November 5, 1891] 



NATURE 



The Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate, Cambridge, 

 liave accepted on behalf of the University a cast of the model 

 executed by the late Sir J. E. Boehm, R.A., for his statue of 

 Mr. Charles Darwin. The cast has been presented by Mr. 

 Darwin's family, and is now placed in the lecture-room of com- 

 parative anatomy. 



A Society for the encouragement of the study of natural 

 science has recently been formed at the University of Edin- 

 burgh. In commemoration of the fact that Darwin was once a 

 student of the University and a member of a similar society, it 

 has been named the Darwinian Society. The inaugural address 

 is to be delivered by the President, Prof. J. Cossar Ewart. Mr. 

 J. Graham Kerr (late naturalist to the Pilcomayo Expedition) is 

 chairman. 



The anniversary meeting of the Mineralogical Society will be 

 held on Tuesday, November lo, at 8 o'clock. After the election 

 of officers and Council, the following papers will be read : — 

 analysis of aragonite from Scotland, by J. Stuart Thomson ; on 

 minerals from the apatite mines near Risor, Norway, by R. H. 

 Solly ; notes on the minerals from the hematite depo its of West 

 Cumberland, by the same ; mineralogical notes from Torreon, 

 Chihuahua, by Henry F. Collins ; on the pinite of Breage in 

 Cornwall, by J. H. Collins ; on the occurrence of danalite, by 

 H. A. Miersand G. T. Prior. 



On Tuesday, Dr. Burdon Sanderson delivered the first of the 

 Croonian Lectures before the College of Physicians in the new 

 lecture-room at the Examination Hall. The remaining lectures 

 will be given on the next three Tuesdays of November. The 

 subjects are the etiology of inflammation and of the acute 

 specific diseases, and natural and acquired immunity. 



Sir Douglas Galton, F.R.S., has been asked to investigate 

 and report upon the sanitary state of Florence. He is to make 

 any recommendations and suggestions that he may deem neces- 

 sary. 



At a meeting of the Senate of the University of Sydney on 

 September 21, it was resolved that Prof. Thorpe and Prof. 

 Ramsay should be asked to select and appoint a Demonstrator 

 of Chemistry to take office at the Sydney University on 

 March i next, the salary to be at the rate of ;^350 per annum, 

 and ;^63 to be allowed for passage money, such sum to be 

 refunded if the Demonstrator should resign his office before the 

 expiration of two years from his appointment. The appoint- 

 ment of a new Demonstrator has been rendered necessary by the 

 resignation of Mr. F. B. Guthrie, who has been made Analyst 

 to the Department of Agriculture. 



The Society of Arts has completed its arrangements for the 

 approaching session. The first meeting will be held on Wed- 

 nesday, November 18, when theopeningaddress will be delivered 

 by the Attorney-General, Chairman of the Council. At sub- 

 sequent ordinary meetings (four of which, in addition to the 

 opening meeting, will be held before Christmas) the following 

 lectures will be delivered : — Measurement of lenses, by Prof. 

 Silvanus P. Thompson, F. R. S. ; secondary batteries, by G. H. 

 Robertson ; the World's Fair at Chicago, 1893, by James 

 Dredge ; spontaneous ignition of coal, and its prevention, by 

 Prof. Vivian B. Lewes ; burning oils for lighthouses and light- 

 ships, by E. Price Edwards ; dust, and how to shut it out, by T. 

 Pridgin Teale ; typological museums, by General Pitt Rivers ; 

 Iceland, by T. Anderson ; artistic treatment of jewellery and 

 personal ornament, by J. W. Tonks ; agricultural banks for 

 India, by Sir William Wedderburn, The following Cantor 

 Lectures will be given on Monday evenings : — The pigments and 

 vehicles of the old masters, by A. P". Laurie (three lectures, 

 November 30, December 7, 14) ; developments of electrical dis- 

 tribution, by Prof. George Forbes, F.R, S. (four lectures, j 

 NO. I 149, VOL. 45] 



January 25, February i, 8, 15) ; the uses of petroleum in prime 

 movers, by Prof. William Robinson (four lectures, February 29, 

 March 7, 14, 21) ; mine surveying, by Bennett H. Brough (three 

 lectures, March 28, April 4, 11); recent contributions to the 

 chemistry and bacteriology of the fermentation industries, by 

 Dr. Percy Frankland (four lectures. May 2, 9, 16, 23). A 

 special course of six lectures, under the Howard Bequest, will 

 be delivered on Friday evenings : — The development and 

 transmission of power from central stations, by Prof. W. 

 Cawthorne Unwin, F.R.S. (February 5, 12, 19, 26, March 

 4, II). 



Last week the Speaker of the House of Commons, responding 

 to a toast at the annual Mayoral banquet at Warwick, gave 

 some sensible advice about technical education. He was afraid, 

 he said, that there was great danger of the sums granted for the 

 promotion of technical education being frittered away. What 

 they wanted to teach was not a trade, not the particular 

 manipulation of the article students might have to deal with in 

 after life, but the principles of science as applicable to the art. 

 Their object should be to elevate the students above the mere 

 manual dexterity of the special professions to which they were to 

 belong. 



On November 12, Mr. E. J. Humphery will read a paper 

 before the Camera Club on a new method of photography by 

 artificial light. According to the Journal of the Camera Club, 

 Mr. Humphery promises a process of considerable novelty and 

 value in practical work. 



Dr. Elisha [Gray lately read before the Chicago Electric 

 Club a paper in which he urged the importance of the Inter- 

 national Congress of Electricians which is to be held in 

 connection with the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893. The 

 Congress, he thinks, should be divided into sections according 

 to the various interests represented, one section being devoted 

 to the purely scientitic aspects of the subject. " Success," he 

 said, " will be assured from the beginning if all our interested 

 friends act harmoniously, and are actuated by one common desire 

 that the best thing shall be done, without regard to geographical 

 boundaries or local prejudices." Commenting on the paper, 

 Mr. Parker pointed out that, owing to the supremacy which 

 America enjoys in the practical development of industrial elec- 

 tricity, the electrical department would be the most interesting 

 and attractive feature of the Exhibition. He held, therefore, 

 that the directors of the Exhibition should give priority to this 

 department in all arrangements, and should do all in their power 

 to render the Electrical Congress a successful gathering. 



Prof. Ward, the mineralogist, of Rochester, New York, 

 has offered to send his collection of geological specimens to the 

 Chicago Exhibition. It is said to be one of the most valuable 

 collections in the United States, 



On Wednesday, October 28, a terrible earthquake visited 

 Nipon, the island which forms the larger part of the Japanese 

 Empire. The area over which the shocks were felt was wider 

 than was at first supposed. It extended inland to the region of 

 the lakes. The principal shock lasted less than two minutes, 

 but was of extreme violence. The subsequent shocks were not 

 strong enough to have done damage in ordinary circumstances, 

 but they sufficed to shake down walls already cracked, and 

 added immensely to the terrors of the night. The Times cor- 

 respondent, telegraphing from Hiogo on November 2, says that 

 great fissures had appeared in the ground at many points, 

 rendering roads impassable and travelling dangerous ; and that 

 there had been a remarkable subsidence of the land to some 

 depth. over large tracts of country. The volcanic mountain 

 Nakusan belched forth enormous masses of stones and continuous 

 streams of sand and mud, and the contour of the mountain has 

 been completely changed by the eruption. The greatest havoc 



