April 2^, 1879] 



NATURE 



591 



The French Physical Society held its annual meeting the 

 other day at the Hotel of the Societed'Encouragement, rue Bona- 

 parte. 'Y\i^&fafade of the hotel was illuminated by a series of 

 twenty-four lamps of the Reynier system fed by three large 

 gramme machines, each of them consuming from three to four 

 horse-power. The effect was regular for several hours, but the 

 illuminating power was very low as compared with ordinary 

 regulators. Among the apparatus exhibited we noticed a rota- 

 tion machine exhibited by M. Antoine Breguet, to demonstrate 

 that the Gramme machine may be considered as a form of the 

 Barlow rotating wheel. M. Nodot, preparateur of the Dijon 

 Faculty of Science?, exhibited a Barlow apparatus, in which 

 the rotating part is formed by a series of copper wires radially 

 implanted in the centre. M. Deprez exhibited a new motor 

 worked by six Bunsen elements, and which gives about five 

 kilogrammetres per second. This apparatus is analogous to 

 a Wilde electro-magnetic machine. All the principal opticians 

 of Paris, Breguet, Ducretet, Carpentier (formerly Ruhm- 

 korff), Dubosc, Dumontin, Froment, Deleuil, Sauter and 

 Lemonnier, sent in an improved or enlarged form the in- 

 struments which have attracted the attention of physicists 

 in recent years. The Faber speaking-machine, which has 

 been attacked by one of the French scientific papers as being 

 worked by a ventriloquist, was exhibited and explained by 

 M. Garrel. The display "was considered as one of the 

 most successful that has been offered to the public since 

 the Society was established. The large halls of the hotel were 

 crowded up to a late hour. 



Since the commencement of the present year, the well-known 

 weekly German botanical journal, the BotaniscJu Zdtung, has 

 passed into the sole editorship of Prof. De Bary, of Strassburg. 



Those interested in British botany will be glad to hear that 

 the threatened extinction of the Botanical Exchange Club, to 

 which we recently alluded, has been averted. Mr. Charles Bailey, 

 of Manchester, has offered to undertake the main responsibility 

 of the curatorship, although the scope of the Club will in future 

 be somewhat restricted. There is a proposal for issuing, in 

 connection with the Exchange Club, a small number of copies of 

 a reference herbarium of British plants, .the difiicult and critical 

 species being especially kept in view, on the plan of Reichenbach's 

 " Flora Germanica Exsicata." 



The Times Paris correspondent telegraphs that at the sitting 

 of the Academy of Sciences on Monday, it was announced that 

 Lavoisier's chemical apparatus, still preserved by his heirs, but 

 hitherto left unnoticed, had been minutely inspected by Prof. 

 Truchot, of Claremont Ferrand. It is in excellent preservation, 

 and the accompanying docimients show that Lavoisier was the 

 author of the work on sea-water distillation published anony- 

 mously in England. 



An exhibition of an interesting kind is to be held in Dresden 

 in the summer of this year. This is a general exhibition of 

 objects of art, science, and industry, connected with the educa- 

 tion and training of youth. The following are the various classes 

 into which the exhibition will be divided: — i. Teaching ma- 

 terial for schools, home. Kindergarten, &c. 2. Printed works, 

 as schoolbooks, children's books, illustrations. 3. Gymnastic 

 and similar apparatus. 4. Musical instruments. 5. Toys. 6. 

 Articles required for children in all departments of industry, as 

 furniture, linen, clothes, orthopaedic instruments, &c. A sys- 

 tematic exhibition of the development of various school materials 

 will be connected with the above, and historical objects con- 

 nected with training and education are therefore desired. A 

 similar exhibition on a small scale in 1877 ^^<i ^ great success. 

 The Committee of the Exhibition consists of one merchant and 

 three teacher.-;. Inquiries should be addressed to Herr Kauf- 



mann C. Heinze, Dresden. The Exhibition will be open firom 

 July I to August 31. 



Secondary Technical Education forms the subject of the 

 address delivered before the American Institute of Mining 

 Engineers by their president, Mr. Eckley B. Coxe, at their 

 Baltimore meeting. Great stress is laid on the necessity of 

 educating workmen, and the maxim, a little learning is a 

 dangerous thing, is combated by the sUtement that false learn- 

 ing mingling with the truth causes the danger. If the truth of 

 the maxim were admitted we fail to see that it provides a very 

 strong argument against education. A little dynamite is a 

 dangerous thing, but it is of great use in mining work. The 

 author states that they have already five gotxi schools at their 

 works, and proposed to establish another to carry on the educa- 

 tion of those boys who have left them to enter the works. 

 While admitting that an average boy cannot work all day and 

 study all the evening, and foreseeing the possibility of making 

 Jack a dull boy, the programme of studies is sketched out "as 

 far as we have been able to arrange it." It comprehends in- 

 struction in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, free-hand and 

 mechanical drawing, with descriptive geometry, physics, che- 

 mistry, mineralogy, and geology, mechanics and the construction 

 of machines, framing, mining, and mine surveying, English 

 composition, book-keeping, and, last of all, writing. Our 

 astonishment is that not only is arithmetic omitted but lunar and 

 planetary theory have no place assigned to them. 



The Madras 'limes writes: — The necessity of a scientific 

 training for coffee planters is now being recognised- Men 

 of intelligence, industry, and steady habits can alone hope 

 to succeed as coffee planters. We would urge upon estate 

 owners the expediency of insisting upon their superintendents 

 and assistants possessing a knowledge of chemi-try, sufficient at 

 least for the purposes of coffee planting. They should be able 

 to make analyses of the coffee tree, soil, manures, &c. Planters 

 should also be able to take correct observations of the weather, 

 gauge the rainfall, take notes of the nature and progress of the 

 various diseases the coffee tree is subject to, and so forth. The 

 paper of questions submitted by Mr. Harman to the various 

 coffee planters in Coorg will put their capabilities to the test, 

 and though we are aware that there are many educated and intel- 

 ligent planters in that province, we fancy some of them will find 

 it no easy task to answer the last of Mr. Harman's questions : 

 Can you give analyses of your rock soil and sub-soil ? 



On January 15, 1880, an International Exhibition of products 

 of agriculture, industry, science, and fine arts will be opened at 

 Mexico. The Exhibition will remain open for three months. 



The Anthropological Exhibition at Moscow was opened on 

 the l6th inst. The International Anthropological Congress, 

 connected with this exhibition, will however not meet until 

 August 7 next. 



Slight shocks of earthquake were noticed at Montmarault 

 and Chantelle, in the French Department of the Allier, on 

 March 27th. A slight shock of earthquake, lasting about fifteen 

 seconds, and travelling from east to west, was felt at Darjiling 

 at 8.15 on the morning of the II th ult. 



The death is announced of Mr. William Mudd, the curator of 

 the Botanical Gardens, Cambridge, after a brief illness. The 

 stipend attached to the office is about ico/. a year ; it is in the 

 gift of the Botanical Garden Syndicate. 



Mark W. Harrington, M.A., F.L.S., lately Professor of 

 Astronomy at the luaj erial L'niversity of Peking, and formerly 

 assistant Professor of Botany at the University of Michigan, has 

 just been appointed Professor of Astronomy and Director of the 

 Oijservatory at the last-named institution, the chair rendered 

 vacant by the resignation of Dr. James C. Watson, now Pro- 

 fessor of Astronomy at the Wisconsin University. 



