twenty-first anniversary of the publication of your great work, the "Origin of Species.'

However limited the field of our own labours may be, we cannot but be sensible of the influence which that work has had throughout the whole domain of Natural Science, and especially upon Biology, which, as one great comprehensive Science, may be said to owe its very existence to the fact that you made belief in Evolution possible by your theory of Natural Selection.

partiality if it bars its doors, like a monastery, to female appli cants for admission. 4. Because one of the legitimate wants and aspirations of the University-leisure for continued study and research-is likely to be promoted by increasing the amount of remunerative educational work done in the university. The more work, the more workers, and the more remuneration; and out of work, workers, and earnings, the legitimate and sure outcome will be leisure for the worthiest work and workers. 5. Because the education of women in England must, from irresistible national feelings and convictions, be religious and Christian; and if female education is centred in the university a stimulus will be given to the best religious influences in study and life; and from these. the English universities have never for any long period been dissociated. 6. Because any mis

We hope that you may long live to continue your labours and to see the further spread of their influence upon all scientific thought and upon all higher scientific work.

We are, sir, your obedient servants,
THOS. MORGAN HOCKER

F. W. HUTTON

GEORGE H. F. ULRICH

GEORGE M. THOMSON

HENRY SKEY

ROBERT GILLIES

C. W. BLAIR

ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY

T. JEFFERY PARKER

W. MACDONALD

DONALD PETRIE

Dunedin, New Zealand, October 1, 1880.

WE

President

Vice-Presidents

Hon. Sec.
Hon. Treasurer

DEGREES TO WOMEN

Members

of Council

WE trust the Grace which is to-day to be submitted to the Cambridge Senate, advocating the admission of women to receive University degrees, will meet with the approval of that body. In fact, as the Times put it yesterday, the point was ruled ten years ago. "Cambridge, in conniving at its public examiners examining Girton and Newnham students precisely as if they were Trinity or Johnian scholars, gave in spirit what is now demanded. It seems ungenerous, and not very rational, for a university to let its authorities proclaim a man in the Senate House eighth wrangler, and inform Girton College that the real eighth wrangler was a woman. Even a country clerical passman would not venture to withdraw the existing licence; all that remains is for the Senate to ratify with a good grace the principle upon which its officials have long and openly been acting."

The following paper, which has been issued from Cambridge in view of to-day's discussion, puts the case as fairly as it can be put :

Reasons why the university should be one of the leading

centres of female education.

1. Because no line can be drawn separating main subjects of study or whole branches of learning into those suitable for men and unsuitable for women, or vice versa. No true classification

of human knowledge will admit of the distinction, "Propria quæ maribus tribuntur, mascula dicas."

2. Because the University as a chief inheritor and transmitter of learning from generation to generation has no right to dissociate itself from any great movement connected with the advancement of learning. The participation of women in the general and particularly in the higher studies of their time must be a great fact and factor in the future of education. 3. Because whatever elucational resources may be found elsewhere, those of Cambridge and Oxford are peculiar; and though as long as there was no public demand for these resources except from male students they were properly applied only to male education, now that a demand has sprung up and persistently declared itself on the part of the other sex, the university will incur the reproach of inhospitable'

university or to the students, by the admission of women can be guarded against by suitable regulations, and still more by responsible authorities; whereas the diversion of the interests and influences that are gathering round the question of women's education from the university to other centres would be an irretrievable step, isolating the university for the future from a movement of great force and promise. J. L. BRERETON February 16

NOTES

AT the anniversary meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, on the IIth inst., Mr. Hind, president, in the chair, the gold medal was presented to Prof. Axel Möller, Director of the Observatory at Lund, in Sweden, for his investigations on the motion of Faye's comet. Prof. Möller's researches commenced in 1860, soon after attention had been directed to this comet by the offer of a prize for the accurate determination of its orbit by the Society of Natural Sciences of Dantzic, and they have been continued to the present time, the comet's track at each of the three subsequent returns in 1865-66, 1873, and 1880-81, having been predicted with a precision which has excited in no small degree the admiration of astronomers; indeed, at the re-appearance in 1873, M. Stephan's first observation at the Observatory of Marseilles, showed that the error of predicted place was less than six seconds of arc, and after the last revolution, when the perturbations from the action of the planets were greater than in any previous revolution since the comet was first detected by M. Faye in 1843, the agreement between observation and calculation was still very close. One important result of these investigations has been a striking confirmation, from the motion of Faye's comet, of the value for the mass of Jupiter deduced by Bessel from the elongations of the satellites, the two values according within the limits of their probable errors. Prof. Möller also carried back the accurate computation of the perturbations to December, 1838, so as to ascertain the effect of a pretty near approach to Jupiter in March, 1841, upon the previous orbit, and having done this he examined the probable circumstances of a very near approach of the two bodies near the passage of the node in 1816, to which attention had been drawn by Valz soon after the comet's orbit was fairly determined. Thus Möller's laborious investigations extend over a period of forty-three years, during which he has followed the motion of the comet with all the refinements of which the actual state of the science admits. It will be

