SELECTED BOOKS.

General Literature and Art.

ARNOLD, F. Our Bishops and Deans. Hurst & Blackett. BOUILLET, J. B. Description archéologique des Monuments celtiques, romains et du moyen âge du Puy-de-Dôme. Paris: Thibaud. BURNET, G. Some Passages of the Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester. Facsimile Reprint. Eliot Stock. DEVILLE, J. Recueil de documents et de statuts relatifs à la corporation des tapissiers, de 1258 à 1875. Paris: Chaix. LELAND, C. G., E. H. PALMER, and JANET TUCKEY. English Gipsy Songs. In Rommany, with metrical English translations. Trübner.

LONSDALE, H. The Worthies of Cumberland. Vol. VI. Routledge.

MOLIÈRE, The Dramatic Works of, rendered into English by Henri van Laun. Edinburgh: Paterson. SHERRING, M.A. The History of Protestant Missions in India, from their Commencement in 1706 to 1871. Trübner. WOLF-HUNTING and Wild Sport in Lower Brittany. Chapman & Hall.

Philology.

PEPYS' DIARY.

Kensington May 24, 1875.

The question, "Are we, or are we not, to have a genuine Pepys?" is of such importance that the parties interested ought not to have the settlement all to themselves. To my thinking the claim of Mr. Bell as representing Dr. Neville, Lord Braybrooke, Mr. Colburn, Mr. Bohn, and perhaps several other intermediate hands, though urged, no doubt, in perfect honesty and good faith, is simply monstrous. Let us suppose a parallel case in the sister art of painting. In the Bodleian, as we all know, is a picture of the great Lord Burghley ambling along upon his mule, which we are likewise to suppose had never been engraved till the late Dr. Philip Bliss, shall we say, had a copy made which he presented to his brother, a squire in Essex. The brother liked it so well that, in 1824, he published an engraving of so much of the picture as represented the great statesman's head and shoulders. This print at once became popular, and after twenty-four years the Essex squire thought he might venture to extend the plate so as to include the ears and tail of the mule, and accordingly, in 1848, this enlarged version was issued and very soon took the place of the other in every collector's portfolio. This satisfied the public for a time, but gradually people began to ask why the rest of the

nominalen Stammbildung. 1. Thl. Jena Costenoble. 6 M.

CORRESPONDENCE.

AN IMPORTANT MS. OF THE PSALMS.

Bodleian Library: May 24. The last word has not yet been spoken concerning variations in the Old Testament. The Kennicott and De Rossi MSS. are now surpassed by the old fragments of the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg (see the variations communicated by me to the Journal Asiatique, 1865, i. p. 542). This library will soon possess the famous collection of the late Firkovitz (ACADEMY, July 25, 1874), in which a large number of ancient fragments of the Old Testament are to be found. The Eastern Jewish congregations no doubt still have old MSS. of the Old Testament which have never been collated; I mention, for instance, the synagogues of Cairo and Aleppo. A MS. of the Psalms (defective at the beginning and the end) of an ancient date is now in London in the possession of the well-known traveller, Rabbi Jacob Saphir, of Jerusalem, author of Eben Saphir, or Diary concerning the Jews of Yemen, India, Malabar, etc (ACADEMY, 1875, p. 39), which I have lately had an opportunity of seeing for a few moments. The learned Rabbi asserts that it belongs to the ninth century; I, however, would ascribe it to the eleventh. But the date does not affect the importance of the variations. For instance, Ps. xxxvii. 8, the MS. reads yn instead of the strange 78. Ps. lxii. 3, the MS. omits the word (compare verse 7), which offers very great difficulty; admissible indeed is only either the Syriac version, which refers the word to, or the Arabic, which takes it in the sense of ever. Ps. cii. 13, the MS. has NDI instead of (compare Lam. v. 19), which latter gives no good sense and where the spoils the beauty of the parallel passage. As far as I understand from the learned Rabbi, he has made collations of the biblical texts as well as of the Masorah in many libraries both public and private, and these he would bring out as a third part of his Eben Saphir if assistance should be given him for the purpose. In the presence of such MSS., can we advocate a definite revision of the translation of the Old Testament? Certainly not. Communications are easy enough now to all parts of the world, and competent persons ought to be sent out at once to make collations with old MSS. before the Revisers settle the sense of doubtful pasAD. NEUBAUER,

sages.

being received from the expected quarter, one of the authorities of the Bodleian, after an interval of half a century, caused another and more accurate copy to be made, and, with the full consent and approbation of his brethren, announced an entirely fresh and complete engraving for immediate publication. But here at once the representative, three times removed, of the Essex squire steps in with, "Hold! you may engrave Burghley's head and shoulders, because my forty-two years' use of them expired in 1866, but there you must stop short. The mule's ears and tail are mine till 1890, and as for the fore and hind legs of the beast, the skirt of the statesman's gown, and the gilliflower he carries in his hand, they are mine, absolutely and exclusively mine, till such time as it pleases me to make them public, and for forty-two years afterwards."

