April 2, 1896] 



NATURE 



517 



the old school of physical experimenters who lacked that 

 most important helper to their investigations— the know- 

 ledge of mathematics, but made up for this deficiency 

 through a sort of intuitive perception when, led by a 

 certain imaginative or creative faculty, they were able, 

 with a sure hand, to grasp the very essence of a physical 

 phenomenon. 



With the present tendency of physical researches, this 

 class of learned men could scarcely hold their ground ; 

 but, on the other hand, we must not disdain these mere 

 •experimenters, for they count among their number no 

 less a man than the great Faraday. 



Augustus Heller. 



NOTES. 



The adoption of the metric system by the United States 

 seems to have received a notable impulse during the present 

 week by the action of the Committee of Congress, which has 

 reported in favour of its use by the United States Government 

 in all its affairs except the completion of land surveys now in 

 progress, on and after July i, 1898, and its general use through, 

 out the country on the first day of the twentieth century, January 

 I, 1901. The report is the outcome of a movement very early 

 in this Session of Congress. 



In accordance with a resolution of the House of Assembly ot 

 Cape Colony, carried last year, a Commission, consisting of the 

 Hon. J. X. Merriman, Dr. Thomas Muir, Dr. David Gill, 

 F.R.S., Mr. Thomas Stewart, and Mr. Charles Currey, has 

 been appointed for the purpose of organising, controlling, and 

 directing the work of geological exploration and survey in the 

 ■colony. We are informed that the Commission has now ap- 

 pointed the under-mentioned gentlemen to begin the work of 

 surveying and mapping the country :— Geologist, Dr. G. S. 

 Corstorphine.; Assistant Geologists, A. W. Rogers and E. H. L. 

 Schwarz. As early as possible the Commission will publish and 

 distribute a bibliography of South African geology. 



It has been decided by the Huxley Memorial Committee to 

 strike a medal for award by the Royal College of Science, 

 London, and possibly for other ' purposes. The Committee 

 desire to obtain the design for the medal, if possible, by com- 

 petition. Further particulars will be furnished on application, 

 which must be sent in before May i to the Honorary Secretary 

 of the Huxley Memorial Committee, Prof. G. B. Howes, Royal 

 College of Science, South Kensington, S.W. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Mr. 

 Charles Chambers, F.R.S., Director of the Colaba Observatory. 

 P'or the following particulars of his career, we are indebted to a 

 Jong notice in the Tiiius of India. Mr. Chambers was born at 

 Leeds, Yorkshire, on May 30, 1834, and was consequently at 

 the time of his demise in his sixty-second year. After finishing 

 his education in his native place, he secured an appointment in 

 the Kew Observatory, which he left in October 1863, to take 

 up the post of assistant to the Director and Chief Superintendent 

 and Electrician of the Indo-European Telegraph Department, 

 Persian Gulf Section. In October 1865, he was temporarily 

 appointed Superintendent of the Government Observatory, 

 Bombay. After acting in that capacity for over two years he 

 was confirmed in the appointment in January 1868, and con- 

 tinued to hold that office till November 1886, when he was 

 given the appointment of Director of the Colaba Observatory, 

 which office he was holding at the time of his death. He was 

 ■elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1869. He was also 

 appointed a Fellow of the Bombay University in 1872, and a 

 member of the Syndicate of the same University from 1879 to 

 3890. Hig contributions to scientific literature were very 

 NO. 1379, VOL. 53] 



numerous, most of them being records and discussions of 

 meteorological and magnetic observations in relation to solar 

 changes. 



Prof. N. A. Moos, of the Elphinstone College, Bombay, 

 has been selected for the post of Director of the Government 

 Observatory at Colaba, in succession to the late Mr. Charles 

 Chambers. 



The Annual Congress of the British Institute of Public 

 Health will be held in Glasgow, from July 23 to July 28. 



Dr. Samuel Wilks, F.R.S., was elected President of the 

 Royal College of hysicians of London, at a meeting held on 

 Monday. 



Prof. Wvndham R. Dunstan, F.R.S., has been appointed 

 Director of the Scientific Department of the Imperial Institute, 

 which has hitherto been under the direction of Sir Frederick 

 Abel. The principal work of this Department is to investigate 

 new or little-known products from India and the Colonies, and to 

 advise in reference to their commercial utilisation. Already much 

 valuable work has been accbmplished in this direction. With the 

 aid of an increased grant from the Royal Commissioners of the 1851 

 E.xhibition fiirther additions to the staff of the Department will 

 be made, and the Laboratory, which was fitted up in 1894 with 

 the assistance of a grant from the Goldsmiths' Company, will 

 now be considerably extended. 



The College of New Jersey at Princeton is preparing to send 

 an expedition to Patagonia for the purpose of securing fossils 

 and large game. At a recent meeting of the Board of Trustees 

 of the College, it was decided to change the charter name to 

 Princeton University. 



A few days ago M. Eugene Fariot, an engineer of some 

 repute and a worker in aeronautics, one of the siege aeronauts 

 who escaped from Paris in the Louis Blanc, died at the age of 

 sixty-eight. He has bequeathed a sum of £^000 to the Societe 

 fran9aise de Navigation Aerienne, of which he was a member. 

 One half of this sum is to pay the expenses of experiments, and 

 the other half to be funded in the name of the Society ; the 

 interest to be expended yearly on its behalf. Consequently, it is 

 expected that an end will be put to the long stagnation in 

 scientific aeronautics in France, owing to the indifference of the 

 public authorities for an art so popular in that country. 



For more than twenty years, the Sunday Society has been 

 working "to obtain the opening of museums, art galleries, 

 libraries, and gardens on Sundays." As already noted in these 

 columns, the House of Commons on March 10 passed, without 

 a division, a resolution in favour of this object. We are glad 

 now to record that in the House of Commons on Monday, in 

 answer to Mr. Massey-Mainwaring, Mr. Balfour said: "The 

 Government are prepared to open South Kensington and 

 Bethnal Green at a very early date — indeed, almost imme- 

 diately. Those are museums under the control of the President 

 of the Council. The National Gallery, the National Portrait 

 Gallery, and the British Museum are in the hands of trustees, 

 and correspondence is still going on between the Government 

 and the trustees, though I have no reason to believe that any 

 difficulty need be apprehended as to the final conclusion of a 

 satisfactory arrangement." In fulfilment of this promise, it was 

 announced yesterday that the South Kensington Museum, in- 

 cluding the India Museum and Science Collections in the 

 Galleries on the west of Exhibition Road, as well as the Bethnal 

 Green Branch Museum, will be open on Sunday next at 2 p.m. 

 and will remain open till dusk. 



An instructive case for the consideration of anti-vaccinationists 

 is reported in Wednesday's Times. It appears that the guardians 



