June 9, 1892] 



NATURE 



31 



"The Universities, Sire, in our country especially, are 

 the principal foci of scientific life. There not only the 

 men of science of the future are trained, but the present 

 representatives of higher research work, create, and dis- 

 tinguish themselves. There also the Royal Academy by 

 preference seeks its fellows to associate them in its task 

 and to render it fruitful. 



" Its mission cannot be divorced from that of the in- 

 stitutions for higher education, and their lustre and their 

 decline are simultaneous. 



" In the name of this great and twofold interest the 

 President of the Royal Academy feels bound to call the 

 attention of your Majesty to the mode of appointment to 

 the professorial chairs in the State Universities. 



" The method adopted is absolutely faulty, and it affords 

 to Science none of those guarantees which she has a right 

 to demand. 



" The intensity of party strife has the effect of 

 absorbing into its vortex even those acts of the public 

 authorities which ought to be least open to its influence. 

 In place of conferring the University chairs upon the most 

 capable men as their rightful prerogative, with the sole 

 thought of raising the level of studies and of enlarging 

 the intellectual patrimony of mankind, we too often see 

 the spirit of faction disposing of such positions arbitrarily, 

 to the injury of the scientific spirit. 



" An incompetent professor paralyzes for a quarter of 

 a century, even if he does not kill, instruction in the de- 

 partment committed to him. An improper nominee is a 

 denial of justice. 



" The courts of law have been invested with the right 

 of presentation to vacant judgeships ; an analogous 

 prerogative ought to be conferred on the faculties of the 

 Universities. Their choice would then be dictated by 

 considerations essentially scientific, and to this end the 

 Royal Academy relies on the great influence of the 

 King." 



" The King," adds the htdependancc Belee, " did not 

 accept this appeal to his influence, and the Ministers pre- 

 sent bestowed black looks upon the President of the 

 Academy." 



This impressive discourse has its lessons for us also, as 

 it emphasizes the necessity of conferring scientific ap- 

 pointments purely in accordance rebus gestis, and in 

 consideration of the actual work done by the candidate. 



W. C. 



NOTES. 

 The annual conversazione of the Royal Society will be held 

 on Wednesday, June 15. 



At the annual meeting for the election of Fellows, held on 

 Thursday last, the Royal Society elected the fifteen candidates 

 whose names, with the statement of their qualifications, we have 

 already printed. 



The British Medical Association will hold its sixtieth 

 annual meeting at Nottingham on July 26, and the three fol- 

 lowing days. Mr. Joseph White, consulting surgeon of the 

 Nottingham General Hospital, will preside. Addresses will be 

 given, in medicine, by Prof. James Gumming, of Queen's Col- 

 lege, Belfast ; in surgery, by Prof. W. H. Kingston, of Mon- 

 treal ; and in bacteriology, by Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, of the 

 Research Laboratory of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 England. The scientific work of the meeting will be done in 

 ten sections. 



At a meeting of the American Philosophical Society, Phila- 

 delphia, on May 20, it was decided that the one hundred and 

 fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Society should be 

 worthily celebrated in 1893, and a committee was appointed to 

 make the necessary arrangements. 

 NO. I 1 80, VOL. 46] 



The Federated Institution of Mining Engineers held their 

 general meeting in London on Thursday and Friday last. 

 At the meeting on Thursday papers were read on "Gold Mining 

 in New Zealand," by G. J. Binns, and on "Petroleum in 

 Eastern Europe and the Method of Drilling for it," by A. W. 

 Eastlake. Prof. T. E. Thorpe gave some practical demonstra- 

 tions of the action of coal-fiust when exploded with gas. The 

 members visited the Electtical Exhibition at the Crystal Palace 

 in the afternoon, and dined together at the Garden Hall in the 

 evening. Among the papers read at the meeting on Friday 

 were papers on "The Causes of Spontaneous Combustion of 

 Coal and Prevention of Explosion on Ships," by M. V. Jones ; 

 "A Safety-cage for Mines and Hoists," by J. Whitelaw ; 

 "Winding by Water-balance at ^'llis Merthyr Colliery," by M. 

 W. Davies; and "Gold Milling," l)y W. F. Wilkinson. 



The Aldini Medal for Animal Electricity has been awarded 

 to Dr. A. Waller, Lecturer on Physiology, St. Mary's Hospital 

 Medical School, by the Bologna Academy of Sciences. 



The Council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers de- 

 cided that the Salomons Scholarship of £t,S should be given 

 to a second year's student training to become an electrical 

 engineer at either King's College, University College, the City 

 and Guilds Central Institution, or the Finsbury Technical Col- 

 lege. The first award has just been made to C. H. C. Wood- 

 house, Matriculated Student of the Central Institution, Associate 

 of the Royal College of Science, and B. Sc. of the London 

 University. 



At the annual meeting of the InstUution of Civil Engineers 

 Mr. Harrison Hayter was elected to act as President for the 

 ensuing year. The Vice-Presidents are Alfred Giles, Sir Robert 

 Rawlinson, Sir Benjamin Baker, F.R.S., and Sir Jas. N. 

 Douglass, F.R.S. The following are the other members of 

 Council:— W. Anderson, F.R.S., J. Wolfe Barry, Alex. R. 

 Binnie, E. A. Cowper, Sir Douglas Fox, J. C. Hawkshaw, 

 Charles Hawksley, Sir Bradford Leslie, George Fosbery Lyster, 

 James Mansergh, Sir Guildford L. Molesworth, W. H. Preece, 

 F.R.S., Sir Edward J. Reed, F.R.S. , William Shelford, and 

 Francis W. Webb. 



In the official abstract of the report of the Council of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers for the session 1891-92, it is 

 stated that 59 associate members had been transferred to the 

 class of member, and that there had been elected 3 honorary 

 members, 28 members, 324 associate members, and 7 associates, 

 while 4 associate members had been restored to the register. 

 These additions together amounted to 366. After deducting 

 145 names from deaths, resignations, and erasures, there was an 

 increase of 221, bringing up the total number on the register to 

 5371, as against 5150 at the corresponding date last year. This 

 enumeration was irrespective of the students, of whom 200 had 

 been admitted during the year, as against 166 for the previous 

 twelve months ; but during this period, 106 students had 

 become associate members, and 140 had disappeared from 

 the list, so that the number now on the books was only 

 868, whereas last year the number was 914. Thus, in- 

 cluding students, the total number on the books was now 

 6239, as against 6064 twelve months ago. The following 

 awards have been made to the authors of papers which 

 have been discussed :— A George Stephenson Medal and a 

 Telford Premium to Mr. Alex. R. Binnie ; Telford Medals and 

 Telford Premiums to Mr. A. P. Trotter and Mr. W. T. 

 Douglass ; and Telford Premiums to Messrs. H. Alfred Roech- 

 linj:, A. H. Curtis, W. Airy, H. Gill, and Prof. W. C. 

 Roberts-Austen. In respect of communications which have 

 been deemed suitable for printing without being discussed, 

 Telford Medals and Telford Premiums had been adjudged to 