The two cases appear to me exactly parallel, and should Mr. Bell's view be upheld, I do not see why he and his descendants by judicious subdivision of the new matter, making it public by driblets at intervals of about forty years, should not continue to be enjoying the copyright in the reign of Albert the Thirteenth. F. CUNNINGHAM.

23 Sussex Place, Regent's Park: May 25, 1875.

I do not at all agree with Mr. Bell that my transcript is a duplicate of the first. The mistakes in the former editions are so numerous, and many of them so flagrant, that I intend, at the end of each volume, to publish a list of the chief of them, so that any one who chooses to take the trouble may compare the mistakes with the corrections and form his own judgment respecting them.

permission of the College I have a right to decipher The position I maintain is this, that with the and publish the whole or any part of Pepys' manuscripts, and when published I shall consider that edition as my copyright. But there is nothing to hinder the College hereafter from allowing any future Fellow to decipher afresh the original MS., if he thinks fit, and to publish it, although the copyright of my MS. has not expired.

I also do not see why Magdalene College should not have accepted "a valuable benefaction derived from the proceeds of the copyright" of Lord Braybrooke's book. Lord Braybrooke undertook the task as "a labour of love," and he gave the profits of it to Magdalene College (of which College he was the Visitor) entirely as a free gift. This has always been the full belief of the Fellows

[MAY 29, 1875.

of the College, and this is the decided opinion of his son, the present Master of Magdalene.

I will only add in justification of myself, that I never had the remotest wish to do Mr. Bell any injury, that I have been for a long time trying in vain to discover to whom the copyright of the edition of 1848 belonged, that I thought it was in the possession of the present Lord Braybrooke, that I received a letter from him dated February 9, 1875, in which he says, "I have no objection to your making use of the Life of Pepys, with the notes in the last edition, by my father," and that it was only three weeks ago (when it was too late) that I learnt accidentally that the copyright in question was the property of Mr. Bell. MYNORS BRIGHT.

APPOINTMENTS FOR NEXT WEEK. SATURDAY, May 29, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: Professor Dong. las on "The Chinese Language and Literature."

MONDAY, May 31,

TUESDAY, June 1,

3.30 p.m. Royal Albert Hall: Last Perfor mance of Verdi's Requiem. Asiatic: Anniversary. Welsh Choral Union (Second Concert), St. James's Hall. 3 p.m. Royal Institution:

3 p.m. 8 p.m.

Professor Gladstone on "Chemical Force." British Orchestral Society (Last Concert), St. James's Hall. Sculptors of England: Anniversary. Biblical Archaeology: Mr. F. B. Conder on "Ancient Metrology;" Mr. S. Sharpe on "The Ancient Egyptian shawl for the Head;" Professor J. Campbell on "The Ethnology of Palestine in the time of David;" Mr. E. R. Hodges on "An Unpublished Assyrian Inscription in the Vatican Museum." Zoological

Papers by Messrs. G. E. Dobson, H. Adams, and G. French Angas.

Horticultural.

Malle. Krebs's Second Recital (St. James's Hall). Microscopical.

Professor

Society of Arts: Morning Meet-
ing at Stafford House.
Institution :
Dewar on The Progress of
Physico-Chemical Enquiry."

Flower on Elephants."

Professor

London Institution: Soirée. Linnean. Chemical, Royal Society Club.

Inventors

3 p.m.

Royal

5 p.m.

Zoological Gardens:

7.30 p.m.

8 p.m.

Institute.

8.30 p.m.

Royal. Antiquaries.

3 p.m.

4 p.m.

Archaeological Institute.

8 p.m.

Geologists' Association.

Mr. Charles Halle's Recital, St. James's Hall.

"Some Points of Ancient Greek Pronunciation."

9 p.m. Royal Institution: Professor Tyndall on "Whitworth's Planes, Standard Measures, and Guns."

SCIENCE.

