June 26, 1879] 



NATURE 



207 



been productive of valuable results, and his work on this subject, 

 which appeared in 1870, has been successively rendered into 

 English and Italian. No small portion of his time was devoted 

 to the perfection or invention of new general analytical methods, 

 and in this connection mention should be made of his careful, 

 critical reviews of the progress of analytical chemistry, which 

 have formed so important a part of Fresenius' Zeitschrift fiir 

 analytische Chemie since its foundation in 1862. Neubauer was 

 honoured successively by calls to professorships in Zurich, 

 Tubingen, and Erlangen, all of which he declined ; preferring 

 the more quiet, if somewhat limited field offered to his activity 

 in Wiesbaden. 



The Council of the Society of Arts have awarded the follow- 

 ing medals for papers read during the past session of the 

 Society : — To Mr. Alfred Haviland, M.R.C.S., for his paper 

 on the distribution of disease popularly considered ; to Mr. John 

 Holloway for his paper on a new application of a process of 

 rapid oxidation, by which sulphides are utilised as fuel ; Mr. 

 Conrad W. Cooke for his paper on Edison's new telephone ; 

 Mr. Thomas^Wardle for his paper on the wild silks of India, 

 especially Tussah; and Dr. Wm. Wallace, F.R.S.E., for his 

 paper on gas illumination. 



Mr. John Fiske, whose able work on " Cosmic Philosophy " 

 is familiar to our readers, is just now in England, and has put 

 in the hands of Messrs. Macmillan and Co., for early publica- 

 tion, a volume of essays on Darwinism and other subjects of a 

 kindred nature. 



As our readers know, there are one or two vacant seats in 

 Parliament for which there is already busy competition through- 

 out the country. Sir John Lubbock, in a letter to the Times, 

 suggests that one of them be devoted to science. " As the time 

 is approaching," he writes, " when the distribution of the vacant 

 seats will claim the attention of Her Majesty's Government, I 

 would suggest whether one of them might not with advantage 

 be allotted to the Royal Society. The members of that Society 

 are all men eminent in their respective branches ; they would 

 form a constituency second to none in the United Kingdom, and 

 would certainly send a representative who would be a valuable 

 addition to the House of Commons. The agricultural, manu- 

 facturing, and commercial interests, the military and naval ser- 

 vices, and the law are all strong in the House of Commons ; 

 literature is represented by the University members ; but science, 

 the practical importance of which is daily increasing, has no 

 voice in the deliberation of the nation. The proposal which I 

 venture to suggest would likewise have the merit of introducing 

 some additional variety into our representative system. The 

 alternative would be that there should be one more member for 

 a great borough or a populous county. Lastly, I may add that 

 the constituency, though not large, would be by no means among 

 the smallest in the United Kingdom," 



We are requested to explain that the paragraph in the Astro- 

 nomer-Royal's report relating to the performance of the West- 

 minster clock, referred to its going during the exceptionally severe 

 weather of the past winter. On the average of the whole twelve 

 months it would appear that the present is the best year but one 

 of the clock's performance, it having been within one second of 

 true time on So per cent, of the days of observation. 



One of the most interesting novelties in the Berlin Exhibition 

 !■; the construction of an electrical railway by Siemens and 

 llalske. The electrical power is supplied by a dynamo-electric 

 »nachine worked by a steam-engine to another dynamo-electric 

 machine, which works the wheels of an electric locomotive. The 

 length of the way is 200 metres, the velocity three metres per 

 second ; the number of waggons three, and passengers twenty. The 

 same experiment will be tried at the Scientific Exhibition at the 



Paris Palais de I'lndustrie, with Marcel Deprez's motor, which 

 is very promising. A new'model has been constructed, weighing 

 seven kilograms, and with twelve Bunsen elements can give a 

 man-power. This model of Marcel Deprez's is exhibiting now 

 at Lille, on the occasion of one of the ascents of the Aeronautical 

 Academy. It is hoped that it will have force enough to work 

 an aerial helix for ascending and descending without any sacrifice 

 of ballast and escape of gas. 



An interesting ceremony has just taken place at Paris. The 

 pupils of the Ecole Centrale, which was founded at Paris in 

 1829 by MM. Dumas, Lavalle, Perdonnet, and a number of 

 engineers for promoting education in practical science, has cele- 

 brated the fiftieth anniversary of that event. The new institu- 

 tion was so prosperous that a few years ago it was purchased by 

 the Government and made a public institution. It would be 

 difficult to give an idea of the number and importance of the 

 positions occupied by the pupils of the licole Centrale in French 

 industry. It may be said without any exaggeration that they 

 have been employed in the construction of almost every railway 

 in France and perhaps on the Continent. Most of the French 

 jurymen to the several international exhibitions have been 

 educated there. M. Dumas, who enjoys excellent health, and 

 may expect as long a career as his friend, M. Chevreul, is the 

 only founder alive, and consequently was the hero of the celebra- 

 tion. On June 20 he was received at the Hotel of the Rue 

 Couture St. Gervais, where the school is situated, by the mem- 

 bers of the Conseil de Perfectionnement, directors and pupils, 

 who offered him a testimonial of gratitude. On June 21 a great 

 meeting was held at the Trocadero, in the large hall, under the 

 presidency of M. Tirard, Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, 

 M. Dumas sat at his right. M. Dumas, who is an eloquent 

 and powerful speaker, delivered a most impressive address. He 

 spoke on the obstacles which the founders met with, and after 

 having explained how they had managed to win success, he 

 exclaimed, "We had faith, and you proved that we were right 

 in having it." At seven o'clock the pupils met at the Continental 

 Hotel, having invited MM. Dumas, de Lesseps, Boisson, vice- 

 president of the Chamber of Deputies, and a number of leading 

 railway engineers, and others. 



The memory of the great Swedish botanist Linne (Linnoeus) 

 is about to be honoured in a fitting manner by his countrymen. 

 In the State Budget for 1S80 a sum of 80,000 Swedish crowns 

 is set aside for the purchase of the Hammarby estate, near 

 Upsala, which originally belonged to Linne, as well as of a 

 quantity of furniture he ipnce possessed. This new Linne 

 Museum will be placed under the superintendence of the Rector 

 of Upsala University. . 



At the last meeting of the Geological Society, Prof. Prestwich 

 announced that the next International Geological Congress will 

 be held at Bologna in September, 1881, and that the President 

 of the Committee, Prof. Capellini, had written, requesting 

 co-operation on the part of the Geological Society and its 

 Fellows. Among the matters which would be brought forward 

 at this Congress would be the unification of geological nomen- 

 clature and the symbols used in geological mapping. 



A ZOOLOGICAL station similar to that at Naples is about to 

 be established at Messina. 



What with its museums and learned societies, the Berlin 

 Times correspondent writes, Berlin is fast becoming a highly- 

 favourable centre for the study of ethnology. Some time ago a 

 tribe of Esquimaux attracted large crowds to their quarters in the 

 Zoological Gardens. A family of Patagonians is waiting im- 

 patiently to be introduced by Prof. Virchow to the Anthropo- 

 logical Society to-morrow evening, while the latest phase of 



