414 



NA TURE 



[March 23, 1876 



principal piles. 3. New researches to establish the composition 

 and mutual relitions of albumenoid substances. 4. To establish, 

 1)/ direct observations and experiments, the functions of the 

 various anatomical elements of Dicotyledinus stems, especially 

 in relation to the circulation of nutritive substances and the use 

 of the fibres of the liber. 5. Does the generative vesicle perform 

 the same part in eggs which are developed without previous 

 fecundation (by parthenogeneses) as in fecundated eggs ? 6. In- 

 vestijjation of the cycle of evolution in a group of the class of 

 Algoe. —The conditions usual in such competitions are laid down, 

 and the piizes are gold medals varying in value from 6oo to 1,000 

 francs. 



The Athenccum of Saturday last has a well-timed and justly 

 severe note in connection with the filling up of two vacancies 

 amopg the tmstees of the British Museum. A writer in the 

 Times has mentioned the names of Sir Henry Rawlinson and 

 Mr. Layard as having claims for the vacant posts, and the 

 Athmaum shows that only one trustee is appointed by the 

 Crown, and that the two vacancies will be filled up by the 

 Trustees themselves. "Let us hope," the Athenceum says, 

 " that they may see fit to appoint the two scholars in question, 

 or at lea=t one of them. But if they are elected, they will succeed 

 to a perfectly barren honour, unless they are subsequently placed 

 on the Working Committees, It is notorious, that Dr. Hooker, 

 ^Yho is a trustee, by virtue of his office as President of the Royal 

 Society, has absolutely no voice in the disposal of the vast col- 

 lections of natural history contained in the Museum ; and that^ 

 although there is no naturalist among the trustees with the 

 exception of Sir Philip Egerton. And it is doubtful whether 

 such men as Mr. Layard and Sir Henry Rawlinson, whose 

 sympathies are likely to be with progress and reform, with 

 scholarship and education, will be quite in harmony with that 

 system which has made the British Museum what it now is. 

 They might not feel anxious to strengthen the hands of those 

 officials who are said to have recently endeared themselves to 

 the gentlemen and scholars beneath thera by the issue of a 

 slave circular (to use the name by which it is popularly known in 

 the Reading-room), of which it is asserted that some member of 

 the legislature will before long demand the publication." 



We are grateful to the Daily News for the advanced and 

 decided views it always takes in matters affecting the interests of 

 science ; indeed its advocacy of the claims of science in the 

 country is a distinctive feature of the paper. In an able article 

 in Friday's issue the unsatisfactory condition of the British Museum 

 js pointed out, and it is shown that until an entirely new system 

 of management is instituted, no reform can be expected, "It 

 would seem, indeed, as if the framer of the constitution of the 

 British Museum had, with fiendish malignity, selected precisely 

 those persons as trustees who could by no possibility find time 

 to attend to their duties." It is shown that the recommendations 

 of successive Royal Commissions have been ignored, and that 

 no means have yet been taken to carry out improvements which 

 would greatly increase the usefulness of the Museum. We hope 

 that this article, in conjunction with the note in the Athenccum 

 to which we have referred, will have some effect in stimulating 

 the Government to carry out the recommendations of the Duke 

 of Devonshire's Commission and take steps to render the Museum 

 of greater service than it is to science and the country ; and that 

 even with its present drawbacks it does render great services 

 must be admitted. 



The Royal Irish Academy has made the following grants out 

 of the fund placed at its disposal by Parliament for advancing 

 scientific research : — 35/. to Rev. Eugene O'Meara for further 

 Report as to the Distribution of Irish Diatomacese ; 12/. to 

 Prof. Leith Adams for a Report on Irish Pleistocene Mammals ; 

 50/. to Rev, Prof. Haughton for a Report on the Tidal Constants 

 of the Irish Coasts (towards the sum of 100/. required for the 



expenses to be incurred) ; 25/, to Dr, Studdert and Mr. Plankett 

 for a Report on the Nature of the Mineral Waters of Mallow ; 

 20/. to Dr. Chichester Bell for Report on the Chemical Consti- 

 tution of Pyrol ; 40/. \zs. %d. to Dr. Emerson Reynolds for Re- 

 port on the Atomic Weight of Glucinum ; and 10/. to Dr. E. 

 P. Wright for Report on Chytridia Parasitic on Floridea:, 



The Royal Irish Academy, at its stated meeting held on the 

 eve of St. Patrick's Day, elected the following honorary mem- 

 bers :— In the department of Science : Carl W. Borchardt, Al- 

 phonse Decandolle and Ernst Haeckel. In the departments of 

 Polite Literature and Antiquities : Thomas Carlyle, Margaret 

 Stokes, William Stubbs, Eugene E. VioUet-le-duc, and Ernst 

 Windisch. 



M. Emile de Girardin and others are trying to organise a 

 Universal Exhibition in Paris for 1878. 



The electric lamp and gramme machine which have been 

 used so successfully at the Northern Railway Station, Paris, 

 have been sent vid Marseilles to Malta, to be employed in the 

 illuminations when the Prince of Wales stops there on his way 

 home from India. 



In the title to Mr. Evans' r, recent address to the Geological 

 Society, we inadvertently prefixed Royal to the designation of 

 the Society ; we regret that so important a society has not 

 attained to this dignity. 



The Imperial [Zoological-Botanical Society of Vienna, cele- 

 brates, on April 8, its sixtieth anniversary. 



On July I an Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, Agriculture, 

 &c., will be opened at Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. 



Probably not many of our readers are aware of the fact that 

 Great Britain has recently become possessed of the island of 

 Socotra, near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. Mr. P. L. Sclater 

 calls attention to the fact in Saturday's Times, in order to intimate 

 that we are almost completely ignorant of its natural produc- 

 tions. We trust, with him, that the new British Governor and 

 his assistants will not neglect to furnish us, before long, with some 

 account of the natural denizens of this terra incognita. 



Fears are entertained that the extraordinary dryness which 

 has recently prevailed in Algeria will lead to a famine. It is 

 stated that no rain has fallen this summer during the usual wet 

 season. 



It is said that a number of governments have given their ap- 

 probation to the scheme initiated by Austria for sending to the 

 Polar regions' a number of vessels to explore scientifically the 

 countries which have been discovered by the Polatis and Tegethoff 

 expedition. 



Viscount Cardwell is to ask the Government to-day in t'le 

 House of Lords what course they intend to pursue with regard 

 to Cambridge University. In answer to the Marquis of Lans. 

 downe who, on Monday, among other things asked whether 

 Science would be represented in the Oxford University Commis- 

 sion as well as rank, dignity, and learning, the Marquis of 

 Salisbury stated he had no objection to name the Commissioners 

 next Monday, and at the same time he would state the nature of 

 the amendments to be proposed by the Government. 



Vast masses of dense smoke were reported to be issuing from 

 Mount Vesuvius on Sunday ; flame was visible at night ; the ap- 

 paratus at the Observatory was in a state of disturbance, and an 

 eruptioii seems probable before long. 



Dr. Petermann has sent us one of the best maps we have 

 seen illustrating Cameron's route between Lake Tanganyika and 

 the coast. The map, which is based on that of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, is on a comparatively large scale, shows the 



