598 



NATURE 



{Oct. 1 8, 1888 



for it, and that it should be managed for the public benefit. The 

 Secretary for Scotland, we are glad to learn, has accepted Lord 

 Crawford's offer ; and the Treasury has agreed to provide means 

 for the erection of the necessary buildings. A committee of 

 scientific men is engaged in examining different sites around 

 Edinburgh which seem suitable for the erection of a national 

 Observatory ; and, according to the Edinburgh Correspondent of 

 the Times, the choice seems to lie between the Braid Hills and 

 the Blackford Hill, both of which are on the south side of the 

 city. The same writer says that two proposals have been made 

 for utilizing the old Observatory on the Calton Hill — the 

 one that, after the instruments have been repaired, the place 

 should be used as a popular Observatory ; the other, that it 

 should be attached to the Heriot-Watt Technical College for 

 class-work in connection with the lectureship on astronomy 

 there. 



The Mercers' Company, one of the oldest and wealthiest of 

 the City Companies, is thinking of establishing an Agricultural 

 College. A correspondent of the Times says it proposes to 

 devote ,£60,000 to this object. According to the same autho- 

 rity, the intention is that the College shall be in Wiltshire, and 

 that there shall be attached a farm of considerable extent, in 

 which the pupils may practically apply the knowledge they 

 gain, the institution being intended to benefit the sons of 

 farmers and others who will be dependent on the successful 

 culture of land for their future livelihood. The sum of ^60,000 

 contributed by the Company would, it is hoped, be supple- 

 mented by a liberal donation from the Charity Commissioners, 

 and the Company would of necessity be prepared to provide an 

 adequate endowment. 



The new laboratories at Trinity College, Dublin, which are 

 now open to all students of chemistry, comprise general labora- 

 tories for instruction in elementary chemistry, and quantitative 

 and research laboratories. The latter are provided with all 

 modern appliances, and have special rooms attached for analysis 

 of gas and water, for assaying, and for ultimate organic analysis. 

 The laboratories are under the general direction of Prof. Emerson 

 Reynolds, F.R.S. 



A statue of Ampere was unveiled on October 9, at Lyons, 

 his native place. The ceremony took place before the President 

 of the French Republic ; and M. Cornu, a member of the French 

 Academy of Sciences, delivered an elaborate address, in which he 

 spoke of the importance of Ampere's discoveries. 



The Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers has issued 

 a list of subjects upon which, among others, original com- 

 munications are invited for reading and discussion at the 

 ordinary meetings, and for printing in the minutes of proceedings 

 of the Institution. For approved papers the Council has the 

 power to award premiums, arising out of special funds bequeathed 

 for the purpose. 



The Society of German Engineers offers a prize of 5000 marks 

 (;£ 2 5°) f° r { he best essay containing a critical estimate of ex- 

 perimental investigations concerning the passage of heat through 

 heated surfaces, in its relation to material, form, and position of 

 the latter, as well as to the kind, temperature, and motion of the 

 heated substances. Competitors are to forward their treatises to 

 the General Secretary of the Society by December 31, 1890. 



The Tokio Mathematical and Physical Society proposes, in 

 order to commemorate the tenth anniversary of its foundation, 

 to award a prize not exceeding 20 yen (£4.) in value for the 

 best original paper on the properties of the so-called asymptotic 

 curves, and the relations (if any) existing between these curves 

 and straight lines on a surface— in particular, an algebraic 

 surface. 



Several influential Chinese have subscribed large sums ot 

 money to aid in establishing a zoological garden at Shanghai. 

 At present the institution will be merely a commercial under- 

 taking, but it is hiped that ultimately the State will take it over. 

 Amongst others, the Governor of Formosa has promised his 

 help in the collection of specim ens. 



In the last issue of the Journal of the Russian Chemical 

 and Physical Society there is an interesting article on Prof. 

 S. A. Wroblewski, whose death at Cracow we lately re- 

 corded. While a student of the Kieff University, Wroblewski 

 took part in the Polish insurrection of 1863, and was exiled 

 to Siberia, where he had to remain for six years. During his 

 term of exile he elaborated a new cosmical theory, which on 

 his return he hastened to submit to German men of science. 

 Helmholtz received the young man cordially, but advised him to 

 make at the Berlin laboratory certain experiments which would 

 convince him of the erroneousness of his ideas. Wroblewski at 

 once began earnest physical and chemical work, and never 

 afterwards spoke of the theory of his youth. In 1874 he went 

 to Strasburg, and there he published his first serious work, 

 " Ueberdie Diffusion der Gase durch absorbirende Substanzen." 

 The flattering opinion expressed about this work by Maxwell in 

 Nature encouraged Wroblewski to continue physical work on 

 the same lines. He was offered the Chair of Physics at the 

 Cracow University, and the authorities of that institution gave 

 him permission to spend a year at Paris in the laboratory of 

 Sainte-Claire Deville, before beginning his University teaching. 

 There Wroblewski discovered, in the course of his work on the 

 saturation of water with carbonic anhydride under strong 

 pressures, the hydrate of carbonic oxide, and that discovery 

 became the starting-point of a series of works on the condensa- 

 tion of gases. His capital discoveries, made in association with 

 M. Olszanski, which resulted in the condensation of oxygen, 

 azote, and hydrogen, are well known. He was making pre- 

 parations for an elaborate volume on the condensation of 

 hydrogen, when he perished by accident. While working late 

 in the night in his laboratory, he fell asleep, and in his sleep he 

 overthrew a kerosene lamp. His clothes began to burn, and the 

 wounds thus received resulted four days later in death. The 

 Journal gives a complete list of Wroblewski's works. 



An interesting archaeological discovery has been made in the 

 tidal river Hamble, near Botley, Hants. A boathouse is being 

 built at the point of the junction of the Curdridge Creek on the 

 river, some distance above the spot where there is a still existing 

 wreck of a Danish man-of-war. While the mud and alluvial soil 

 were being re noved to make sufficient waterway, something 

 hard was encountered, which on being carefully uncovered 

 proved to be a portion of a prehistoric canoe. It is about 

 12 feet long by 2J feet wide, beautifully carved, and in a fairly 

 good state of preservation. 



The other day a peasant at Vestervang, in West Jutland, 

 found a splendid piece of amber in a marl pit, weighing i^ 

 pound. 



M. Hallez has published, in the first number of the Revue 

 Bio 'og'aue du Nordde la France, an interesting paper on the natural 

 scavengers of various beaches of Northern France. At Boulogne, 

 the species Nassa, which is very abundant, performs the useful 

 office of destroying all dead animal relics. At Portel, Nassa is 

 scarce, but Eurydice pulchra is very abundant, and takes the 

 business in hand. At Cape Alprech, there are neither Eurydice 

 nor Nassa, but Ligia oceanica fulfils their duties. At Equihen, 

 the ;e duties are undertaken by numerous Orchestic?. It is worth 

 noting that these four points are quite close to each other. 



The chemistry of the modern advantageous method of manu- 

 facturing chloroform from acetone and bleaching-powder has 