The Micrographic Dictionary: a Guide to the Examination and Investigation of the Struc ture and Nature of Microscopic Objects. By J. W. Griffith, M.D., &c., Member of the Royal College of Physicians, and Arthur Henfrey, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c., Professor of Botany in King's College, London. Third Edition, edited by J. W. Griffith, M.D., &c., and Professor Martin Duncan, M.B. Lond., F.H.S., F.G.S., and assisted by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S., and T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology, Royal Military and Staff Colleges, Sandhurst, &c. trated by Forty-eight Plates and Eight hundred and twelve Woodcuts. (London: Van Voorst, 1875.) FROM the time the Micrographic Dictionary made its first appearance, which was in 1855, it has been considered an indispensable work for students of minute structure and elementary forms. This character was, on the whole, well maintained in the

Illus

second edition, completed in 1859; and, notwithstanding some serious deficiencies, it must be ascribed to the third edition, which, after greatly exercising the patience of those who subscribed for it in separate numbers, is at last finished in a manner that deserves considerable praise.

The preface to the new edition explains that "ill health and professional engagements" on the part of Dr. Griffith caused the delay up to the letter "H," after which the editorial task was undertaken by Professor Duncan, and proceeded more vigorously. The articles on Foraminifera were entrusted to Professor Rupert Jones; and no one-except his fellow-labourer, Mr. Parker could be regarded as equally fitted for that portion of the work. The articles on Fungi have likewise been revised by the best man for the purpose--the Rev. M. J. Berkeley; and valuable notes on Lichens have been contributed by the Rev. W. A. Leighton.

The weakest part of the book is the "Introduction," together with the scattered articles concerning the microscope as an instrument, its objectives, miscellaneous apparatus, and methods of employment. Most of this matter is sadly out of date and very incomplete. For example, the information about immersion lenses is very scanty; the relation of angular aperture to focal length, as illustrated by the best new glasses, scarcely touched upon; the term "penetrating power" is still often used in the old and obsolete sense of separating power, whereas it is much more convenient to employ it, as most recent writers do, to express the power of bringing objects that are not precisely in the same horizontal plane into satisfactory view at the same time. This is not merely a verbal objection, as the way in which penetrating, resolving, or separating powers are defined affects the clearness, and often the accuracy, of the explanations given of the action of objectives constructed upon different patterns. Neither in the Introduction (section, Object Glasses), nor under "Achromatism," nor "Objective" can we find any account of the combinations now employed to get rid of chromatic and spherical errors. "Aberration" refers us to Optics," but there is nothing under that heading. The article "Test Objects" ought to have been entirely re-written. It is throughout unfit for the present day. To give one example of this: the old storytrue enough once-is repeated that "if we examine a valve of Gyrosigma [why not Pleurosigma?] by direct light, the minute structure will be invisible, however small or large the angular aperture may be, or however perfect the defining power." Now, the fact is, that unless a valve of Pleurosigma angulatum, or other species, is unusually delicate, its markings can be easily shown with a fine, or lower power of recent make, and direct light obtained with an achromatic condenser and a stop, cutting off all oblique rays-say giving a pencil of 30°, or less. Powell and Lealand's immersion shows them well with the smallest central hole of Ross 1 condenser, marked 20°, and Beck's with C eye-piece does it with the next stop marked 30°. The better the corrections, the less is the necessity for great

obliquity in exhibiting these objects, or for excess of angular aperture. It may be said that pencils of light having angles of 20° or 30° are not direct, though for practical purposes they are so considered. The most direct light that can be obtained is employed when the microscope is used in daytime, the stage mirror turned aside, and the instrument, without any condenser, simply pointed at the sky. So used, the above mentioned, with A eye-piece, defines even delicate valves of P. angulatum beautifully.

99.66

Since the last edition, the microspectroscope has come into considerable use, and the articles on "Blood, Chlorophyll," and others relating to substances which it is employed to investigate, should have included particulars of the spectra to be observed. This is not the case, and under the heading "Microspectroscope' the information afforded is of little use.

Lepidocyrtus curvicollis is described under its old name "Podura," no notice being taken of Sir J. Lubbock's researches and classification. "The scales of several species belonging to even different genera are stated to be " exactly similar, both in form and markings." This is a mistake which a mere inspection of the plates in Lubbock's book Monograph of the Collembola and Thysanura would have corrected, though the drawings there given would probably have been modified in some minute details if their author, the late Richard Beck, whose early death was a loss to science, had lived to reexamine them with the best immersion lenses.

