November 24, ii^92j 



NA TUKh 



8^ 



NOTES. 

 Mr. W. H. Preece, F.R.S., has bsen appainted engineer- 

 in-chief and electrician to the Post OfSce. 



A Civil List pension of ;i^75 per annum has been granted to 

 Mrs. Dittmar, widow of Dr. William Dittmar, F.K.S., Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in Anderson's College, Glasgow, in 

 consideration of her husband's distinguished services. 



The Linnean Society, at its ordinary meeting on the 

 17th inst., adopted an address of congratulation to the Rev. 

 Leonard Blomefield on the completion of the seventieth year 

 of his Fellowship of the Society, he being the father of the 

 Society, having joined it on November 19, 1822, and being 

 now in the ninety-third year of his age. At the time when 

 Mr. Blomefield (then Jenyns) became a Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society, it was still under the presidency of its first President, 

 Sir J. E. Smith ; he was also an original Fellow of the Zoo- 

 logical Society, and is one of four survivors of the founders of 

 the Entomological Society. He joined the British Association 

 in the second year of its existence. Mr. Blomefield was Mr. 

 Darwin's senior at Cambridge, was closely associated with him 

 in his zoological researches until Mr. Darwin's death, and was 

 one of his most frequent correspondents. His early bias to- 

 wards the study of nature was due to his reading White's 

 " Natural History of Selborne " while at Eton. This was then 

 a very scarce book. Having borrowed a copy of it from a 

 friend, being uncertain whether he should ever see it again, he 

 copied the whole of it in manuscript with his own hand. The 

 address of congratulation was moved by Sir William H. Flower, 

 seconded by Mr. St. George Mivart, and acknowledged by the 

 Rev. Geo. Henslow, a nephew of Mr. Blomefield. 



The following gentlemen have been appointed to form the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland :— Mr. Peter Esslemont is Chairman, 

 the other members being Mr. John |Guthrie Smith, Sheriff of 

 Aberdeen, Kincardine, and Banff; Mr. George H. Thoms, Sheriff 

 of Caithness, Orkney, and Shetland ; Mr. Dugald M'Kechnie, 

 Sheriff of Argyle ; Mr. William Boyd, solicitor, Peterhead ; 

 Mr. James Johnston, fish-curer, Montrose ; Mr. William 

 Anderson Smith, Ledaig ; Professor Mackintosh, St. Andrews ; 

 and Mr. J. Ritchie Welch, St. Andrews. 



The Royal Microscopical Society will hold a conversazione 

 in the Banqueting Saloon, St. James's Hall Restaurant, on 

 Wednesday, November 30, at 8 p.m. 



The annual dinner of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 

 was held on Friday evening at the Criterion. The president. 

 Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., was in the chair. Responding to 

 the toast of the Learned Societies»(proposed by the chairman 

 in a humorous speech). Prof. G. F. Fitzgerald said that learned I 

 societies were never more flourishing than they were now. The 

 co-operation of theory and practice had been the fruitful parent 

 of nearly all the advances of the present generation. We had \ 

 such enormous stores of energy at our service that almost ; 

 immeasurable prospects were open for the material improvement j 

 of man's estate. Mr. Latimer Clark (past president) proposed 

 " The Engineering Societies." He said these societies were in 

 danger of being overlooked. They first perfected the steam- 

 engine, then improved manufacturing implements, then the 

 steam-boat. The engineering societies had done much more to 

 promote the great prosperity of this country than the politicians 

 who had so wickedly usurped the greater part of the credit. 

 Dr. W. Anderson responded. The Chairman then proposed 

 " Our Guests," with which he joined the name of Mr. Mundella, 

 President of the Board of Trade, who exercised a sort of 

 NO. 1204, VOL. 47] 



parental supervision over them all. No doubt sometimes there 

 was a little disposition to grumble, as children did occasionally, 

 at the form in which that fatherly affection displayed itself 

 But, whatever their feelings about the Board of Trade, there 

 was no doubt about their feelings with respect to its president. 

 Mr. Mundella, in response, said that, whatever grievances the 

 engineers might have against the politicians, his withers were 

 unwrung. The Board of Trade might have given the electrical 

 engineers some trouble : if so, it was not due to him. Mr. 

 Latimer Clark had complained of the appropriation of all the 

 credit of material progress by the politicians. Let them halve 

 the difference. The politicians had, at all events, appointed 

 Dr. Anderson. He was speaking to a comparatively young 

 institution, but it was to one which was growing more 

 and more and would advance to still greater degrees of great- 

 ness. The Board of Trade owed much to the electrical 

 engineers, who had devised systems and methods of the utmost 

 value. He believed we were now at the outset of a great 

 advance in the science of electric lighting. Progress would be 

 assured when they could assure shareholders of a reasonable 

 dividend. Two millions had already been expended in the 

 metropolis, and we imight soon hope to overtake the United 

 States and Continental countries, which were, he feared, still to 

 some extent in advance of ourselves. The Board of Trade had 

 no desire to hamper the progress of electricity by needless rules, 

 and hoped that in this, as in all other branches, science would 

 go on its beneficent course untrammelled by any unnecessary 

 regulations. Sir James Sivewright, Commissioner of Public 

 Works, Cape Colony, proposed "The Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers," to which the president briefly responded. 



We print elsewhere an abstract of a most interesting paper on 

 stability and instability of viscous liquids, read before the Royal 

 Society, by Mr. A. B. Basset. It presents in a new way the 

 various problems involved in the calming effect of oil poured on 

 troubled waters. 



Prof. J. E. Humphrey, of the Massachusetts Agricultura 

 Experiment Station, is about to visit Jamaica for the purpose 

 of making a study of the algas and fungi of that island. 



The weather during the past week has, upon the whole, con- 

 siderably improved ; it has been mostly fine in the southern and 

 eastern parts of the kingdom, but less settled in the west and 

 north. Temperature has been decidedly lower, and over the 

 central and eastern parts of England sharp frosts have been ex- 

 perienced. The distribution of pressure has been generally 

 cyclonic over these islands, but over the west of Europe the anti- 

 cyclonic has still held its ground. The eastern portion of 

 England has been brought under the influence of both high and 

 low pressure systems, being situated about mid- way between 

 the cyclones which have skirted our western coast, and the anti- 

 cyclone over western Europe. These conditions were accom- 

 panied by very quiet weather, with a good deal of local fog. On 

 Sunday a depression, which passed along the Irish coast, caused 

 southerly gales on that and following days in the south of 

 Ireland and the English Channel, with very heavy rainfall in 

 Ireland ; the amount measured at Roche's Point on Monday 

 and Tuesday mornings was nearly 2*5 inches. Towards the 

 close of the period the European anticyclone was spreading west- 

 wards, and the barometer was high 'and uniform over Great 

 Britain. For the week ended the 19th instant the official 

 reports show that the rainfall was considerably in excess of the 

 average over Ireland and the south of England. From the be- 

 ginning of the year the deficiency in the latter district is 2-3 

 inches, and in the south-west of England 8*4 inches, or more 

 than 23 per cent, of the average amount. Bright sunshine was 



