jfiine 6, 1878]^ 



NATURE 



159 



The Tay Bridge, at Dundee, was opened on Friday, in presence 

 of a large and distinguished company. 



Two Reports come to us from Scotland — one on the Glasgow 

 Industrial Museum, and the other on the Dundee Free Library. 

 From the former we are glad to see that, under the energetic 

 curator, Mr. James Paton, F.L.S., the Glasgow Museum is 

 gradually becoming worthy of the second city of the kingdom. 

 Many important additions are being made to the well-arranged 

 museum, with which, we see, have been incorporated the Cor- 

 poration Galleries of Art. We trust the successors of " Bailie 

 Nicol Jarvie " and his contemporary councillors will exercise a 

 wise liberality and speedily raise their museum to the position 

 it ought to occupy. From the Report of Mr. Maclauchlan we are 

 pleased to see that scientific works are in considerable demand 

 among the busy people of enterprising Dundee. The interesting 

 museum, also, is gradually becoming possessed of that complete 

 collection of the Arctic fauna which strangers naturally look 

 for in the museum of the chief seat of the whaling trade. 



In the Annalen der Hydrographie we notice the account of a 

 group of three islands discovered by Capt. Caller in 1877 on 

 the north-west coast of Australia. These islands, which in 

 their highest point do not rise more than thirty feet above the 

 level of the sea, are covered with a thick deposit of guano, con- 

 taiuing an unusual amount of ammonia and phosphates. On 

 account of their nearness to the continent these valuable de- 

 posits will probably play an important part in the agricultural 

 development of Australia. 



On October 4 last we gave an account of the post-mortem 

 examination of a white whale {Beluga) that died after a few 

 days' residence in a tank at the Westminster Aquarium. Mr. 

 Farini then commissioned Zack Coup to obtain three more and 

 bring them over from Labrador, They w^ere packed each in a 

 separate box lined with sea-weed, and four men were engaged 

 to relieve one another in throwing water over the heads of the 

 animals during the entire voyage. On Tuesday, May 27, they 

 arrived at Liverpool, when one specimen was sent to Blackpool, 

 one to Manchester, and one was brought under the personal care 

 of Mr. Farini and Mr. Carrington, the naturalist of the Aqua- 

 rium, to Westminster. This London specimen is 13 ft. 6 in. long, 

 and arrived in apparently good condition. On Friday it was found 

 requisite to "sling" it in order to remove an eel that had be- 

 come entangled in its right flipper, when its quick sight in trying 

 to avoid the sling was noticed with interest. The legs of a man 

 sitting on the edge of the tank it carefully avoided, but it did 

 not seem to mind the presence of those standing round. After 

 the whale had been in the tank four days an indication of 

 malaise and apparently of some accident having occurred 

 attracted the careful attention of those Mho had charge of it. It 

 ivas then ascertained the specimen was a female, and was for a 

 while a subject of interest to physiologists especially. 



A NEW improvement in the microscope is reported from 

 Germany. Ilerr I. von Lenhossek has constructed an apparatus 

 which permits no less than sixty microscopical preparations 

 being observed in immediate succession, without the trouble of 

 changing the slides and readjustment of the object-glass. Its 

 construction is similar in principle to that of the weU-known 

 revolving stereoscopes, and the inventor has given the new 

 apparatus the name of " polymicroscoiie." 



Upon the occasion of miveiling the statue of Giordano 

 Bruno, which will take place at Rome on February 19, 1879 

 a new edition of his works will be published. They are beino- 

 reprinted at the expense of the Italian government. 



The Vienna Academy [of Sciences held its annual public 

 ses.' ion on May 29, in the presence of representatives of the 



Court and Govei-nment. After the announcement of the various 

 prizes and reports on the progress in the several sections of the 

 Academy, Prof. Hann delivered an address on the " Problems 

 of Modern Meteorolog>-." 



An Ethnographical Exhibition, organised by the Anthro- 

 pological Society of Paris in an annexe to the Trocadero, was 

 opened on May 31. M. Teisserenc de Borg, Minister for Com- 

 merce and Agriculture was presen" on behalf of M. Bardoux, the 

 Minister of Public Instruction, and declared the exhibition open. 

 The addresses were delivered by MM. Quatrefages, Henri Martin, 

 the president of the Society, and Dr. Broca. This exhibition is 

 an extension of the Provisional Museum established for some 

 months at the Palais de ITndustrie, in the Champs Elyse'es. 



We noticed at the time that M. Jules Simon, when French 

 Minister for Public Instruction, had opened in the buildings of 

 the Ministry, a provisional Pedagogical Museum, but a change 

 having supervened in the Cabinet the scheme was dropped. It 

 will, we learn now, be revived by M. Bardoux, who has asked 

 special credit for that purpose from the Chamber of Deputies. 



The electric-light display in the Paris streets and thorough- 

 fares ia becoming one of the attractions of Paris. Eight electric 

 lamps have been placed in the Place de I'Opera, twenty-four 

 others in the Opera Avenue, and eight more on the Place 

 du Theatre Fran9ais. Six lamps were lighted for the first time 

 on June i on the part of the Palais Bourbon facing the Place 

 de la Concorde. We should notice also the private illumination 

 of the Grands Magasins du Louvre, about seventy lamps ; Belle 

 Jardiniere, eight ; Concert de I'Orangerie des Tuileries, twenty ; 

 and the Hippodrome, thirty-two. This last illumination, being 

 in a closed building, cannot be viewed from the streets. All 

 these illuminations are made by the Jablochkow candles. An 

 electric lamp has been placed also on the top of the Trocadero 

 Palace. 



We notice that the list of jurors for the Paris Exhibition has 

 been gazetted. 



The last number of thQ Journal of the Society of Arts con- 

 tains a valuable paper, recently read by Mr. J. M. Thomson, 

 F.C.S., befox-e the Society, on the Position of Chemistry in a 

 System of Technical Education, as illustrated by some of its 

 Applications. We are glad to see the Society turning its atten- 

 tion to a subject of such great importance. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Macaque Monkey {Macacus cynomolgus) 

 from India, presented by Mr. J. Farmer ; a Geoffroy's Cat 

 [Felis geoffroii) from Uruguay, presented by Mr. Ronald 

 Bridgett ; a Brazilian Caracara {Polyborus brasUiensis) from 

 South America, presented by Miss Amslie ; a Tamandua Ant- 

 eater [Tamandua tetradactyla) from South America, deposited ; 

 a White-eared Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis) from North-west 

 India, received in exchange ; four Temminck's Tragopans 

 {Ceriornis tejiiminckii), bred, a Yellow-footed Rock Kangaroo 

 {Petrogale xanthopus), an Axis Deer {Cervus axis), born in the 

 Gardens. 



THE REDE LECTURE 1 



"XTIZHEN, about two years ago, news came from the other side 

 of the Atlantic that a method had been invented of trans- 

 mitting, by means of electricity, the articulate sounds of the 

 human voice, so as to be heard hundreds of miles away from the 

 speaker, those of us who had reason to believe that the report 

 had some foundation in fact, began to exercise our imaginations 

 in picturing some triumph of constructive skill — something as 

 far surpassing Sir William Thomson's Siphon Recorder in deU- 

 cacy and intricacy as that is beyond a common bell-pull. When 



I Given at Cambridge by Prof. Clerk-Maxwell, F.R.S., May 24, 1878 

 Subject — " The Telephone." 



