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in vain so far as the author and his readers are con-
cerned. The illustrations are taken from well-known

workers, but at least the approximate magnifications
should be given. Other points, owing to their import-
ance, would require to be traversed in detail, but
enough has been said to help those interested to judge
whether the book would suit their purpose or not.
A. MCWILLIAM.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races supérieures et Races inférieures. By Prof. N. Colajanni. Translation by Julien Dubois. Pp. xx+432. (Paris: F. Alcan, 1905.). Price francs.

Our lack of generosity and sweetness (douceur) are due (p. 124) to our games and violent exercise-football, of course, and perhaps lawn tennis, or, at an Colajanni's logic we may judge when we read (p. earlier age, battledore and shuttlecock. Of Signor 174 et seq.) of Anglo-Saxon decadence as visible in U.S.A., and later (p. 302) that only one-fourth of its citizens are Anglo-Saxons.

Signor Colajanni's book, though inaccurate, is not without its good points, but it leaves little permanent impression. The translator has little knowledge of English and German to judge by the strange words that often meet the eye. N. W. T.

Machine Construction and Drawing. By Frank Castle, M.I.M.E. Pp. viii+275. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) Price 4s. 6d.

SIGNOR COLAJANNI, a Socialist deputy and professor IN the study of machine construction and drawing of statistics, is a convinced opponent of the doctrine the assistance to be derived from books can never be of Anglo-Saxon superiority. The questions which he more than of secondary importance. The acquireproposes to himself are, in brief:-(a) the meaning ment of a thorough knowledge of the subject depends of the terms race and nation; (b) the existence of dis- principally upon the opportunities which a student tinctive racial qualities; (c) the transmission of may have of coming into daily contact in the workacquired qualities; (d) the equivalence of decadence shop with varied examples of good engineering in the nation and senescence in the individual. He practice, and the use which he makes of these opporconcludes (a) that we have no data by which to detertunities. Assuming that a youth is fortunately mine the specific racial attributes of Sergi's European circumstanced, he will be busy at suitable moments types; (b) that the terms superior and inferior, save compiling a book of miscellaneous notes, containing, as an expression of their relative positions at a given amongst other things, many fully-dimensioned moment, have no meaning when applied to nations; sketches taken from machine details lying around (c) that acquired qualities are transmitted, especially him. Along with this work, and very appropriately when segregation favours fixation of the type; and in the drawing class, he will make working drawings (d) that decadence is relative, by comparison with the to scale of some of the things sketched in his noteprogress of other nations; nations may, phoenix-like, book, and additional examples for sketching and rise from their ashes and attain a second time to drawing will be provided in the class. greatness.

Although Signor Colajanni's main arguments are derived from the English and Romance-speaking peoples of the present day, he does not hesitate to invoke the facts of ancient history and the nonEuropean races, and his task is, in fact, one which demands the amplest equipment of historical, sociological, and economic knowledge, combined with an impeccable method and an unerring judgment. Let us illustrate his fitness for his task. A large part of the first half of this work is taken up with the proof of the first and second conclusions cited above; but his method consists largely in putting side by side two or more quotations, primâ facie contradictory, and drawing from them the conclusion that both or all are erroneous. He overlooks the fact that criteria are apt to differ; one author may assert the superiority of a race, another its inferiority; unless the standard is the same, the views are not even shown to be contradictory. Even were it otherwise, it is evident that of two contradictory assertions both are not necessarily wrong.

The statistical methods of the work are not above criticism; on p. 354 we have 110/3=22; on the following page there is a comparison of the material progress of France and England since 1840; for France the savings banks are included; the deposits show an increase of 2200 per cent. Signor Colajanni has no hesitation in taking this as an index number, but he does not add to the English table any corresponding figure for our savings banks; even, therefore, were it legitimate to take the mean of ten index numbers, regardless of their relative importance, as a fair statement of the changes. his method is ludicrously fallacious.

Signor Colajanni's knowledge of England is probably limited; we learn (p. 279) that our distinguishing traits are rudeness, lack of sociability, and pitilessness, and that these are due to fagging at school.

