36g 



NATURE 



{Atig. 24, 1876 



NOTES 

 Mr. J. W. JUDD has been appointed Professor of Geology in 

 the Royal School of Mines in succession to Prof. Ramsay, who 

 resigned some time since. Mr. Judd has been a frequent con- 

 tributor to our pages and has already taken a very high place in 

 the field of original geological research. His appointment as 

 Prof. Ramsay's successor must give universal satisfaction. 



Prof. Ramsay has been called away to Gibraltar to report on 

 the water-supply there ; his place as a lecturer at the British Asso- 

 ciation will be taken by Prof. Tait. 



Mr. Porter Poinieb, a most promising young physicist, 

 died in New York on June 11, aged 23 years. In the Poly- 

 technic Institutes of Troy and Hoboken, he had thus early 

 developed a very remarkable genius in the department of applied 

 science. His studies had led him, with great success, into 

 original investigations of heat as a force in nature, and his 

 thorough and accurate and independent researches in this direc- 

 tion had attracted the favourable notice of the faculties under 

 whom he studied. He attained to such important results as 

 ■were found worthy of public notice, and he was engaged in the 

 preparation and publication of an original work on the Dynamics 

 of Heat, with the approval of his professors. His enthusiasm 

 drank up his spirits, and utterly exhausted his physical force. 

 Before he was aware, he was in the advanced stages of an in- 

 curable disease, and while labouring to put his work through 

 the press at Cambridge, he was pronounced beyond recovery .His 

 very rare attainments and his extraordinary promisein the field of 

 research, had been brought to the notice of the Johns Hopkins 

 University at Baltimore, and the day after his death, only too late 

 for his noble ambition, came the certificate from the heads of 

 the university appointing him to a fellowship in that institution. 

 As a lecturer in the department of his special and successful 

 study he had become familiar with the best French and German 

 works in modem science, and his accuracy, and perseverance, 

 and thirst for knowledge, gave him promise of a very eminent 

 future. We believe that there is good ground for hoping that 

 Mr. Pointer's work on thermodynamics may be found to have 

 been sufficiently advanced before his death to be still a valuable 

 contribution to science. A very touching letter from a relative 

 states that " he begged his physicians to keep him alive just to 

 finish his book, and then he would be willing to go," 



The British and the Cambrian Archseological Associations 

 held their Annual Congresses last week, the former in Cornwall 

 and the latter in South Wales. The members of the former 

 were occupied mainly with visits to the various architectural 

 remains in which Cornwall is so rich, and especially to the 

 localities which are identified with the Arthurian legends. Mr, 

 W. C. Borlase exhibited on Sunday afternoon to a large number 

 of the members, his valuable collection of objects of prehistoric 

 and antiquarian interest. On Monday a visit was paid to St, 

 Just, in the neighbourhood of Land's End, and on the road 

 ihither, a number of Cromlechs and an old hill-castle were 

 visited. The meeting, during which a considerable number of 

 antiquarian papers were read, was brought to a close on Tuesday. 

 In the latter, which was opened at Abergavenny, the President 

 was Dr. E, A. Freeman, who gave a valuable address on the im- 

 portance of Welsh history, referring to the fact that there is no 

 really good history of Wales, and urging upon the Association 

 the advisability of a competent member at once undertaking to 

 •upply the want. The members visited several places in the 

 neighbourhood of architectural interest. Both Congresses seem 

 to have been successful. 



There seems to be some doubt about the Social Science Con- 

 gress meeting this year in Liverpool, on account of the difficulty 

 in finding a building large enough to contain the many objects 

 which it is intended to exhibit. 



The Statistical Congress opens at Buda-Pesth on Sept. i, A 

 Congress of Archaeology and Anthropology will also be held at 

 Bada-Pesth in the beginning of September. A proposition will 

 be discussed for making the French language the only one to be 

 used at such international meetings. 



The 25th meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science commenced at Buffalo, N,Y., yesterday. 



The University of Upsal, Sweden, will, says the Rtfvtu Scien- 

 (ijique, celebrate next year, in September, the 400th anniversary 

 of its foundation. 



The Madrid Official Gazette states that the Spanish Govern- 

 ment has appointed a commission to inquire into the situation 

 and the resources of the Philippine Islands. A botanist will 

 accompany the expedition for the purpose of reporting on the 

 nature of the flora of the interior, the extent of the forests, &c. 

 The Commission will explore carefully the whole group, in 

 order to prepare a map on a large scale. The mountain-chains 

 will be the object of special investigation ; the height of all the 

 salient points will be determined with the greatest precision. 

 The officers of the expedition will take notes and make observa- 

 tions for the purpose of preparing a complete monograph of all 

 the islands explored. 



The number of visitors to the Loan Collection of Scientific 

 Apparatus during the week ending August 19 was as follows :— 

 Monday, 2,710; Tuesday, 2,180; Wednesday, 280; Thursday, 

 270; Friday, 228; Saturday, 3,250; total, 8,918, 



Mr. T, a. Dillon, writing to Tuesday's Times in reference 

 to the proposal to blow up the Vanguard, shows that such a course 

 would be quite wanton. He states that he has proved by varied 

 and ciiiical experiments, that by covering the ship tightly with 

 a sheet of canvas a diving-bell would be formed, from which 

 air-pumps could easily expel the water, and the ship would recover 

 her buoyancy and instantly rise and tloat. Judging from the experi- 

 ment described by Mr. Dillon, the attempt ought to be made, 

 and that, too, with the greatest hope of success, 



A General Meeting of the Mineralogical Society of Great 

 Britain and Ireland will be held at Glasgow on the afternoon ot 

 Wednesday, Sept. 6, after the meeting of the General Com- 

 mittee of the British Association. The exact time and place 

 will be posted up in the British Association Reception Rooms. 

 The chair will be taken by Prof. M. Forster Heddle, M.D., 

 F.R G.S, All papers intended to be read should be forwarded 

 to Mr. J. H. Collins, at 57, Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall, not 

 later than Saturday, Sept. 2. 



From the " Report of the Manchester and Salford Sanitary 

 Association for 1875," we observe that this influential book con- 

 tinues in full activity the good work it has long done in pro- 

 moting public interests. The pollution of rivers, hospital 

 accommodation, and the control of noxious vapours, are some of 

 the subjects affecting the pubhc health which have occupied the 

 Association during the year. Three of the winter lectures, viz., 

 those on the causes reducing the effects of sanitary reform, on 

 the preservation of health, and on the seeds of disease, have been 

 published at a penny each, and tracts on such subjects as typhoid 

 and scarlet fevers, vaccination, personal cleanliness, clothing, 

 houses, and the feeding, clothing, and nursing of children, have 

 been distributed to a large extent. But what distinguishes this 

 from all other similar societies are the returns of disease in public 

 practice which are published weekly, no other statistics of the 

 kind being published in the kingdom. We earnestly hope 

 that the Association will soon be in a position to discuss the 

 invaluable material they have now accumulated under this head, 

 and publish the results in the form of weekly averages for the 

 different diseases, since the important question of the relation of 



