December 17, 1891] 



NA TURE 



55 



about 4" of south latitude. It flows into the southern end of 

 Lake Albert Edward. 



The death of Dr. F. C. Dietrich, Keeper of the Botanical 

 Museum at Berlin, is announced. He was eighty-six years of 

 age. 



At the annual general meeting of the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers on Thursday, December lo. Prof. Ayrton was elected 

 President for the coming year. The following are the Vice- 

 Presidents : Alexander Siemens, R. E. Crompton, Sir David 

 Salomons, and Sir Henry Mance. In moving the adoption of the 

 annual report. Prof. Crookes said that the number of members 

 elected during the past year was greater than in almost any 

 previous year. He announced that Prof. Nikola Tesla is on his 

 way to England, and had promised to lecture before the Insti- 

 tution in January next. Prof. Crookes added that ihe Council 

 would spare no pains to insure that the lecture should be 

 thoroughly well experimentally illustrated. Mr. W. \\. Preece, 

 F.R. S. (Past- President), read a paper on " The Specification of 

 Insulated Conductors for Electric Lighting and other Purposes." 

 In this paper the fallacy of the present mode of specifying 

 electric light conductors was exposed, and a new standard of 

 insulation, based on the well-known qualities of gutta-percha, 

 was proposed. The qualities of the numerous insulating ma- 

 terials now in the market were measured and determined in this 

 new standard, and it was shown that any classification of cables 

 should be based on the pressures to be resisted, and should 

 depend on the thickness of the insulating wall. The introduc. 

 tion of cheap and nasty cables, owing to competition and the 

 absence of specification and inspection, was strongly commented 

 on. It was shown that all danger was eliminated by the use of 

 proper material and proper design. The paper concluded with 

 the recital of Mr. Preece's latest specification. 



Prof. A. Hansen, of Darmstadt, has been appointed to the 

 Professorship of Botany and Directorship of the Botanic Garden 

 at Giessen. 



Prof. E. Warning, of Copenhagen, is at present engaged 

 on a botanical expedition to the West Indies and Venezuela. 

 Herr G. Schweinfurth and Prof. O. Penzig have returned from 

 their journey in Abyssinia ; and Herren J. Bornmiiller and 

 Sintenis from their botanical expedition, in the course of which 

 they have visited the island of Thasos, Mount Athos, and the 

 Thessalian Olympus. 



The following are the lecture arrangements of the Royal 

 Institution before Easter, so far as they relate to science :— Prof. 

 John G. McKendrick, six Christmas lectures to juveniles, on 

 life in motion, or the animal machine ; Prof Victor Horsley, 

 twelve lectures on the structure and functions of the nervous 

 system (the brain) ; Prof. E. Ray Lankester, three lectures on 

 some recent biological discoveries ; Dr. B. Arthur Whitelegge, 

 three lectures on epidemic waves ; Prof. J. A. Fleming, three 

 lectures on the induction coil and transformer ; the Right Hon. 

 Lord Rayleigh, six lectures on matter, at rest and in motion. 

 The Friday evening meetings will begin on January 22, when a ; 

 discourse will be given by the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, on 

 the composition of water ; succeeding discourses will probably be | 

 given, among others, by Sir George Douglas, Prof. Roberts. | 

 Austen, Mr. G. J. Symons, Prof. Percy F. Frankland, Sir 

 David Salomons, Prof. L. C. Miall, Prof Oliver Lodge, Mr. 

 John Evans, and Prof. W. E. Ayrton. 



Last week a deputation of gentlemen interested in the Uni- 

 versity Extension movement had an interview with Lord Cran- 

 brook, President of the Privy Council, to ask for a Government 

 grant in aid of the local lectures delivered under the auspices of 



NO. II 55, VOL. 45] 



the organizing bodies. Among those present were Sir George 

 Stokes, Prof Bryce, Prof. Jebb, Mr. James Stuart, the President 

 of Magdalen College, Oxford, the Master of University College, 

 Oxford, and the Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge. Lord 

 Cranbrook reminded the deputation that his official duties 

 related only to public elementary schools, and that a Govern- 

 ment grant could be obtained for the University Extension 

 movement only from the Treasury. He expressed sympathy, 

 however, with the objects of the movement, and promised to 

 consider carefully and to bring before his colleagues the argu- 

 ments advanced by the deputation. Referring to the general 

 question of secondary education. Lord Cranbrook said it was 

 most desirable that clever boys and girls who have passed 

 through the elementary course should be enabled, by bursaries 

 or in some other way, to go to intermediate schools, and thus be 

 prepared for such instruction as is offered by University Exten- 

 sion lecturers. He feared, however, that ihose who expected 

 this object to be attained by means of a Government grant 

 might " have to wait for some time." 



On the invitation of the Council of the Photographic Society 

 of Great Britain, Mr. Leon Warnerke lately undertook to sub- 

 mit to the Society a description of the photographic technical 

 schools on the Continent. With that object in view he visite'l, 

 during last summer, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Russia, 

 taking notes with pencil and camera. Tfte results are embodied 

 in an interesting paper which was read at a recent meeting of 

 the Society, and is now printed in the Photographic Journal. 



The organizing joint committee of the Essex County 

 Council and the Essex Field Club on technical instruction 

 have issued a circular announcing that they have resolved 

 to appoint a certain number of lecturers on science sub- 

 jects. The services of these teachers are offered free (with 

 the exception of travelling and hotel expenses of the lec- 

 turers, where necessary) to local technical instruction com- 

 mittees, under certain conditions to be settled hereafter ; the 

 local committees guaranteeing audiences or classes of students 

 (not less than twenty in number), providing rooms, gas, &c,, 

 and defraying all necessary local expenses. Syllabuses of short 

 courses of lectures already approved are sent with the circular. 

 They relate to elementary vegetable physiology, economic 

 entomology, and elementary practical mechanics. 



The Royal Commission for the Chicago Exhibition are 

 anxious to comply with a request made to them by the execu- 

 tive authorities of the Exhibition, that a typical collection of 

 economic British minerals may be included in the British 

 Section, and they are now applying to owners and managers 

 of mines, asking for specimens of the principal British minerals. 

 Mr. B. H. Brough, the Instructor in Mine-surveying at the 

 Royal College of Science, South Kensington, has kindly under- 

 taken to classify and arrange the collection, and any suitable 

 specimens may be addressed to him. What is required is 

 not specimens of special value or rarity, but samples of ordinary 

 ores, &c., so that the collection when complete may i)e 

 fully illustrative of the mineral resources of the kingdom. .\t 

 the close of the Exhibition the collection will be presented lo 

 an American Museum 



Prof. H. A. Hazen, acting under instructions from the 

 U.S. Weather Bureau, is in Chicago preparing a report on its 

 weather — the mean temperature, the winds, snows, showers, 

 humidity, early frosts and late >nows. The report will be ba.<ed 

 on all the observations and records made for the last fifty years 

 the object being to convince everyone interested in the ap- 

 proaching Exposition that Chicago is exceptionally favoured in 

 point of fine weather. 



