great many others, by his excellent work on industrial chemistry, “Précis de Chimie Industrielle" (Paris: Hachette & Co, 1867), was, since 1842, a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and held the professorships of Industrial Chemistry at the École Centrale des Arts et des Manufactures since 1830, and at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers since 1839. The deceased was not only a very eminent scientific man, but was thoroughly and practically acquainted with almost every branch of industrial pursuits. Anselme Payen was born at Paris on January 17, 1795, and was in early life first the technical manager of beetroot sugar-works at Vaugirard, and afterwards of very large chemical works near Paris.

A New Form of Steam-blast.—A paper on a new form of steam-blast was communicated to the British Association at Edinburgh, by Mr. W. Siemens, F.R.S. The new blast is employed for the movement of air in the pneumatic tubes connected with the central telegraph station in London. It is said to cost only 40%., and will do the same work as an engine which costs 2,000l. A New Form of Galvanometer has been devised by Mr. John Trowbridge, Assistant Professor of Physics in Harvard College (U.S.). It is described at length in "Silliman's American Journal" for August. It would be impossible to describe it without the cuts which accompany the article. We merely refer to it because it may interest some of our readers.

Transport of Salts by Electrical Discharge.-This paper, which is by M. Becquerel, appears in the "Comptes Rendus" for June 26. His essay treats on some phenomena observed by the author while experimenting on the effect of only moderately strong electrical discharges when certain chemical compounds are placed in the route of the electric current. As results from these experiments, the author finds that the undermentioned salts and other chemicals are transported by electrical discharges in the direction from the negative electrode to the positive electrode, but not again the reverse way. These salts and substances are ferricyanide of potassium, bichromate of potassa, chloride of barium, chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, chloride of ammonium, and protochloride of iron. The following are among the substances which are not transported by any electric current, whatever its direction :-Chloride of cobalt, chloride of platinum, nitrate of silver, caustic potassa, and sulphate of potassa.

A Meteorological Observatory in the Azores.--Dr. Buys-Ballot, after briefly pointing out the great importance, not simply in a scientific, but also in a mercantile and industrial point of view, of having, on one of the islands just named (they belong to Portugal, and are situated at about 40° N. lat., and 30° W. of Greenwich), a meteorological station, connected by submarine telegraphs with Europe and America. The author states that, probably, by September 1872, this desirable object will be accomplished by the activity of M. Fradesso da Silveira, the Director of the Observatory at Lisbon.-Comptes Rendus, June 12.

Low Temperature of the 18th of May and the First Days of June.— M. Sainte-Claire Deville gives a lengthy paper ("Comptes Rendus," June 19) containing a series of communications received by him from different localities in France. It appears that, even in the very south of that country, the temperature fell during this period to so low a degree as

has not been witnessed within man's memory at this time of the season; moreover, heavy storms, accompanied by deluging rains and seriously destructive hail, have occurred in many parts of France; while near Paris, at St. Germain en Laye, he found the temperature was -35° on May 18, in the morning, at a height of 33 centimetres above the soil (a meadow).

ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.

New North American Phyllopoda.-A series of notices of several new species appears from the pen of A. J. Packard, M.D., in "Silliman's American Journal" for August and the earlier months. We merely call attention to them because, of course, it would be out of our power to reproduce them here.

A Grand Dredging Exploration.-Professor Agassiz has accepted an invitation extended to him by the American Coast Survey Bureau to take passage on the iron coast-survey steamer, which has recently been built at Wilmington, Delaware, and which was to sail for the Pacific coast in September. The expedition will take deep-sea soundings all the way, and extensive collections of specimens will be made for the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. Secretary Boutwell has written to the Secretaries of State and the Navy, asking that naval and other officers may be instructed to afford such courtesy and assistance to the exploring party as may be desirable. We learn also that Count Pourtales, of the Coast Survey, and Dr. Hill accompany the expedition.

The Brachiopoda obtained by the United States Coast Survey Expedition.— This expedition was in charge of L F. ae Pourtales. The report is published in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy (vol. iii. No. 1), and is by Mr. W. H. Dale. In this paper all the species dredged by Count Pourtales are fully described, and the synonymy of these and other species and genera is well worked out. The anatomy of several of the species is described at considerable length. Two lithographic plates, chiefly anatomical, illustrate this paper.

The Development of a Giant Gregarine.-The anatomy and development of G. gigantea, an enormously large species, has been worked out by M. E. Van Beneden, who has published a long and important memoir, accompanied by a plate, on the subject. He has found in the lobster's intestine multitudes of small protoplasmic masses resembling the Protamoba primitiva of Haeckel, with certain distinctions from it, however. They are distinguished from the true Amoeba by the absence of a nucleus and a contractile vacuole. These have no projections from them. There are, however, others which have one, or more frequently two, prolongations in the form of arms, which M. Van Beneden says resemble the mobile stem of Noctiluca, and these forms he calls generating cytodes. He then describes the movements of them, one of the arms or projections of which is motionless. After a time the other increases in length till at last it breaks away, and having specially an undulating motion, it is like a nematoid worm. Curiously enough, when

the moveable arm has been discharged, the further development of the arm at rest begins, and it goes through the same process of development and motion as the preceding, with this difference, that instead of becoming detached from the central mass, it gradually absorbs it as a vertebrate embryo absorbs the contents of the vitelline sac. The resemblance of the animal thus formed to the Nematodes has led the author to style them pseudofilaria. He then proceeds to describe the further development of those peculiar bodies into Gregarina gigantea. Several other subjects of kindred interest are discussed in the memoir, which is both full and complete.

The Meteoric Origin of Life.—This new hypothesis, which was originated by the President of the British Association in his Edinburgh address, is somewhat startling. The notion that life first came upon the globe in a glistening fire-ball, which brought some fragments of moss along with it, is a curious notion enough; but it by no means gets rid of the difficulty of the origin of life; it merely carries it back a little further.

Zoological Stations.-Dr. Sclater, F.R.S., read before the British Association (at Edinburgh) a report froni the committee for the formation of zoological stations in different parts of the globe. It stated that an observatory at Naples had been arranged for, and drew attention to the importance of establishing a zoological station in the British Islands, and to the opportunity now afforded for such a proposition by the cessation of the grant to the Kew observatory. Until a recent date, it was submitted, the Association had given considerable sums for dredging explorations, but in consequence of the advance of zoological science the problems were much changed, and their nature was such as to demand the assistance of the Association in other directions. The careful study of the development and habits of marine animals could only be carried on by the aid of large aquaria and cumbrous apparatus, which an individual could hardly provide for himself. This, and the copious supply of animals for observation, could be provided by such a co-operative institution. A resolution was accordingly submitted, to the effect that the committee of Section D recommend that a committee of the Association be formed for the purpose of erecting a zoological station at a convenient place on the south coast of England-say Torquay-and that a sufficient sum of money-say 5007.-be placed at their disposal, either by a single or by a series of annual grants. After reading the report, Dr. Sclater remarked that as there were three or four aquaria already established in this country, he thought the best plan would be to establish one in an entirely different part of the world; as, for instance, under the tropics, where animal life was entirely different.