Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/29

 propoaet W> Imub » work in two volumes, In which xn dMcribed and lignml mknj microscoptc fonm raaMubling ibe ipore* of higher (.'rypUtganit, bai which the writer considers to be Independent iini- mlltllar organi«m«. They appear lo have been verj abundant In the cari>on)ferouB period, when higher Cfjrplogktna were the prevailing vegetable type. Dr. Bciascb oflers to fumish to pui'cbasers of his work iiiipl)eat« specimens of some of the species described.

— A. second edition of Dr. Lant Carpenter's ' En- ergr in naliire ' has just been published in England.

— According to Nature, the collections made by the polar traveller, Capt. Jacobsen, by onler of the Berlin museum, on his American tour, are now on new at the Royal ethnographical museum at Berlin, Thai part of the collections which was obtained from Alaska Icnitory consists of some four thousand ob- jects, collected among various Eskimo tribes, and among the Ingalik Indians living on the Tukon River. Most o( the objects in question closely resemble those dating fri>m the stone age, conalstlng principally of itone. bone, horn, shell, or wood.

— The Athenaeum states that Coniii) O'NIcU hni ihi« year accomplished two remarkable journeys in an unknown portion of East Africa. In the Hrst he left the river Shire at Chironil, and walked lo Blantyre, Inaving the Ma-Kalolo country on his left. In th(! second he walked to Guillimanl, on the coast, from Blautjre, by a raut« leading south of UilanJI, which will prove lo be the nearest and most direct overland com mnni cation with the coasl. He look twelve hun- dred obsen'ations for longitude, which will help to till a Iruslwortliy meridian in the interior, which has t>een niiicli wanted. The account of the.te journeys

II appear in the Proceedings of the Royal geograph-

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��:i«ty.

��— The IntemHtional Paris exhibition of manufac- tures and processes will be opened on July 2.1, 1&*^, and doted on Nov. 23. The exhibition will be held at ilie Palais de rindiistrle. Champs Elys^es. under Ihe patrons^ of the minister of commerce and Ihe minister of public works,

— From y'atare we learn that the ex|)edition of Ibe Gennan travellers, Dr. Claust and Herr von den Steincn, who nndertooli to investigate the tributaries on the upper right bank of the Amazon and Xingii Rivers, starting from Paraguay and Cuyaba, have •iicceHfulty accomplished this task, and safely ar- ilved at Para at the end of October, Tbe Brn/ilinn KoveniRient. and (^specially Senlior Batovl, the pre- fect of the province of Hatto Grosso, have supported (his scientific nnderlaking In a praiseworthy manner.

— At a meeting of the Anthropological institute of (t«at Britain, held on Nov. II, Mr. Francis Gallon described the object, method, and appliances of the tale anthropometric laboratory at the International health ezhiblLion, reserving the slntisilcal results, nhlch were not fully worked out, for another occa- »iiiii. 1I,:144 persons passed through the laboratory, I'lch of them tieing measured in seventeen distinct particulars for the snm of threepence, in a cnmpari- menl only six feet wide and thirty-six feet long. Ho

��many applications have been made aiiroad and at home for duplicates of the instnimental outfit, that it was deemed advisable that any suggested improve- ments in it should be considered before it became established in use.

— Dr. Siemens of Berlin has offered the German government a piece of land in Chariot lenberg worlli tlOO.OOO, for the building of an Institute of mechani- cal and physical science. Prelliiilnaries are nlready being arranged by Dr. Forsicr and Professor Helro-

holK,

— Bulletin So. 6 of the U- S. geological survey is ' Elevations In the Dominion of Canada,' by J. W, Spencer, now at the university at Columbia, Mo., lately of King's college, Windsor, Nova Scotia, Dur- ing his studies of Lake Ontario, Professor Spencer collected the altitudes along all the Canadian rail- roads constructed up to 1683; and these are now published in convenient form. The tables occupy thirty-three octavo pages, first arranged by railroads. followed by a selected alphabetical Hat, The alti- ttides are referred to mean ocean-level.

— Profeasor Faulitschke left Vienna oti the 80ih of November for eastern Afi'Ica, He proposes, in case access to Harar should be denied him, to explore some of the least-known districts of southern Abyssinia.

— Pefermann's mlUhfiliingen publishes the report of an excursion into Ihe Soma! country by ,1. Mengct, one of Ilie hunters employed by Cart Hagentteck of Hamburg, the wcll-knnwn dealer in wild animals, The explorer succeeded in reaching the plaleati sixty miles to the south of Berbem, where Its altitude is fifty-one hundred feet. He was disappointed in the ruins of stone houses promised him on ^e coast; such remains of buildings as he found l>e!ng, to nil appear- ance, due to the Galla, who formerly inhabited this cnnnlry. A valuable map accompanies the report,

— Recent deaths: Dr, L. Pitiinger, formerly keeper of the Yieniia museum, Sept. 22; Dr. Thomas Wright of Cheltenham, geologist, Nov. 17; Mr. B. A. God- win-Austen, the geologist, Nov. 3I>, at his residence, Shalfurd House, Guilford, Eng.; Mr. Ilenninger, one of the editors of Science el nature.

— JV'alure states that Admiral von biclileinll/. ha.' resigned the presidency of the Berlin GesellschafI fiir erdkunde, and baa been replaced by Dr. W. Reiss, At the last meeting of this society it was stated that there are now four polar expeditions in preparation, of which one will start for the antarctic regions. The African traveller, Dr, Aurel Srhuiz, has started on a journey across Africa from east lo west, by way of the Zambesi Blver and the Victoria Falls. Lieut. Scliuli, the leader of the Germ an- African expedition, reports from Cameroon that the joy of Ihe German colonists there ts most intense in consequence of recent political events.

— The course of lectures logradualeBludenlsat Ihe ■lohns HopkitiB university, which wns opened on the 15th nf November by President Oilman on academic degrees, will consist of Ihe same number (twelve) as last year. Dr. G. Stanley Hall followed PresiUenl Gllman iwllfa a lecture on student life. The other

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