We might point to other articles in which more pains should have been taken to bring the various subject-matter down to date, but enough has been said to show that there is room for a supplement if the work is to be made fairly complete.

It would, however, be unfair to the editors and publisher if only shortcomings were pointed out. Looking to new topics, we find "Pedalion," the interesting rotifer discovered by Dr. Hudson, among the fresh articles, and under the head of "Lichens " the new theories thus mentioned

"Schwendener states that all these growths rather colonies which consist of multitudes of in(lichens) are not simple plants or individuals, but dividuals, of which one alone plays the master, while the rest in perpetual activity prepare his food. The master is the Ascomycete, the slaves are green Algae. He asserts that Nostocaceous plants which live in moist or wet habitats, not those which are purely aquatic, form a foundation or basis of Collemaceae. But this opinion that lichens are parasitic in Algae is open to much

doubt."

The recent views of Haeckel will be found sufficiently explained under the heads of "Plastids" and "Protista." The article on "Spongida" has been rewritten, and an entirely new and valuable one contributed on "Rocks." That on "Nerves" is considerably enlarged by new matter, so is that on "Muscle," in which Schäfer's views of its structure are explained and a new woodcut given, exhibiting the distribution of nerve fibrils, or muscular fibrils. "Pebrine," the curious parasitic disease of silkworms, which has inflicted such heavy losses on

sericulturalists, and which Pasteur ably investigated, is also included in this edition.

The new matter is stated to amount to about 100 pages; three new plates have been added, 46, 47, 48, representing Fungi, Foraminifera, and various objects from Infusorians to a section of the spinal cord, after Lockhart Clarke; and the old plates have been re-engraved on copper. In introducing new plates, it would have been better to have made a fresh arrangement in the consecutive order of the old ones, and in reengraving the former plates, some of their contents might have been better distributed. For example, Plates 40, 41, 42, and 48 are all "Various Objects," without any logical connexion; sorting them out would have enabled infusoria, rotifers, diatoms, &c., to have been placed in their natural position. Plates 18 and 48, instead of being far apart, should have followed, as both are devoted to Foraminfera.

A more extended notice, fairly drawn up, would show many more instances of omissions that ought to have been supplied, and of rectifications not made, and it would also point to numerous instances in which the work of revision has been well done.

On the whole, although there must be regret that a little more intelligent labour was not bestowed upon it, the Micrographic Dictionary, in its third edition, deserves far more consideration for its merits than blame for its defects. In spite of the latter, it is emphatically a valuable book.

HENRY J. SLACK.

A First Japanese Book for English Students. By John O'Neill. (London: Harrison & Sons, 1874.)

66

In

THE study of Japanese has not received the same favourable attention in England as it has in France. For the explanation of this it is needless to seek, but the result has been that, while shelf-loads of manuals of that language have been published in Paris, Aston's Grammars, and Hepburn's Dictionary have until now been the only aids which the English student of Japanese has had at his command to help him over the difficulties in his way. To these, Mr. O'Neill has now added a First Book," which will be found to serve as a most useful supplement to Aston's grammar of the colloquial language. this work we have the text of a sermonmiscalled, by a slip of the pen, on the titlepage, a "Buddhist Sermon "—by a priest belonging to the Shingaku sect, accompanied by an interleaved transcription in English letters, a literal translation, and interlineal glosses. And at the end there is given us a copious vocabulary, followed by tables of the Hiragana and Katakana characters. The style in which the sermon is written is purely colloquial, and as such, the study of it is just that which should occupy the attention of a beginner. The first object to be sought by one wishing to gain a practical knowledge of any language must be to learn to speak it. More especially is this the case with Chinese and Japanese, in studying which it becomes so necessary to depend on the verbal explanations of native

tutors. As an aid to gaining this proficiency Mr. O'Neill's book will be found most useful.

But that the value of this assistance may be fairly weighed, it is necessary that our readers should understand that there are four kinds of characters in which Japanese may be written, and that there are five distinct styles of composition. The characters are -the square Chinese character, the cursive Chinese character, the native Katakana, and the Hiragana. The five styles are:-1. The style in which ancient poetry is written, and which is distinguished by a total absence of Chinese words, and by its richness in particles and grammatical terminations. 2. The style in which historical works, known as Monogatari, are written, and in which a small proportion of Chinese words is to be found. 3. The style employed in modern popular literature, in which Chinese words are freely used. 4. The style adopted in epistolary correspondence and official documents, in which a large proportion of Chinese words and idioms is admitted. And 5. The colloquial style, such as is found in the work before us, and which, as in the present case, is always written in cursive Chinese characters and Japanese Hiragana intermixed.