generally accorded that the medal has been well earned in Prof. Möller's case. The last occasion on which it was awarded for investigations of a similar kind was as far back as 1837, when the Astronomer-Royal presented the medal to Rosenberger for his researches on the motion of Halley's comet.

Ar the anniversary of the Geological Society on Friday the medals were awarded as follows:-The Wollaston medal to Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S.; the Murchison medal to Prof. Archibald Geikie, F. R.S., F.G.S.; the Lyell medal to Principal Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., of McGill College, Montreal; and the Bigsby medal to Dr. Charles Barrois of Lille. The Wollaston Fund was awarded to Dr. R. H.

(680); popular works, almanacs, 657 (642); fine arts, stenography, 627 (584); commerce, 583 (577); classical and oriental languages, archæology, mythology, 533 (481); modern languages, old German literature, 506 (485); agriculture, 433 (421); miscellaneous writings, 423 (378); architecture, railways, engineering, mines, and navigation, 403 (384); bibliography, encyclopædias, 377 (278); geography, travels, 356 (306); war, 353 (337); maps, 301 (300); mathematics, astronomy, 201 (158); philosophy, 125 (139); forests and game, 112 (103); freemasonry, 20 (21).

MESSRS. MACMILLAN AND CO. have in preparation, and will publish this year, A Course of Instruction in Zootomy (Vertebrata)," by T. Jeffery Parker, B.Sc. Lond., Professor of Biology in the University of Otago. The work will consist of full directions for the dissection of the Lamprey, Skate, Cod, Lizard, Pigeon, and Rabbit, and will be illustrated by numerous woodcuts from the author's original drawings.

THE death is announced of Count Alexander Erdödy, a Member of the Pesth Academy of Sciences, vice-president of the Society for Plastic Art, and a liberal patron of science and art. His death occurred on January 24 at Vep (Hungary); he was eighty years of age. We regret also to announce the death of Herr Gabriel Koch, a Frankfort tradesman and an eminent lepidopterist, whose " Schmetterlingsbuch" has a wide reputation in Germany. He died at Frankfort-on-Main on January 22, aged eighty. On February 2 died Prof. Gorini at Lodi, well known by his works on volcanic phenomena. He was a teacher at the Lodi High School, and one of the warmest advocates of cremation in Italy.

EARTHQUAKES continue at Berne. A new shock, directed from east to west, was felt in the north of the town on February 8, at 5.25 p.m. Shocks of earthquake are reported from Braila on February 11 at 7h. 15m. a.m., and from Galatz at the same time.

several avalanches.

IT was not difficult to foresee that the warm weather which prevails now in the Alpine region, together with immense quantities of snow fallen during the previous days, would occasion On February 13 a terrible one descended from the slopes of Mont Pourri, and covered with a mass of snow, thirty feet deep, the village of Brévières, in the Tignes commune. Thirty-two persons were buried under the snow, and no less than three hundred peasants from the neighbourhood were engaged in sinking pits to reach the buried houses. Of the buried, twenty-five were found alive, four were dead, and three are not yet discovered. Two days later, another avalanche descended from the same mountain, and covered a space 10,000 metres wide, with a mass of snow fifteen to twenty metres deep. The pressure of air displaced by the avalanche was so great that all the windows of the village were broken within a few seconds. The quantity of snow fallen during the previous days was so great that all communication was broken up between Brévières village and the bottom of the valley; a peasant from Tignes took thirteen hours to reach the next town, Bourg-Saint-Maurice, travelling in the snow more than one metre deep.

