5o8 



NATURE 



[June i6, 192 i 



winter season. The officers of the society deliver 

 five lectures dealing with its objects and activities, 

 e.g. Gilbert White and Selborne, the Brent Valley 

 bird sanctuary which the society has recently secured, 

 the value of science to the community and sugges- 

 tions for the organisation of natural history societies, 

 and archaeological and historical rambles. Beyond 

 these official lectures there is available a long list of 

 lecturers who cover a wide range of subjects. Prof. 

 J. R. Ainsworth-Davis lectures on science and agri- 

 culture; Capt. W. H. S. Cheavin on nature study, 

 particularly in its microscopic aspects ; the Rev. 

 J. T. W. Claridge on stars and comets, and he also 

 gives a historical lecture entitled "Some Famous 

 Astronomers'"; Mr. O. H. Latter deals with the 

 nature study of sand dunes, wasps, and evidences of 

 evolution ; Prof. J. T. MacGregor-Morris lectures on 

 electricity in home-life and in nature ; Mr. F. Martin- 

 Duncan deals with the natural history of the sea and 

 the forest, and particularly with the insect world ; 

 Mrs. R. A. Proctor lectures on astronomy in everydav 

 life and the story of the moon ; Mr. J.J. Ward deals 

 with pond-life, insects, animal life and evolution, and 

 the wonders of wild and garden flowers ; Mr. W. M. 

 Webb, in addition to the lectures on the objects of 

 the Selborne Society, which as general secretary of 

 the society he delivers, also gives, lectures on evolu- 

 tion in dress and plumage, mimicry, and protective 

 resemblance in animals. Such is a selection from 

 the list of the better-known lecturers. Further in- 

 formation regarding the lectures can be obtained from 

 Mr. P. J. Ashton, extension secretary, 72 High Street, 

 Bromley, Kent. 



In view of the announcement made in Nature of 

 April 14 last, p. 220, that the Finsbury Technical 

 College will not be closed in July next, it is of interest 

 to read the correspondence which passed during last 

 winter between the City and Guilds Institute and the 

 London County Council on the subject. It has been 

 published in full in the forty-first annual report of the 

 council of the City and Guilds Institute, and is pre- 

 ceded by a statement by the council on the circum- 

 stances under which it was decided to close the col- 

 lege. In the face of the decision of the London 

 County Council to make the Northampton Poly- 

 technic its engineering school and the tendency of the 

 policy of the Board of Education to substitute public 

 for private effort in education, it was not considered 

 feasible or practicable to raise the 13,000^. per annum 

 required in excess of pre-war expenditure. However, 

 towards the end of last year the education authorities 

 of the London County Council reviewed the matter, 

 and decided that since a depletion of the facilities for 

 technical education was highly undesirable they 

 would assist the college. Various minor conditions 

 have been imposed, but in effect the London County 

 Council will contribute a sum of io,oooL per annum 

 for five years provided that the City and Guilds Insti- 

 tute finds 3500/. per annum for a similar period for 

 the maintenance of Finsbury Technical College. The 

 council of the City and Guilds Institute expresses the 

 hope that the City Corporation and the contributory 

 livery companies will continue to give their support in 

 order to make possible the development of their educa- 

 tional schemes. An interesting list in the report Is 

 that showing the contributions made yearly to the 

 institute since 1878. The Goldsmiths' Company 

 heads the list with contributions amounting to 

 275,508^. ; then come the Cloth workers', Fishmongers', 

 and Mercers' Companies with gifts ranging from 

 152,000?. to ioi,oooL The remainder of the report is 

 devoted to a review of the academic activities of the 

 Citv and Guilds (Engineering) College during the year 

 1919-20. 



NO. 2694, VOL. 107] 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



June 16, 1889. Gaetano Cacciatore died.— The able 

 director of the Palermo Observatory, in which position 

 he succeeded his father in 1843, Cacciatore extended 

 the observatory and contributed memoirs to the Society 

 degli Spettro-scopisti. 



June 18, 1816. Thomas Henry died.— Henry was a 

 Manchester apothecary, the translator of Lavoisier's 

 chemical essays, and the first to observe the use of 

 carbonic acid to plants. In 1781 he became the first 

 secretary of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical 

 Society, and in 1807 was chosen president. 



June 18, 1905. Per Theodor Cleve died.— Professor 

 of chemistry in the University of Upsala, Cleve was 

 well known for his researches on the rare earths. He 

 investigated the compounds of yttrium, erbium, 

 thorium, lanthanum, and didymium, and he showed 

 that scandium, discovered by Nilson, was identical 

 with the ekaboron of Mendel^eff. 



June 19, 1715. Nicolas Lemery died.— The con- 

 temporary of Mayow and Homburg, Lemerv wrote a 

 "Cours de Chimie," which was translated into 

 various languages and passed through thirteen edi- 

 tions in his lifetime. This work, from which the 

 fancies of the alchemists were excluded, was one of 

 the first in which chemistry was divided into organic 

 and inorganic. Lemery was a Paris apothecary. 



June 19, 1820. Sir Joseph Banks died.— For more 

 than forty years president of the Royal Society, Banks 

 was indefatigable in his exertions on behalf of natural 

 science. He made four oversea journeys himself, 

 assisted various expeditions, founded the African 

 Society, and advised George HI, as to the Kew 

 Gardens. His library and collections were bequeathed 

 to the British Museum. 



June 19, 1844. Etienne Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire died. 

 — The pupil of Daubenton and Haiiy and the friend 

 of Cuvler, In 1793 Saint-Hilaire became professor of 

 zoology in the Mus^e d'HIstoire Naturelle. In 1798 

 he accompanied Napoleon to Egypt. Admitted to the 

 Academy of Sciences in 1807, ^^ afterwards became 

 professor of zoology and comparative anatomy in the 

 Faculty of Sciences. Among his most important 

 works was his " Philosophic Anatomlque " (1818-22). 



June 20, 1794. Felix Vicq d'Azyr died.— The suc- 

 cessor of Buffon In the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 and physician to Louis XVI., Vicq d'Azyr wrote an 

 Important work, " Discours sur I'anatomie," in which 

 he stated In a masterly way the methods of biological 

 science. 



June 21, 1846. James Marsh died. — The assistant 

 to Faraday at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 

 Marsh invented electromagnetic apparatus, and also 

 the quill percussion tube for ships' cannon, and in 

 1836 discovered the Marsh test for arsenic. 



June 21, 1857. Louis Jacques Thenard died. — Born 

 in poor surroundings, Thenard was assisted by Vau- 

 quelin, and gradually rose to a high place among 

 French chemists. He held chairs at the Ecole Poly- 

 technique, the College de France, and the Sorbonne, 

 and though he did Important work on the compound 

 ethers and discovered hydrogen peroxide, he was, 

 above all, a great teacher. 



June 21, 1874. Anders Jons Angstrom died. — 

 Angstrom held the chair of physics in Upsala Uni- 

 versity and was secretary to the Royal Soci-'^ty there. 

 He did pioneering work in spectroscopy, in 1862 dis- 

 covered the existence of hydrogen In the sun, and in 

 1868 published his map of the normal solar spectrum. 

 Knut Johan Angstrom (1857-1910), also a well-known 

 physicist, was his son. 



E. C. S. 