The student will also consult text-books for further information, and the book under review will be found

Then

very suitable indeed for the purpose. The author
first describes the necessary drawing instruments, and
explains their use. He then sets out in detail, with
proportional dimensions, various forms of common
fastenings, such as rivets, bolts, keys, &c.
come chapters containing examples of mill work,
followed by others dealing with steam-engine details.
The final chapter gives a short account of the physical
properties of materials used in construction. Sets of
useful exercises occur at intervals, and a few calcu-
lations of strengths are given; but the latter are
wisely kept in strict subordination.

The drawings which abound throughout the work represent good practice, are fully dimensioned, very clearly printed, and will be appreciated by teachers and students alike.

While not free from minor defects, the book can be cordially recommended for use in drawing classes, and to young engineers who are seeking after knowledge on which to base subsequent work in machine design.

Graphs for Beginners. By W. Jamieson, A.M.I.E.E.
Pp. 64. (London: Blackie and Son, 1905.) Price
IS. 6d.

In order to teach and illustrate the subject, the author in this small volume makes use of a number of interesting graphs relating mainly to technical and commercial subjects, many of them discontinuous, algebraical curves being given only a secondary place, though the logarithmic or compound interest law is dealt with. The significance of the slope at any point of a graph is enforced by simple and effective examples. The treatment is suggestive and interesting, and the author is justified in hoping that the book will tend to cultivate the observation and stimulate the reasoning powers of the young readers.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

The Preservation of Native Plant; and Animals. FROM London papers recently to hand, I see that at the ornithological congress, on the motion of the Hon. W. Rothschild, a resolution was forwarded to the Premier of New Zealand in regard to the importance of taking steps to preserve and protect the birds on the Auckland and Campbell Islands.

It may be of interest to ornithologists in Great Britain to hear that our local scientific societies had already, in May, memorialised the Government to the same effect; indeed, we asked that protection should be afforded, not only to the birds, but also to the flora.

We have likewise forwarded a similar resolution to the State Government of Tasmania in respect of the penguins on the Macquarie Islands.

The resolution, therefore, of the ornithological congress should strengthen the hands of our local institutes, which bodies are keenly alive to the importance of preserving, as far as possible, the fauna and flora of New Zealand.

The Government, too, has hitherto met our requests in a prompt and generous manner. A couple of years ago, for example, the Otago Institute pointed out to the Minister for Lands that sheep were destroying the alpine flora of the Southern Alps, especially in the region around Mount Cook; the Government at once proclaimed the area as a reserve, and the sheep were banished.

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The Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific Subjects.

I VENTURE to ask the attention of "whom it may concern" to the practice in vogue in Great Britain of publishing presidential addresses of scientific societies and of sections of the British Association without any mention of the titles of those addresses. Take, for example, a case quite at random, but just at hand. NATURE of August 17, beginning on p. 368, contains the inaugural address of the president of the British Association with the heading Part I." On p. 372 of the same number is another presidential address without a title. On p. 378 a third address has no general head, but it has the distinct advantage of four subheads that enable the reader to select at a glance what he wants, and to pass over other matters if he so chooses.

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Unfortunately these are not exceptional cases. I have in my library scores of these addresses in the form of separates without a word on the title-page to indicate how they are to be classified in a library. The presidential addresses published in the reports of the British Association are conspicuous examples of this kind of publication. I have taken the trouble to look through these reports from the beginning of the association in 1831 down to 1892, and out of all the addresses of the presidents of the association published in these sixty-one years there are only five that have titles or subtitles. These are the addresses given in 1831, 1839, 1854, 1880, and 1885.

It is easy to see how this absence of title came about originally, but, as seen from this respectful distance, the history of it is nothing to the point. What this busy world wants is help to get at what we are interested in with the least possible waste of time.

This hot haste may seem unbecoming to men of science,

"

cr perhaps it may appear that we Americans are in too big a hurry-that we are too much impressed with the motto time is dollars." But we are not spending all our time chasing the dollar; there are many other nimble things that we are trying to keep up with, and one of them is the progress of science in Europe, along the lines in which we are especially interested.

