Feb. 17, 1876] 



NATURE 



315 



the Government " Universities " Bill would constitute an Exe- 

 cutive Commission with powers to receive schemes from Col- 

 leges, and base upon them the new University and Collegiate 

 organisation. We shall deal at length wth this important sub- 

 ject at the proper time. 



We hear a rumour — which we think not unlikely to strengthen 

 into a more certain sound — that the scheme for removing the 

 O.xford Botanic Garden from its present historical and picturesque 

 site to the bleak and arid " parks," has fallen through, and that 

 immediate steps are to be taken to put the existing establishment 

 on an efficient footing. 



The Times' correspondent, telegraphing from Rome on 

 Tuesday, states that the Working Committee appointed by the 

 Italian Government to act in concert with the General Committee 

 in London for carrying into effect the exhibition of a loan col- 

 lection of scientific instruments, to be opened at South Ken- 

 sington in April next, have just addressed a circular to the 

 various scientific institutions and individual savans throughout 

 the country. It informs them that His Majesty's Government 

 ardently desires that Italy should also take part in the Exhibition, 

 and requests them to examine what instruments in their collec- 

 tions may be most worthy of being exhibited. It especially calls 

 their attention to instruments of an historic character, and to 

 those which have been constructed and principally applied in 

 Italy. In the case of important instruments, of which the use 

 cannot be dispensed with for the length of time the Exhibition 

 may remain open, or which are of too fragile or too delicate a 

 description to incur the risk of transport, but which, from their 

 novelty or perfection, merit being brought before the notice of 

 scientific men through this Exhibition, the Committee request 

 that models and photographs of not too small a size may be sent 

 These models and photographs are to be made at the expense of 

 the institution or persons exhibiting, but in cases where they may 

 not be able to support the expense, the Committee, in propor- 

 tion to the importance of the instruments, will supply the means 

 from a fund set apart for the purpose by the Minister of Public 

 Instruction. The Committee suggest that especial regard should 

 be had to the quality and interest of the objects sent, rather than 

 to the quantity. 



A SUPPOSED error in the determination of the date when 

 Easter Sunday should fall in the present year has been made 

 the subject of communications to various metropolitan and pro- 

 vincial journals. We shall enter more fully into this question 

 next week ; meanwhile it may be stated that the presumed error 

 is an imaginary one, according to the strict methods for ascer- 

 taining the date of Easter Sunday, which is correctly fixed by 

 our almanacs to the i6th of April. 



A COMMITTEE has been formed at the Hague for the purpose 

 of organising a movement to erect a statue in that city to 

 Spinoza, the 200th anniversary of whose death occurs this 

 month next year. Foreign committees have also been formed, 

 and among the members of the English committee are Professors 

 Bain, Huxley, Jowett, Max Miiller, Tyndall, Principal Tulloch, 

 Messrs. G. H. Lewes and Herbert Spencer. Committees have 

 also been formed in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the United 

 States, Finland, France, Italy, and Switzerland. We do not 

 require to say anything in favour of this movement ; now that 

 the matter has been mooted it seems surprising that nothing 

 of this kind has hitherto been done to honour the memory of one 

 of the greatest, purest, and most cosmopolitan of philosophers. 

 The movement only requires to be widely known to meet with 

 adequate practical support ; many who may differ seriously from 

 Spinoza's philosophy will be glad of an opportunity to show 

 their appreciation of a great, courageous, and disinterested 

 thmker. The treasmer is Mr. A, W. Jacobson, the Hague, the 

 president being Dr. M. F. A. G. Campbell, of the same place. 



As regards our note in a former number on the Obi Ex- 

 pedition, we find that Dr. Finsch, of Bremen, whom we spoke 

 of as about to accompany it, will himself be the conductor of it, 

 and will be assisted by Dr. Brehm and .Count Waldburg-Zeil, 

 also the well-known microscopist Oscar Schmidt, of Strasburg. 

 The Expedition is organised and sent out by the Verein fiir 

 Deutsche Nordpolarfahrt in Bremen, and will proceed overland 

 vid Semipalatinsk and the Altai. It is expected to return late 

 in the autumn." 



We are much pleased to see that Mr. E. L. Layard is gazetted 

 to the Consulship of New Caledonia. In spite of the enormous 

 pressure of business upon him during the late transfer of govern- 

 ment in the Fiji Islands, Mr. Layard has managed to do a con- 

 siderable amount of scientific work there ; he has sent home large 

 collections of birds, as well as several valuable papers. 



We have received a copy of the Statement by the Committee 

 appointed by the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science for the purpose of continuing the investigation on the 

 desirability of establishing a ' ' close time " for the preservation 

 of indigenous animals. Of the indirect and direct causes which 

 tend to reduce the numbers of the Wild Fowl, which the 

 ' ' Statement " mostly concerns, the control of the latter of these 

 causes forms its substance. It is shown that the ineffectual 

 working of the " Wild Birds' Protection Act " depends on the 

 insuflSciency of the penalties imposed, the market value of Wild 

 Fowl being high. It is also shown that as those who employ 

 their time in the pursuit of these birds are in the habit of taking 

 out a gun licence and of refraining from exercising their calling 

 in certain waters and over certain lands, therefore they fu'ly 

 realise the nature of restraint, and would be willing — the better 

 class of them, at least — gladly to recognise the propriety of a 

 well-considered and stringent measure, which by effectually pro- 

 tecting Wild Fowl during the breeding season would secure to 

 them a greater abundance at other times of the year. Wiiilst 

 considering the protection of small birds as of minor importance, 

 the Committee are of opinion that some steps for the regulation 

 of bird-catchers might well be taken. 



At a congregation of Cambridge University on Feb. 3 the 

 following grace passed the senate : — '' That a grant of 50/. be 

 made from the Worts Travelling Scholars' Fund to William 

 Bridge, B.A., of Trinity College, to enable him to visit Naples, 

 for the purpose of using Dr. Dohm's Zoological Station, and 

 making researches in Natural History, on the understanding that 

 specimens be sent by him to the University, accompanied by 

 reports which may be hereafter published." 



At the Royal Geographical Society on Monday last, Sir 

 Henry Rawlinson intimated that Lieut Cameron had solved the 

 difficulty with regard to his followers, by purchasing a vessel at 

 Loando for 1,000/., in which they sailed early in January for the 

 East Coast of Africa. By last accounts the explorer was still at 

 Loando, whence he was to sail by the next steamer for Madeira. 

 At the same meeting the Diary of the late Mr. Margary, firom 

 Hankow to Ta-li-fu, was read. 



The Council of the Society of Arts have appointed Mr. H. 

 Trueman Wood as Assistant Secretary, under Mr. P. Le Neve 

 Foster, Secretary of the Society. Mr. Wood has been for the 

 last three years the editor of the Society's journal. 



The Senatusof the University of St Andrews have conferred 

 the degree of LL.D. on Mr. James Stuart, M.A., Professor of 

 Mechanism and Applied Mechanics in Cambridge University, 

 and on Mr. James CroU, of H.M. Geological Survey, 



We hear that ten days after the attempted ascent of Mont 

 Blanc, noticed in our last number, an American lady ascended 

 not only to the Grand Mnlets, but to the summit itself, when 



