy of the reasoning by which Mr. Prestwich arrived at his interesting results. For the sake of distinctness, we place the estimated and determined results side by side in a tabular form :— Boring at} p_.: > 0 Boring at Boe ye ane Bering at | Boring at eee Mr. Prestwich’s Estimate. eee Gecesnces! Loughton. pave Chalk ...-.--..-.000 650 | 645 646 | 650 653 Upper Greensand 40 134 r25} 40 28 (CANIS pepeoonecnase 150 | 1304 148 | (?) | 159 When it is remembered that the Chalk graduates down- wards insensibly into the Upper Greensand, and that it is almost impossible to decide on their line of sepa- ration in the cores brought up by boring operations, it will be admitted on all hands that the agreement between the estimated and proved results is marvellously close. One of the most important conclusions of Mr. Prest- wich’s work was that the strata below the Gault, the so- called “ Lower Greensand,” would in the future afford a most valuable underground source of water-supply to our overgrown city. But in 1855 Mr. Godwin-Austen brought before the Geological Society of London his masterly essay “ On the Possible Extension of the Coal-Measures beneath the South-Eastern Part of England,” in which he an- nounced the conclusion—based on a most elaborate study of the geological structure of the South of England and the adjoining portions of the Continent of Europe—that an old ridge of Palaeozoic rocks underlies the line of the Thames Valley, and is only concealed from us by the Upper Cretaceous strata. Mr. Godwin-Austen’s announcement was as strikingly verified as was that of Mr. Prestwich ; for, in the same year that it was made, a boring at Kentish Town which passed through the Gault, reached a curious series of red rocks which are now believed by geologists to be either a portion of the old Palaeozoic ridge itself, or a set of litto- ral deposits formed upon its flanks. And in 1857 the deep boring at Harwich afforded still more unmistakable evidence of the existence of this old Palaeozoic ridge in the fact that black slaty rocks were found immediately below the Gault clay. Although the old ridge of Palaeozoic rocks must thus limit the area of the available water-bearing “ Lower Greensand” beneath the metropolitan district, yet Prof. Prestwich has constantly argued that very large and valuable supplies of water will yet in all probability be obtained from the latter source. Hence it is that the endeavour to tap this great subter- ranean reservoir, which is now being carried out in such an enterprising spirit by the Messrs. Meux and Co., in the Tottenham Court Road, is attracting so much atten- tion from geologists and engineers. The nodular beds at the base of the Gault were reached at a depth of 999 feet from the surface, and some sixty feet of rock below has since been penetrated. ‘The splendid cores brought up by the diamond-borer are at once submitted to Mr. Robert Etheridge, the palzeontologist of the Geological Survey, who is carefully studying every trace of fossils which they exhibit. At present there are very strong grounds for believing that the “Lower Greensand” has been reached, and we soon hope to be able to announce that the new source of water supply, so long ago pointed out by Prof. Prestwich, has at last been made available for the ever-increasing necessities of this great city. J. W. Jupp LATHAM’S ENGLISH DICTIONARY A Dictionary of the English Language. Abridged by the Fditor from that of Dr. Samuel Johnson, as Edited by Robert Gordon Latham, M.A., M.D.,&c. (London: Longmans and Co., 1876.) E consider ourselves justified in reviewing an English dictionary in these pages for two reasons ; first, because the method of its construction ought to be rigidly scientific, and second, because a large proportion of the words in any modern English dictionary must necessarily be scientific terms. It is admitted by all competent to pronounce an opinion that there is ample room for a new dictionary of the a NATURE [May 3, 1877 English language ; that when Dr. Latham undertook the task for which his attainments so well fit him, he had an excellent opportunity for doing a splendid service to our tongue and making for himself a lasting name. The only dictionaries that make any pretence to exhaustivenesss, Websters, Worcester’s, and the Imperial, with all their merits, come far short of what an ideal national dictionary should be, and they cannot for one moment be compared with Littré’s magnum opus. Webster's etymology is ex- tremely unsatisfactory and misleading in its method, the vocabulary is a conglomeration on no principle, and the definitions are too frequently unmethodical. We consider Worcester in some respects more satisfactory, more scien- tific in its method than Webster. The Imperial is rather a small encyclopedia than a dictionary, minute descrip- tion frequently giving place to definition, and the vocabu- lary being much fuller than that of any existing dictionary. This feature, however, seems rather to be the result of a desire to crowd in as many words as possible than of any well-considered scientific