Nov. 1 8, 1875J 



NATURE 



45 



sources must be in the Albert and Victoria N'yanzas or 

 their extensions ; in the new lake of Col. Long ; at the 

 head waters of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and in the sources 

 of the feeders of the Blue Nile and the Atbara." We 

 will dismiss the " new lake of Col. Long," but remind 

 Mr. South worth that he has omitted the most powerful 

 of the White Nile affluents— the Sobat— N, lat. 9° 21' ! 



There can be no doubt the Victoria N'yanza is a mighty 

 reservoir or principal source of the Nile, and the friends 

 of the lamented Capt. Speke will rejoice in the triumph of 

 his discovery now rendered certain by the survey of Mr. 

 Stanley. The Albert N'yanza has never been visited by 

 any Europeans except Sir Samuel and Lady Baker in 

 Februaiy 1 864 ; thus nearly twelve years have elapsed 

 since its discovery, and yet no European has been able to 

 reach its shores, although its waters were again sighted 

 by Sir S. Baker during the expedition of the Khedive of 



Egypt. 



There can be little doubt that Col. Gordon will succeed 

 in exploring the Great Basin of the Nile, which will prove 

 to be not only a source, but the general reservoir or basin 

 that receives all equatorial affluents. 



Although Mr. Southworth's travels do not include any 

 new ground, his book affords much useful information, 

 which will be received with more than ordinary interest 

 at the present moment, when Egyptian affairs are pro- 

 minently before the public. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteejtth Century. 

 By Robert Routledge, B.Sc, F.C.S. With numerous 

 Illustrations ; pp. 594. (London : George Routledge and 

 Sons, 1876.) 



In this book " an attempt has been made to present a 

 popular account of remarkable discoveries and inventions 

 which characterise the present century." " The instances 

 selected have been those which appeared to some extent 

 typical, or those which seemed to have the most direct 

 bearing upon the general progress of the age." "The 

 author has endeavoured to indicate, if not to explain, the 

 principles involved in each discovery and invention." 



These extracts from the preface sufficiently explain the 

 object of the work before us. Anyone who attentively 

 reads this book must admit that the author has succeeded 

 in fulfilling the promise of his preface. He has produced a 

 work teeming with useful and exact information presented 

 in a singularly lucid and taking style. Of course this 

 book cannot in any way take the place of the acknow- 

 ledged manuals on the several subjects of which it treats, 

 but it is admirably adapted to awaken an interest, espe- 

 cially among the young, in those wonderful advances 

 which natural science has made in the present century ; 

 and to supply such a general knowledge as shall convey 

 a correct idea of the principles on which the application 

 of science to arts and manufactures are based, along with 

 a sufficiently detailed account of these manufactures 

 themselves. 



Books, the general plan of which resembles that of this 

 work, have been too often produced by men who had no 

 scientific knowledge of the processes they attempted to 

 describe, and have therefore shown a lamentable deficiency 

 in exactness of detail and accuracy of theory'. That the 

 book before us should have escaped these faults, faults for 

 which no brilliancy of diction or popularity of style can 

 atone, is to be traced to the fact that its author has 

 evidently determined, and has been able to carry out his 

 determination, to make the book a scientific one ; to 

 show, as far as could be^consistently with the general tone 



of the work, that theory is necessary for correct practice, 

 and that correct practice reacts upon theory. The contents 

 of the book include an account of steam engines, iron, 

 tools, railways, steam navigation, fire-arms, printing 

 machines, light, the spectroscope, electricity, photography, 

 aquaria, india-rubber, explosives, mineral combustibles, 

 coal gas, &c. A very interesting chapter is devoted to 

 New Metals, in which a clear and succinct account of the 

 discover}' and present method of producing sodium, 

 potassium, aluminium, and magnesium is given. The 

 gradual diminution in the cost of these metals, and there- 

 fore their increasing application in manufactures as 

 chemical science has discovered easier methods for their 

 preparation, is an argument in favour of the study of pure 

 science which must appeal, one would think, even to the 

 Philistines. 



The title which the author has chosen for the closing 

 chapter of his book, viz. " The greatest discovery of the 

 age," might lead one to look for a glowing account of 

 some new invention to economise labour or to annihilate 

 pain, but when we find that the chapter is devoted to a 

 sober account of Dr. Joule's experimental determination 

 of the mechanical equivalent of heat, and to some of the 

 consequences deduced therefrom, we are but the more 

 convinced that this book must rank among the few 

 popular works which are sure to be of serv-ice in spreading 

 a knowledge of the incalculable benefits which science has 

 bestowed upon the human race. 



M. M. Pattisox IMuir 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ Thi Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressea 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.'^ 



Scientific Research for the Promotion of Science 



In Nature, vol. xii. p. 470, there are some valuable 

 summaries of evidence taken before the Government Science 

 Commission ; but among them I was surprised to meet with the 

 statement (by Captain Galton, R.E.) that, as one of the 

 varieties of administration of several existing scientific institu- 

 tions, " you have the Observatory at Edinbturgh as part of the 

 University of Edinburgh." 



Now, inasmuch as I have for the last thirty years held the 

 Directorship of the Edinburgh Observatory, by virtue of my 

 appointment thereto signed by her Majesty, I should know 

 something of the real facts of the case ; and they obhge me to 

 state that the Royal Obser\'atory (the only Observatory) in 

 Edinburgh is supported, in so far as it exists at all, by Govern- 

 ment. It is responsible, moreover, solely to Government, in the 

 person of the Principal Secretary of State for Home Affairs ; it 

 has never at any time received a farthing from the University of 

 Edinburgh, whether for instruments, salaries, general main- 

 tenance, or particular services ; and does not form any part of, nor 

 belong to, nor did ever belong to, the said University in any 

 manner whatever. 



But the efhciency of the Observatory has been crippled from 

 the beginning by the connection of its Director with the Uni- 

 versity ; and as that offers a practical answer to the question 

 much discussed in your pp. 429 and 470, touching whether there 

 is, or is not, any difference in kind, nature, interests and feelings 

 between institutions for the promotion of science by original 

 observation on one side, and on the other the usually much 

 larger and more numerous institutions for education, — I trust 

 you will allow me a little space wherein to describe our actual 

 and long- continued experiences here. 



Built by the members of the late Astronomical Institution of 

 Edinburgh between 181 1 and 1830, this Observatory was, after 

 many public petitions to that end, graciously taken up by 

 Government in 1834, and its future utilisation secured by 

 arrangements for the appointment thereto of a Royal Astro- 

 nomer with an assistant, and a small allowance for ordinary 

 working expenses. The first Astronomer so appointed was the 

 late Thomas Henderson, the best man by far for such a post 

 whom Scotland has ever possessed ; and as he had at that time 

 just returned firom being Astronomer Royal at the Cape of Good 



