Feb. 



O' 



1888] 



NATURE 



397 



death brings to those who had experienced the charm of 

 that hidden inner life which was known to his friends as 

 both kind and just, affectionate and sympathetic. 



NOTES. 



The retirement of the veteran Prof. Prestwich from the 

 Chair of Geology at Oxford is an event which cannot be chroni- 

 cled without regret. But it is pleasant to know that he re- 

 linquishes the post which he has dignified for so many years 

 to find in the quiet of his country home that leisure and rest to 

 which his long devotion to the cause of science so justly entitles 

 \\\\\\. He has crowned his professorial career by the publication 

 of the splendid volume which completes his great work on geology. 

 On the very day after the appearance of that volume the electors 

 met at Oxford to select from the numerous candidates a successor 

 to fill his place. His University and the science of geology may 

 both be congratulated on their choice. Prof Green, whom they 

 have chosen, is one of the most accomplished geologists in the 

 country, one who has been trained in the practical school of the 

 Geological Survey, who has done admirable original work, and 

 who possesses in no common measure the power of luminous 

 exposition. He is gifted, moreover, with a faculty in which 

 geologists are often singularly defective, that of mathematical 

 investigation, and we may hope that one of the results of his 

 transference to Oxford will be to afford him an opportunity of 

 devoting himself to the attack of many geological problems 

 from the mathematical side. He carries with him to his new 

 sphere of labour the best wishes of all to whom the progress of 

 geology and the cultivation of science at the Universities are 

 dear. 



On May 27 next Prof F, C. Bonders, of Utrecht, will be 

 seventy years of age. The law requires that he shall then re- 

 sign his duties as Professor at the University and as Director of 

 the Physiological Laboratory, and it is thought that men of science 

 in all parts of the world may be glad to take the opportunity of 

 expressing their appreciation of the great services Prof Bonders 

 has rendered to the study of physiology and physiological optics. 

 An influential committee has been formed in Holland for the pur- 

 pose of giving effect to this idea, and the proposal is that Prof. 

 Bonders' name should be connected in a permanent way with the 

 spot where he has lived and worked for more than forty years, by 

 the creation of a fund to be devoted to a scientific purpose, and to 

 be known as the " Bonders Memorial Fund." The uses to which 

 the fund will be put, and the rules by which its administration 

 will be governed, will of course be determined in accordance 

 with the wishes of Prof Bonders. The Ophthalmological and 

 Physiological Societies have taken the matter in hand in this 

 country, and we have no doubt that the committees they have 

 appointed will do their work satisfactorily. It ought not to be 

 difficult for them to secure an adequate token of the respect felt 

 in England for an illustrious man of science to whom the medical 

 ]irofession and the public are so deeply indebted. It is proposed 

 that the amounts contributed by the several donors be not specified, 

 but that they be grouped into a common sum for transmission to 

 the Butch Committee ; and that the names of those contributing 

 be inscribed in a suitable form for presentation to Prof Bonders. 

 For this reason smaller as well as larger subscriptions will be 

 acceptable. Subscriptions may be sent to Br. Gerald F. Yeo, 

 Secretary of the Committee of the Physiological Society (address — 

 King's College, London, W.C), or to Br. W. A. Brailey, 

 Secretary of the Committee of the Ophthalmological Society of the 

 United Kingdom (address — 11 Old Burlington Street, London, 

 W.). Subscriptions may also be sent to the office of this 

 journal. 



At a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, held on 

 January 30, Profs. Clausius, Haeckel, and Mendeleeff were 

 elected Honorary Fellows. 



Sir James Paget, F.R.S., has consented to give the annua' 

 address to the students of the London Society for the Extension 

 of University Teaching, at the Mansion House, on Saturday, 

 March 3, at 3.30 p.m., under the presidency of the Lord 

 Mayor. The subject of the address will be " Scientific Study." 



A MARBLE medallion portrait of the distinguished palaeonto- 

 logist, Br. Thomas Bavidson, F.R.S., first chairman of the 

 Brighton Museum Committee, was unveiled in the geological 

 room of the Free Town Museum, Brighton, by the Mayor, Mr. 

 E. Martin, on Friday, the 17th inst. The medallion, which is 

 much admired, is the work of Mr. Brock, A.R.A. It was 

 presented to the town on behalf of the subscribers by Mr. 

 Edward Crane, chairman of the Museum Committee, who 

 referred in detail to Br. Bavidson's services to science and 

 to the Museum. Sir R. Owen sent a letter regretting that failing 

 health prevented his paying the respect of personal attendance 

 to the memory of his distinguished fellow-worker. Prof Judd 

 also wrote bearing cordial testimony to the skill and enthusiasm 

 with which Br. Bavidson carried on his researches. 



General Perrier, the most eminent' French authority on 

 geodesy, died at Montpellier on Monday at the age of fifty-five. 

 He had attained the rank of Brigadier- General in the French 

 army, and was at the head of the Geode tic Bepartment at the 

 War Office. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences. 



The relations of science and religion do not form one of those 

 topics which we permit ourselves to discuss in Nature. At the 

 same time we may call attention to a series of three remarkable 

 articles on " Barwinism and the Christian Faith " recently 

 published in the Guardian (January 18, January 25, and 

 February i, 1888), and now reprinted as a pamphlet. The 

 author is anonymous, but is understood to be an Oxford College 

 tutor, and Honorary Canon of Christ Church. The orthodoxy 

 of the Guardian is, we believe, unimpeachable. We notice 

 therefore with gratification that not only is Barwinism 

 thoroughly accepted and lucidly expounded by the writer in the 

 Guai-dian, but that he is an exceptionally well-informed and 

 capable critic, whose scientific knowledge is varied and sound. 

 The publication of these articles in the Guardian is a proof that 

 the clergy as a body are not so unwilling to accept new scientific 

 views as might be supposed were we to regard Bean Burgon as 

 a fair sample of his class. The Guardian' s conixihwiox discusses 

 the difficulty of reconciling the existence of a just, omnipotent, 

 and omniscient God with the existence of pain and the ceaseless 

 "struggle for existence," rand a propos has a remark tinged 

 with local colour which is worth reproducing. "And yet," he 

 says, " man, who is so wise and good that he is always saying, 

 with King Alphonso of Castile, ' If God had called me to His 

 councils things would have been in better order,' has invented 

 competitive examinations, which mean suffering and pain for all, 

 without even a compensating ' survival of the fittest ' or improve- 

 ment of the race ! " We believe that competitive examinations 

 were invented by the Chinese, and introduced into Europe by 

 Jesuit missionaries. The Chinese are celebrated among the 

 nations of the world for the elaborate system of cruel tortures 

 employed in their administration of justice. On the other hand, 

 wie owe tea and many other nice things to them. 



The annual winter meeting of the Department of Super- 

 intendence of the U.S. National Education Association was 

 held lately at Washington. The most important topics treated 

 were " How and to what extent can Manual Training be in- 

 grafted on our System of Public Schools ? " and " How can the 

 Qualifications of Teachers be determined ? " 



