372 



NATURE 



{August 1 6, 1888 



orders (o Consul- General Bors to call upon the eminent engineer, 

 and convey to him on the occasion renewed assurances of His 

 Majesty's esteem. " Consul-General Bors," says the Neiv York 

 Daily News, " was only too happy to execute this commission, 

 and when he called at 36 Beach Street to-day to deliver the 

 message he brought with him a beautiful bouquet that delighted 

 the great engineer extremely when he received it. He very 

 willingly granted Consul-General Bors an audience, and thanked 

 him for the courteous message be brought from his Royal 

 master. Captain Ericsson has a wonderful faculty of talking 

 and working out the most exact mechanical drawings at the same 

 time, and Mr. Bors's visit did not interrupt him in his work in 

 the least. He chatted with him cheerily, and listened with an 

 amused smile to the Consul's expressions of wonder at his 

 marvellous health and mental vigour. " 



The Congress for the study of tuberculosis, lately held at 

 Paris, was very successful. Numerous and important papers 

 were read, and there was always a large attendance of members. 

 The next meeting will be held in 1890, under M. Villemin's 

 presidency. 



The sixty-first meeting of German men of science and 

 physicians will be held in Cologne from September 18 to 23 

 next. 



Mr. James Stevenson, late Executive Officer of the United 

 States Geological Survey, died at Gilsey House, New York, on j 

 July 25. He was born, in 1840, at Maysville, Kentucky. 



The United States Senate has voted to pay the widow of the | 

 late Prof. Spencer F. Baird 50,000 dollars in recognition of his 1 

 services as United States Fish Commissioner. 



Last year, Bedford College sustained a great loss by the 

 death of Mr. Shaen, who had been one of its most active friends 

 since its earliest days ; and a wish was then widely expressed 

 that some scheme should be devised which should permanently 

 associate his name with Bedford College. The Council now 

 propose that a building shall be erected on a site immediately 

 behind the College, and that it shall be called the Shaen Wing. 

 In this building there would be good laboratories and class- 

 rooms, and it is believed that the premises could be so arranged 

 as to provide accommodation, at a moderate charge, for a num- 

 ber of students. It would be hard to think of a more suitable 

 memorial of Mr. Shaen, and we have no doubt that the entire 

 amount necessary for the carrying out of the plan (^3000) will 

 soon be subscribed. The proposal that a large part of the fund 

 shall be devoted to science laboratories strikes us as an interest- 

 ing and hopeful sign of the times. Bedford College has done 

 much to help the movement for supplying women with better 

 opportunities of study. Of the 452 women who have passed 

 the various examinations of the London University, no fewer 

 than 123 have been students of this institution ; and about one- 

 third of the present students are working for these examinations. 

 It may be reasonably expected that when the new laboratories 

 are opened the results will be even more satisfactory than those 

 now achieved ; for all the present laboratories are adaptations 

 of former class-rooms, and, being deficient in light and space, 

 are but imperfectly fitted for the purposes for which they are 

 used. 



In his Report on the technological examinations of 1888 Sir 

 Philip Magnus says that in the present year there has again been 

 a large increase in the total number of candidates examined. In 

 I 887, 55°8 were examined, of whom 3090 passed ; in 1888, 

 6166 were examined, of whom 3510 passed. The increase in 

 the number of candidates is less this year than last year, being 

 658 as compared with 744. Examinations have been held this 

 year in forty-nine different subjects, in seven of which less than 

 ten candidates presented themselves. The subjects in which the 



least number of candidates presented themselves are those con- 

 nected with the chemical industries, and the examiners in these 

 subjects generally remark that few of the candidates are found to 

 possess that combined knowledge of scientific principles and of 

 technical processes which is desirable. The increase in the 

 number of candidates has been most marked in cloth, cotton, 

 linen, and jute manufacture, in plumbers' work, carriage- 

 building, carpentry and joinery, and in brickwork and masonry. 

 The average percentage of failures has fallen from 43*8 to 43 1 ; 

 and from the separate reports of the examiners it appears that in 

 most subjects there is a distinct improvement in the quality of 

 the candidates' written answers and practical work. Of the 

 3510 successful candidates, 758, or 21*6 percent., have passed 

 in the honours grade, as against 21 'o. per cent, last year. It 

 appears that 10,404 students have received instruction in 475 

 registered classes connected with the City and Guilds of London. 

 Institute. These classes were in 183 different towns in the 

 United Kingdom. The corresponding numbers for the previous 

 year were 8613 students, 365 classes, and 121 towns. These 

 numbers do not include the students at the Finsbury Technical 

 College, the Yorkshire College, Leeds, and other Colleges the 

 Professors of which do not receive grants on results, and the 

 candidates from which are classed as "external" candidates. 

 Sir Philip Magnus anticipates that with the establishment of new 

 Polytechnic Institutions in different parts of London there will 

 be a large increase in the numbt-r of students in the technical 

 classes registered by the Institute and in the number of candidates 

 for examination. 



In the Report, for the year 1886-87, presented by the Board of 

 Managers of the Observatory of Yale University to the President 

 and Fellows, complaint is made that too large a proportion of 

 the clinical thermometers (foreign or American) sent to the 

 Observatory for verification are despatched so soon after their 

 manufacture that the corrections given are liable to change 

 with a year's use. "Physicians," says Mr. Robert Brown, 

 secretary of the Observatory, "would obtain much more exact 

 indications of temperature if, estimating the probable annual 

 breakage, they would provide themselves with two or three 

 years' supply of well-made, well-graduated clinicals, and obtain 

 tables of corrections only after the instruments were knozun to 

 have attained a proper age of, say, one or two years. The com- 

 paratively small demand for clinicals whose age as well as correc- 

 tion is certified, seems to imply that the medical profession is 

 not yet generally awake to the exactitude that is practicable in 

 ascertaining body temperature." 



The seeder Jason has arrived in Norway from the Greenland 

 coast, and reports that the Expedition under Dr. Fridtjof 

 Nansen, which is to cross Greenland from east to west, left that 

 ship on July 17 in latitude 65° 2' N. An ice-belt about ten 

 English miles in width separated the ship from the shore, but it 

 is believed that the members would have no trouble in cross- 

 ing this, the floes being large. Dr. Nansen intended to land in 

 the Sermilik Fjord, which is inhabited. Previous attempts at 

 landing had failed on account of rain and fog. 



It is said that the Cincinnati Exposition is the best that has 

 been held in America since the great one at Philadelphia in 

 1876.' We reprint from Science the following account of it : — 

 " People who were at New Orleans in 1885 say that this is 

 enormously superior in all the arts, especially upon the mech- 

 anical and industrial side. The Exposition covers 15 acres in 

 the very heart of the city, and in every part of this large area 

 one meets evidences of taste, skill, ingenuity, and perseverance 

 in adapting means to ends, which form a series of apparently 

 never-ending surprises as one passes from one exhibit to another. 

 The Government exhibits are all good and all characteristic. 

 The Smithsonian Institution and the Geological Survey exhibits 



