May 13, 1875] 



NA TURE 



33 



order. The instruments sent by the Academy to China are to 

 remain there, and perhaps a permanent observatory may be 

 established. 



Prof. James Dewar, in resigning his post of Chemist to 

 the Highland Agricultural Society, on his appointment to the 

 Jacksonian Chair, Cambridge, has told that Society some whole- 

 some truths, which we hope they will take to heart. Mr. Dewar 

 writes :—" After what has occurred, it will hardly be necessary 

 for me to say anything about what might have been had the 

 chemical department been rearranged in the way I naturally 

 anticipated after the death of Dr. Anderson. You are aware I 

 intended prosecuting investigations in vegetable physiology, had 

 the proper means been placed at my disposal ; and the desire to 

 do so was the main reason of my leaving the University. As it 

 seems, however, the opinion of a portion of the Society that an 

 agricultural chemist (so-called by the uninitiated, because his 

 business is chemical analyses and the manipulating of the farming 

 interests) rather than a scientific chemist would be best qualified 

 to discharge the duties of the office of chemist, I have considered 

 it my duty to accept the Cambridge Professorship as the best 

 meansof getting out of a false position. I still trust, however, 

 the Society will ultimately see that this office of chemist will 

 never be properly filled except by one thoroughly trained in 

 scientific research, and this, the making him a real agricultural 

 chemist, will depend on the means placed at his disposal for 

 applying his scientific knowledge to agriculture." 



Wk are glad to see that the University of Glasgow is doing 

 what it can to promote experimental investigation among its 

 students ; for this purpose the following two prizes are offered : — 

 I. In Natural Philosophy, the Cleland Gold Medal, for the 

 best " Experimental Determination of Magnetic Moments in 

 Absolute Measure." AU students of the Natural Philosophy 

 Class in Session 1874-75, or Session 1875-76, may be com- 

 petitors. 2. The Watt Prizes of 10/. for the best " Numerical, 

 Graphic, and Experimental Illustrations of Fourier's Solutions 

 of Problems in Thermal Conduction." Cooling of a cylinder 

 to be worked out numerically in one or more cases : cooling of a 

 globe may be illustrated experimentally in one or more cases. All 

 matriculated students of the University in Session 1875-76, who 

 have finished, or who on the ist day of May, 1876, shall finish 

 a regular course of Languages and Philosophy, may be com- 

 petitors. Two or more competitors for the prize may work 

 together and give in a joint essay ; and two prizes will.be given 

 in case of sufficient merit. The Physical Laboratory of the Uni- 

 versity will afford the requisite experimental means for candidates 

 for the Watt and Cleknd Prizes. When will Oxford and 

 Cambridge follow such a good example ? 



It is with great regret that we record the death, in his fifty- 

 fourth year, of Admiral Sherard Osborn, C.B., F.R.S., which 

 took place suddenly on Thursday night last. Admiral Osborn's 

 name is well known in connection with Arctic exploration, 

 and he was to have read a paper last Monday on the Arctic 

 Expedition before the Royal Geographical Society. He was 

 born April 25, 1822, entered the navy in 1837, and served in 

 the East Indies and in China. He obtained his commission as 

 lieutenant in 1846, and three years later .was selected as a 

 volunteer for the Arctic Expedition, under Capt. H. T. Austen, 

 sent in search of Sir John Franklin, being appointed to com- 

 mand the Pioneer. He afterwards served with distinction 

 during the Russian war, in China, and in Mexico. In 1864 

 Capt. Osbom was appointed to the command of the turret-ship 

 Royal Sovereign, and was afterwards for several years managing 

 director of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway at Bombay. 

 Admiral Osborn naturally took a keen interest in the Arctic 

 Expedition which is so soon to leave our shores. 



The following naturalists have been elected foreign members 

 of the Linnean Society of London, viz. : Alexander Agassiz, 



H. E. Baillon, Ferdinand Cohn, M.D., A. de Quatrefages, and 

 F. Parlatore. 



Dr. G. J. Allman, F.R.S., has been elected Examiner in 

 .Zoology, and Dr. M. T. Masters, F.R.S., Examiner in Botany 

 to the University of London. 



An outline of the lectures on the Invertebrata being delivered 

 at Edinburgh University by Prof. Huxley is being published 

 in the Medical Times and Gazette ; the first instalment appeared 

 in last Saturday's number. 



Our readers are familiar with the name of the Penikese 

 School of Zoology in the United States, and last week we gave 

 the programme of a similar institution for the practical study of 

 Geology. The faculty of Harvard College aie, we beheve, 

 arranging for similar schools for other branches of scientific in- 

 struction, and have announced three separate courses, besides 

 the one on Geology : — One of Chemistry, under Prof. J. P. Cook, 

 to be held at Cambridge. The second is a course in Phenogamic 

 Botany, to be given in the Botanical Laboratory at Cambridge, 

 by Prof. Goodalc. The Botanical Garden and Herbarium will 

 furnish material for instruction in Structural and Systematic 

 Botany. All necessary appliances, including disiccling and 

 compound microscopes, will be furnished by the instructor. The 

 third course is that of Cryptogamic Botany, under Prof. W. G. 

 Farlow. This course will be held at some point on the sea- 

 shore, possibly Provincetown or other suitable locality, and in 

 this respect will correspond to the plan of the summer school of 

 zoology at Penikese. Twelve lectures will be devoted to the 

 Algce and six to the Fungi. A laboratory will be established, and 

 excursions will be made throughout the course by the students 

 in company with Prof. Farlow. 



From Baron Mueller, Government Botanist of Victoria, 

 Australia, we have received his last report of the progress and 

 condition of botany in that colony. From a scientific point of 

 view, and equally in regard to the advance of applied botany, it 

 contains many interesting particulars. The learned writer, who 

 has done so much to promote the development of the vegeable 

 resources of Australia, laments the withdrawal of the working 

 votes of his department, and his removal from the directorship of 

 the Botanic Garden, as he is thereby deprived of the means of 

 conducting his researches. We glean the following notes from 

 this report. The vegetation (exclusive of some of the lower 

 cryptogams) of the whole of Australia is estimated at 11,000 

 species. The number of grasses is about 250 species. Nume- 

 rous experiments have been made to ascertain the quality and 

 practical working of various fibres, oils, tars, acetic acid, gums, 

 resins, starch, potash, paper materials, dyes, &c., obtained from 

 native and introduced plants, a complete hst of which is appended 

 to the report. In some experiments on rabbits with the tubers 

 of Burchardia umbellata and Anguillaria australis, it was ascer- 

 tained that although belonging to a doubtful family, they con- 

 tain no noxious principle. In the search for jalap in the tubeis 

 of indigenous terrestrial orchids, the common Microtis porri folia 

 gave the best and highly satisfactory results. In drying, the 

 roots of this species evolve a slight violet odour, and ten grains 

 of the dry powder produces one ounce of good pale mucilage, 

 free from bitterness. The tubers of Thelymitra aristata, although 

 still richer in mucilage, are slightly bitter and of a brownish 

 tinge. Very much has been effected in the distribution of the 

 seeds of the gum trees {Eucalyptus), of which there are 140 species 

 in Australia, and intcsting the qualities of the numerous products 

 of these valuable trees. In a trip to the forest regions of the 

 Upper Yarra last year, Baron Mueller measured some trcCi of 

 Eucalyptus amygdalina, var. regnans, which were approximately 

 400 feet in height. The magnificent grass Festuca, dives was 

 found in the same region growing to a height of 1 7 feet on the 



