The foreign news of the hour is somewhat unsatisfactory. In consequence of the generally lawless condition of the Southern Russian Republics, the great corn districts of those regions have for some years been falling out of cultivation; and no hopes are entertained that we shall be able to import any more grain from Odessa, or indeed from any quarter of the world. In a similar way, the native rulers to whom we restored what was formerly called our Indian Empire, and also China after its brief occupation, have so far adopted American and European ideas as to place for this next year such duties on rice and tea as will almost prohibit the importation of those articles into the English market, while they have positively forbidden the introduction of English cotton or iron into their respective States. The bad and deceptive quality of the goods furnished by our manufacturers is the alleged cause of these unfortunate regulations. SCIENCE will, no doubt, ere long enable us to supply the deficiencies thus caused both in our Commissariat and the income hitherto derived from manufacture; but, for the present, some anxiety is naturally felt in commercial circles regarding these untoward events. Against all mishaps, however, we rejoice to set the announcement—which will be greeted with universal exultation—that the researches of the learned Professor Coppervale respecting the animalculæ causing the Vine Disease, the Silk-worm Disease, and the Potato Disease, have resulted in the glorious discovery of a method of conveying the infection with absolute scientific certainty from a plant or insect which has been attacked to another still healthy. In this manner the vineyards of Château La Rose and of Château Yquem have both been effectively inoculated by the processes recommended by the English Professor to the French Director of Agriculture; and the result is perfectly satisfactory. Not a grape on either ground was available during the last vintage for wine-making. In the words, then, of an illustrious philosopher of last century, “From this vantage ground already won we look forward with confident hope to the triumph of science over all the loss and misery which the human race has experienced.” Anyone who has eaten a grape infected with the _phylloxera_ according to Professor Coppervale’s stupendous discovery, will have enjoyed a foretaste of the triumph of Science in ages to come. * * * * *