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NATURE 



[June 25, 189J 



reared upon it ; so that the student has evidently much to gain 

 by a knowledge of such su'jjects as botany, chemistry, animal 

 j.hysiology, and geology. Taking into account the requirements 

 of the County Councils, the CoJimittee think that the efforts of 

 the University should in the first place be directed to the pro- 

 vision of an adequate supply of persons qualified to be lecturers or 

 teachers ; and those members who are most familiar with the 

 wants of the counties lay stress upon the importance of University 

 teachers possessing credentials of practical acquaintance with the 

 details of farming and farm-life, which has hitherto been only 

 accidentally— if at all— acquired by such teachers. Other classes 

 of persons whose circumstances the Committee think deserving 

 of consideration are young men who go to Oxford intending to 

 take an ordinary degree, and then, either as landowners or the 

 agents of landowners, to devote themselves to the pursuit and 

 improvement of agriculture ; and young men who might go to 

 Oxford with a view to attending such courses of instruction as 

 would be useful to them in agriculture, but without the intention 

 of taking a degree. Dealing with the means already at the 

 command of the University for providing agricultural educa- 

 tion, the Committee point out that the professors to whose ser- 

 vices resort would most naturally be had are the following : the 

 Sibthorpian Professor of Rural Economy, the Sherardian Pro- | 

 fessor of Botany, the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry, the 

 Waynflete Professor of Physiology, and the Professor of Ex- 

 perimental Philosophy (Physics). In addition to these Univer- 

 sity Professors, there are the Lee's Readers in Chemistry and 

 Physics at Christ Church, and the Millard Lecturer in Physics 

 at Trinity College, whose courses would probably be open to 

 agricultural students. The Committee sketch the proper course 

 of study for each class of students, and express the opinion that 

 for the organization and supervision of the studies pertaining to 

 agricultural education some further provision is needed than at 

 present exists. In the Sib'.horpian Professorship of Rural Eco- 

 nomy, which is now vacant, they recognize a foundation capable 

 of being rendered the centre of agricultural education within the 

 University ; and they strongly recommend that the duties and 

 emoluments of the chair should be revised. 



The annual dinner of the Royal Horticultural Society was 

 held on Tuesday evening at the Hotel Metropole. The chair 

 was taken by Sir Trevor Lawrence, the President. The toast 

 of the evening, "The Royal Horticultural Society," was pro- 

 posed by Sir James Paget, who spoke of the work in which the 

 Society was engaged as one that ministered to the happiness 

 and welfare of the whole nation. The President responded. 

 The Society is now in a most prosperous condition, and is to be 

 congratulated on the progress it has made under Sir Trevor 

 Lawrence's leadership. 



We print elsewhere a report of the lecture delivered by Lord 

 Rayleigh at the Royal Institution last week in connection with 

 the Faraday Centenary. In commemoration of this anniversary 

 the Royal Institution elected as honorary members a number of 

 foreign men of science, several of whom came to London to be 

 presented with the diploma of membership by the Prince of 

 Wales. As the distinction between the Royal Institution and 

 the Royal Society is not always so well understood in foreign 

 countries as it is in England, the Royal Institution can hardly, 

 perhaps, be congratulated on this " new departure." The follow- 

 ing is the list of those on whom the honour was conferred : — 

 Edmond Becquerel, Marcellin Berthelot, Alfred Cornu, E. 

 Mascart, Louis Pasteur, Paris ; R. W. Bunsen, Heidelberg ; 

 H. L. F. von Helmholtz, A. W. von Hofmann, Rudolph 

 Virchow, Berlin ; J. P. Cooke, Cambridge, U.S. ; J. D wight 

 Dana, J. Willard Gibbs, Newhaven, U.S.; Simon Newcomb, 

 Washington, U.S. ; Stanislas Cannizzaro, Pietro Tacchini, 

 Rome; Julius Thomsen, Copenhagen ; T. R, Thalen, Upsala ; 

 Demetri Mendeleef, St. Petersburg ; J. C. G. de Marignac, 

 NO. I I 30, VOL. 44] 



Geneva; J. D. van der Waals, Amsterdam; J. Servais Stas, 

 Brussels. 



A Commission has been appointed for the reorganization of 

 the Paris Museum of Natural History, and held its first meeting 

 last week under the presidency of the Minister of Public In- 

 struction. The members are MM. Berthelot, Bardoux, Burdeau, 

 Charles Dupuy, Darboux, Fremy, Chauveau, Milne-Edwards, 

 and Liard. 



A conversazione will be given by the President of the Institu- 

 tion of Electrical Engineers and Mrs. XDrookes in the galleries 

 of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours on Monday 

 evening, July 6. 



On Monday evening, in the House of Commons, Sir H. 

 Roscoe asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he 

 had decided to grant the application of the Committee of the 

 National Institute of Preventive Medicine to become incorporated 

 under the Companies Act, with the omission of the word 

 "limited" in view of the amended proposals which had been 

 placed before him. Sir M. Hicks-Beach replied as follows : — 

 " The amendment of the proposed memorandum of association 

 referred to by the hon. member (by which it is made clear that 

 the grant of the licence now asked for would not in any way 

 imply approval by the Board of Trade of experiments upon living 

 animals, or of any application to the Home Secretary for a 

 licence for that purpose) is, no doubt, an important change in 

 the proposals of the Institute, and will probably meet the 

 objection stated to the deputation which lately waited upon me. 

 There are, however, one or two other points requiring considera- 

 tion, but I hope shortly to be able to arrive at a decision on the 

 subject." 



Sir Prescott Gardiner Hewett, F.R.S., died on Friday 

 night last at his residence. Chestnut Lodge, Horsham, Sussex. 

 He was born in 1812, and in 1836 was admitted a member of 

 the' Royal College of Surgeons, of which he was made President 

 in 1876, in succession to Sir James Paget. 



With the approval of the President, the Prince of Wales, 

 the Council of the Society of Arts have awarded the Albert 

 Medal to Sir Frederick Abel, K.C.B., " in recognition of the 

 manner in which he has promoted several important classes of 

 the arts and manufactures, by the application of chemical science, 

 and especially by his researches in the manufacture of iron and 

 of steel ; and also in acknowledgment of the great services he 

 has rendered to the State in the provision of improved war 

 material, and as chemist to the War Department." 



The Report of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy has been 

 presented to the Board of Visitors of the University Observa- 

 tory, and we learn from it that the photographic telescope, 

 prepared for taking part in the International Chart of the 

 Heavens, is at length complete. The guiding telescope also is 

 provided with a micrometer sufficient to permit the observation 

 of stars at a considerable distance from the centre of the plate, 

 and the camera end of the telescope is fitted with the apparatus 

 devised by the Astronomer-Royal, and executed by Sir Howard 

 Grubb. The Oxford University Observatory is also provided 

 with two reseaux, supplied through Dr. Vo^el, of the Potsdam 

 Observatory, and has very recently added to its equipment a 

 measuring machine of great delicacy for the discussion of the 

 plates taken in connection with the international scheme. 

 Altogether the equipment of the Oxford University Observatory 

 appears to be in a very forward state of preparedness, and Prof. 

 Pritchard congratulates himself and the University that this 

 equipment has entailed no unusual appeal to funds, on which 

 there are so many claims, but has been supplied by the bounty 

 of the late Dr. De La Rue, supplemented by strict economy in 

 the management of the Observatory in former years. The 

 astronomical work of the past year has been mainly confined to 

 the discussion of the parallax of stars of the second magnitude. 