THE provincial governments of Navarre and Logroño (Spain) have received the royal sanction to the necessary outlay for constructing and maintaining meteorological stations in these provinces.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN ENCKE'S COMET IN 1881.-So far as can be judged without the calculation of the perturbation; since 1878 this comet will again arrive at perihelion about November 8 in the present year. In 1848, when the comet passed this point of its orbit on

November 26, it was detected with the 15-inch refractor at Cambridge, U.S., on August 27, as "a misty patch of light, faint and without concentration: its light coarsely granulated, so that were it not for its motion it might be mistaken for a group of stars of the 21st magnitude" (Bond). The theoretical intensity of light at this time was o'21, and we find that, assuming the perihelion passage to occur on November 8, the comet should have this degree of brightness soon after the middle of August next, so that it may be anticipated observations will be practicable with the waning moon about the 20th of that month. The last perihelion passage took place on July 26, 1878, the period of revolution at that time being 1200 ̊58 days according to the late Dr. von Asten. The aphelion distance is 4c879, the perihelion distance o'3335, and the minor semi-axis I1675 (the earth's mean distance from the sun = 1). The approach to the orbit of the planet Mercury is still very close (o'031) in about 126°5 heliocentric longitude. The nearest approximation of the two bodies that has occurred since the discovery of the comet's periodicity took place on November 22, 1848, when their distance was only o'038. It is known that from his investigations on the motion of Encke's comet, von Asten inferred a much smaller value for the mass of Mercury than had been previously assigned, viz.

I

7636440

CINCINNATI MEASURES OF DOUBLE STARS.—Mr. Ormond Stone has issued an important series of measures of double stars made at the Observatory of Cincinnati, which is under his superintendence, between January 1, 1878, and September 1, 1879. The number of stars measured is 1054, of which 622 are south, and 432 north of the celestial equator: 560 belong to Struve's catalogue, 171 were discovered by the Herschels, 162 by Mr. Burnham, and 85 were found with the Cincinnati refractor, which has an aperture of eleven inches. The measures of the southern stars have a special interest, as there are comparatively few previous ones upon record. In his introduction Mr. Stone points out the most notable differences between the Cincinnati mmeasures of angle and distance, and those of Struve, Sir John Herschel, and others; we shall refer to several of these cases in a future column. The volume is published by the Board of Directors of the University of Cincinnati, and will be a necessary addition to the libraries of those who are making the double stars their special study. Mr. Stone acknowledges his obligation to the Manual of Double Stars lately published by Messrs. Crossley, Gledhill, and Wilson, and M. Flammarion's "Catalogue des Étoiles Doubles et Multiples en Mouvement

relatif certain."

THE MINOR PLANETS IN 1881.-The usual supplement to the Berliner astronomisches Jahrbuch (1883), containing its specialty, elements and ephemerides of the small planets for the ephemerides for every twentieth day throughout the year of 210 present year, has been issued. We have in it approximate planets, the latest being No. 217, and accurate opposition ephemerides of 58. Three planets are omitted for want of proper data for computation, viz. No. 99 Dike, No. 155 Scylia, and No. 206 Hersilia. A glance at this long series of ephemerides shows how wide a range over the heavens the apparent tracks ot these small bodies present: thus we find Euphrosyne in opposition in 524° south declination, in the constellation Indus, and Niobe in the vicinity of § Persei, with 43° north declination. A favourable opportunity for repeating observations for determination of the solar parallax would have been afforded if, in the first place, the actual position of No. 132 Ethra were pretty accurately known, and if Mr. Gill were able to utilise his helio neter at the Cape of Good Hope: this planet on February 28 being distant from the earth less than o'84 of the earth's mean distance from the sun, with 47° south declination and rather greater brightness than a star of the ninth magnitude.

BRAME (in Comptes rendus) recommends the use of baryta in place of sodium carbonate and charcoal, in the ordinary dry test for arsenic. If arsenious oxide is heated with baryta a mirror is obtained consisting partly of metallic arsenic, and partly of barium arsenate: the test does not succeed so well with arsenious sulphide.

A CONSIDERABLE deposit of crystallised (octahedral) sulphur has been found under the soil of Paris, where organic refuse matter has long accumulated. The sulphur appears to be a product of the deoxidising action of the carbon compounds present in the refuse on the calcium sulphate of the soil.

M. LOUGHININ continues, in the Journal of the Russian Chemical Society, his interesting researches on the quantities of heat produced by burning alcohols of the allyl series; he publishes in the Journal the figures corresponding to two new bodies of this series (CHO and CoH2O), which figures, together with those he has already published in the Comptes rendus (vol. xci.), allow him to draw a complete table of the calories disengaged by the whole of the alcohols of this series.