If a member of so young and giddy a nation might venture to make a suggestion to older and wiser people, it would be in favour of requesting or requiring the presi dents of the various scientific organisations and sections of the British Association to provide headings for their addresses so that those of us who have not the time to read all these good things may be able at a glance to pick out what we want especially to see. As matters now stand we are compelled, as a rule, to do one of two things either to let them all go unread-to our great regret and loss--or to wade through pages upon pages of matter which, however valuable it may be, is out of our line and of no especial interest to us. Such titles, headings or subheads as are here suggested would avoid these difficulties. It would not cost much; it would not take much time, and it would save much of ours and some of your own. We appeal to you for sympathy and help. JOHN C. BRANNER. Stanford University, California, September 7. Protective Coloration of the Inside of the Mouth in Nestling Birds.

THE habit shown by many helpless nestlings, of gaping widely when the nest is approached, is usually explained by supposing that the birds are appealing for food. This explanation has always seemed to me inadequate, for nestlings that gape usually have the inside of the mouth brightly coloured, and in some cases marked with conspicuous spots. Moreover, newly hatched nestlings among the Passeres gape if the fingers are snapped just above them, or if the branch bearing the nest is shaken. It seems a fair inference, therefore, that the act of gaping is often, if not usually, an expression of alarm.

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In order to test the effect of the widely opened and brightly coloured mouth, I have several times asked young children to touch the edge of the nest or place a finger in the mouth of one of the birds, and from their hesitation even refusal to obey I am convinced that the conspicuous coloration, by centering attention upon the gaping mouth, tends to protect the nestling from moleste ation. Mr. W. P. Pycraft thinks that the bright colours and spots are guide-marks to facilitate the proper placing of the food in the mouth by the parents. But persons who rear nestlings find no difficulty in feeding them so long as they gape freely, without troubling themselves about placing the food in any particular region of the mouth. W. RUSKIN BUTTERFIELD.

4 Stanhope Place, St. Leonard's-on-Sea.

Helmert's Formula for Gravity.

ON p. 79 of Everett's valuable " Illustrations of the C.G.S. System of Units with Tables of Physical Constants (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1902) the following lines occur :

In a Report now printing, which will contain a very full list of results, Helmert adopts, as the most accurate general formula for g reduced to sea level,

g=980.617 (1-0-002644 COS 20 +0.000007 cas2 24). This may be accepted as the best general formula yet put forward."

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The formula alluded to was given first by Helmert in his paper "Der normale Theil der Schwerkraft in Meeresniveau (Sitzungsberichte der k. Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1901, xiv., pp 332-336), but with a different coefficient, namely,

g=980-632 (1−0·002644 COS 2¢ +0.000007 cos2 2¢), and it is not reproduced in the report mentioned in the above quotation from Everett, but in a subsequent one (Comptes rendus des Séances de l'Association Geodésigne Internationale, Copenhagen, 1903, ii., p. 42, Berlin, 1905). OTTAVIO ZANOTTI BIANCO,

Turin, Via della Rocca 28, September 8.

THE FAYUM.'

TH HE palæontological treasures yielded by the Fayum have made that Egyptian province no less famous among geologists and zoologists than are the "bad lands" of the United States territories, the Sevalik Hills, or Pikermi. The discoveries by Messrs. Beadnell and Andrews of extinct mammals, the study of which serves to clear up the whole question of the ancestry of that strangely specialised group the Proboscidea, are not of less significance than those which enabled Marsh and Huxley to demonstrate how the equally aberrant type of Equidæ originated.

We are glad to learn from the introduction to the present volume that the whole mass of palæontological material which has been obtained by the Egyptian Government has now been handed over to the authorities of the British Museum for the purposes of study and description. While the type-specimens will, we understand, be eventually deposited in the museum at Cairo, a good representative series of duplicates will be retained in this country.

Preliminary notices by Dr. Andrews and Mr. Beadnell himself concerning the osteology of some of these curious extinct forms of mammalian life have already appeared, but for the full details we must await the promised publications to be issued by the trustees of the British Museum. In the meanwhile, we welcome the volume before us, which gives a very clear and suggestive account of the general features of the district in which these splendid discoveries have been made.