The particular sermon chosen by Mr. O'Neill to form the subject of his treatise, is one of which a translation is to be found in Mr. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, and which is full of the quaint dry humour which characterises this kind of literature in that country. The audiences addressed are principally of the shopkeeping and lower classes, and the allusions and illustrations with which the discourses are seasoned are sometimes of a kind to offend more fastidious ears. Anecdotes are freely introduced, and if the published sermons are fair specimens of the productions of these wandering preachers, their listeners have a decided advantage as far as liveliness is concerned over most English congregations. The translation of the sermon before us has been carefully and most literally

rendered, to enable students to trace the meaning and grammatical value of each word, and where difficulties arise they will find them fully explained in the footnotes.

:

The transcription of Japanese into English letters is surrounded with more than usual difficulty not only are some of the sounds such as it is next to impossible to represent in English letters, but by the crasis of vowel sounds and by the elision of certain syllables, the difference between a literal transcription syllable by syllable of the Japanese words, and their transcription as pronounced, is very great. For instance, the Japanese word Motsutomo is pronounced Mottomo, and thus a further difficulty arises, namely, that of recognising the words in which such changes take place. The practicability of establishing a universal system of transcribing Japanese was one of the subjects brought forward at the Paris Oriental Congress, and after long and repeated discussions all hope of arriving at a definite method was abandoned. Mr. O'Neill has adopted Hepburn's system, which is, as he says, a practical compromise between the actual orthography and the pronunciation, and for the convenience of English students

this, no doubt, is the best he could have followed. We trust his work will have the wide circulation it deserves. It amply fulfils

the object of its author, and forms a practical and useful introduction to the language of Japan. ROBERT K. DOUGLAS.

SCIENCE NOTES.

ZOOLOGY.

Origin of Vertebrata.-The structure of the now famous ascidians and of the lancelet (Amphioxus) has recently been the subject of memoirs by several distinguished zoologists, in connexion with the supposed origin of the vertebrated animals. On December 17 last, Professor Huxley read before the Royal Society a "Preliminary Note upon the Brain and Skull of Amphiorus lanceolatus" (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th Series, xv., pp. 225-230), in which he shows that although these organs are not fully differentiated in the lancelet, yet well-marked divisions of the nervous axis and spinal column exist which answer to the encephalon and cranium of the higher fishes.

Distribution of Animals. The long-looked-for work on the geographical distribution of animals by Mr. A. R. Wallace may be expected to appear in autumn. It will be published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., in two octavo volumes, illustrated by maps and by plates representing groups of the animals characteristic of each of the zoographicalThe sub-regions.

homologies of the anterior pairs of nerves are worked out, and the skull is considered to be represented by the segments of the body which lie in front of the fifteenth, counting from before backwards. The many points of resemblance in structure between the lancelet and the young form or larvae of the lampreys (Petromyzon) are insisted on, and it is suggested that Amphioxus should be regarded as the type of a new primary

division of the class Pisces to be called Entomocrania, characterised by its permanently segmented skull, as contrasted with all other known fishes, in which the primary cranial segmentation is lost, and for which the term Holocrania is proposed.