plan. The etymology of the Imperial might almost have been written a century ago. Thus Dr. Latham had a splendid field before him, and Littré has shown what one man is capable of doing in the way of dictionary-making. We need not for the hundredth time contrast his work with the endless pot- tering of the French Academy. Perhaps it scarcely needs to be proved that in the construction of a dictionary, as in most other great undertakings, failure will surely be the result unless one -competent man has the supreme command, _ The work before us is an abridgment of Dr. Latham’s larger work in four quarto volumes. The abridgment has been made mainly by the omission of the illustrative quotations which form so large a feature in the larger work, and of certain disquisitions on extremely minute points which occur during the progress of the work. Many will be of opinion that the omission of the latter is distinctly beneficial; they are too frequently little else than laborious trifling. The omission of the quotations is, no doubt, a disadvantage ; they bear the same relation to and throw the same light on the definition that speci- mens do in the case of geology and experiments in other sciences. A very few have been retained, and it would have been an advantage had there been many more, as there might easily have been had the various meanings under each word been run on instead of being para- graphed. Dr. Latham calls his dictionary a new edition of Johnson; if it were only this it would be at once.a confession that the work was an anachronism. ‘To bring the heroic old compiler’s work up to date would re- quire quite as much labour as Johnson bestowed on the original ; and as Dr. Latham’s work has so much that is new in all departments, we must regard its title as mainly an act of courtesy to the memory of “the great exicographer.” As the abridgment contains} all the vocabulary of the larger work, the two in this respect may be regarded as identical, and from its size and price, the larger work is evidently meant to be a practically com- plete English dictionary. Dr. Latham’s vocabulary is of course much more extensive than that of Johnson. He has read largely in modern works in all departments of literature and science, and thus been able to register many words that did not exist in Johnson’s time, as well as many new meanings that have been given to old words. The con- sideration of vocabulary is probably the most serious that comes before any one who sets himself to the labo- rious task of compiling a dictionary. His duty is certainly to set down all words used by reputable writers. But is this all? How far back is an English dictionary-maker to go? to Spencer or to Chaucer? Mr. Freeman might possibly say to “ Beowulf.” Who are to be considered “reputable” writers? Should only “ reputable” writers be taken into account? And should no word that has not been printedin a regular way be admitted? How far should slang terms and provincialisms, including Scotticisms (face Prof. Blackie) be admitted? Again, what is to be considered literature? Must all science be excluded, and the vocabulary be confined to such words as occur in poetry, Jdelles lettres, history, philosophy? These and many other questions must be settled at the very outset by the compiler of a dictionary making any pretence to completeness, and we are glad to see that, to a considerable extent, Dr. Latham has settled them on the liberal side. His aim has apparently been to make a work that would be useful to people of wide culture and general reading, and he has interpreted the English lan- guage to be the language used by the people of England in expressing their thoughts on the varied subjects that engage their attention. We are at a loss to discover the principle, however, on which Dr, Latham has compiled his vocabulary. Hehas certainly inserted a large selection of scientific terms, but the selection appears to us to have been made in a capri- cious and arbitrary manner. He has, for example, given many of the technical names of the divisions and sub- divisions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, but it is not easy to see by what clue he has been guided. Why should Raptores and Natatores find a place while Scan- sores, Insessores, and all the other avian orders are omitted? Is it that the two former have been de- tected by Dr. Latham in some “literary ” writer, while he has failed to come across the latter? Even Am- phibia and Amphibian find no place, nor the adjective Avian, We find Infusoria and Cetacea, and Mono- tremata, but no Rodeutia nor Carnivora, nor a host of other names even more likely than those capriciously re- gistered to be inquired for by readers of works of popular zoology. It is a very nice question whether this class of words should be admitted at all into an English dic- tionary, but if it be decided affirmatively the only satis- factory scientific method is to admit all. A generic name (¢.g., Dionzea) in this respect is quite as important as that of the largest subdivision in zoology or botany. The defects of the