Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/546

 I

��51(1 SCIE

Okti.' Under the same eilitnrbits just b«eii issued Uie flrtt part of s Land-leiicou o( Africa by Paul fielchen, to oumprUe thlny parts, octavo, at fifty pfennlge each, to be profusely Illustrated, and to contain retrospective as well iit actual infonnatioD. it la well printed, and la published by Grossner ilt SchrsDim, Leipzig.

— A loag-delayed letter from the bishop of central Oeennica gives details of the honors rendered by the Civil and. religious authorities to the relics of the cotupaiilons of La Perouse. These last survivors of that unfortunalu expedllion were massacred by the Samoansoiithelslet of Tutulla on the 11 tb of Decem- ber, 1187. Father Vidal, of the mission, bad been searching twelve yeare for [be remains, nbich were finaUy Identified in October, I8S2. The autliorities in France, on being notl&ed, caused a beautiful mor- tuary tablet to be prepared, and forwarded to the ad- miral on duty at that station. A monument was erected, upon which the tablet was fixed, and a sraatl ehapel built near it. The whole was dedicated by Bishop Lamaie and Commandant Fournier, iif the French navy, with solemn ceremonial and minnte- guos on the ninety-seventh aimlveraary of the event.

— TIiB Society de g^ographie lias elected Mr. de Leweps, tll<^ present Incumbent, to its presidency for 1835-S6, and Uessrs. Ilimlj and Iliscboefsheim, vice- presidents.

— A portion of the work, of Protestant mlssionariea In China, which has attracted little attention, says Ifatare, and which, ncTCrtheless, is of great impor- tance, la the preparation of school and text books In Chinese. For this purpose Protestant missionaries of all nationalities and denominations have united. At a general conference held In Shanghai in 1S7T, a committee of eight of the leading missionaries was appointed to superintend the preparation and publi- cation of the series. The work has now been going on for eight years, and the committee are able to re- port that over forty works have been Issued, and that thirty more are in various stages ol progress. In addition, four numbers have been lasu^ of an 'out- line aeries' compiled with the object of supplying Chinese schools with small and simple treatises on scientific subjects at cheap rate«, suitable either us elementary school-books or as popular tracts for general distribution. What 'cheap rales' mean, will appear from the fact that the outlines of astronomy coats rather less than a penny; those of political and physical geography and geology, about twopence each. The larger workn embrace anatomy In &ve volumes, ancient religions and philosophies in three, arithmetic, charts of astronomy, birds and mammals, with accompanying handbooks (these charts, from the prices, are obviously intended for the walla of schools), chemistry, poliUcal economy, geology, uni- versal history, inteniallonal law (a translation uf Bluntschll, It appears). loiilogy, and several on bibli- cal topics. Those In preparation Include treatises on various branches of elementary mathematics, botany, ethnology, hygiene, jurisprudence, logic, mathemati- cal physics, meteorology, mineralogy, philology, and

��NCE. [Vol. V., Wo. IM.

forty wail-charts with .iccompanyins liandbooks. These works, it must be remembered, have first to be compiled with a special view to the knowled^ usually possessed by Chinese cbltdren, and ilien to be translated, reprejentin; in each case two distlncl tasks. That the missionaries In China and elsewbeie have achouls where Ibey teach the young, is well known; but it will probably be a surprise to tnaiiy ^'^ find, that, in addition to their ordinary labor* u preachers and teachers, the niiasioiiariea in Chinx have had to undertake a task of such iRKgnitude as the creation of school literature on all subjects of human knowledge, from arithmetic to jurisprndence, and from anatomy to logic. The alateiuent on this subject id taken. It should be added, from the CiU- ne»e recorder of Shanghai, a magazine which is itself a monument to the learning and enterprise of Protes- tant mlssionarlea in China.

��' Geological

��— The second edition of )Jacfarlaae*s railway guide,' first published in 1S79. is tive preparation. As its advance depends on co-op- eraliou from many state geologists and iithens. it is of necessity somewhat leisurety ; but aubstaatia) |>rag- ress is marked by thirty preliminary pages, which describe the Dominion of Canada, prepared by O. M. Dawaon; and, if, the rest of the worlds up to thlsh] standard of detail, it will be a great improvei: on its valuable predecessor. The notes are full, I aen*e an mcullent purpose. Forezample: uiider4 Hilalre station. Grand Trunlt railway, we find. " Be- iouil Mountain, one of the remarkable Igneous pn>- trusions which penetrate the fiaUlying Silurian rocks of the St, Lawrence valley, may be visited from lliia point. The. mountain is partly composed of augile syenite, and partly of nepheliiie syenite. Aa exc«l' lent summer hotel on the mountain." Again, at Thorold, "Good section of Clinton and Niagara in cutting of Welland canal. Fossils. A band of argil- laceous limestone eight feet thick in the Niagara yields an excellent cement."

— The ordnance survey of the United Kingdi^ has issued an interesting report on the progress made to the end of ISS4. Scotland and Ireland hnre bcw completed, and maps of these cnuntriea on the sli- Inch scale have been published. In Wales, broke, Carnarvon, and Anglesea alone remain ti aurvejed. It is hoped that the whole of t dom may be finished by the year 1890.

— Professor Hermann Fol hat made a most nldj ble contribution to the resources of the hiBtoliM through the publication of the first part of bis ' buch der verglelchenden mlkroskopischeu analon! — a treatise which ought to be in the iianda of e morphulogist and mlcroscopist. The flrat port b entirely devoted to technique, and Is ao thorough ^p'l exbaualire, and done with so much critical acumeu, that it surpasaea all its predecessors. SeuBibte and practical directions for the use of the manifold Instruments and operations of the hislologist art given. The author has added also many valuable explanations and criticisms, and describes a numbs j of new imptcments and metliods devised by hlmwi

�� �