THE first number of the Gazetta Chimica Italiana for the present year is devoted, with the exception of a paper by M. Fileti on gas analysis, to papers on organic chemistry: these include work on Camphor Derivatives by Schiff; on Picrotoxin by Paterno and Oglialoro; and on Synthesis of Aromatic Aldehydes by the use of Chromyl Dichloride, by Paterno and Scichiloni. IN the course of a paper on the Photo-chemistry of Silver Chloride, Eder states (in Wien. Akad. Ber.) that this substance is more sensitive to light when substances which absorb chlorine are present, than when in the pure state. To develop the latent image he recommends especially ammonium ferrocitrate, and hydroquinone along with ammonium carbonate.

By the action of potassium dichromate and sulphuric acid on caffeine, Hinteregger has obtained as much as 40 per cent. of dimethyl parabanic acid, and 39 per cent. of the monomethyl

acid from theobromine.

IN a little mathematical note in the Comptes rendus M. Thollon investigates the general equation for the passage of light through a prism, and thence deduces the proposition that for every prism there is an angle of minimum resolving power. Differentiating the general equation with respect to the index of refraction, he obtains, first, a differential equation expressing the dependence of the angular distance between two rays upon the dispersive index. A separate differentiation with respect to the angle of incidence yields a second differential equation expressing the dependence of the apparent width of the slit as seen through the prism upon the angular aperture of the slit, as viewed from the prism through the collimator. Hence a relation can be obtained between the angular distance between two rays and their apparent

certain incidence there will be a minimun of resolution (i.e. an incidence at which the rays are least well defined), and that for another incidence there will be a minimum of dispersion; these two incidences being symmetrically related to the angle of incidence corresponding to minimum deviation. M. Thollon following experiment :-A dense flint glass prism is adjusted in states that these deductions may be readily verified by the the position of minimum deviation for the rays D upon its supporting table in the spectroscope, lit by a sodium flame. The slit is then narrowed or widened until the two yellow rays are just in mutual contact. On then turning the prism around its axis so as to increase the angle of incidence the two rays are seen to separate and to become perfectly distinct, the angular distance between them diminishing all the while. But if the prism be turned in the opposite direction, so as to decrease the angle of incidence, the yellow band is seen to become wider, but without being resolved into two rays. Perhaps this research may explain why the so-called "half prism" spectroscope failed to realise all the hopes of its inventor.

RECENT observations by Hrn. Wüllner and Grotrian (Wied. Ann. No. 12) seem to prove that the specific volume of vapours is independent of the size of the space in which it is determined. They also confirm Herr Herwig's result, that vapours always undergo precipitation before reaching the socalled maximum tension. Further, the tension at which condensation begins is found to have a relation to the maximum tension, which depends on the nature of the liquid, but is nearly independent of the temperature. Experiments made in order to find in what measure vapour must be compressed so as to present general no maximum tension in the sense hitherto accepted; but maximum tension, gave the unexpected result, that there is in that the tension of saturated vapours, even when they are in contact with a large and excessive quantity of liquid, is perceptibly increased by compression.

THE varieties of the electric discharge in gases are fully investigated by Herr Lehmann in a recent paper (Wied. Ann No. 12). The chief conclusion is that there are four wellcharacterised modes of discharge to be distinguished, viz. glow, brush, band, and spark discharge; and these may all be obtained in air of ordinary (as well as of less) density, and also in other gases, with inserted resistances and breaks, and with sharp and rounded form of electrodes, at great or small distances. The principal characteristics are these:-I. Glowdischarge; positive glow, negative light pencil, consisting of two parts separated by a dark space. 2. Brush-discharge; positive brush, consisting of stem and branches; negative light-pencil. 3. Band-discharge; positive light with two places of intermittence, sometimes stratified, and separated from the negative glow by a dark space. 4. Spark-discharge: band of light connecting both electrodes; with two places of intermittence, brushes of metallic vapour at both ends, the positive longer, the negative thicker; sometimes oblique dark spaces.

