July 12, 1900] 



NATURE 



25: 



an academic procession from the Christie Hbrary to the 

 lecture theatre of the new laboratories, where the chair 

 was taken by the Treasurer of Owens College, Mr. 

 Alderman Thompson. Amongst those present were 

 Lord Rayleigh, Prof Schuster, Sir Henry Roscoe, 

 Principal Hopkinson, Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, Prof. 

 Bodington (Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University), 

 Prof Riicker, Prof Pickering of Harvard College, Prof 

 Osborne Reynolds, Prof Stroud, Prof. J. J. Thomson, 

 Prof Poynting, Prof Ramsay, Prof Core, Archdeacon 

 Wilson, Mr. Wimshurst, Prof Perry, Mr. W. Mather, 

 M.P., and many others. Lord Rayleigh delivered a 

 short address upon physical laboratory work and re- 

 search, and formally pronounced the building open. 

 Prof Schuster gave an account of the aims of the build- 

 ing, and of the various stages in their realisation. Prof 

 Pickering likened a physical laboratory to a battleship, 

 and enlarged upon the uses of its equipment. The 

 company then adjourned, some to visit the various 

 rooms, others to attend the opening ceremony in the 

 John Hopkinson memorial wing, which was presented in 

 a touching speech by Mr. Alderman Hopkinson on 

 behalf of the family. 



A garden-party held in the afternoon in the house of 

 Prof Schuster was followed in the evening by a recep- 

 tion and conversazione in the new building. In one of 

 the rooms was a very interesting exhibit of some of the 

 apparatus used by Joule, including two " current 

 weighers," a tangent galvanometer, and a mercury pump. 

 These have been presented to the Owens College by 

 Mr. B. A. Joule. In another room Mr. T. Thorp showed 

 his celluloid gratings and celluloid reproductions of 

 Rowland's grating and of his own echelon grating. Mr. 

 Wilde exhibited his magnetarium and a number of lunar 

 photographs. The large electro-magnet presented by him 

 was also shown in operation. 



On the morning of the 30th was the annual ceremony 

 of conferring of degrees of the Victoria University. This 

 took place in the Manchester Free Trade Hall, which 

 was crowded with undergraduates and visitors. The 

 Chancellor, Earl Spencer, presided with great dignity. 

 Honorary degrees were conferred on Lord Rayleigh, 

 Sir William Huggins, Sir William Abney, Sir William 

 Roberts-Austen, Dr. T. E. Thorpe, Prof Dewar, Prof 

 Forsyth, Mr. R. T. Glazebrook, Mr. Sidney Lee, Prof. E. 

 Pickering, Prof J. J. Thomson, and last on the father of 

 the profession of electrical engineering, Mr. Henry Wilde. 

 The ordinary degrees were then conferred upon the 

 successful candidates of the year from the three con- 

 stituent colleges — Owens College, Liverpool University 

 College, and the Yorkshire College. A luncheon in the 

 Town Hall, given by the Lord Mayor, was subsequently 

 partaken of by the Chancellor, the new Honorary Doctors, 

 the University Professors, and a large number of dis- 

 tinguished visitors. 



It has been mentioned that the new physics labora- 

 tory exceeds in size any other similar building in England. 

 It is, however, smaller than the physics laboratories of 

 Baltimore, Darmstadt and Strassburg. Its cost has been 

 defrayed by the generosity of private individuals. 



NOTES. 

 Two deputations have recently waited upon Mr. Hanbury to 

 put before him the two sides of the question referring to the 

 proposed establishment of the National Physical Laboratory in 

 the Old Deer Park at Richmond. On one side are some 

 naturalists and inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who protest 

 against the proposed buildings as an interference with the 

 amenities of the neighbourhood of Kew Gardens ; on the other 

 are the physicists and the members of the Committee, which, 

 after giving great attention to the question of site, decided that 

 NO. 1602, VOL. 62! 



Kew was most suitable. It is a little unfortunate that this 

 difficulty should have arisen, and it could probably have been 

 avoided by the exercise of a little tact and consideration when 

 selecting the site for the laboratory. Much of the misappre- 

 hension which at present exists as to the character of a physical 

 laboratory might thus have been removed. Some people seem 

 to think that the fifteen acres required will be covered with 

 buildings in which noisy operations comparable with those of 

 large engineering workshops will be carried on. This, of coursCr 

 is entirely incorrect. In the first place, the actual area to be 

 covered by buildings is only a quarter of an acre, or the sixtieth 

 part of the whole area proposed to be taken, and secondly, quiet 

 and freedom from all the perturbing characteristics of towns and 

 manufactories are essential for the investigations to be carried on 

 in the laboratories. When this is kept in mind, the alarm of a 

 certain portion of the public, especially those who appreciate the 

 beauties of Kew Gardens, that the buildings would break the 

 present charm, seems a trifle unnecessary. The Observatory 

 being already in the Old Deer Park, it is natural and proper 

 that the laboratory, which is under the same administration, 

 should be there too. As, however, the Park is over 350 acres 

 in extent, it ought not to be difficult to find another suitable 

 site if there is a persistent opposition to the one already selected. 

 In any case, we are convinced that a modus vivendi could be 

 arrived at if the representatives of the opposing interests were 

 to meet one another in a conciliatory spirit. 



M. Zambaco has been elected a correspondant of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, in the section of medicine and surgery. 



Dr. Corfield, professor of hygiene and public health at 

 University College, has been elected a Foreign Corresponding 

 Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium. 



Mr. J. H. Maiden, director of the Botanic Gardens, 

 Sydney, is expected to arrive in London at the end of the 

 present month, and will be in the United Kingdom and on the 

 Continent for about three months, engaged in special investiga- 

 tions in botany and agriculture. 



The Duke of Northumberland has been elected a trustee of 

 the British Museum. 



The annual meeting of the Victoria Institute will be held on 

 Monday next, July 16, when an address will be delivered by 

 Prof Hull, F.R.S. 



It is announced in the Athenaeum that Baron von Richthofen 

 has been nominated Director of the newly founded Museum fiir 

 Meereskunde of the University of Berlin. 



A Botanic Garden has been established by the Belgian 

 Government at Coquilhautville, Congo Free State. It will be 

 called the Kew Gardens, and is expected to be of great import- 

 ance to the rubber and other tropical industries. 



The Council of the Royal Geographical Society have decided 

 to award the Murchison Grant for next year to Mr. John Coles, 

 late Map Curator and Instructor to the Society, as an acknow- 

 ledgment of his services to geography. 



The annual meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry will 

 be held in the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution, Albe- 

 marle Street, on Wednesday, July 18, when the presidential 

 address will be delivered, and the officers for the ensuing year 

 appointed. The president-elect is Mr. J. W. Swan, F.R.S. 



The Council of the Sanitary Institute have arranged to hold 

 a meeting in Paris from August 7 to 9, which will immediately 

 precede the meeting of the International Congress of Hygiene 

 and Demography, also to be held in Paris. The Societe 

 Fran9aise d'Hygiene have offered to the members of the Institute 



