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species represented in the national collection. The latter are, however, specially indicated. Some notion of the marvellous variety of bird-form may be gathered from the fact that this volume gives the name and habitat of no less than 6,057 species. The second and concluding volume is stated to be far advanced towards completion. We have also to chronicle, for the benefit of our entomological readers, the appearance of Part II. of the Catalogue of Specimens of Dermaptera Saltaloria in the British Museum, by Mr. Francis Wallser.
A large depot of petroleum has just been discovered in the Caucasus. It is situated on the east of the Caspian, where there are large numbers of these springs, many of them occurring in close proximity. This new spring is said to be capable of producing 40,000 livres daily. The American method has recently been adopted with the greatest success.
Dr. Robinet, formerly president of the Paris Academy of Medicine, member of the Municipal Council, and at one time president of the Hygienic and Sanitary Commission of the City of Paris, has just died. His decease was due to an affection of the chest, contracted whilst on a scientific expedition in Germany. Dr. Robinet had completed his 72nd year.
It appears that the surface glass which contains soda undergoes considerable change after a lengthy exposure to the air. Bluish glass undergoes no such alteration, but that which has originally a greenish tinge becomes brown after a time, whilst very pure white deteriorates rapidly, showing first a yellow, then a brown, and finally a violet film. At this season of the year we do not require this additional colouring to the appearance of our already discoloured atmosphere. It has been noticed that some modern stained glass on a foggy day has almost the richness of the ancient. We need not go far for a solution of this. The old glass has acquired in the course of ages a film which takes the place of a permanent fog, especially on those colours which, like the ruby, are formed by a thin coating of the coloured glass on a thicker plate of transparent metal.
The Agricultural Society of France has recently addressed the following questions to each of of its members, and to the presidents of all the French Agricultural Associations:—"1. Can the depreciation in the price of wool be remedied; and if so, by what means? Does the rise in the price of meat afford a sufficient compensation to the producers of wool? 2. Do the production and sale of cereals meet with any obstacle demanding the attention of the legislator? 3. Is there any defect in the facilities for increasing the domestic consumption or the exportation of wine? 4. Have the agricultural industries, especially those which produce alcohol and sugar, any need of modification as regards the economic regulations to which they are subject? 5. Are there in your district any other branches of agricultural produce suffering from a crisis to which it would be necessary to call public and legislative attention?"
We have been requested to state that the cable laid between Salcombe and Finisterre (Dec. 2nd) was manufactured at W. T. Henley's Telegraph Works, North Woolwich.
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS
In the Annales des Sciences Naturelles (Zoologie, Tome xii. No.s 3 and 4), M. Marcy continues his elaborate paper on the flight of Insects and Birds. Prof E. Lartet describes and figures Trechomys Bonduelli and two other fossil rodents of the Eocene of Paris. New observations on the Zoological Characters and Natural Affinities of the Aepyornis of Madagascar are given by MM. Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Alf. Grandidier. Their paper is illustrated by a fine series of figures of the bones of these gigantic fossil birds: even the enormous bones of the lower limb are drawn the size of nature. The present double number of the Annales is concluded by a communication from M. Edward Perrier, entitled "Researches on the pedicellaria and ambulacra of star-fishes and sea-urchins."
The November number of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique contains the termination of a long memoir by Lecoq de Boisbaudran, on Supersaturation; a memoir by Des Cloiseaux, on Gadolinite, a mineral whose anomalies are very lucidly connected and explained; a very interesting paper by Boussingault, on the Function of Leaves, in which the influence of light is studied as affecting the decomposition of carbonic acid; Observations on a Note of M. Velter as to the agricultural utility of salt, by Peligot; a Chemical Study of Egyptian wheat, by Aug. Houzeau; the Polarisation of the Blue Light of Water, by J. L. Soret (taken from the Geneva Archives); and an account of Roberts's elegant experiment, showing the increase of volume undergone by palladium in combining with hydrogen.
The November number of Reichert and Du Bois Reymond's Archiv fur Anatomie contains the following papers:—"The Influence of Artificial Respiration on Reflex," by Dr. P. Urspensky, of St. Petersburg; "Musculi subcrurales et Subanconaei," by Dr. M. Kulaewsky; "The 'Ramus collateralis ulnaris nervi radialis again," by Professor W. Krause, of Göttingen; "The Inter-arytaenoid Cartilage of the Human Vocal Organs," by Professor H. von Luschka, of Tübingen (plate); "On the Influence of the Curara Poison on the Electromotor Power of Muscles and Nerves," by Hermann Rocher; "The Nervi Splanchnici and the Ganglion Coeliacum," by F. Bidder, of Dorpat; "On the Musculus Broncho-oesophagus Dexter," a communication by Dr. Wenzel Gruber, Professor of Anatomy at St. Petersburg.
Poggendorf's Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 1869. (No. II Vol. cxxxviii, Part 3). The physical papers in this number (the last published) are:—
(1.) "On the applicability of Ohm's Law to Electrolytes, with a numerical determination of the Electrical Resistance of dilute sulphuric acid by means of alternating currents," by F. Kohlrausch and W. A. Nippoldt (pp. 370 to 390). This paper forms the continuation and conclusion of one begun in the previous number of the "Annalen." After discussing the special difficulties that lie in the way of accurate determinations of the galvanometric properties of electrolytes, the authors show how the most important of them, the polarisation of the electrodes, may be overcome by substituting for a continuous current in one direction a rapid succession of currents of short duration in opposite directions. Such currents were obtained by the rotation of a steel magnet inside a coil of wire; and the employment of them necessitated the use of a Weber's bifilar dynamometer, instead of an ordinary galvanometer. There is a full discussion of the action of the rotating magnet, showing the mean electromotive force due to a given velocity of revolution, and the action of the resulting current on the dynamometer. In the part of the paper now published, the strength of the current traversing a column of dilute sulphuric acid is proved to be proportional to the electromotive force even when the latter does not exceed part of that of a Grove's cell. By using thermo-electric currents, the proportionality between electromotive force and strength of current, in the case of solution of sulphate of zinc between amalgamated zinc electrodes, is shown to hold good even when the electromotive force is only of that of a Grove's cell. The paper concludes with a series of numerical determinations of the specific resistance of dilute sulphuric acid of various degrees of concentration, from which we quote the following:—At 22°C, the maximum conducting power is possessed by sulphuric acid of specific gravity 1.233 (containing 31.5 per cent. hydric sulphate); taking the conducting power of mercury at 0° as unity, the conducting power of such acid is 0.000077274.
(2.) "On a Comparable Scale for Spectroscopic Observations," by A. Weinhold (pp. 417 to 439). In order to compare the indications of various spectroscopes, the author proposes to denote the various parts of the spectrum by reference to the interference-bands seen in the spectrum of light reflected from a thin plate of biaxial mica; and to reduce the results obtained by the use of plates of various degrees of thickness to a common denomination, by taking two definite parts of the spectrum, e.g., Fraunhofer's lines D and F, as fixed points, and dividing the interval between them into 100 parts. The bands of the interference-spectrum then become comparable with the divisions on an arbitrarily graduated thermometer, the value of which is determined by observing two fixed temperatures. The paper contains a full and careful description of the way of carrying out the proposed method in practice.
(3.) "Experiments on Retarded Ebullition" (third part), by