THE influence of traction and vibrations of a metallic wire on its electric conductivity is the subject of a paper by Dr. De Marchi in the Reale Ist. Lomb. Rend, (vol. xiii. fasc. xix.). The results he arrives at are summed up thus: 1. Any traction of a metallic wire increases in general its resistance; when the traction is very slight however there is diminution instead of increase; with increase of traction the case comes under the general law. 2. In general the increments are proportional to the increments of traction, up to a certain limit, beyond which the variations of resistance are manifested in sudden bounds, indicating an instantaneous and profound perturbation of the molecular state of the wire. 3. The law of increments of resistance is apparently independent of that of the elongations. 4. Any vibration of a wire is accompanied by a variation of resistance generally very perceptible. In most cases there is decrease of resistance if the vibration be sonorous, and more so if harmonic; increase, if the vibration be silent. This last law however requires confirmation.

IT is known that M. Plateau distinguishes between an internal and a surface viscosity of liquids, a distinction which Signor Marangoni does not consider warranted. Herr Oberbeck (Wied. Ann. No. 12) has approached the question experimentally thus: A brass cross is hung bifilarly with two platinum wires by one arm; its horizontal arms carry weights whose positions can be varied by screwing, so as to vary the swing; it carries a mirro reflecting a scale, and to the lower arm is attached a thin plat

or cylinder of brass to swing in the liquid at various depths. The whole can be raised or lowered with a micrometer screw, and it is thrown into slight oscillation by means of a magnet. A rectangular glass vessel is used for the liquid. The author finds that with distilled water the resistance increases suddenly and to a quite considerable extent whenever the upper edge of the plate comes into the free surface, and he does not doubt this is due to increased friction in the surface layer. The increase of resistance from the last previous position of the plate was 609 per cent., and with four aqueous salt solutions there was also an increase, varying between 75°1 to 54°1 per cent. Precautions adopted to prevent the presence of foreign particles on the surface (filtration, covering with moist filter-paper, &c.) had hardly any influence on the values. Long-standing of the liquid increased the surface-resistance, and stirring then diminished it; still it was always considerable at first. With M. Plateau, Herr Oberbeck found a decrease of resistance at the surface in some liquids; this was comparatively small (alcohol 119 per cent., oil of turpentine 12'6, sulphide of carbon 263, &c.). A small addition of alcohol to water lessens its surface-resistance property in a marked degree, and with further addition the mixture behaves like pure alcohol.

IN a paper on dew and fog (Zeits. für Meteor. Bd. xv. p. 381) Herr Dines, from observations of the former with watchglasses exposed on different substances at night, estimates the annual dew formation to be about 35'5 mm. (on grass, 26 mm.); at the best 38 mm. The average nightly dew (in 198 observations) was hardly o'I mm. ; in a few cases o°3 mm. ; average on grass 0'07 mm. Morning fog along a river course arises when the water is warmer than the air over it. The evaporation goes on more quickly than the vapour can be carried away; hence the latter is condensed and spreads as fog (similarly with fogs over the Gulf Stream). The evening fog on moist low-lying meadows is due to the fact that the grass surface cooled by radiation cools the lowest air-layers, so causing condensation of the aqueous vapour. The fine drops of dew, Herr Dines estimates, are about o oor mm. in diameter; while the finest rain-drops have a diameter of 0'3 to 0.33 mm. The particles of fog vary in diameter from o'016 to o°127 mm.

THE colour-changes presented in the microscope by various substances (chiefly mineral) of uneven surface, when immersed successively in liquids of different refracting power, have been made by Herr Maschke (Wied. Ann. No. 12) the basis of a method of distinguishing substances. Such changes may be had, e.g. with small glass particles, observed in water, in oil of almonds, and in mixtures of the latter with oil of cassia. The dark and the bright parts of the image show different series of colours. That the effects are simply due to prismatic action of the object appears from the fact that they may be got without the microscope, by looking_e.g. through a tube at a piece of rockcrystal in water, &c. For mineral objects Herr Maschke used five liquids; amylic alcohol and glycerine, besides the three just named. By various mixtures of these a series of liquids is obtained, giving any desired index of refraction from 1333 to 1606. (Coloration begins when the refraction of the liquid is near that of the object; when the former greatly exceeds the latter a certain stability of colour appears.) The method is not applicable to bodies opaque in the microscope, or having too strong colours of their own; nor yet to bodies having a greater index of refraction than oil of cassia. It may, too, prove difficult sometimes to find a liquid sufficiently indifferent to the object. Herr Maschke indicates how the refractive indices of substances may be compared by his method, and (a more difficult task) numerically determined. He also gives a number of his own determinations.