Ornithological Works.-British ornithologists are by no means inactive at present. LieutenantColonel Irby has just published a volume on the Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar (Porter, 6 Tenterden Street), treating of the birds found on both the Spanish and Moorish sides of the straits. Interesting details are given of the distribution and habits of 335 species, founded on residence at Gibraltar, collated with the observathe author's own investigations during a prolonged tions of Lord Lilford, Mr. Saunders, Mr. Tyrwhitt-Drake, and M. Favier. The first part has been issued of an Ornithological Miscellany, by Mr. G. Dawson Rowley. (Trübner & Co.) The The view of most recent zoologists that the scope of the work is somewhat indefinite, but origin of the vertebrated sub-kingdom is to be this portion is devoted entirely to New Zealand traced through Amphioxus from the Ascidians, is birds, and is illustrated by fine coloured plates by supported by M. Ussow in the last published part Mr. Keulemans of the various species of Apteryx. of his "Zoologisch-embryologische UntersuchunMr. H. E. Dresser continues the publication of his gen" (Archiv für Naturgeschichte, 1875, pp. 1-18; beautiful Birds of Europe with most praiseworthy Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. xv., pp. 321-333). He regularity, and the second volume of Mr. R. B. considers the Tunicata to be quite distinct from Sharpe's Catalogue of the Birds in the British the Mollusca both in their embryonal development Museum, including the family of owls (Strigidae), and in their type of structure. Their closest will shortly appear. Mr. R. Swinhoe, formerly affinities are with the Bryozoa, but adherence is H.B.M. Consul at Chefoo, is about to issue the given to Schmidt's classification in which they prospectus of a history of the Birds of China, form a distinct class of Proto-vertebrata. uniform with Mr. Dresser's work. It will be pub-in a memoir entitled Der Ursprung der WirbelDr. Anton Dohrn advocates a contrary opinion lished to subscribers in bi-monthly quarto parts, and coloured plates will be given of such species thiere, und das Princip des Functionswechsels as do not come within Mr. Dresser's range. The (Leipzig, 1875). His embryological investitwo works will thus embrace the whole of gations lead him to seek for the probable ancestors the birds of the Palaearctic Region, excepting of the higher animals among the Arthropoda those of Japan and of North-Eastern Siberia, and rather than the Tunicata, and to revert to the it is to be hoped that one of these gentlemen will views of the elder St. Hilaire, who described eventually fill up this small remaining blank. Mr. insects as vertebrates which run with their back Swinhoe's investigations into the natural history downwards, rather than to those of Kowalevsky

of China are widely known, and this final embodiment of his results will be warmly welcomed by ornithologists.

Transit of Venus Expedition. The zoological results of the Expedition of 1874 are beginning to come to hand. Mr. Slater has brought from Rodriguez an unrivalled collection of the bones of the extinct solitaire of that island, and is at present engaged in their arrangement. The Rev. guelen's Island to the Royal Society (Proceedings, A. E. Eaton has sent his first report from Kerxxiii. pp. 351–356). The only land mammals found on the island were the introduced goat and mouse, and the Expedition was attempting to add to the fauna by turning down some rabbits. Two species of seals had been obtained, and twenty-two or twenty-three of birds, mostly albaand the marine invertebrata are passed over in the trosses, petrels, and penguins. Fish were scarce, report as having probably been more fully collected by the Challenger. By far the most interesting part of the fauna of Kerguelen's Land appears to be the entomology. The insects collected belong to the orders Coleoptera, Colembola, Diptera, and Lepidoptera; and Mr. Eaton finds, in accordance with the observations of other naturalists on

oceanic islands, that most of the larger species shortened in a species of Tinea, and the insect, are incapable of flight. Thus the wings are much though active, only moves by jumps, while they are reduced or even rudimentary in most of the flies, and the larger beetles have their wing-cases or elytra firmly soldered together.

and his followers who trace the line through the Ascidians and the lancelet. So far from being the representative of the original vertebrates, the generate descendant of the cyclostomous fish, and Amphioxus is regarded by Dr. Dohrn as a dethe so-called larvae of the Ascidians are the result of a still longer continued process of degradation. With regard to the principle of change of function, the general rule is laid down that the function of force and the latter increase, the whole function is an organ is made up of a principal and other secondary components; if the former decrease in changed, and the organ itself is altered in con

sequence.

Handbuch der Zoologie.-By the recent publication of the second part of the first volume of Carus and Gerstaecker's Handbuch der Zoologie (Leipzig, 1875), that useful text-book has at length been completed. This final issue concludes the account of the Vertebrata, and treats of the Mollusca and Molluscoida. The publication of the parts of this work have certainly been irregular, the second volume having appeared in 1863, and the first part of the first volume in 1868. The reason of this is now fully explained in the preface. Dr. Peters, of Berlin, who had originally undertaken the Vertebrata, was unfortunately delay and then to relinquish the execution of the forced by pressure of other occupations first to task; and thus, with the exception of the Arthro poda, which were treated of by Herr Gerstaecker, the whole weight of the work eventually fell into the able hands of Professor Carus.

ascent from the gas-works of La Villette on May 2. They encountered a good deal of snow, which made their balloon heavier, and only permitted them to reach an altitude of 3,800 mètres. About 4 P.M. they entered four layers of cloud, which they estimated at 5,000 mètres in thickness. They commenced about 600 mètres above the ground. The snow was in fine needles, like cut hair, and not branched. At 3,000 mètres they saw two shadows of their balloon, the upper one elongated, large, and upright; the lower inverted, but not deformed. The two shadows were surrounded with an immense aureole. A little higher up they saw three aureoles at once: one round the balloon, another round the car, and a third embracing both. All exhibited the red tint innermost. At 5.26 P.M. the sky was quite blue, but the sun so little bright that they could stare at it.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY (Monday, May 10).

