4^0 



NA TURE 



\March 22, 1877 



enumerates a number of collections that after the removal of 

 foreign loans still remain to form the nucleus of a permanent 

 museum. It points out that though the galleries have had to be 

 closed in consequence of packing, the lectures have kept up the 

 continuity of the scheme, and the apparatus forming the subject of 

 the lectures have been brought into the lecture theatre as wanted. 

 It adds, ' * There seems a fair probability that the nucleus of the 

 permanent collection can be thrown open early in May." 



The obstacles hitherto presented to the medical education of 

 women in England appear suddenly to have collapsed. The 

 enabling Act of last session, introduced by the Right Hon. 

 Russell Gumey, which permitted any licensing body to examine 

 women for its diplomas, was first of all accepted by the Queen's 

 University for Ireland and the Royal College of Physicians for 

 Dublin. The example of these bodies has been speedily followed 

 by the University of London. At a recent meeting the Senate 

 reversed its decision of two years ago, and decided, by a majority 

 of fourteen to eight, to admit women to its medical degrees. 

 Among the majority are found the names of two of the most 

 eminent medical men in London, who supported the motion on 

 the ground that it was the duty of the University to give effect to 

 the resolution arrived at by the Medical Council and by Parlia- 

 ment, that women should not be debarred from entering the pro- 

 fession. Since the matriculation examination is the sole avenue 

 to all degrees in the University, this examination is now 

 thrown open to women who present themselves with the inten- 

 tion of following it up by a course of medical studies. All 

 these concessions to the friends of the medical education of 

 women were, however, but barren victories as long as the hos- 

 pitals closed their doors against the admission of female students 

 to clinical instruction. Every hospital in London to which a 

 medical school is already attached has refused this permission ; 

 and one chance only remained. The Royal Free Hospital in 

 Gray's Inn Road is a general hospital containing the maxi- 

 mum number of beds required by any licensing body, and free 

 from the difficulty of having already attached to it a school of 

 male students. At the instance of the London School of Medi- 

 cine for Women, the subject was last week brought before the 

 Governing Body of this hospital, and a resolution was unani- 

 mously passed that, since they were the only body in London in 

 a position to grant this privilege, it was their duty to throw open 

 their hospital to female students. This decision, due mainly to 

 the untiring exertions of the Treasurer to the London School of 

 Medicine for Women in Henrietta Street, Brunswick Square, 

 the Right Hon, J. Stansfeld, M.P., has only come just in time 

 to prevent the breaking up of that institution. The executive 

 committee of that school, at which regular courses of lectures in 

 the whole curriculum of medical study have now been given for 

 three years, had determined that, unless they could, before the 

 close of this winter session, announced to the students that there 

 was a prospect of solving the hospital difficulty in London, they 

 must close the school in the summer, and recommend the stu- 

 dents to go abroad for their clinical studies. The winter session 

 closes next week, and it was only last Saturday that the an- 

 nouncement was made, in consequence of the decision of the 

 Governing Body of the Royal Free Hospital, arrived at the pre- 

 ceding Wednesday. For the purpose of making the necessary 

 arrangements, the Medical School for Women has entered into 

 heavy engagements of a pecuniary nature, to enable them to 

 fulfil which they will require the liberal support of the friends of 

 the movement. With regard to the University of London, it is 

 felt that the present position of admitting women to its medical 

 degrees only, and to no others, is not one that can be per- 

 manently sustained ; but any further extension of its privileges 

 can only be effected by a new charter, or by an enabling Act 

 similar to that of last session, applicable to all degrees. 



Prof. Garrod completed on Tuesday his course of lec- 



tures at the Royal Institution on " The Human Form, its 

 Structure in Relation to its Contour." Although some of the 

 lectures have consisted of anatomical details, illustrated with 

 diagrams prepared for a medical school, the attendances have 

 been large in comparison with those of other Royal Institution 

 courses, and ladies have formed more than a half of the audiences. 

 Prof. Garrod's object was to describe the parts of the structure 

 of the body which affect the contour in such natural attitudes as 

 are commonly portrayed in works of art. Several ingenious 

 working models to illustrate the action of different parts of the 

 body were devised especially for these lecture?, and a colossal 

 wooden model of a disarticulated human skeleton was also 

 specially prepared. 



M Waddington has appointed M. Maindron a Chevalier of 

 the Legion of Honour for services rendered to science in the 

 capacity of secretary of the French Transit of Venus Commis- 

 sion. A new volume will be issued very shortly by the French 

 Academy. 



TuNGSTATE of soda has been much talked about lately as 

 valuable, when mixed with ordinary starch, for rendering muslin 

 dresses uninflammable. Prof. Gladstone and Dr. Alder Wright 

 have both brought it before audiences at the Royal Institution, 

 Dr. Wright showing its efficacy by having a muslin dress so pre- 

 pared for one of his assistants to wear, in which he walked about 

 over flames. In repeating the demonstration in the course of a 

 lecture at South Kensington, on Saturday evening, it was fortu- 

 nate that Dr. Wright had the dress placed on a dummy instead 

 of being worn by an assistant, for no sooner was a light applied 

 to it than it blazed up and was consumed. Why this happened 

 could not be explained, as it is believed no mistake had been 

 made in the preparation. No doubt the exact conditions under 

 which the tungstate is reliable will be a subject for further 

 investigation. 



M, Redier, barometer maker to the French Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, has devised a barometer for warn- 

 ing miners when the atmospheric pressure is undergoing a sudden 

 depression so that they may be on their guard against fire-damp 

 explosion. 



Rural meteorology is progressing rapidly in France, No 

 fewer than 500 parishes receive by telegraph daily warnings from 

 the observatory. The telegrams summarising the readings taken 

 at seven or eight o'clock in the morning (local time) from Con- 

 stantinople to Valentia, arrive daily at two o'clock in each 

 parish in connection with the observatory. The number of 

 parishes is being daily increased. 



Everyone knows that the aneroid barometer is composed ot 

 a metallic box exhausted of air and kept in a state of tension by 

 an interior spring, A French optician has conceived the idea of 

 substituting for the spring a weight attached to the exterior by a 

 hook underneath. 



In a forcible article in the Cape Argus, for January 23, it is 

 shown how much service could be done to farmers and others by 

 giving them timely warning of approachiug unfavourable weather. 

 Such warning can only be based on extensive and carefully collected 

 data, involving work which cannot be done for nothing. The 

 Argus, therefore, reasonably urges that it is the duty of the Cape 

 Parliament to provide the means of carrying on work that would 

 undoubtedly benefit the whole colony. 



Seven warnings have been sent to Europe by the Meteoro- 

 logical Office established by the New York Herald, since the 

 end of February. Six of the predicted storms were felt in Paris, 

 having crossed the Atlantic with a velocity somewhat less than 

 had been anticipated. 



A BRIGHT violet meteor was observed at St. Etienne on 

 March 11 at two o'clock in the morning, in the southern part of 



