55° 



NA TURE 



[October 3, 1895 



situated, as regards funds, as Oxford is at the present day, 

 and yet the just claims of the most progressive sciences 

 upon her vast resources are persistently neglected, and 

 she remains in the position of a follower rather than a 

 leader in most of the scientific movements of the day. 



The efforts that Prof. Lankester has so successfully 

 made to stimulate his pupils to investigate natural things, 

 have been made in spite of, and not as (hey should have 

 been with the wann support and sympathy of the collegiate 

 systems that prevail in Oxford. 



During the past ten years only four fellowships have 

 been awarded to young zoologists of promise by the 

 Oxford colleges. The recipients of this support have 

 each produced \aluable work, which has reflected great 

 credit upon themselves and the enlightened action of the 

 colleges to which they belong. Not one of them has 

 joined the ranks of the idle fellows which abound in the 

 old universities of this country-. The experiment cannot, 

 therefore, be said to be a failure. It is as a fact the most 

 conspicuous success of any of the college enterprises of 

 the present day. Why then, it may be asked, have not 

 other colleges followed the example that has been set ? 

 The answer to this question is to be found in the fact 

 that, in consequence of the unfortunate competition that 

 exists between colleges to swell the ranks of their 

 undergraduates, the income of the endowments is frittered 

 away in the salaries of the heads, the stewards, the 

 bursars, and the tutors of the pass-men. Whether the 

 time will soon come when a radical alteration will be 

 made in the administration of the college endowments 

 it is difficult to say, but there can be no doubt that 

 the present state of affairs as regards the support of 

 natural science in Oxford is little short of scandalous, 

 and should call for the serious attention of men of 

 influence who have her interests at heart. 



Prof Lankester is to be congratulated on the efforts he 

 has personally made, as shown by the two volumes of 

 "The Linacre Reports," to stimulate research in his own 

 branch of science at Oxford; and it is to be niost sincerely 

 hoped that, in a little while, his enterprise will meet with 

 the recognition from the colleges that it deserves. 



S\|i\l\ I. HlCKSOX. 



DEEP SOUNDING IN lliH I'ACll-lC. 

 A DEEPER spot in the ocean than any yet known has 

 ■**■ been recently found by H.M. surveying ship 

 Pengtiin. Unfortunately the observation w-as not com- 

 plete, as a fault in the w ire caused it to break when 4900 

 fathoms had run out without bottom having been 

 reached. 



Commander Balfour reports that this occurred in lat. 

 23' 40' S., long. 175' 10' W., about 60 miles north of a 

 sounding of 4428 fathoms obtained by Captain .\ldrich 

 in 1888. .A. previous attempt to reach bottom had been 

 foiled by a similar accident to the wire w hen 4300 fathoms 

 had passed out, .ind the rising wind and sea prevented 

 any further attempt at the time. .As the deepest cast 

 hitherto obtained is one of 4655 fathoms near Japan, it 

 is at any rate certain that the depth at the position named 

 is at least 245 fathoms greater. 



It is hoped that before long a more successful attempt 

 to find the actual depth will be made. 



September 28. W. J. L. WHARTON. 



LOUIS PASTEUR. 

 /^.\ .Saturday afternoon, M. Pasteur died at (Marches, 

 ^^ near St. Cloud, where he had gone for the summer 

 in order to be near I'aris, and at the same time to be 

 near the large establishment for the preparation of 

 antitoxic scrum. 