AN interesting study, by Herr Holtz, of the electric discharge in insulating liquids appears in Wiedemann's Annalen, No. 12. Among other results the length of spark is found hardly at all dependent on quantity or on retardation of the discharge. Naturally it differs in different liquids, but only in one liquid (sulphuric ether) did it increase with velocity of rotation of the disk (this appears to be due rather to the mode of preparation than to the nature of the liquid). As in air, with dissimilar electrodes, the spark-length is conditioned by the polarity of the electrodes. The thickness, sound, and luminous force of the spark depend chiefly on the electric quantity and the retardation. The spark is thinner than in air, but brighter (brightest in sulphide of carbon, least bright in olive-oil and ether). crooked than in air. Throughout its length it shows innumer

It is more

able very small dark spaces. With large striking distance it appears within a largely-branching brush. (The appearances of the brush discharge, got best in petroleum, are also described.)

FROM data obtained in various parts of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (Wied. Ann. No. 12), Herr Holtz finds a wellmarked increase in risk from lightning in these parts since 1854, while no such increase appears in the number of thunderstorms. Hence he infers the causes to be telluric, and he suggests as pro bable causes the clearing of forests and increase of railways (attracting storms more to towns and villages); further, the increased use of metal in buildings.

PROF. BOMBINI has lately communicated to the Bologna Academy an interesting paper on spherohedry in crystallisation (Riv. Sci. Ind. No. 21), by which he means any known manner of production of a fibrous-radiate structure. From a survey of facts he concludes that the great phenomenon of crystallisation comprises two different orders of attractive energy. In the first there is simple centralised attraction, with concurrence of the elements attracted to a common centre. In the second there is attraction with directive polarity according to certain axes of symmetry, and concurrence of the attracted elements towards nodal points in a certain reticular system. Between these two kinds of crystallogenic action there are many gradations, or rather syntheses, superpositions. Further, the correlations between the phericity characteristic of the liquid state; the spherohedry of globosity with radiated structure; the isometry of radiate pseudocubical groups; leading from the amorphous state of liquids to the absolutely reticular state of the true crystals (isotropic, orthoprismatic, and clinohedric) confirm the cubicity of the first system, and at the same time point to some further significant terms in the progressive series of the physical states of inorganic matter. Prof. Bombini indicates three conditions: I. Spherohedric crystallisation; II. Polyhedric crystallisation; and III. Pseudocubic, &c., crystallisation. The third may be considered intermediate between the first and the second; the first appearing as a term of transition between the sphericity of the liquid state and the polyhedry of physical solidity.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES

THE February Proceedings of the Geographical Society opens with Capt. Holdich's paper on the " Geographical Results of the Afghan Expedition"; but of more importance from a gecgraphical point of view are Mr. Wilfred Powell's "Observations on New Britain and Neighbouring Islands." The latter is accompanied by a sketch-survey of the north-east portion of New Britain by the author, which of itself is of considerable value. A correspondence between Admiral Ryder, Naval Commander in-Chief at Portsmouth, and the Council of the Society follows, by which we learn that the latter, in declining his offer to establish certain medals, are of opinion that "the plan of granting medals to officers and seamen for independent surveys is impracticable," and further that they do not consider it their business to take any action in regard to an international congress of hydrographers.

UNDER the title of "Union Géographique du Nord de la France," a geographical association was formed some time ago, with its head-quarters at Douai, and branches at Amiens, Arras, Boulogne, Cambrai, Charleville, Dunkerque, Laon, Lille, St. Omer, St. Quentin, and Valenciennes. In the first part of the Bulletin of the Union, which has been sent to us, the list of members covers about fifty pages. The object of the association is by every means to promote the development and spread lating to the industry, commerce, and agriculture of the region of of geographical knowledge, investigating specially questio s rethe Nord. The Bulletin, a volume of some size, contains papers on the Exploration of the Sahara, Nordenksjöld's last voyage, a Project for Exploring the Wellé, the Proposed Canal between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and the Maritime and Commeetings of the various societies are abstracts of papers on a mercial Statistics of Dunkerque. In the Comptes rendus of the great variety of subjects, and there are besides a geographical chronicle and a pretty full bibliography. We have no doubt the Association will do much good in the North of France.

PROF. UJFALVY has left St. Petersburg on his return from Central Asia. The journey he made during last summer was not so successful as his preceding travels, because of a serious