lonfeet in Aheer, near
to the territory of the Kaillouee Prince, En-Nour, to whom it is
recommended. Mr. Richardson had been obliged to ransom his life and
those of his fellow-travellers twice. The whole population of the
northern districts of Aheer had been raised against the expedition,
joined by all the bandits and robbers who infest that region of the
Sahara. The travellers are now in comparative security. The great Soudan
route, from Ghat to Aheer, is explored. Of the expedition of Von Muller
we have a few days later but not important news.

* * * * *

The Royal Society of London, at the last annual meeting, awarded "the
Royal Medal" to Mr. Benjamin Brodie, F.R.S. (eldest son of Sir B.
Brodie, Bart.) for his papers on the chemical nature of wax. It is
nearly forty years since the Royal Society awarded the "Copley medal" to
Sir Benjamin Brodie for his paper "on poisons;" the only instance of
father and son receiving the same distinction.

* * * * *

Of an Hungarian Academy, Mr. Walsh writes to the _Journal of Commerce_,
"Last month Mr. Kenigswater transmitted to the Academy of Moral and
Political Sciences, a very interesting communication relative to the
National Academy of Hungary, with the existence of which few of the
French savants were acquainted. The idea of establishing a National
Society for universal knowledge, dates from the end of the last century.
Its accomplishment was delayed by political causes, and the want of
adequate funds. But a Magyar Count succeeded, in 1827, in obtaining an
act of the Diet for the creation of such an institute. He presented it
with a sum of thirty thousand dollars; another magnate gave twenty
thousand dollars; many others ten thousand; so that the fund from
voluntary contributions, amounts to nearly two hundred thousand
dollars--a million of francs. The Academy was inaugurated in 1830, and
divided into six sections--Philology, Philosophy, History,
Jurisprudence, Mathematics, and the Natural Sciences. Its only President
since that period has been Count Joseph Teleki, deemed an excellent
historian, to whom and his brothers it is indebted for a sum of
twenty-five thousand francs, and a library of fifty thousand volumes. It
consists now of nineteen honorary members; thirty-eight active or
resident; and of a hundred and twenty-five corresponding members for the
several sections. Each section has a weekly meeting; ther