640 



NATURE 



{Oct. 30, 1879 



NOTES 

 The following botanical appointments have been recently 

 made by the Colonial Office, on the recommendation of the 

 Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew:— H. Trimen, M.B. 

 Lend., F.L.S., Senior Assistant in the Department of Botany, 

 British Museum, to be Director of the Royal Botanic Garden, 

 Ceylon, in the place of Dr. Thwaitej, C.M.G., F.R.S., who 

 retires on pension with the title of Honorary Government 

 Botanist. D. Morris, B.A., Trin. Coll. Dubl., F.G.S., late 

 Assistant-Director of the Royal Botanic Garden, Ceylon, to be 

 Director of the Botanical Department, Jamaica. H. Marshall 

 Ward, scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, to be employed for 

 two years as Cryptogamist in the investigation of the coffee-leaf 

 disease in Ceylon. He will be subordinated to the Director of 

 the Botanic Garden, and will have the use of the Assistant- 

 Director's house. Mr. Morris and Mr. Ward were formerly 

 students of the Science and Art Department. 



Our readers will deeply sympathise with Sir John Lubbock 

 under the heavy affliction with which he has been visited by the 

 death of Lady Lubbock, w hich took place on the aoth instant. 

 Her natural abilities were of no mean order, and the warm 

 interest she took in all her husband's pursuits must have afforded 

 him at once encouragement and aid in many of his undertakings. 

 Her sympalthies also extended to her husband's friends, and not 

 a few of our readers will be able to call to mind the kind and 

 hospitable reception which they have met with at her hands. 

 Though for some years not in robust health, it was not, we 

 believe, until within the last few weeks that any serious appre- 

 hension was entertained of the result of her illness. Lady 

 Lubbock contributed a paper on the Shell-Mounds of Denmark 

 to the volume of "Vacation Journals" for 1862-63 ; from time 

 to time she was a contributor to Nature, and some few of her 

 writings have appeared in a published form elsewhere ; these, 

 however, would afford but a poor criterion of all that she has 

 directly and indirectly done towards the advancement of natural 

 science. 



It is with extreme regret that we record the death, after a 

 long and painful illness, of Charles Henry Jeens, the well-known 

 line engraver. Most of our readers are acquainted with the 

 beautiful portraits of " Scientific Worthies " that appear from 

 time to time in Nature, and many of them can doubtless testify 

 from personal knowledge to the truth and accuracy of these 

 portraits. Few artists ever possessed so fully as Mr. Jeens that 

 esoteric faculty — which so many lack — for realising in an engrav- 

 ing the salient and best expression of a face and of making a 

 portrait really characteristic and life-like. This faculty he held 

 to the last, and increasing illness and pain only seemed to 

 sharpen it. Apart from their value as excellent likenesses these 

 portraits are of high artistic value. Mr. Jeens was noted for 

 the firmness and delicacy of his work, and nowhere are these 

 qualities better shown than in his small portraits. We are glad 

 to say that before he died he had completed several fresh 

 engravings for the series of " Scientific Worthies," which will 

 be issued in due course and possess a mournful interest of their 

 own. Mr. Jeens was only fifty-two years of age when he died. 



Mr. C. p. Edison, nephew of the great American inventor, has 

 just died at Paris at the early age of twenty-four. He was his 

 uncle's principal assistant in the production of the loud-speaking 

 telephone, and was sent over to London by him to exhibit that 

 instrument before the Prince of Wales, the Royal Society, &c. 

 He had of late been engaged in applying his uncle's system of 

 quadruplex telegraphy between Paris and Brussels. 



At the annual general meeting of the Cambridge Philo- 

 sophical Society on Monday evening last. Prof. Alfred Newton, 

 F.R.S., was elected President in the place of Prof. Liveing, 



who has served two years. The Vice-Presidents, in addition to 

 the rctuing President, are Prof. Stokes and Dr. Michael Foster. 

 The Secretaries remain as before. New Members of the 

 Council : Dr. Phear (Master of Emmanuel College), Prof. 

 Hughes (Woodwardian Professor), and Mr. W. D. Niven, of 

 Trinity College. Prof. Cayley and Mr. W. M. Hicks, of St. 

 John's College, read papers, the latter on the Problem of Two 

 Pulsating Spheres in a Fluid. Prof. Newton, in assuming the 

 Presidency, said he felt bound to put aside all his feelings against 

 holding this responsible position, in view of the wishes of the 

 Council, and also considering that his election was to be regarded 

 not only as a personal compliment, but as a tribute to those 

 studies of which, by virtue of his position, he might be held to be 

 representative. The next meeting of the Society is on November 

 10, and the junior secretary, Mr. Glaisher, is authorised to 

 receive all communications relating to papers to be read before 

 the S ociety. 



The sixth meeting of Russian naturalists will be opened at 

 St. Petersburg on January i. The Committee is composed of 

 professors of the St. Petersburg University, Beketoff, Petrush. 

 evsky, Ovsiannikoff, Tamintzin, Wagner, Menshutkov, ami 

 Snostrantseff. The meeting will last for ten days, and will have 

 eight sections : Anatomy and Physiology ; Zoology and Com- 

 parative Anatomy ; Botany ; Mineralogy, Geology, and Palaeon- 

 tology ; Chemistry and Physics ; Astronomy and Malhematic; ; 

 Anthropology ; and Scientific Medicine. 



The last verification'of the axes of the Gothard tunnel betwe'm 

 Airolo and Goschenen was to be made this week. It is new 

 confidently expected that the workmen from the two extremities 

 of the tunnel will shake hands midway in the mountain before 

 New Year's Day. 



Prof. A. PI. Sayce appeals to the public through the Timd 

 on behalf of a tour of exploration in Biblical lands, in which 

 Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, the well-known Assyrian scholar, 

 is at present engaged . Through the kindness of a few friends 

 funds have been raised to carry him as far as Beyrout, whence 

 he hopes to travel through Northern Syria and the Tigro- 

 Euplirates Valley, visiting and examining on his way the sites of 

 Carchemish and other Hittite cities, Nineveh, Calah, Assur (the 

 ancient Assyrian capital), Balawat (from which Mr. Rassam olj- 

 tained the bronze gates now in the British Museum), and Bagdad. 

 B.igdad will be a centre for exploring Ur. The success of the 

 expedition will, of course, largely depend on the funds at Mr. 

 Boscawen's disposal, and Mr. Sayce hopes, therefore, that he 

 will be assisted in his work by those interested in the archa:ology 

 of the East. Subscription will be received by the treasurer of 

 the fund, Mr. Edmond Beales, Osborn Honse, Bolton Gardens 

 South, South Kensington. 



On Saturday, October 25, the five academies constituting the 

 Institute of France had a solemn meeting to award the biennial 

 prize granted every two years by one of the academies. The 

 turn this year being that of the Academy of Moral and Political 

 Sciences, the prize was taken by M. Demolombe, dean of the 

 Faculte de Droit of Caen, author of a voluminous work en 

 legislation. The meeting was presided over by M. Daubree^ 

 actual president of the Academy of Sciences, who delivered a 

 very short inaugural address ; but the learned geologist did not 

 omit to make allusion to the unity of composition of the whole 

 solar system as testified by the analysis of aerolites. 



During the last few weeks the workmen engaged in making 

 a road near Colberg, in Pomerania, found several indications 

 that they were in the neighbourhood of an ancient burial place. 

 The proprietor of the site, Herr von Kamecke, being solicitous 

 for the preservation of any remains which might be found, had 

 some excavations made under proper control. Twenty urns were 



