April II, 1889] 



NA 7 VRE 



565 



NOTES. 

 The Bakerian Lecture will be delivered to-day before the Royal 

 Society by Profs. Riicker, F.R.S., and Thorpe, F.R.S. The 

 subject is the Magnetic Survey of the British Isles for the epoch 

 January i, 1886, on which these gentlemen have been engaged 

 for five years. They have made observations at more than two 

 hundred stations, and have thus completed the first survey of the 

 United Kingdom in which all three elements— the declination, 

 dip, and horizontal force— have been determined for all parts, 



* In addition to the general survey by means of which the direc- 



■ tions of the isogonals, isoclinals, and lines of equal horizontal 

 B force have been found, special surveys have been made of 

 H selected districts in order to investigate the magnitude, direction, 

 H and causes of local magnetic disturbance. The principles which 

 B are justified by these inquiries have been applied to the whole 



■ country, with results which are likely to prove of interest both to 



* physicists and geologists. We hope 'to give an account of the 

 lecture in an early number. 



Prof. Mendeleef, the celebrated Russian chemist, has 

 accepted the invitation of the Council of the Chemical Society 

 to deliver the Faraday Lecture ; he will probably give his mature 

 views on the Periodic Law of the Elements, with which his 

 name is so indissolubly connected. The lecture will be de- 

 livered by permission of the Managers of the Royal Institution 

 in their theatre, on the evening of June 4. The Fellows of the 

 Society will entertain Prof Mendeleef at a dinner at the Holborn 

 Restaurant the next evening ; and the President, Dr. W. J. 

 Russell, F.R.S., will hold a reception at the Grosvenor Gallery 

 on June 7. 



M. Chevreul, the famous French chemist, died on the morn- 

 ing of April 9 at the age of 102. He was born at Angers in 1 786. 

 During his long life he held many official appointments, and by 

 his work as a chemist he secured an eminent place among the 

 men of science of the present century. He constantly kept in 

 view the possible applications of science to industry. Some of 

 his discoveries have exercised an important influence on the 

 manufacture of silk, and his researches relating to "fatty bodies 

 of animal origin " marked an era in the development of various 

 industries dependent on organic chemistry. M. Chevreul was a 

 man of active and cheerful temperament, and extreme old age 

 did not prevent him from continuing the studies in which he had 

 found a perennial source of interest. 



The death is announced of the Finnish botanist. Prof. Sextus 

 Otto Lindberg ; and of Dr. Hermann Theodor Geyler, Di- 

 rector of the Botanical Gardens at Frankfurt. Dr. Geyler was 

 bom at Schwarzbach, in Saxe- Weimar, on January 15, 1835. 



In the House of Commons, on Tuesday, in connection with 

 the vote for expenses incurred in the erection and maintenance 

 of the buildings of the Department of Science and Art, Mr. 

 Acland called attention to the inadequacy of the buildings used 

 by the Normal School of Science. Mr. Acland's appeal, which 

 was in no way exaggerated, received the cordial support of Sir 

 H. Roscoe, who spoke ofthe condition of the buildings as "really 

 a disgrace." Hon. members, he said, were hopmg before long 

 to have a technical Bill ; but what would be the good of it unless 

 proper teachers were provided? And proper teachers it was 

 impossible to obtain unless their schools were what they 

 ought to be. la almost every centre of population in foreign 

 countries these normal schools were to be found, but there was 

 only one in England. This had been built for one purpose, and 

 converted to quite different purposes for which it was unfitted. 

 The honour of the country was at stake, and this state of things 

 had been borne quite long enough. Mr. Plunket, in his reply, 

 declined to give any definite pledge about the matter. He had 



visited the buildings several times, and as one of the results of 

 the debate of last year, the First Lord of the Treasury, the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Vice-President of the Coun- 

 cil, himself, and others made a most careful visit to every part 

 of the building. One of the conclusions arrived at was, that 

 before additional buildings were erected it would be a good 

 thing to get rid of a good deal of the material filling up the 

 galleries at the present time. A Committee, consisting, among 

 others, of Sir H. Roscoe, Lord Rayleigh, Sir B. Samuelson, 

 and Lord F. Hervey, had been appointed for the purpose of 

 weeding out those galleries in the science collections alone. 

 Until that Committee had reported, it was impossible to take 

 any further steps or to come to any definite decision with refer- 

 ence to increased expenditure to extend the buildings which at 

 present existed. 



A DEPUTATION from the National Association for the Pro- 

 motion of Technical Education waited on Sir William Hart 

 Dyke on Monday afternoon in the Conference Room at the 

 House of Commons. In answer to the deputation, which was 

 introduced by Lord Hartington, as President of the Association, 

 Sir William Hart Dyke said the Government had the cause of 

 technical education very much at heart, and would do then- 

 utmost to pass a Bill dealing with the subject during the present 

 session. They would take into careful consideration the recom- 

 mendations of the Association. He promised, meanwhile, that 

 he would lay on the table of the House of Commons a memor- 

 andum explaining some ofthe difficult points ofthe Code in special 

 reference to the instructions to be given to inspectors in carrying 

 out the new provisions of the Code. He also promised that the 

 subjects in which instruction might be given in evening schools 

 should be increased from two to four. 



At the thirtieth session ofthe Institution of Naval Architects, 

 yesterday, an important paper on the designs for the new 

 battle-ships was read by Mr. W. H. White, F.R.S., Assistant 

 Controller of the Navy and Director of Naval Construction, 



The Zoological Museum at Leyden, one of the most con- 

 siderable on the Continent, has narrowly escaped a terrible 

 disaster. On Monday, the ist of this month, a fire broke out, 

 and all the resources of the officials and of the town w:re taxed 

 to extinguish it. Indeed, it was not got under until a considerable 

 portion of the collection of specimens of hollow-horned Ru- 

 minants had been destroyed. Had the accident, which arose 

 from the defect of a flue, taken place at night instead of in the 

 afternoon, when plenty of assistance was promptly at hand, it is 

 believed that the whole Museum would have perished. The 

 authorities of other Museums, especially those which contain 

 many spirit preparations, should not neglect this warning. 



We have already mentioned that an international meeting of 

 zoologists will be held in Paris in August. The President will 

 be M. Milne-Edwards, and some important questions will be 

 submitted for consideration. Among them will be the question 

 ofthe unification of the language of zoology in classification and 

 specific denotation. M. R. Blanchard has prepared an important 

 report on the subject, which will be published shortly in the 

 Kevuc Scientifiqzie, and form the basis for the discussions at the 

 Congress. 



The Physiological Congress which is to be held in Basle in 

 September will be attended by many French physiologists, 

 if all those who propose to go are able to carry out their 

 intention. 



The King of Sweden has selected Herr Ehrenheim, ex- 

 Minister of State, as President of the forthcoming Oriental 

 Congress in Stockholm. It is announced that Prof. R. L, 