F. C. WACE, Esq., in the Chair. Mr. Pearson made a communication on the Mantuan vase, which he had inspected at Brunswick in January last. He commenced his remarks by reading a translation of the description of the vase given in a number of the volume for 1874 of a German art publication, issued at Stuttgart, called the Kunsthandwerk, from which he also produced two plates, giving different views of the vase. This description first narrated the history of the vase, from the time that it was found in the plunder of the palace of the Gonzagas at Mantua, in the year 1630, down to the time of its removal by the late Duke of Brunswick in 1830, at which time it still possessed the golden mounting now wanting; in 1630 it was valued at 20,000 ducats (about 9,0007.), since which date it has not changed owners by sale. The next point noticed was the golden mounting which is seen in the engravings given in the Leipzig Acta Eruditorum of 1683, or in vol. vii. of Gronovius' Thesaurus. This mounting, said to be of late Gothic style (ie., the sixteenth century), was removed probably by the late Duke, at the time he had it with him, and is not now forthcoming. Now that it is removed, it is obvious that alterations were made in order to mount it, which slightly changed the style of the vase as originally designed. The vase is about 6 inches high, and 24 in its diameter, where greatest: it is cut out of a sardonyx of the shape of a kidney, which has five or six layers of white and brown. The stone is so cut as to enable the different hues to bring out into relief the figures engraved on the vase of this the writer gives instances, which can only be properly recognised by inspection. The general subject of the work is the Presence of Demeter with Triptolemus at the Lesser Eleusinia, and differences of opinion as to some of the details need throw no doubt on its main design. A full discussion of this point will be found in the two publications of the seventeenth century referred to. Its date is fixed by Professor Riegel, of Brunswick, the writer of the sub-memoir from which these remarks are an extract, from 150 B.c. to 100 A.D., and the style of the figures engraved on it is said to be that of the best period of Hellenic art.

THE Neue Jahrbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik (Fleckeisen und Masius), vol. cxii., part ii., contains an important article by H. Baumgart on the well-worn subject of the tragic catharsis. The writer subjects Bernays' interpretation of kalapos Tanár, and his whole treatment of the matter to a searching criticism. His own view of the expression approximates to that of Lessing. While admitting the existence of a medical metaphor in the word katapos, he conceives rapos παθημάτων τo mean "a purging taking place in the sphere of the emotions; a process by which the emotions are brought to their due measure of purity and intensity. And the whole passage about the effect of tragedy he translates thus: "Tragedy is the imitation of an action which, by means of sympathy and terror, effects a purgation upon the imperfect exhibition of these feelings." The other articles of importance in this number are a number of coniectanea by Bücheler, chiefly upon the Eugubine tables, and an interesting paper by Baehrens on the MS. tradition and criticism of the Vergilian opuscula.

In the following number the veteran scholar G. F. Schömann discusses the question of the Athenian ephetae, a subject on which A. Philippi also contributes a lively controversial article against Schöll. Gustav Meyer writes on the ject of the Macedonian language, warning scholars against a too hasty inference from the existing glosses as to the Hellenic character of this language assumed by Fick. F. Görres contributes a paper on the textual criticism of some of the historians of the later Empire.

A long article by Rieck, entitled "Maturitätszeugniss, nicht Maturitätsprüfung," occupies in both numbers a large part of the space given to educational matter. The writer argues with great earnestness in favour of a system of government inspection of the gymnasia, and against the present system of the granting of certificates of maturity after examination held jointly by the officers of the school and a representative of the Government. The granting of the certificate of maturity should, Herr Rieck thinks, be left entirely in the hands of the head master, and the interference of Government should be limited to a general superintendence. The argument is based chiefly on the assumption that the present system of examination tends to produce a dead level of uniformity hostile to the independent development of the schools, and fosters an inclination to cram and to deception. Space will not allow of our noticing the other and less important educational articles in these numbers.

THE most important articles in the Zeitschrift für die Oesterreichischen Gymnasien for March and April are the additions to Latin lexicography by Paucker and Wröbel. An interesting biographical sketch of Robert Rösler, by F. Krones, in the March number is well worth reading.