The Fayum is a circular depression in the Libyan Desert, having an area of more than 3000 square miles, and is situated to the west of the Nile, some distance south of the latitude of Cairo. The lowest part of the district is occupied by the lake known as the Birket el Qurun, which has an area of between 80 and 90 square miles; but this area appears to be continually diminishing owing to evaporation. On the south-east side of the lake lies a tract of cultivated land, covered with alluvium similar to that of the Nile Valley, and having an area of about 700 square miles. The cultivated area is directly connected with the Nile Valley by a depression through which runs a natural canal-the Bahr Yusef-which conveys water to the Fayum and irrigates the whole of the district.

covered bones of the extinct cetacean Zeuglodon, and this seems to have been the first indication of the existence of vertebrate fossils in the district. Soon after the commencement of the survey by Mr. Beadnell, under the direction of Captain Lyons, the remains of fish and crocodiles were found to occur in the beds of the Middle Eocene, which had yielded the fossils found by Schweinfurth. A few fragments of bone were also found in the Upper Eocene strata, but it was not until 1901, when Dr. Andrews, of the British Museum, had joined Mr. Beadnell for the purpose of collecting recent North African mammals, that the outcrop of strata was crossed upon which a considerable number of mammalian and reptilian remains lay exposed, many in an excellent state of preservation. Energetic efforts on the part of the authorities of the British Museum and the Egyptian Government have resulted in the rich harvest of palæontological treasures now awaiting description, some of which are familiar to all visitors of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. The study of these extinct types of mammals and reptiles, in addition to affording much new light on the evolu

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FIG. 1.-North side of the Birket el Qurun, looking West. From "The Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt," by H. J. L. Beadnell.

The remaining area of the Fayum is practically desert, the most interesting part of this desert area being two deep dry depressions in the south-west known as the Wadi Rayan and the Wadi Muêla. These depressions have attracted a considerable amount of attention from engineers in recent years, as being possibly capable of conversion into reservoirs for the purposes of irrigation.

Until the year 1898, when the examination was commenced by the Geological Survey of Egypt, little was known concerning the geology of this district. It was crossed in 1879 by Dr. Schweinfurth, who dis

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tion of living forms, cannot fail to increase greatly our knowledge of the successive stages by which the present distribution of these forms of life has been reached.

The series of strata which have yielded the interesting vertebrate faunas is clearly described by Mr. Beadnell in the work before us. The beds are admirably exhibited in a number of fine escarpments. At the base are found Middle Eocene (Parisian) strata with an aggregate thickness of about 1300 feet. Nummulites and mollusca abound in these beds, which in their lower part contain Zeuglodon and fish remains, and in their higher portion the older of the two vertebrate faunas. The Upper Eocene (Bartonian) which overlie these have a thickness of 830 feet, and, with some remains of mollusca, yield the abundant remains of the second vertebrate fauna. No Miocene strata have been found in the Fayum, but about 100 feet of fluvio-marine beds, intercalated with contemporaneous (interbedded) sheets of basalt, and containing silicified trees, are referred to the

Oligocene (Tongrian). The youngest beds in the area are gravel terraces, lacustrine clays, deposited on the bed of the ever-diminishing lake, sands blown from the desert, and alluvial deposits.

Mr. Beadnell adduces evidence in favour of the view that the bodies of the animals the skeletons of which are found entombed in the strata of the Fayum were brought down from the African interior by a great stream which flowed in a north-westerly direction, passing through the ancient lake occupying the site of the Baharia Oasis. At that period the shore-line would be near the Fayum, and the Nile would flow into the sea near the same point.

In historical times, as is well known, a large part of the Fayum was occupied by the ancient Lake Moeris. By successive reclamations of the alluvial lands, this lake has probably been reduced to less than one-eighth of its original area, and now constitutes the comparatively insignificant Birket el Qurun.

The work before us appears in the same excellent form as the other memoirs of the Geological Survey of Egypt, issued under the direction of Captain

among the latter there are many examples that have been shown in the society's previous exhibitions.

