Jan. 1^, 1879] 



NATURE 



255 



some diiTerence of opinion as to whether the money sub 

 scribed should be invested for the purpose of endowing a 

 lectureship or exclusively for the awarding of medals for 

 original research. It was eventually agreed, however, 

 hat two-thirds of the fund should be appropriated for 

 lecture purposes and one-third for medal purposes, and 

 it was likewise determined that the medal should bear 

 the name of the " Graham " Medal ; and that one trien- 

 nial lecture should also be designated the " Graham " 

 Lecture, both lectureship and medal being instituted in 

 commemoration of the eminent services of a former 

 citizen of Glasgow and member of the Philosophical 

 Society, the late Thomas Graham, Master of the Mint, 

 so distinguished for his researches in chemistry and 

 physics. 



As the scheme is now in such a complete state that it 

 may be announced to the scientific world, we mention a 

 few facts of interest in regard to it. 



Through their president, Mr. James Mactear, of St. 

 Rollox Chemical Works, the Council of the Chemical Sec- 

 tion have been successful in obtaining from Her Majesty's 

 Mint a valuable die of Prof. Graham, and the authorities 

 of the Mint have agreed to strike the medal free of charge, 

 the Trust Fund supplying the necessary gold for the pur- 

 pose. The Council intend to award the medal at not less 

 intervals than three years, in order that time may be 

 allowed for papers to be brought forward of sufficient 

 merit to justify them in making an award. It may be 

 remarked that the medals, of not less value than 10/., is 

 to be awarded for the best original investigation in 

 chemical physics or in pure or applied chemistry, which 

 may be communicated to the Philosophical Society of 

 Glasgow, or the Chemical Section thereof, during the 

 three sessions preceding the award.^ The Council of the 

 Section will make the award, or it may be made by an 

 equivalent body of local chemists of repute, with power 

 on their part to remit the function to the Professor of 

 Chemistry in University College, London, or to the 

 Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. 

 Papers in competition for the " Graham " medal, may, 

 \\e believe, be offered from any part of the United 

 I Kingdom ; in other words, authors need not necessarily 

 , be members of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, or 

 of its Chemical Section. Dr. William Ramsay, Uni- 

 \ersity Laboratorj^, Glasgow, the present Secretary of 

 the Section, will be glad to answer all inquiries in regard 

 to the matter. 



For the purpose of inaugurating the "Graham" 



lecture scheme in the most fitting manner possible, the 



Council of the Section hare induced Mr. W. Chandler 



! Roberts, F.R.S., the successor to Prof. Graham, as 



j Chemist to the Mint, and for a long time his chief 



assistant in carrying out his later investigations, to deliver 



j the first lecture, which is announced for Wednesday, the 



22nd inst. Of course it is to be delivered in Glasgow. 



The subject is to be "Molecular Mobility, or some 



Forms of Invisible Motion," with special reference, 



doubtless, to the valuable physico-chemical researches 



instituted by Graham. It is the intention of the lec- 



ti;rer to exhibit and even to use a good deal of the 



apparatus employed by Graham, and now the property 



of Mr. Roberts. 



" The fitness of things" in connection with the delivery 

 of the inaugural " Graham " lecture is still further shown 

 in the choice and consent of Mr. James Young, F.RS., 

 of Kelly, to preside on the occasion. There may be 

 many readers of Nature to whom it is not known that 

 the gentleman just named was, when a very young man, 

 a student in the evening popular classes conducted by 

 Graham in the Mechanics' Institution and Anderson's 

 College, Glasgow, whom he afterwards faithfully ser\'ed 

 as lecture assistant, first in Glasgow, and then in the 

 laboratory of St. Thomas's Hospital, London. That he 



' Ihi; Is rurcly .-, mis'ake ; why -r.y limit ?— Ed. Nature. 



benefited by the scientific teachings of his great master 

 is abundantly evident in the fact that he is himself the 

 founder of one of our greatest chemical industries, namely, 

 the manufacture of paraffin and paraffin oils — in a sense, 

 the creation of the last quarter of a century, but already 

 big with scientific and practical results. His devout re- 

 spect for Graham's memory has since become almost a 

 passion, and it is but proper that he should "assist " at 

 this further effort to commemorate the great scientific 

 triumphs of his teacher, master, and friend. 



John Mayer 



NOTES 



At the anniversary meeting of the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences of St. Petersburg, on December 29, 1878, it was 

 amiounced that Mr. Hind, F.R.S., superintendent of the 

 Nautical Almanac, had been elected a Corresponding Member 

 of the Academy. Besides Mr. Hind there are in the list of Cor- 

 responding Members of this great Academy the names of Airy, 

 Darwin, De la Rue, Frankland, Hooker, Huxley, Miller, Owen, 

 Sabine, and Sylvester. 



We trust the subject discussed in our first article this week 

 will meet with the attention it deserves in the proper quarter. 

 It is clear that, by almost every civilised government but our 

 own, the vast importance of meteorological observatories at high 

 altitudes is recognised, and the universal value of weather fore- 

 casts is now taken as a matter of course. France has her Pic 

 du Midi and Pay de Dome, America her magnificently-appointed 

 Pike's Peak, and, as our article shows, other countries in Europe 

 have each one or more of these all-important lofty observatories ; 

 but, as usual, we are half-a-century behind. How valuable 

 meteorological observations would be to the nation, on one or 

 more of our loftiest Scotch mountains, any meteorologist can 

 tell, and may be seen clearly enough from the article. We 

 earnestly hope the question will not be allowed to subside, but 

 will be persistently urged in the proper quarter as a matter 

 of national importance. It would not take the price of a 

 new gun to found such an institution as is wanted. 



The telegraph wires of Pic du Midi Observatory have been 

 broken again for a number of days. Some anxiety was felt at 

 Toulouse for the safety of General Nansouty, and a rumour 

 spread that the house had been cru-hed by an avalanche 

 descending from the rock at the foot of which it has been built 

 for protection against the wind. M. Albert Tissandier was sent to 

 reconnoitre with three mountain guides. On January 9, in the 

 morning, he started from Bagneres. On the loth, in the evening, 

 he arrived at the observator)-, \\ here he found that the rumours 

 spread in the plains were unfounded ; General Nansouty was 

 taking his readings. On the following morning M. Tissandier 

 took some drawings, and on the 12th he returned to Bagneres. 

 The telegraphic communications with Puy de Dome were inter- 

 rupted on the nth, at the very time when they were restored 

 with Pic du Midi. 



A SUCCESSFUL experiment was made the other night at 

 Liverpool Street station in electric lighting, the particular form 

 used being that known as the " Farmer- Wallace." Several 

 platforms were successfully Ughted up, and only one or two 

 minor and easily remediable drawbacks characterised the dis- 

 play. By means of a small electro-magnet on the top of the 

 frame, carrying a clutch, the carbons are kept constantly ad- 

 justed, without interference. The gas companies have at last 

 determined to show what they can really do in the way of illu- 

 mination, and give themselves fair play in any comparison with 

 electric lighting. The Phoenix Company, on Saturday night, 

 lit up a part of Waterloo Bridge Road with gas of increased 

 power, on an increased number of lamps, with special burners, 

 in specially-arranged cages. The result was quite sufficient to 



