Nov. 3, 18S7] 



NATURE 



15 



NOTES. 

 The vacancy in the representation of Cambridge University, 

 caused by the death of Mr. Beresford Hope, raises again the 

 question of the desirability that the Universities should be repre- 

 sented in Parliament by men of distinguished culture, whether 

 literary or scientific. Men of science will be glad to hear that a 

 movement is on foot in Cambridge to induce the President of 

 the Royal Society to allow himself to be nominated as a candi- 

 date for the membership of the University. A meeting will be 

 held on Saturday for the purpose of considering the question of 

 the representative. It is believed that Prof. Stokes, if he finds 

 the feeling to be strong in favour of his acceptance, will regard 

 it as his duty to place his services at the disposal of the electors. 

 A more distinguished representative never offered himself for the 

 suffrages of any University in this country. His presence in the 

 House of Commons would be another pledge thai questions 

 involving the interests of science would be discussed with 

 adequate knowledge in that assembly. 



In presenting the prizes to the successful students of the Bath 

 Lane Science and Art School at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Lord 

 Randolph Churchill expressed the opinion that when "the State 

 has laid the foundation by freely contributing to elementary 

 education, localities ought to come in and ought to build on that 

 foundation whatever edifice may be necessary for the further and 

 higher technical education of the artisan." " This school," he 

 continued, "is essentially the result of pure local effort, pure 

 local energy, and pure local pride. You have, I understand, 

 carried on the whole work of this school without the smallest 

 assistance from Government of any sort or kind. Now, I was 

 saying that technical education is supposed to be a great require- 

 ment of the present day, and I was using the illustration of your 

 school to show that localities can if they wish, if they have the 

 energy and the determination, supply that technical education 

 for themselves." In a letter to the Times a writer signing him- 

 self "Y." has exposed the ignorance displayed by Lord 

 Randolph Churchill in this a'-tonishing statement. The New- 

 castle school, instead of being carried on simply by means of 

 "local effort," has been largely aided by the Government. As 

 " Y." points out, the last Report of the Science and Art Depart- 

 ment shows that in 1886 the payments on results made to the 

 school were for science /"laiz lo^., and for art £22,^ los., while 

 the students' fees for instruction in science were ;^I228, and in 

 art ;i^lSO. It is discreditable that a man in Lord Randolph 

 Churchill's position should be capable of making such a mistake 

 s this. The incident is important, for it indicates the spirit in 

 which too many of those who talk wildly about "economy" 

 approach the consideration of the grave question as to the duty 

 of the State with regard to education. Lord Randolph Churchill 

 has been Chancellor of the Exchequer, and may some day be 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer again. With his crude notions and 

 inaccurate information, the injury he might do in this position 

 to our educational system is simply incalculable. 



The College of State Medicine, lately incorporated, ought to 

 be a remarkably successful institution, if we may judge from the 

 names of its officers. The Chairman of Council is Sir Joseph 

 Fayrer, K.C.S.I., F. R.S. The following are the members of the 

 Council :— Sir John Watt Reid, K.C.B., Sir Thomas Crawford, 

 K.C.B., Sir William Guyer Hunter, K.C.M.G., M.P., Sir 

 Henry Roscoe, F.R.S., Sir Douglas Maclagan, Surgeon- 

 General William Robert Cornish, CLE., Richard Quain, 

 F.R.S., Edward Klein, F.R.S., Robert Brudenell Carter, and 

 Arthur Trehern Norton. The following are ex-officio members : 

 — The President of the Sanitary Institute, the President of the 

 Society of Medical Officers of Health, the President of the 

 Public Health Medical Society, the Professor of Public Health 

 to the College. Mr. James Cantlie is the honorary secretary. 



The first Congress of the Dutch Society of Naturalists lately 

 met at Amsterdam under the presidency of Dr. Stoknis, who 

 delivered an address on nationality and natural science. 

 Among the other addresses were the following : on Martinus 

 of Marum, who made a large electric machine at the end 

 of the last century, by Prof. Bosscha (Delft) ; and on the 

 education of future naturalists, by Prof. Spruyt (Amsterdam). 



An Exhibition of Textile Goods and Machinery will be held at 

 Warsaw about the middle of December next. It will be open 

 to all countries. 



The expedition which the Finnish Archaeological Society 

 despatched to the Upper Yenisei last summer, to prosecute 

 archaeological researches in that locality, has just returned 

 to Helsingfors. It has brought back drawings of about 

 thirty stone figures, and copies of a large number of in- 

 scriptions, hitherto not deciphered, on a rock, on nine raised 

 stone slabs, and on many stone; along the upper course of the 

 Yenisei. The expedition has also gathered a vast collection of 

 objects belonging to the Siberian Bronze Age. 



In his latest Annual Report, Mr. Putnam, Curator of the 

 Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology^ 

 says that during the past year several large collections of special 

 interest have been added to tlie Museum. The most important 

 is the Bucklin collection from ancient graves in Peru, principally 

 at Ancon. This collection is particularly rich in textiles and in 

 ornaments and implements made of silver and bronze ; and 

 among the objects in pottery there are many new forms and 

 styles of ornamentation. Another collection of over 300 speci- 

 mens of pottery obtained from the province of Piura, Peru, has 

 also been purchased, and nearly every vessel adds some important 

 feature to the already instructive Peruvian collection in the 

 Museum. A third collection consists of 337 pottery vessels, a 

 number of whistles and other objects made of pottery, 245 stone 

 implements, and several large carved stones, some circular, and 

 others resembling animals, supposed by some archaeologists to- 

 be seats, and by others to be metates. This collection has been 

 catalogued and placed in the exhibition cases with the other 

 objects from the ancient graves in Chiriqui. It was obtained 

 from the well-known collector of antiquities in Chiriqui, Mr. J. 

 A. McNiel, who has resided in the State of Panama for many 

 years. Mr. Putnam expresses much regret that Mr. McNiel has 

 not been able to keep together the contents of each grave. He 

 is dependent on the sale of the specimens for the means to carry 

 on his work, so that many of the objects he obtained are now 

 widely scattered, and archaeologists have no means of tracing the 

 development of the arts of the people, which could have been 

 done had the collection been kept together and the associations- 

 of every object carefully noted. 



We have received the Proceedings of the U.S. National 

 Museum during the year 1886. This is the ninth volume of the 

 series. It contains many interesting and valuable papers, some 

 by members of the scientific corps of the National Museum, 

 others by writers who have made pori ions of the collections of 

 the Museum subjects of special study. The volume opens with 

 a list of fishes collected in Arkansas, the Indian Territory, and 

 Texas, in September 1884, with notes and descriptions, by Mr. 

 D. S. Jordan and Mr. C. H. Gilbert. Among the other papers 

 are : notes on fulgurites, by Mr. G. P. Merrill ; a review of 

 Japanese birds, by Mr. L. Stejneger ; a catalogue of animals 

 collected by the Geographical and Exploring Commis-ion of the 

 Repul)lic of Mexico, by Mr. F. Ferrari- Perez ; a description of 

 six new species of fishes from the Gulf of Mexico, with notes on 

 other species, by Mr. D. S. Jordan and Mr. B. W. Evermann ; 

 and Norsk naval architecture, by Mr. G. H. Boehmer, At the 

 end of the volume there are twenty-five plates, each accompanied 

 by its explanation. 



