yune 10, 1875J 



NATURE 



117 



In last week's jfournal of the Society of Arts will be found a 

 very interesting paper by Mr. P. F. Nursey, C.E., on Toughened 

 Glass. 



The Conversazione of the Society of Arts will be held on the 

 25th inst. at South Kensington Museum. 



Mr. Watts, who visited Iceland last year, and ascended 

 the Vatna Jbkel to a higher point than had previously been 

 reached by any traveller, sailed from Granton last week for 

 Reykjavik. He is to resume his travels in the interior of Iceland 

 duruig the present summer. There is still a large portion of the 

 island unexplored, and, as it is very mountainous and covered in 

 some places with perpetual snow, the work of exploration is 

 attended with great danger and difficulty. "With the assistance 

 of some of the Icelanders, however, it is hoped that this inhos- 

 pitable region may be crossed over and examined, so that its 

 topographical and mineralogical character may be determined 

 more exactly than has yet been done. 



A LETTER from the Secretary of the Italian Society of 

 Sciences to the Paris Academy, states that the Italian savants 

 have agreed to support a proposition issued by the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh, that the large tables of logarithms calculated by M. 

 Prouy should be published at the common expense of all nations 

 wishing to contribute to an enterprise of common interest 

 for mankind. These tables were calculated as far back 

 as the beginning of the present century, at the expense of the 

 French Government. The manuscript, which escaped the van- 

 dalism of the Communists, is safe in the Archives of the Aca- 

 demy, and cannot be published solely for want of funds. 



Dr. Nachtigall, the African explorer, has received the 

 commands of the German Emperor to wait upon his Majesty at 

 Ems. The Berlin Geographical Society gave Dr. Nachtigall an 

 enthusiastic reception on the 2nd inst,, at which the eminent 

 traveller briefly sketched his six years' work in North Africa. 

 The reception was followed by a banquet in the Zoological 

 Gardens, at which Dr. Nachtigall received an autograph letter 

 from the Emperor conferring upon him the Order of the Royal 

 Crown. On Tuesday last the traveller was received in audience 

 by the Imperial Crown Prince at the new Palace at Potsdam. 



Preparations are being made for the erection of a handsome 

 new museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. 



The boys and girls who assembled in the theatre of 

 London University on Monday for the distribution of prizes and 

 certificates gained in the Cambridge University local examina- 

 tions were particularly fortunate in having as chairman Sir W. 

 V. Harcourt. The address he gave was unusually pointed and 

 irooressive ; the criticism he made on the results of these exami- 

 nations, and the wholesome truths he uttered on what education 

 really means, must have had an excellent effect on many of 

 those who heard them, both old and young. "The object of 

 education," the chairman reminded his hearers, "was not the 

 immediate knowledge which it gave them, but it was the instru- 

 ment by which they might learn hereafter. " When parents and 

 teachers are universally impressed with this great truth, we may 

 expect to see something like a revolution take place in our edu- 

 cational systems. These local examinations have one excellent 

 result in bringing out the directions in which particular classes 

 of pupils are apt to fail, and ought to be of great service to 

 teachers who aim at makimg a science of their profession. 



Owens College, Manchester, has received the first instal- 

 ment, 57,000 dols., of a legacy left to it by Mr. Charles Clifton, 

 an American engineer, a native of Yorkshire. A considerable 

 additional balance is expected to be handed over presently. 



The Pandora, three-masted schooner, originally a despatch 

 vessel belonging to the Government, and which was purchased a 

 few months ago from the Admiralty for private Arctic explora- 



tion, is now lying in the inner dock at Southampton, after 

 having undergone a thorough overhaul and refit. The Pandora 

 has been specially adapted for an Arctic cruise. She will leave 

 England about the i8th inst., and, as Lady Franklin is under- 

 stood to be largely interested in her equipment, the Pandora 

 will probably follow in the footsteps of M'Clintock in search of 

 further remains of Sir John Franklin. The vessel is propelled 

 by a feathering screw, is of 439 tons burden, and a quick 

 sailer. The Pandora will be commanded by Mr. Allen Young, 

 who has already seen much Arctic service, and Lieut. Lillingston, 

 R.N. 



Just before the leaving of the Arctic Expedition a deputation 

 from the Bremen North Pole Society visited Portsmouth with a 

 view to consulting Capt. Nares regarding co-operation between 

 the English Expedition and a German Expedition which may 

 possibly be sent out next year. 



The first Annual Report of the Yorkshire College of Science 

 at Leeds is as satisfactory as could be expected. The College 

 was opened in the end of last October with three professors— 

 A. W. Rucker, Mathematics and Physics ; Dr. T. E, Thorpe, 

 Chemistry ; and A. H. Green, Geology and Mining. Though 

 the number of day-students has been small, the professors report 

 in satisfactory terms of the progress that has been made. In 

 addition to the day lectures, short courses of evening lectures 

 have been given, which have been most successful. At the 

 request of the Wakefield branch of the Ladies' Council of the 

 Yorkshire Board of Education, arrangements were made for 

 the delivery at Wakefield of a course of lectures, by Prof. Green, 

 on the Geology of the West Riding ; the lectures were in every 

 way a success, and this field of operations is hkely to be deve- 

 loped. The Clothworkers' Company had endowed a Chair ot 

 Textile Industries; the professor, Mr. W. Walker, commenced 

 his lectures to a good class, but for some reason resigned his 

 chair in January. On the whole, this Report is an encouraging 

 one, and if the friends of the scheme only persevere and see that 

 the College is founded on a sufficiently broad basis, we have no 

 doubt of its ultimate complete success. 



The following statistics have been published by the French 

 Minister for Public Instruction : — Thirty per cent, of the popula- 

 tion cannot read or write, but the proportion is smaller amongst 

 the males, as the conscription lists give only nineteen per cent, 

 at nineteen years of age. There are thirteen scholars for every 

 100 inhabitants, and one school for every 500, or 70,000 schools 

 for the whole of France. The expenses of primary education 

 are 70,000,000 fr. — about 40/. per school, or about ij'. 8(/. per 

 head of inhabitants, or \2s. per pupil. 



We regret to learn from the Geographical Magazine that 

 through the omission of the French Commissioners to ask the 

 German Government to appoint a Commissioner to the 

 forthcoming Geographical Exhibition at Paris, it is not likely 

 to be very complete so far as maps are concerned. The absence 

 of the great German map -publishing firms would be matter for 

 regret. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during 

 the past week include a Brown Capuchin {Cebtis faiuellus) from 

 Guiana, presented by Mr. Charles Wilson ; a Kuhl's Deer 

 {Cerzius Kuhlii) from the Bavian Islands, two Victoria 

 Crowned Pigeons {Goura Victorice) from the Island of Jobie, 

 two Bornean Fireback Pheasants {Euplocamus nobilis) from 

 Borneo, two Great Black Cockatoos {Microglossa aterrima) from 

 New Guinea, a Derbian Screamer {Chauna derbiana) from S. 

 America, purchased ; a Chimpanzee ( Troglodytes nigef) from 

 W. Africa, six Argus Pheasants {Argus giganteus) from Malacca, 

 deposited ; four Peacock Pheasants {Polyplectron chinquis), 

 an Eland {Oreas canna), and a Virginian Deer {Cervusvir* 

 ginianus) born in the Gardens, 



