37S 



NATURE 



[February 14, 1901 



from Australia, where Miss Hussey and others collected 

 for him. The herbarium of the late Mr. Rracebridge 

 Wilson, which was bought by the British Museum in 

 1896, had been referred to Prof. Agardh, and some of 

 his notes are found in Mr. Wilson's handwriting copied 

 on the sheets. 



Of the kindness of the late professor it is possible to 

 speak from personal experience. He was always ready 

 to help and advise any student of algae ; he would examine 

 a plant sent to him and endeavour to identify it, and, 

 when the circumstances warranted the risk, he would 

 send his own valuable type-specimens for examination. 

 Never did Prof. Agardh fail to give of his best, though 

 from his position in the world of phycology requests 

 must sometimes have been numerous, and leisure un- 

 common. So late as December of last year it was my 

 privilege to receive from him on loan a type-specimen of 

 one of his species of Siphoneoe, and for the first time 

 there was in his letter a strong vein of anxiety concern- 

 ing the alga, and an urgent request that it might be 

 speedily and carefully returned. The whole letter showed 

 most markedly the advance of age, and the evident 

 relief when the alga reached him safely on its return was 

 almost touching. Quite shortly afterwards came the 

 news of his death on January 17 of this year. 



His knowledge of English was excellent, and he wrote 

 it well and idiomatically. 



His herbarium was given by him some years ago to 

 Lund University, the home of his own work and of his 

 father before him. 



Medals and honours came to him from all sides. He 

 was member of the Vetenskaps Academy, honorary 

 member ot the Goteborg Scientific and Literary Society, 

 as well as of the Scientific Society of Upsala and the 

 Agricultural Academy and Physiographical Society in 

 Lund. In 1862 he was appointed to confer the degree of 

 Ph.D. at Lund, in 1879, at the jubilee of the Copenhagen 

 University, he received the honorary title of doctor of 

 medicine, and in 1883 he became a "jubeldoktor" of 

 philosophy. In 1893 lie was decorated with the Grand 

 Cross of the Nordstjern Order, in 1886 the Vetenskaps 

 Academy presented him with the Letterstedt prize for 

 original work, and in 1897 he received the gold medal 

 of the Linnean Society. He was also knight of the 

 Prussian Order Pour le Merite. 



As delegate for the University of Lund he attended 

 the two last sessions of the Ecclesiastical Council, and 

 after the change in the representation he was member for 

 the town of Lund in the second Chamber from 1867-1869 

 and from 1870- 1872. He was also member of the Mint 

 Committee of 1872. 



He married, in 1848, Margareta Helena Sofia Meek, 

 who survives him ; and he leaves two sons, one of whom 

 continues the family tradition of being attached to the 

 University of Lund. E. S. B. 



PROF. ELISHA GRAY. 



IT is with great regret that we learn of the death of 

 Prof. Elisha Gray on January 21. Prof. Gray was 

 born at Barnesville, Ohio, in 1835 ; he was apprenticed 

 to a carpenter, and during the time of his apprenticeship 

 he studied physical science. At the age of twenty-one 

 he went to Oberlin College, where he worked for five 

 years, and at which he afterwards became professor. 

 Prof. Gray first turned his attention to electrical inven- 

 tion when at the age of about thirty ; he then invented a 

 self-adjusting telegraphic relay. This was soon followed 

 by other inventions of telegraphic apparatus. In all he 

 took out about fifty patents, mostly dealing with tele- 

 graphy and telephony ; one of the latest of these, and 

 one of the best known, was the telautograph, a telegraphic 

 apparatus for transmitting handwriting to a distance. At 

 the time of his death he was engaged in carrying out ex- 



NO. 1633, VOL. 63] 



periments on a method of marine signalling with electric 

 bells by which the sounds could be transmitted several 

 miles through the water. In the course of these experi- 

 ments, we understand from an American contemporary, 

 he caught a chill which caused his sudden death. 



Prof. Gray's name will be perhaps best known and 

 remembered in connection with the invention of the 

 telephone. On February 14, 1876, he lodged a caveat 

 with the American patent ofifice for the invention of a 

 telephone. On the same day, but a little later, Graham 

 Bell lodged a caveat for his similar invention. Bell was, 

 however, the first to perfect his instrument, and in con- 

 sequence Gray yielded to him in the dispute as to priority 

 which arose, and the matter was compromised by the 

 purchase of both patents by the same company. In later 

 years, in the course of legal cases which arose in connec- 

 tion with the Bell patents, disclosures were made by 

 which Gray was led to believe that his caveat had been 

 betrayed to Bell by one of the patent examiners. 

 Whether this actually was true or not seems to be 

 uncertain, but in any case Gray firmly believed in its 

 truth, and his later years are said to have been em- 

 bittered by the thought that he had been cheated out 

 of the money and credit he deserved. In 1878 his work 

 in connection with the telephone was recognised at the 

 Paris Exhibition, and he was decorated with the Legion 

 of Honour. In 1893 he was Chairman of the Inter- 

 national Congress of Electricians at the World's Fair at 

 Chicago. He was the author of a popular book ork 

 electricity, and also of several papers communicated to 

 scientific societies. 



THE INDIAN RNGTNEERING COLLEGE, 

 COOPERS HILL. 



A DEPUTATION waited on Lord George Hamilton 

 on Tuesday last with respect to the recent dis- 

 missals from Coopers Hill College, and in support of the 

 following memorial, with 374 signatures attached, includ- 

 ing the names of the principal leaders of science in the 

 country. The deputation was introduced by Lord 

 Kelvin, and there were present Lord Lister, Lord 

 Rayleigh, Sir H. Roscoe, Prof. Armstrong, and Dr. 

 G. J. Stoney, who spoke in relation to the question ; 

 Sir F. Bramwell, Sir F. Abel, Sir Norman Lockyer, Sir 

 William Crookes, Prof. Carey Foster, Prof. Meldola» 

 Prof. Le Neve Foster, Prof. Everett, Prof. Perry, Prof. 

 Poynting, Dr. G. Johnston, and many others. 



Memorial to the R/'f^ht Hotiourable the Secretary of 

 State for India. 



The correspondence regarding Coopers Hill College which 

 has been published in the Times of January 3, 1901, which 

 includes Sir Horace Walpole's letter to Colonel Ottley of 

 December 14, 1900, and Colonel Ottiey's letter of Decennber 17, 

 1900, has caused a painful shock to those engaged in higher 

 education throughout the United Kingdom, and to all who are 

 interested in the training of engineers. 



This correspondence relates to the sudden and arbitrary dis- 

 missal of able and distinguished scientific teachers, who have 

 been doing duty in the College for periods of from nine to thirty 

 years, and the value of whose past services is at the same time 

 officially recognised. 



Such arbitrary dismissal is likely to affect adversely the cause 

 of scientific teaching in the United Kingdom. It cannot fail to 

 injure the future of the College. During the correspondence 

 which has ensued it has become apparent that the teaching stafif 

 have no voice in the educational policy of the College, and are 

 not consulted when any change in the curriculum is contem- 

 plated. We wish to draw the attention of the Secretary of State 

 to this unsatisfactory st ite of affairs, which must militate against 

 the success of the College as an educational centre. 



The sudden dismissal is action of a kind which we were not 

 prepared to expect in any institution under the control of the 

 British Government ; and we think that the seven members of 