dictionary are equally apparent in other scientific departments. We find Oolitic and Triassic and Drift, the last in some detail, but not Laurentian nor Cambrian, nor such a common word as Pothole. Bio- genesis, Abiogenesis, Heterogenesis, and Bacteria are conspicuous by their absence ; a3 are also Eozoon, Atoll, Globigerina, Hipparion, and Amphioxus : Lepidosiren is given in some detail. To Basin no geological meaning is assigned. Palzozoic (with a bare reference of Czenozoic and Mezoic) is found, but not Azoic ; Per- mian, but not Devonian, Silurian, or Purbeck; Laby- May 3, 1877| NATURE 5 rinthodont but not Pycnodont. We have Protoplasma but neither Protoplasm nor Protoplasmic. Photosphere we find, but not Chromosphere, nor Corona in its solar application, and neither Heliostat nor Side- rostat. The dictionary contains various terms in elec- tricity and magnetism, but not Magneto-Electric, Electro- Biology, Quantivalence, Anode, nor Cathode. Darwinian and Darwinism, long since used as current common terms, find no place here ; and no one would guess from the definitions of Evolution and Development the im- mense significance which these terms have assumed in | | appear in our language, from the fact of there not being recent times. . C hocg ee We could give many instances of similar caprice in the | admission of scientific terms, but our space does not admit of it. But it is not alone in this class of terms that the vocabulary appears to us to be defective ; many words are wanting which, we venture to think, any man of common sense would look for in a medern English dictionary of the pretensions of that edited by Dr. Latham. Under Mule a reference is made to the spin- ning-jenny, but under neither Spinning nor Jenny is the use of the term explained. Readers of Arctic narratives will look in vain for an explanation of Ice-foot and Ice- master, and the reader will not be surprised at the omis- sion of Snider, Whitworth, and Mitrailleuse. Can any sound reason be given for omitting such a word as Croquet? And where are we to look for an explanation of such national terms as Over and Bye, if not in the most recent of English dictionaries, which registers the “cricketal” signification of Stump? The work is evi- dently not meant for circulation in America, if we may judge from the absence of all Americanisms, even those which have become current coin in the English tongue, such as Bunkum, Caucus, Mocassin. Might not such words as Ecchymosis and Deoppilation have been spared (who is likely to look for them ?) in favour of some or all of the terms referred to. Many words found in Tennyson, Morris, and Swinburne are marked as “obsolete,” showing the danger of using the epithet at all. The etymology seems to us unsatisfactory. To words whose origin is simple and obvious two or three lines are sometimes devoted ; while of others whose etymology is certain enough, but which it would have taken some time and trouble to trace, no satisfactory information is given. What satisfaction is it to be told simply that Abandon comes from French avandonner, especially when the history of the word can be so beautifully traced? There is a like want of proportion in the definitions, which are in most cases extremely meagre, but in some cases capriciously and unnecessarily diffuse. In the ar- rangement of the various definitions under each word, moreover, we fail to discover, as a rule, any logical or historical method. In this as in some other respects Dr. Latham has stuck too closely to the old lines of dictionary construction, and missed the opportunity of compiling a work which might have cast all other similar works into the shade. We cannot say that it has de- throned either Webster or Worcester, unsatisfactory in many respects as these are ; and there are two or three smaller and cheaper dictionaries, which we venture to think would be more useful to the general reader. The field is still unoccupied, for Dr. Latham’s work can never, in our opinion, serve as the standard dictionary of our language. The work is handsome and well printed, and the “Historical Sketch of the English Language” is thoroughly satisfactory. GUILLEMIN’S “WORLD OF COMETS” The World of Comets. By Amédée Guillemin. ‘Trans- lated and Edited by James Glaisher, F.R.S. (London: Sampson Low and Co., 1877.) R. GLAISHER mentions that he was anxious that iY 4. M. Guillemin’s interesting work upon comets should so far any volume that occupied the ground covered by it, while, it may be added, that the recent important advances in this branch of the science renders a pretty complete | summary of progress in late years a most desirable help and guide to the student, scattered as the reports of such progress almost necessarily are in the publications of scientific societies and in periodical scientific works at home and abroad. The greater portion of the volume before us relates to those particular departments of the subject which may be expected to interest the general reader. The historical portion, especially in the earlier ages, when comets were regarded as omens, good