In 1868, Pasteur suffered from an attack of paralysis, 

 the result apparently of a cerebral h;einorrli,igc ; but 

 although traces of this paralysis remained, he enjoyed 



NO. 1353, VOL. 52] 



fairly good health until 1SS7, when he developed symp 

 toms of heart and kidney disease, probably a recru- 

 descence of the diseases associated with his earliei 

 paralysis. Four years ago he suffered from influenza,] 

 which appears to ha\e left further weakness of the heart, 

 Last winter he was unable to do an\- work, and in fad 

 was confined to bed for several months ; but whenl" 

 summer came, he was able to go to his country house atj- 

 V'illeneuve I'Etang, near St. Cloud, where he remained, 

 in comparatively good health, though easily fatigued,- 

 until about three weeks ago, when he seems to have felt); 

 that the end was approaching. It is stated that "about : 

 three weeks ago he kissed his grandchildren fondly, and 

 pressed each for some time to his breast, sobbing as he 

 did so. On being asked what was the matter, he <.ii<l 

 ' The matter is that I must so soon leave them.'" ! U- 

 appeared to be no worse at this time, but about a ui 1 k 

 later symptoms of urxmia began to develop, he becan .■ 

 comatose, and on Wednesday last the urxmic poison; r, 

 became more marked, and by Friday it was evident th u 

 there could be only one termination to the illness. 



In 1891 (Naturk, March 26) we gave a sketch ol Ins 

 life from the pen of Sir James Paget, some feature^ of 

 which may now be repeated. " Louis Pasteur was Ihmii 

 on December 27, 1822, at Dole, in the Jura, where Ims 

 father, an old soldier who had been decorated on ihe 

 field of battle, worked hard as a tanner." Father and 

 mother alike seem to have been earnest, thought tul 

 people, whose one ambition seems to have been to " make 

 a man '' of their son. 



"In 1825 they removed to .\rbois, and as soon as lie 

 was old enough to be admitted as a day boy, Pasnur 

 began his studies in the Communal College, and tlicro, 

 after the first year or two, he worked hard and gaiiud 

 distinction." He then, in turn, studied, for a year at 

 the college of Bcsan(;on and at the Ecole Noriii.ile. 

 He was only fourteen when he first a])plied for .idmission, 

 but it was not until he had studied for a year that hfti 

 went in for the examination ; and in 1843 it is recorded^ 

 that he was fourth on the list of successful compciitorsii 

 .At a very early period he devoted special attention tqi 

 chemistry under Darlay at Besan<;on, and tlicn under 

 Dumas at the .Sorbonnc, and Balard at the Ecolc 

 Normale. Here, too, in the Ecole Normale, he com- 

 menced that study of molecular physics, espe< i ally 

 in relation to the formation of crystals, which led iiuj 

 to his now classical investigation on the isomerul 

 crystals of the tartrates and paiatartratcs of so(fl 

 and ammonia. In 1847 he took his degree of DoctorJ 

 of Science, after which he was appointed Assistant and' 

 then Professor of Chemical Physics in the I'nivcrsity 

 of Strassburg. In 1854 he was appointed Dean of tlic 

 Faculty of -Sciences at Lille, where he spent three > cars' 

 in organising the new school, antl commenced tliosc 

 experiments on fermentation which seemed to follow 

 naturally on his researches on the tartaric acids. Hc| 

 found that certain processes of fermentation were set uj 

 by distinct micro-organisms, under the action of whir 

 organic salts and even inorganic substances were broki 

 down, and others were formed in their jjlace. Three 

 years later he was appointed Director of .Studies in tht 

 ll^cole Normale in Paris, which office he retained until 

 1867. During this same period he was Professor, first _rt 

 Geology, then of Physics, and latterly of Chemistry in l" 

 6colc des Beaux .Arts. He also held the position 

 Professor of Chemistry at the Sorbonne. 



As early as 1856, before his recall to Paris, the Ri 

 Society of London awarded to him the Rumfoid Mei 

 for his researches on the polarisation of light. It 

 1869 he was made a foreign member of the Kortij'"i> 

 .Society, and in 1874 the Copley Medal was gi\cn to liffli| ''^ 

 It is interesting to note in connection with his rcceill' " 

 action as regards the < )rder offered to him by tht 

 Emperor William, that, during the bitterness cau-(<l H) 



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