Of the new work, the natural history section is by far the best represented. Miss Turner's set of photographs of the "great crested grebe," and a series of twenty-two lantern slides of butterflies by Dr. D. H. Hutchinson, have been awarded medals. The lantern slides are by the Sanger-Shepherd three-colour process, and illustrate the usefulness of this method for recording rare varieties. In some of the slides the colours are notably excellent, perhaps as perfect as any mechanical colour process will ever produre. Some of the photographs of "nesting swans "by Mr. Douglas English must have been taken at considerable risk, for in two or three of them the bird is shown flying at the photographer in anger. Another example (No. 237) will be found in the west room among the pictorial photographs, and close by (No. 216) is a very fine photograph of sea-gulls, the foremost of which are in the act of alighting on the water. Of other photographs that record slower movements, the chief are a series of seven by Mr. W. Farren of the "skin moult of the caterpillar of

FIG. 2.-Bahr Yusuf at Lahun before entering the Fayum. From "The Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt," by H. J. L. Beadnell.

Lyons. There are sixteen plates reproduced from photographs, which give a good idea of the scenery of this wonderful district. We give reductions of two of the plates. In addition to these, there are two geological maps and six sheets of longitudinal sections. There are also woodcuts in the letterpress. The printing of the text of the work and the execution of the illustrations are highly creditable to the Survey Department at Cairo. J. W. J.

THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S EXHIBITION.

THE

HE fiftieth annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society is now open. There is a distinct and regrettable falling off in the number of exhibits in the section devoted to scientific and technical photography, but this is in a measure compensated for by the presence of the loan collection of British photographs of a similar kind that was sent to the St. Louis Exhibition last year, though

the privet hawk-moth," a series
of eight photomicrographs (x30)
by Mrs. Kate J. Pigg showing the
germination of a grass seed, and
two photographs of the same oak,
the one taken more than fifty
years before the other, by Mr.
J. B. Hilditch. The earlier photo-
graph of the oak was exhibited
at the first exhibition of the Royal
Photographic Society (then the
Photographic Society of London).
and is at least as good a piece of
work as the later, the main differ-
ence from a technical point of
view being that the exposure
necessary for the first was three
thousand times as long as that
given for the second. There are
many other photographs of living
things, but the bee photographs
of Mr. Oliver G. Pike deserve
special notice. The difficulty was
to get light enough
enough without
causing the bees to stop their
work, and Mr. Pike has suc-
ceeded.

Of other work in the technical section there are photomicrographs showing the structure of various metals and alloys by Mr. E. F. Law, some interesting wave photographs by Dr. Vaughan Cornish, and a number of radiographs by Dr. Thurstan Holland which well illustrate the possibilities of modern methods. The only "natural colour" photograph that we discovered, other than the transparencies by the Sanger-Shepherd method, is a three-carbon print by Mr. Brewerton. We think he has sent as good examples in previous years, but whether or not, what we want to show the capabilities of three-colour work are the finished print, produced without handwork, by the side of the object or painting that it represents. Some commercial work is excellent, but its measure of perfection is due to retouching.

The loan collection from the St. Louis Exhibition will doubtless prove more interesting to many than the new work, because of its greater variety. Some of these exhibits are of historic interest, such as Sir William Abney's photograph of the spectrum in the infra-red, and General Waterhouse's examples of photomechanical work. There are a very great many

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photomicrographs of etched metals and alloys, some astronomical and spectrum photographs, and Mr. Edgar Senior's photomicrographs of sections of photographic films, including those of colour photographs by Lippmann's process which demonstrate that the silver deposit is in layers.

In the trade section there are many interesting exhibits. Doubtless the greatest novelty is the demonstration of the three-colour process called "pinatype,' which is claimed to be the amateur's method of colour printing on paper. Three prints in chromated gelatin are made from the ordinary three transparencies, and these are each caused to absorb its proper colour by soaking it in the proper dye solution. The prepared paper that is to bear the print is squeegeed on to each of these coloured "print plates in turn, and duly absorbs the colour. Thus the three colours are absorbed into a single film. The examples we saw were of various degrees of merit.

PROF. LEO ERRERA.

LEO ERRERA, professor of botany in the University of Brussels and member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, whose death on August 1 has already been announced, was born in 1858. He merited preeminently the title of professor, for not only was he gifted as few men are gifted with the faculty of giving a clear and precise explanation of complicated problems, and of impressing upon the minds of his hearers his conclusions, which were well reasoned and supported by facts and conceptions, but he was also one of those teachers who recognised that it is not possible to improvise a lecture, however simple or commonplace, without bestowing upon it lengthy and conscientious preparation. In addition to the critical judgment which characterised his teaching, he always kept it abreast of scientific knowledge; each year, even in the case of his elementary courses, his lectures were looked through, revised, and brought up to date so as to include the latest results in the subject.

