Aprils, 1877] 



NATURE 



501 



NOTES 



The Swiney Lectures on Geology (free to the public) will be 

 delivered this year at the Royal School of Mines, Jermyn Street, 

 on Monday and Thursday evenings at eight p.m., commencing 

 on Monday, April 9. 



As we have already stated, the *' Verein fiir die deutsche 

 Nordpolarfahrt," of Bremen, has been converted into a Geo- 

 graphical Society (die geographische Gesellschaft in Bremen) 

 with the object of promoting scientific exploring expeditions 

 generally, and of publishing their results. Dr. Finsch, who was 

 sent out by the Verein last year to the mouths of the Obi along 

 with Dr. Brehm and Graf Waldburg-Zeil, is now busily engaged 

 in working out the ethnographical and natural history col- 

 lections made during the expedition and publishing their 

 results. A paper of Dr. Finsch on the new birds discovered on 

 this occasion has been received by the Zoological Society of 

 London, and will be read at one of their next scientific meetings. 



On Friday, April 13, Mr. W. Spottiswoode will deliver a 

 lecture at the Royal Institution on his great Induction Coil, 

 described in the January number of the Philosophical Alagazine 

 and in the March number of the Nineteenth Century. The lec- 

 ture will be illustrated with some new experiments on stratified 

 discharges, which a coil of this enormous power has for the first 

 time rendered practicable. 



The Leipsic publisher, Giinther, has issued the first part of a 

 new journal, Kosnios, specially devoted to the furtherance of the 

 development doctiine, under the editorship of Caspari, Jiiger, 

 and Krause, with the assistance of Darwin, Haeckel, and other 

 eminent workers in the Darwinian field. We shall give a 

 detailed notice of the first part in an early number. 



Prof. Sylvester seems to have become quite naturalised in 

 the United States, if we may judge from the fact that he was 

 one of the speakers at the celebration of Washington's birthday 

 at the Johns Hopkins University, where, as our readers know, he 

 is Professor of Mathematics. Prof. Sylvester spoke of his work 

 and of his satisfaction with his new relations, as also on some 

 points of general interest. He maintains that it is a mistake to 

 divorce teaching and research, illustrating the advantage of their 

 union in his own case by the fact that in the act of teaching, 

 important fields for research have been suggested to him. 

 Recently, for example, at the University in Baltimore, the per- 

 sistence of a student in his desire to study the new algebra has 

 led Prof. Sylvester into " a research of fascinating interest," 

 from which he hopes for great results. He has reason "to think 

 that the taste for mathematical study, even in its most abstract 

 form, is much more widely diffused than is generally supposed " 

 in the United States. Prof. Sylvester, the Nation tells us, 

 spoke at considerable length and with deep feeling on the 

 estrangement between the two great branches of the Anglo- 

 Saxon race caused by the exclusive, ecclesiastical policy of the 

 English Universities in former years. " Their work it is that a 

 separation deeper and a chasm mare difficult to fill up has been 

 created between the two most free and powerful nations in the 

 world — England and America — than any due to political causes, 

 present or past." Why is it, he inquired, that the flower of 

 American youth do not resort for their mental impulse and 

 higher education to Oxford and Cambridge, instead of to Berlin, 

 Leipzig, Jena, or Heidelberg ? " It is because there they are 

 welcomed, to whatever religious communion they are attached or 

 unattached, without question and without distinction. It is 

 because there they can rest on the bosom of a common mother, 

 who shows kindness to all and favour to none. . . I have been 

 struck, almost from the first hour of my landing on these shores, 

 by the manifestations I have everywhere witnessed of the close 

 intellectual sympathy, which exists between America and 



Germany. It is German books that are read, it is German 

 authors who are quoted, German opinion on all matters of science 

 and learning that is appealed to ; and as regards community of 

 work and intellectual ties, I do not think it at all extravagant to 

 assert that Germany and America belong to one hemisphere, and 

 we in England to another." If our universities are to blame for 

 this state of things, they have much to answer for ; and it is 

 therefore some relief to know that the New York Nation 

 accounts for it by the desire of Americans to acquire another 

 language in the country where it is spoken, and to come in 

 contact with a different order of mind, however little superior. 



Dr. Klein, extraordinary professor of mineralogy in the 

 University of Heidelberg, has accepted an ordinary professorship 

 in the University of Gottingen. 



The Clothworkers' and Merchant Taylors' Companies have 

 each contributed one hundred guineas to the fund being raised 

 by the Chemical Society for the promotion of chemical research. 



The trustees of the Johnson Memorial Prize for the en- 

 couragement of the study of astronomy and meteorology pro- 

 pose the following subject for an essay, " The History of the 

 Successive Stages of our Knowledge of Nebuhe, Nebulous 

 Stars, and Star clusters, from the Time of Sir William Herschel." 

 The prize is open to all members of the University of Oxford, 

 and consists of a gold medal of the value of ten guineas, to- 

 gether with so much of the dividends for four years on 338/. 

 Reduced Annuities as shall remain after the cost of the medal 

 and other expenses have been defrayed. Candidates are to send 

 their essays to the registrar of the University, under a sealed 

 cover marked "Johnson Memorial Prize Essay," on or before 

 March 31, 1879, each candidate concealing his name, distin- 

 guishing his essay by a motto, and sending at the same time 

 his name sealed up under cover with the same motto written 

 upon it. 



One or more minor scholarships in natural science will be 

 offered by Downing College, Cambridge, during the present 

 year. The scholarships range in value from 40/. to 70/. per 

 annum, and are tenable for two years, or until the holder is 

 elected to a foundation scholarship. The examination will be 

 held in Downing College on June 5 and the three following days. 

 The subjects of examination will be (i) Chemistry, theoretical 

 and practical ; (2) Physics ; (3) Comparative Anatomy ; and 

 (4) Physiology. All persons are eligible to these scholarships 

 who have not commenced to reside in the University. 



On March 7, at Gjesvar, a Norwegian fishing station, near 

 the North Cape, in 71° 12' N. lat., the most northerly telegraph 

 station on the earth was opened. 



The Conversazione of the Quekett Club takes place on the 

 13th inst, at University College, Gower Street. 



Three electric eels from the River Amazon have this week 

 been added to the Westminster Aquarium. As they require to 

 be kept at a temperature of between 70° and 80° F. it needed 

 some ingenuity to bring them from Liverpool, where they were 

 landed, to London. By placing the vessel containing them on 

 foot-warmers and telegraphing on for changes of foot-warmers 

 at different stations, the water on arriving at Westminster was 

 found to be at 75°. The eels are lodged in a tank kept warm 

 by a steam pipe passing under the shingle, and are at present by 

 the alligators. These, by the by, are waking up wonderfully 

 in activity, and the attendants have now to keep a sharp look- 

 out when cleaning the tank. 



We are enabled to state that the increasing number of 

 demands for space in the Paris International Exhibition has led 

 M. Krantz reluctantly to give up^the idea of authorising the con- 



