120 Ehrenberg’s Discoveries—Notices of Eminent Men. 
Mr. Benjamin Bevan was a civil engineer, and throughout his 
life showed a great love of science, and considerable power of 
promoting its purposes. He instituted various researches, theo- 
retical and practical, on the strength of materials ;* and it was he 
who first proved by experiment the curious proposition, that the 
Modulus of Elasticity of water and of ice is the same. In 1821 
he wrote a letter to the secretary of this Society, recommending 
that the form of the surface of this country should be determined 
by barometrical measurements of the heights of a great number 
of points in it,—the barometer which was to be used as a stand- 
ard being kept in London. Mr. Bevan and Mr. Webster were 
commissioned to procure a barometer, and Dr. Wollaston recom- 
mended one of Carey’s barometers, but it does not appear that any 
further steps were taken. I may remark that recent researches 
have further confirmed the wisdom of Mr. Bevan’s suggestion, 
that heights should be measured, as all other measurements are 
made, from some fixed conventional standard, instead of incurring 
the vagueness and inconsistency which result from assuming the 
existence of a natural standard, such as the level of the sea. 
Nathaniel John Winch was born at Hampton Court in the year 
_ 1769, and after a voyage into the Mediterranean, and travels im 
various countries in Europe, settled at Newcastle-upon-T'yne as @ 
merchant. He had early paid great attention to botany, which 
he continued to cultivate during a long life, and kept up a corres 
pondence with all the leading botanists in Europe. He was one 
of the earliest, and always one of the most active members of the 
Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle; and, in coD- 
junction with a few of his friends, gave to that town a scientific 
and cultured character, which still distinguishes it. He,was one 
of the honorary members of this Society; and contributed to its 
meetings, in 1814, “ Observations on the Geology of Northum- 
berland and Durham,” and in 1816, “ Observations on the Easter? 
Part of Yorkshire,”+ which were printed in the fourth and fifth 
ih 
* To Mr. Bevan our Journal is indebted for many valuable communications.— 
Ep. Lon. Phil. Mag. 
t Besides these papers, Mr. Winch published: ‘“ The Botanist’s Guide through 
the Counties of Northumberland and Durham. By N. J. Winch, J. Thornhill, and 
R. Waugh.” 2 vols. 1805.— Flora of Northumberland and Durham.” !” the 
Transactions of the Newcastle Natural History Society, vol. 2.— Essay 0 - 
Geographical Distribution of Plants through the Counties of Northumberland, Dur- 