Prof. Errera was one of the first teachers in Belgium who had the courage to declare that practical work should take precedence of theoretical studies, which alone had formed the ordinary courses up to that time. He was convinced that a student should only accept as true what he had verified for himself, and that it is not sufficient to know scientific results without becoming acquainted with the methods employed. With this object he established in 1884, when he was appointed professor in the university, the laboratory for vegetable anatomy and physiology

which became later the Botanical Institute.

He was wonderfully assisted by the remarkable facility with which he assimilated all current literature. He read Danish and Swedish without any difficulty, and at the congresses in which he took part, whether English, German or Dutch, he invariably excited admiration by his correct and expressive rendering of foreign languages. It was not surprising that at the International Botanical Congress held at Vienna last June he was nominated president for the next congress, to be held at Brussels

in 1910.

The worries of teaching did not cause Errera to forget that it is the duty of every scientific man to contribute to the increase of that knowledge which has been handed down to him. His energy was especially productive along four lines of research.

When Darwin had attracted attention to the importance of cross-fertilisation among plants and to the part played by insects in the transfer of pollen, Errera as early as 1878, recognising the full import of this

discovery immediately set to work to study with his keen experimental insight the genera Penstemon and Primula, and Geranium phaeum.

Later, while he was working in De Bary's laboratory at Strasbourg, he discovered in certain fungal cells a substance then unknown which gave all the reactions of glycogen. This is a body allied to starch that was conclusively shown by the great Claude Bernard to be of great importance in animal physiology. By degrees Errera recognised glycogen in all the groups of fungi, and was able to assign to it the same function, i.e. that of reserve carbohydrate, as it has in animals. His first researches on this subject were published in 1884, and constituted his thesis for admission into the University of Brussels.

Prof. Errera initiated a series of papers on the rôle of alkaloids in plants. The origin and rôle of these poisons in plant economy formed, and still forms, the subject of discussion. The papers of Errera and his pupils tend to prove that alkaloids are decomposition products of nutrition, but that they may be utilised by plants as a defence against herbivorous animals. He was one of those who realised the importance which attaches to molecular forces in the structure of living beings and in all the obscure phenomena of nutrition. Basing his investigations primarily on the important works of the physician Joseph Plateau, the illustrious professor of the University of Ghent, Errera showed that cellular membranes behave in the same way as if they obeyed the laws which regulate the reaction of liquid films such as are produced in blowing soap-bubbles. His first communication on

this subject dates from 1886.

But not content to lead the way in the domains of science which we have outlined and to direct the work of his students therein, he also pursued many investigations in very diverse subjects. He did much to improve the methods of microscopical technique; he simplified greatly the microchemical examination of certain substances; he published ingenious theories on the mechanism of sleep, and contributed lectures on widely different subjects varying from pedagogy to natural philosophy; and all his publications were marked by a clearness and purity of style that are not surpassed in the writings of any other man of science. JEAN MASSART.

NOTES.

on

MR. G. B. BUCKTON, F.R.S., author of several monographs on entomological and other subjects, died September 26, at eighty-eight years of age.

WE regret to see the report that Sir William Wharton, who was prevented by illness from leaving Cape Town with other members of the British Association last week, is suffering from enteric fever complicated by pneumonia. His condition on Monday showed a slight improvement.

AN earthquake shock was felt in Stirling, Dollar, and Alloa shortly before midnight on Thursday, September 21. The shock travelled in a similar direction to that of July 23, namely, to the south-east, but it was of slightly longer duration and more violent in character. In Stirling pictures and crockery were shaken and articles of furniture moved, and a sound like thunder was heard. At Corton railway signal-cabin all the bells were set ringing. At Bridge of Allan the shock was felt very decidedly. In Bannockburn and in the neighbouring villages the impression was of a serious explosion. Comrie was only slightly affected: a low tumbling sound was heard, but no damage was done.

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