jMue 9, 1887] 



NA TURE 



135 



his political opinions, from his position of Professor at the 

 Conservatoire des Arts et Mdtiers ; but this step caused 

 so much discontent among scientific men, and was so 

 vigorously resented by his colleagues, who threatened to 

 resign in a body, that the Government had to reinstate 

 him. 



He died on May 11, 1887, in his eighty-sixth year. 



NOTES. 



The "Ladies' SoirJe" at the Royal Society held last night 

 was carefully prepared and largely attended. We shall refer at 

 length next week to some of the objects exhibited. 



Those who have made the arrangements for the great national 

 ceremony at Westminster Abbey in connexion with the Queen's 

 Jubilee cannot, it would appear, be congratulated on the manner 

 in which they have discharged one of the most important of their 

 functions. On so striking an occasion all the highest interests of 

 the nation ought to be adequately represented ; yet some of the 

 most vital of these interests have been practically ignored. 

 " A Student " has alluded to the matter in a letter to the 

 Times, and his remarks seem to be worthy of attention. 

 Having referred to the eminent fitness of Westminster 

 Abbey for a ceremony of this kind, he says : — " I imagined 

 gathered together there all the men who by their deeds, 

 their discoveries, their inventions, their writings, or their 

 noble lives and ideas, have helped during th3 Queen's reign to 

 make England what she is at the present moment, and I 

 imagined, too, that the list of the names of those present might 

 be a roll fit to be handed down to the remotest posterity as an 

 authoritative statement of England's most illustrious citizens in 

 the present year. Proud that the English Government had re- 

 solved to act upon such a noble idea, I have been endeavouring 

 to express my enthusiasm and gratitude to many that I have 

 met, with the result that I have found either that my view of 

 the Government's intention was perfectly wrong or that it is 

 being carried out in such a manner that the thing promises to be 

 an expensive and unworthy farce. I have been informed by 

 some who should know that amo ig those who have alrea ty been 

 invited hardly the name of any representative of literature, 

 science, or art has been included." 



The Queen has intimated her intention of accepting the 

 Albert Medal, which has been awarded to her by the Council of 

 the Society of Arts. The Albert Medal is annually given for 

 " distinguished merit in promoting arts, manufactures, or 

 commerce." 



All who remember the important aid rendered by Governor 

 Sendall to the Government Eclipse Expedition to the West 

 Indies last year will be glad to see by a recent Gazette that a 

 C.M.G. has been conferred upon him. The same Gazette also 

 included the name of Dr. Hector for the step of K.C.M.G. 

 This is also another unexceptionable appointment. We are 

 glad that the authorities at the Colonial Office are making such 

 wise selections ; the o xler of St. Michael and St. George bids 

 fjair to eclipse that of the Bath, the civilian distinctions connected 

 with which seem more and more rarely to come in a scientific 

 direction, and to be more and more limited to the spending 

 rather than Ihe thinking departments. 



Some important appointments have just been made at 

 University College, London. Dr. William Ramsay, Principal 

 of, and Professor of Chemistry in. University College, Bristol, - 

 has been appointed to fill the Chair of Chemistry, vacant by the ! 

 resignation of Dr. Williamson; Dr. Sydney Ringer, F.R.S., 

 has been made Holme Professor of Clinical Medicine, in succession 



to the late Dr. Wilson Fox; and Mr. Victor Horsley, F.R.S., 

 succeeds Dr. Bastian (resigned) as Professor of Pathology. 



We referred lately (p. 87) to a Bill introduced into the Plouse 

 of Commons by Sir Henry Roscoe, empowering any School 

 Board, local authority, or managers of a public elementary 

 school, to provide day technical and commercial schools and 

 classes. Mr. Janes Stuart has introduced a corresponding 

 measure for the establishment of evening schools and classes 

 which shall give instruction in continuatio i of that obtained in 

 public elementary schools. The subjects to be taught include 

 the elements of such portions of science as may be likely to be 

 useful to artisans and other persons engaged in industrial and 

 agricultural occupations ; also e'em;ntary mechanics, mechaiical 

 drawing, the elements of art and design, the use of ordinary 

 tools, commercial arithmetic, and commercial geography. For 

 providing these evening continuation schools the povers of 

 School Boards or other local authorities are to be in all respects 

 the same as for providing ordinary public elementary schools. 

 Further, there is to be the power of providing or contributing 

 to the maintenance of laboratories or workshops in endowed 

 schools f jr the purpose of carrying on classes under the Bill. 

 The schools and clause; thus provided are to be subject to the 

 inspection of the officers of the Committee of Council on Edu- 

 cation or of the Science and Art Department, and no scholar is 

 to be admitted to a school or class who has not passed an 

 examination in the sixth standard. It is also proposed that 

 School Boards or other local authorities shall have power to 

 provide evening schools and clause;, either in connexion with 

 "evening continuation schools" or not, for the purpose of giving 

 instruction in a particular group of subjects, among which are 

 arithmetic, geography, elementary science, drawing, wood- 

 carving, and modelling. The conditions as to these schools and 

 classes do not differ from those as to the continuation schools, 

 except that the standard to be passed previously to admission 

 is the f )urth, not the sixth. For any of the subjects taught in 

 evening schools or classes unler the Bill the Committee of 

 Council on Education are empowered to give grants on such 

 conditions as they may lay down. 



We learn that the Bentham Trustees have purchased for pre- 

 sentation to the Library of the Royal Gardens, Kew, the unique 

 collection of portraits of Bromeliacece which were accumulated 

 during a life-long study of the order by the late Dr. Morren, 

 Profe-sor of Botany in the University of Liege. Some of the 

 drawings, which are in all cases of life size, were exhibited at 

 the recent reception of the Royal Society. 



In an article printed in Nature on January 13 (vol. xxxv. 

 p. 248), Mr. D. Morris dealt with the important question ot 

 botanical federation in -the West Indies. He ag.iin discusses 

 this subject in the sixth Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 

 just issued from the Royal Gardens, Kew. For the last hundred 

 years the cultivation of the sugar-cane has been the only 

 important industry in the West Indie;, aid the fall in the price 

 of cane sugar has seriously affected the general condition of the 

 population. It is estimated that one-half of the surface of these 

 islands, with the exception of Antigua and Ba-b.ados, is better 

 fitted for other cultivation than that of the sugar-cane. Fresh 

 industries might therefore be safely started, an 1 Mr. Morris is 

 careful to point out that "by too close an adhesion to purely 

 sugar-growing habits and methods the people act injuriously to 

 their best interests and neglect the numerous resources at their 

 command." It is, however, absolutely necessary that any new 

 enterprises which may bj undertaken shall be carried on by 

 persons equipped with adequate kn )wledge ; and no real pro- 

 gress can be made unless the people of the various islands pro- 

 vide themselves with small but good botanical establishments in 

 connexion with the Botanical Department in Jamaica. Some- 

 thing has already been done in this direction. At Grenada a 



