Sept, 15, 1887] 



NATURE 



475 



these few researches. I say apparently, because it is certain 

 that there have been other researches which probably, on account 

 of failure to attain some immediate object, have not been 

 recorded, although they may have yielded valuable experience 

 which, though not put on record, has, before it was forgotten, 

 led to other attempts. But even discounting such lo^t researches, 

 it is very evident that mechanical science was in the past very 

 much hampered by the want of sufficient inducement to the 

 undertakingof experiments to settlequestionsof the utmost import- 

 ance io general advance, but which have not promised pecuniary 

 returns — scientific questions which involved a greater sacrifice of 

 time and money than individuals could afford. In recent periods 

 the aid and encouragement which it has been one of the first 

 objects of the British Association to afford such rosearches has 

 led to many results of the greatest importance, both directly and 

 indirectly, by the eftect of example in calling forth aid from 

 other institutions — that of mechanical engineers, for instance, 

 which recently induced Mr. Tower to carry out his already 

 celebrated research on "The Friction of Lubricated Journals," 

 the results of which research certainly claim notice as constitut- 

 ing one of the most important of recent steps in mechanical 

 science. Such investigations it is now the function as well as 

 the interest of mechanical laboratories to undertake, and thus 

 what has hitherto been a great obstacle in the path of mechanical 

 progress seems in a fair way to be removed and steady advance 

 to be insured. 



To what all this may lead us it is no part of my undertaking 

 to consider, but I venture to end this imperfect address on 

 the progress of mechanical science during the past twenty six 

 years by what appears to me the most satisfactory conclusion — 

 viz. that to such mechanical progress there is apparently no 

 end : for, as in the pa=t so in the future, each step in any direc- 

 tion will remove limits and carry us past barriers which have till 

 thin blocked the way in other directions ; and so what for the 

 tifn? may appear to be a visible end or practical limit will turn 

 out but a bend in the road. 



NOTES. 

 !)[;. Johannes Skalweit, the well-known chemist, has died 

 at Hanover, of heart disease. The deceased was in the prime 

 of life, and enjoyed a high reputation all over the Continent. 

 He was, according to the Tivics, President of the German 

 Union of Analytical Chemists — whose annual conference has 

 been postponed in consequence of his death — and editor of the 

 Repcrtorhim fiir Analytische Chemie. A large number of essays 

 and other short works on questions of sanitary science, State 

 medicine, and chemical analysis have issued from his pen. 

 Among the most important maybe mentioned " Ueber Fette im 

 Polarisirten Licht" (Hanover, 1879) ; "Ueber die Titration der 

 Phosphorsaiire mit Uran" (Hanover, 1880) ; "In wie weit ist 

 der heutige Kampf gegen die I/cbensmittelfalschung gerecht- 

 fertigt ?" (Hanover, 1880) ; " Ueber die Beziehungen zwischen 

 Bauordnung und Oeffentlicher Gesundheitspflege " (Magdeburg, 

 1885^. Dr. Skalweit was an authority on milk and butter 

 analysis. 



Sir William Grove, F.R.S., has resigned his seat on the 

 Bench as Judge of the High Court of Justice. 



The Secretary of State for India has sanctioned the appoint- 

 ment of a scientific assistant in the Revenue and Agricultural 

 Department of the Government of India, and Dr. Watt, CLE., 

 has been selected for the office. 



Mr. G. Brown Goode has been appointed United States Com- 

 missioner of Fish and Fisheries in succession to the late Prof 

 Spencer Baird. Science approves highly of the appointment, ob- 

 serving that it meets at once the requirements of an exacting office 

 and the exceptional provisions of the law creating it. "Prof. Goode 

 was intimately acquainted with the methods of Commissioner 

 Baird, whose scientific zeal and knowledge he shared, and his 

 experience and attainments in practical fish culture and in the 

 science of ichthyology made him easily first among those whose 

 qualifications the President has been called upon to consider." 



At the same time it regards the provisions of the law under 

 which the appointment was made as sadly in need of amend- 

 ment, for under them the Fish Commissioner is not paid a salary 

 commensurate with the importance of his office, and discharges 

 the duties of two offices for the pay of one. 



According to a Reuter's telegram, dated September 9, from 

 St. Paul de Loanda, Major Barttelot, who was left at the 

 camp at Yambunga at the foot of the Aruwhimi Rapids with a 

 garrison of about loo men, has forwarded the following informa- 

 tion to Leopold ville concerning Mr. H. M. Stanley's Expe- 

 dition : — " Major Barttelot received news from Mr. Stanley, 

 despatched about July 12, after he had made a ten days' march 

 from Yambunga towards the interior. Mr. Stanley was at that 

 date still proceeding up the Aruwhimi, which he had found to 

 be navigable up to a certain distance above the rapids. Here he 

 launched a steel whale-boat which he had brought with him, as 

 well as several rafts manufactured by the Expedition, and which 

 had been utilized for conveying the heavy baggage. All the 

 members of the Expedition were in good health, and provisions 

 were easily procured in the large villages near the river. The 

 country through which the Expedition was passing showed a 

 gradual rise towards some high table-lands. Another caravan 

 of 480 men was following the Expedition on the left bank of 

 the Aruwhimi, the advanced guard, consisting of forty Zanzi- 

 baris, under the command of Lieut. Stairs, being composed of 

 men lightly burdened, whose duty was to search for provisions.' 

 Mr. Stanley hoped to arrive about July 22 in the centre of the 

 Mabodi district, and expected to reach Wadelai in the middle of 

 August, or even before. The advance had been so peaceably 

 accomplished that Mr. Stanley had instructed Major Barttelot 

 that, should it continue so, he would shortly send him orders to 

 follow the Expedition by the same route at the head of the 100 

 men left at Yambunga." -Major Barttelot had paid a visit to the 

 Falls, accompanied by Tippoo Tib, and had left a detachment 

 of twenty men there. Tippoo Tib arrived at the Falls Station 

 on June 16. 



In moving the second reading of the Coal Mines Regulation 

 Bill in the House of Lords on the evening of the 7th instant, 

 Viscount Cross said he took that opportunity of tendering the 

 thanks of the Government to the Royal Society for the trouble 

 they had taken in the matter of coal-mines. In the year 1879 

 he had asked the Society to join, or send some of their members 

 to assist, the Royal Commission which was then appointed for the 

 purpose of seeing how accidents in mines could best be prevented. 

 The Royal Society, he said, met the appeal in the most hand- 

 some way, and several of their most distinguished members served 

 on the Commission. The labours of the Commission lasted for a 

 period of six years ; they went minutely into a long series of experi- 

 ments, and while he was quite sure the results of those experi- 

 ments would tend greatly to the safety of life and the prevention 

 of accidents, it was satisfactory to know that they had also added 

 very much to their own scientific knowledge, because he believed 

 the members of the Commission all candidly admitted that in 

 the course of their investigations they made several discoveries 

 about gases and other matters that were absolutely unknown to 

 them before. The result had been that a great many of their 

 recommendations had been embodied in this Bill. 



The International Medical Congress at Washington held its 

 final sitting on the loth inst. The meeting for 1890 will be 

 held at Berlin, with Prof, Virchow as President. 



The Technical Schools (Scotland) Bill was read a third time 

 in the House of Commons on Friday night last, and a seCond 

 time in the House of Lords on Tuesday night. 



The Japanese Minister of Education has invited the Seismo- 

 logical Society, the Institute of Architects, the Association of 

 Engineers, and the Physical and Mathematical Society to 