or bad, to the time when Newton developed the laws by which their motions are governed, naturally commences the work; then follow chapters upon their orbits, the periodical comets from the short revolution of Encke’s comet, to the revolutions of several thousands of years which have been assigned with a greater or less degree of probability to other of these bodies; mere particular descriptions of several great comets in recent times, as the comets of 1744, 1811, 1843, 1858, 1861, and the great comet of Coggia in 1874, which made its appearance just prior to the publication of M. Guillemin’s treatise. It is, however, in what we must term cometary physics that the volume is most com- plete, and in which its interest and probable usefulness will mainly consist. The theories of Olbers, Bessel, Faye, Roche, Tyndall, Tait, and others are notice! in a popular and readable style, and are fairly considered collectively, though differences of opinion must still prevail with regard to any inferences to be drawn fromthem. The researches of Dr. Huggins, Prof. Secchi, MM. Wolf and Rayet, in the spectral analysis of the light of comets, and particu- larly of Coggia’s Comet of 1874, are described, and to these results, as collected by M. Guillemin, Mr. Glaisher has added an important article by Mr. Lockyer, which appeared while the great comet of 1874 was still visible, and in which are detailed the results of spectroscopic examination of the light of the comet with the aid of Mr. Newall’s great refractor. The editor has also made some very desirable additions to M. Guillemin’s chapter on “The Common Origin of Shooting Stars and Comets.” The work concludes with a list of elliptic comets and their elements and with a general catalogue of cometary orbits to 1876. We have said that probably the chief interest and value of M. Guillemin’s “ World of Comets” will be found to consist in the extensive portion of his volume devoted to cometary physics, to the theories which have been ad- vanced to explain their varied aspect, and the formation of the enormous trains by which some comets are accom- 6 NATURE panied. ‘The comets of short period—a most interesting class—might well have been treated in somewhat greater detail, and in this division of the work we note several oversights, Thus itis stated that the researches of Dr. Axel Moller upon the motion of Faye’s Comet, show that that body supports the theory of a resisting medium, first supposed to be indicated by Encke’s investigations relat- ing to the comet which bears his name ; but as long since as the year 1865 Dr. Axel Méller had relinquished this idea, and from a rigorous discussion of the observations at the first three appearances, alluded to by M. Guillemin, had succeeded in representing the observations by the simple application of the planetary perturbations, with- out any hypothesis whatever, and his later researches |, have also negatived the existence of any trace of the effect of a resisting medium upon the motion of this comet. There is some ambiguity in the definition of the element 7, or the longitude of the perihelion in the orbit of a comet ; from the explanation given by M. Guillemin it might rather be inferred that the longitude is reduced to the ecliptic, which is not the case. The comet dis- covered by De Vicoat Rome, February 20, 1846, is dupli- cated, appearing first on p. 140 with a revolution of fifty- five years, and again on p. 143 with a period of seventy- three years ; the former period resulted from one of the earlier calculations. Pigott’s comet of 1783 is named amongst the contents of a chapter p. 133, but there is no further reference to it. In the catalogue of orbits, there are several cases since the year 1866 where the inclina- tion has been reckoned over 90°, as is frequently the case amongst the German computers, and with the unnecessary addition of the letter R in the column headed “ direction of motion,” To render these orbits consistent with the method hitherto in general use, and indeed adopted exclusively in the preceding part of the catalogue, the inclination given requires to be subtracted from 180°, and for the longitude of perihelion given in the fourth column, 2 2 — m, should be substituted. These, however, are small defects which may easily be avoided in a future edition. As a whole, M. Guillemin’s “World of Comets” must prove a welcome aid to the student on entering upon this branch of astronomy. J. R. HinpD OUR BOOK SHELF Fownes’s Inorganic Chemishy. “Edited by Henry Watts, B.A., F.R.S. Twelfth Edition, (London : Churchills.) In the present edition of this well-known manual the publishers have, wisely as we think, determined to divide it into two parts. In its old form the work had grown to be as unhandsome and cumbersome a volume as could be well imagined ; like an overgrown yeast-cell it was obviously getting too big to hold together much longer, and many a student on his way to and from the lecture- room must have wondered, as he struggled to get the thick squat book into a comfortable carrying position, why the process of