Mr. Pearson added some observations of his own in favour of the belief that we have in it a real onyx unguent-vase of the classical era. From the time of Herodotus down to that of Virgil, and of the Evangelists, small jars of the kind were evidently used for this purpose; and the size indicated by the word Airpa (less than a pound troy) answers fairly to the size of the Mantuan vase. He also mentioned that the vase shows no tinge of dark red, a colour always found in the oriental onyx, a stone which the ancients and moderns agree in thus distinguishing from the common onyx. In conclusion, he bespoke the attention of the meeting to the bronze figure of a lion, said to have been erected by Henry the Lion on his return from the Crusades at the end of the

twelfth century, standing on a high stone pedestal (near the cathedral) in the town of Brunswick.

METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY (Wednesday, May 19). DR. R. J. MANN, President, in the Chair. The following papers were read:

"On some Practical Points connected with the Construction of Lightning Conductors," by Dr. material and dimensions of conductors, the nature R. J. Mann. The paper dealt especially with the and influence of points, the essentials of earth contacts, connexion with metallic masses forming a part of the construction of buildings, the power of induction in producing return shocks, the dangerous action of metal chimney-pots upon unprotected chimney shafts, and the facility with which houses may be efficiently protected when the defence is made part of the original design of

the architect. The conditions which were finally insisted upon as indispensable to efficiency of protection, were: (1) ample dimension and unbroken continuity in the lightning-rod; (2) large and free earth contacts, with frequent examination by galvanometers of the condition of these to prove that they are not in process of impairment through the operation of chemical erosion; (3) the employment of sufficient points above to dominate all parts of the building; (4) the addition of terminal points to the conducting system wherever any part of the structure of the building comes near to the limiting surface of a conical space having the main point of the conductor for its height, and a breadth equal to twice the height of that point from the earth for the diameter of its base; (5) the avoidance of all less elevated conducting divergencies within striking distance of the conductor, and especially such dangerous divergencies of this character as gas-pipes connected with the general mains, and therefore forming good earth contacts.

"On Certain Small Oscillations of the Barometer," by the Hon. Ralph Abercromby, F.M.S. These small oscillations of the barometer (sometimes called "pumping") have long been associated with gusts of wind, but the precise nature of their action has not been determined. The author gives two examples as typical:-1. Window looking south, wind nearly south, in strong gusts. In this case the first motion of the barometer was always upwards about 0.01 inch, as if the effect of the wind, being arrested by the house, was to compress the air in the room. 2. A corner house, one window to south, another to west, wind south, in strong gusts. With the west window open, there were violent oscillations, but in this case the first motion was always downwards. On opening the south window as well, the pumping ceased. The explanation seems to be that the wind blowing past the west window drew air out of the room; but when the south window was opened as much air came in as was drawn out, and the pumping ceased. It is well known to medical men that many acute diseases are aggra vated by strong winds, and the author has observed this distress to be associated with pumping of the barometer. He suggests the following practical methods of palliation:-If windows can be borne open, try by crossing, or otherwise altering the draughts, to diminish the distress. When, as in most cases, windows cannot be open, all doors and windows should be closely shut, as well as the vent of the chimney, if there is no fire; and, if possible, the patient should be moved to a room on the lee side of the house.

"Proposed Modification of the Mechanism at present in use for reading Barometers, so that the Third Decimal Place may be obtained absolutely," by R. E. Power, L.R.C.P.

NUMISMATIC SOCIETY (Thursday, May 20). MR. W. C. ROBERTS exhibited the Ashantee Medal and the Best Shot Medal. The designs are by Mr. Poynter.

Mr. C. F. Keary read a paper in continuation of the subject raised by Mr. Pownall at the previous meeting-namely, the probability of Offa having employed Italian artists for his coins. In this paper the writer sought to show, by an examination of the contemporary Italian coinage and of the English and Irish illuminated MSS. of the period, that the art upon these coins was entirely

native.

PHILOLOGICAL (Friday, May 21.—Anniversary Meeting).

THE REV. DR. RICHARD MORRIS, President, in the Chair. The following members were elected the Society's officers for the ensuing session:President, the Rev. Richard Morris. Vice-Presidents, the Archbishop of Dublin; the ex-Bishop of St. Davids; Edwin Guest, Esq.; Whitley Stokes, Esq.; Álexander J. Ellis, Esq. Ordinary