Dec. 5, 1878] 



NATURE 



107 



particular direction ; but then he would not have been 

 the innately versatile George Henry Lewes. His 

 influence has been spread over a wide field, and has 

 been largely beneficial to progress and enlightenment ; 

 he nerer aimed, we believe, at piling up an enduring 

 monument to himself. 



■ NOTES 



Mr. E. J. Stoke, F.R.S., Astronomer- Royal at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, has been appointed to the Radcliffe Observatory, 

 Oxford, in place of the late Rev. R. Main. 



Mr. William Spottiswoode, having been elected President 

 of the Royal Society on Saturday last, has resigned the office of 

 Secretary to the Royal Institution. At the meeting, on Monday 

 last, it was proposed that the Members of the Royal Institution 

 subscribe to present a bust of Mr. Spottiswoode to the Institu- 

 tion as a recognition of his valuable services as Treasurer and 

 Secretary successively. 



We have already referred to the new Parkes Museum of 

 Hygiene, at University College, London, and we now earnestly 

 draw our readers' attention to the appeal made by the Executive 

 Committee for subscriptions towards an endowment, which is 

 absolutely necessary for the efficiency of the institution, in diffiising 

 the much needed knowledge of sanitary appliances and their uses. 

 Although quite in its infancy, the Parkes Museum contains 

 objects relating to life-protection, dietetics, clothing, furnishing, 

 engineering, and architecture — in fact, every branch of hygiene. 

 The library already consists of between 300 and 400 volumes, 

 exclusive of pamphlets. " It cannot be too widely knou-n," the 

 Executive Committee state, " that it is intended to extend the 

 benefits of the Museum to all classes, so that not only pro- 

 fessional men, but owners of property, employers of labour, 

 artisans, and others, both men and women, may be able to study 

 at their leisure the subjects in which they are most interested." 

 The Executive Committee, therefore, confidently appeal for 

 pecuniary support to all those who, while being interested in 

 technical education and sanitary science, have the inclination 

 and the means to give such assistance. The Committee will not 

 only be glad to receive subscriptions of money, but also books 

 and pamphlets in any language, statistical tables, maps, plans, 

 and other drawings, models, apparatus, or specimens illustrating 

 any branch of hygiene. Subscriptions may be paid to the 

 Treasurer, Mr. Berkeley Hill, 55, Wimpole Street, W. All 

 communications relating to the presentation of articles to the 

 Museum should be addressed to the Curator, ilr. Mark H. 

 Judge, Parkes Museum, University College, Gower Street, W.C. 



The Daily AVii-j' New York correspondent telegraphs that 

 Mr. Edison announces that he has perfected a machine for 

 measuring the current used in the electric light. It consists 

 of an apparatus placed in every house lighted by electricity, 

 which registers the quantity of electricity consumed, and uses 

 for the purpose the one- thousandth part of the quantity con- 

 sumed in the building. Mr. Edison declares that his invention 

 of the light, including the arrangement for counteracting loss in 

 subdivision, is now completed. His experiments at present are 

 directed to reducing the cost. He has, he says, already brought 

 this decidedly below the cost of gas, and as soon as the minimum 

 IS reached, wiU make the results public. The Nnu York World 

 contains the following interesting details of Mr. Edison's 

 domgs :— " Dozens of workmen and machinists are hard at work 

 at Menlo Park on the new buUdings, the workshop bein<r now 

 almost ready for the roof. Mr. Edison said to a reporter for 

 the World, ' I don't know when I am going to stop makin-r im- 

 provements on the electric light. I've just got another one that 

 1 found by accident. I was experimenting with one of my 



burners when I dropped a screw-driver on to it. Instantly the 

 light was almost doubled and continued to bum with the increased 

 power. I examined the burner and found it had been knocked 

 out of shape. I restored it to its original form, and the light was 

 decreased. Now, I make all my burners in the form accidentally 

 given to that one by the screw-driver. The result is that I caa 

 produce the amount of light given out by the first burner with 

 little more than half the power. It is almost impossible to cal- 

 culate with certainty the resources of my light, but I have 

 engaged a mathematician to work out the problem from mji 

 data.' On the whole, Mr. Edison states he is confident of 

 success, however much any one may be puzzled by his methods 

 or claims." 



The Corporation of Liverpool have given notice that they 

 intend to apply in the ensuing Session for an Act authorising 

 the lighting of the public street, places, and buildings within 

 the borough by means of the electric light, " or otherwise than 

 by means of gas." The Corporations of Warrington, Derby, 

 South Shields, Leicester, Blackburn, Over Darwen, and Strat 

 ford-upon-Avon, in conjunction, in the latter borough, with the 

 Local Board of Health, ask for similar powers in the Bills which 

 they intend to promote. 



The sLxth part of the Ulostrated work of C. J. Maynard on 

 the " Birds of Florida, and the Water and Game Birds of 

 Eastern North America," has just been published, and contains 

 three quarto plates, one of them representing sixty-six pecies 

 of ^gs. 



Messrs. Macmillan and Co. will shortly publish "Notes 

 of a Naturalist on Board the Chailenger" by Mr. H. N. Moseley^ 

 F.R.S., who was on the scientific staff of the expedition. The 

 work will be illustrated. 



The zoological station of the Zoological Society of the Nether- 

 lands has published its third report. Dtudng the summer of 1878- 

 the station was erected on the Island of Terschelling, and 

 in the course of two months it was visited by ten zoologists. 

 This year the investigation of the Zuider-Zee was the principal 

 object kept in view, and for that purrose some fourteen dredging, 

 exctu^ions with the boat stationed in West-Terschelling for 

 laying buoys were organised. The station underwent np small 

 improvement, a nicely-organised aquarium-room being added ta 

 the main building. Here a small hot-air engine of about 

 xV-horse power (construction of D. W. van Rennes, Utrecht), 

 drives an air-forcing pump ; the compressed air gathered in a 

 white-iron box is distributed through numerous aquarium-vessels 

 by means of gmn-elastic tubes and small glass-canules. By 

 means of this arrangement even on hot days numerous animals 

 were kept ahve. The investigation of the Zuider-Zee not being 

 brought to a close, the Island of Terschelling wiU probably 

 next year see the station again erected in one of its picturesque 

 valleys. 



At last week's meeting of the Paris Academy M. Pasteur 

 read a critical examination of the posthimious papers of Claude 

 Bernard, in which statements were made opposed to the con- 

 clusions reached by M. Pasteur. He regards the manuscript of 

 Bernard as a sterile attempt to substitute for M-eU-established 

 facts the deductions of an ephemeral system. " The errors, 

 however," M. Pasteur says, "of those who in the sciences have 

 accomplished a valiant career have only the philosophical in- 

 terest which attaches to the knowledge of otur human frailty." 



The following are the probable arrangements of the Royal 

 Institution for the Friday Evening Meetings before Easter^ 

 1879 :— January 17, Prof. Tyndall, "The Electric Light;" 

 January 24, Prof. W. E. Ayrton, " The Mirror of Japan and its 

 Magic Quality j " January 31, Mr. H. Heathcote Statham^ 