gemmation was so long delayed. The present volume, which treats of physical and inor- ganic chemistry, contains a considerable amount of new matter, and may be regarded as an accurate representation of the present state of knowledge on these subjects. Among the more important additions we may mention an account of Mendeleeti’s Laws of Periodicity,'and a very good digest of what is known concerning the new metal gallium and its compounds; this clement is associated with indium, with the probable atomic weight 68, as already [May 3, 1877 indicated by M. Mendeleeff. The position of the cerite metals is also determined in accordance with the specific- heat estimations recently made by Hillebrand. On the other hand, it may be doubted if iodine tetrachloride has any real existence, and Michaelis has proved that the reaction 3PbSO, + 2POCI, = 3SO,Cl, + Pb,P,0, is not realised in practice. On the whole, however, the work fully maintains its reputation as a faithful exponent of the state of contemporary chemical knowledge. 4s The Microscopist : a Manual of Microscopy and Compen- dium of the Microscopic Sciences, Third edition. By J. H. Wythe, A.M., M.D. (London: Churchill, 1877.) Ir is now some twenty-five years since the first edition of this work appeared, and as the author himself remarks in his Preface, it is no small compliment to a work of this kind that for so many years it should hold a place among works of reference, although surrounded by larger and more pretentious volumes. For this third edition the book has been entirely rewritten, the advancement of mi- croscopical science having naturally rendered consider- able enlargements necessary. Still the work retains its principal qualities as before, viz., the precise and clear language, the absence of all unnecessary verbiage, and last but not least, the excellent arrangement of the con- tents. Thus after a brief reference to the history and importance of microscopy, we have able descriptions of the microscope itself and its accessories, followed by general remarks on its use and the more modern methods of microscopic investigation. Then, after a short chapter on the mounting and preserving of objects, we come to well-written and richly illustrated treatises on the appli- cation of the instrument in the different sciences, each science being spoken of in turn and in a separate chapter. For the beginner this arrangement is of special value, as it enables him quickly to form a general idea of the whole domain of microscopy. Mineralogy and Geology are followed by a chapter on Microscopic Chemistry ; then the author treats of Microscopic Biology, devoting a chapter to Vegetable Histology and Botany, one to Zoo- logy, the next to Animal Histology, and the last to Practical Medicine and Pathology. The illustrations are original to a great extent ; many also are taken from the works of Carpenter, Frey, Stricker, Billroth, and Rindfleisch. The larger plates, of which there are twenty-seven, are particularly well drawn, and add greatly to the general excellence of the work. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No notice ts taken of anonymous communications. The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as short as possible. The pressure on his space ts so great that it zs impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- munications containing interesting and novel facts. | Hog-Wallows and Prairie Mounds JupGiNG from the descriptions of these deposits, they must be nearly, if not quite, identical with those which I described ina paper on ‘‘ The Ancient Glaciers North and East of Llangollen,” read at the British Association, 1865. These are a series of heaps of glacial drift covering more or less completely the habitat of Cheshire Cheese, z.c, the Vale Royal itself, and the slopes which extend from it to those Welsh Mountains that are so prominently seen from Chester. These mounds vary in size and shape according to their position. They are very well: defined and numerous in the valley of the Alyn, between Wrex- ham and Mold, where they have the form of oblong hog-back mounds usually lying parallel to each other with their longer axes (if I may use the term) nearly at right angles to the general slope of the surface. They may be counted by hundreds, and in some parts are so near together as to form a series of connected undulations. ‘They are Jargest and most abundant opposite the ~ mouths of the lateral valleys opening into the main valley of the May 3, 1877] Alyn. Their origin is well indicated in these positions, by the manner in which they lie opposite the mouths of the valleys at right angles to the course of the preserit streams. The most remarkable of all these is a long ridge running parallel to the Great Western Railway near Gresford. It is marked and shaded on the ordnance geological map. Bailey Hill, Mold, is another. This is attributed to the Danes— described in the guide books as a Danish fortification. I have proved the glacial origin of these mounds by finding in them striated subangular boulders, that have travelled considerable distances ; such, for example, as large blocks of the Llanarmon limestone, and rounded lumps of curly cannel, that must have crossed the ridge of the Hope Mountain, the height of which varies from 300 to Soo feet above the Leeswood and Tryddn valleys from which the coal must have been carried. On one occasion, during the construction of the Wrexham Mold and Connah’s Quay Railway, I saw a large fire blazing in a navvy’s shed, and upon examination found that the fuel was curly cannel they had found in making a cutting. They described this find as two pieces, each one “ bigger than a man’s head.” I brought away an unburnt fragment of about 2 Ibs. weight. It was a subangular corner, smoothed and faintly striated. The nearest cannel seam to this place—which is over the millstone grit—is about four miles, with the Hope Mountain intervening. A curious example of the unexpected bearings of scientific investigations upon commercial interest was presented by these cannel boulders. Two or three years before I commenced the study of the ancient glaciation of this district, Mr. W. C. Hussey Jones had proved the value of this curly cannel as a source of paraffin, and what are called paraffin oils, &c. Great excitement resulted, and a great rush was made to ‘‘ the Flintshire oildorado.” This curly cannel was sold at prices varying from twenty-five shil- lings to thirty shillings per ton at the pit’s mouth, while the price of ordinary main coal was only six shillings. The owners of this cannel, or holders of leases or ‘‘tak notes,” giving a licence to work it, made large sums of money (as much as 80,000/. was paid for the transfer of one lease), and consequently great search was made for new seams. Among the searchers were the farmers, land- owners, and outside speculators, who commenced boring and sinking and forming companies for cannel mining in the region covered by these “hog wallows;” the evidence upon which their expectations were based being the discovery of pieces of cannel on or near the surface, turned up by the plough or other- wise. Many thousands of pounds were thus wasted. One very worthy man, that I knew very well—a hard-working Welsh farmet—spent the savings of a whole life-time in searching for cannel on his farm, where he had frequently turned up frag- ments in ploughing. His death speedily followed his ruin. There were many other similar cases, Had I commenced my investigations three years sooner I might have explained the strange and apparently incomprehensible anomaly of Leeswood cannel being found on the south side of the Chester and Mold Railway, and in the neighbourhood of Caergwrle, in spite of an intervening ridge of mountain. One very curious and instructive feature of these mounds is their change of shape as we proceed from the hill slopes towards the great plain known as the Vale Royal, which was formerly a great estuary or fjord of the Dee. Instead of the long and rather steep hogback ridges we now find a general outspreading deposit dotted here and there rather sparsely with obtuse conical mounds, so obtuse and so much disturbed by agricultural] opera- tions that they can only be detected by careful observation. My explanation of these differences is that the glacier which planed the millstone grit of the Hope Mountain by sweeping over and around it, originally spread out upon the waters of the estuary now forming the Vale Royal, and thus formed the out- spread deposit ; that it afterwards receded, and the icebergs that broke off and floated away from it were stranded here and there, thawed, deposited their contents, and thereby formed the mounds; while the oblong ridges mark the final step-by-step recession and oscillations of the dying glacier, which formed them partly as terminal moraines, and partly by ploughing up and thrusting before it, in the course of its advancing oscilla- tions, the previously deposited glacial drift. I throw out these speculations suggestively, to be taken for what they are worth ; they fit the facts well enough so far as I have been able to study them, but the main object of this letter is to direct attention to this and other corresponding deposits near at home that appear to me to be worthy of further investigation, especially by resi- dents in the neighbourhood and the members of local field- clubs, &c. The Liverpool Natwralists’ Field Club paid a visit to NATURE 7, the district while I lived there, and I showed the geological members some of these deposits. | W. MarrieuU WILLIAMS Belmont, Twickenham, April 24 It is apparent from Prof, Le Conte’s description of the prairie mounds (NaTuRE, vol. xv. p. 530) that the drift mounds figured and mentioned by me (vol. xy. p. 379) have quite different origins. The prairie mound would seem to be somewhat similar and have the same origin as a tussocky bog or mountain. The formation of a tussocky bog has been described in ‘‘ Valleys and their Relation to Fissures, &c.,” p. 14. A tussocky mountain is similarly formed very hot weather cracks the peaty up » r soil forming deep fissures ; while subsequent weathering chan _