February 8, 1894J 



NA TURE 



;45 



We cannot conclude this account without referring to 

 the magnetic work done at the observatory. Father 

 Denza contributes to the third report a long discussion of 

 '.he magnetic declination and inclination at Rome, and, 

 \y a comparison of observations, finds the secular varia- 

 tons. In the latter half of the seventeenth century, the 

 d«clination was about two and one-half degrees West, and 

 increasing. In 1806, Gili obtained a value of 17' 17', and 

 in T 824 a maximum of 18' seems to have been reached. 

 Th» declination then began to decrease, and its value at 

 the md of 1891 was 10' 45''35. The first observation of the 

 magietic inclination at the Vatican was made in 1891. 

 This element had been previously determined, however, 

 in other parts of Italy by several observers. From 1859, 

 when Secchi observed the inclination at the Roman Col- 

 lege, ip to the present time, the recorded values for 

 various oarts of Italy have been fairly numerous. Before 

 1859, hovever, very few observations were made. In 1640 

 an observer gave 65^ 40' as the inclination at Rome, and 

 Humboldi obtained a value of 61'' 57' in 1806. Father 

 Denza gives 58' 4'"6 as the inclination at the Vatican 

 Observator; in 1891. A number of other matters 

 are discussed in the volumes under notice, and many 

 observations are included, upon which we have not been 

 able to comnent in this article. Enough has been said, 

 however, to show that the observatory has furthered in- 

 vestigations in many branches of physical science, and, 

 from the energetic character of the workers, we may con- 

 fidently expect many more contributions to scientific 

 knowledge. R. A. Gregory. 



NOTES. 

 The Bakerian lecture is to be delivered before the Royal 

 Society by Prof. T. E. Thorpe, on the 22nd inst., the subject 

 of the lecture being a research carried out by Mr. J. W. Rodger 

 and himself on the relations between the viscosity (internal 

 friction) of liquids and their chemical nature. 



We are requested to state that Mrs. Tyndall would be much 

 indebted to any correspondents of the late Prof. Tyndall 

 who have preserved his letters, if they would kindly lend them 

 to her for use in the preparation of his biography. Any letters 

 thus lent should be sent to her at Hind Head House, Haslemere, 

 and would be returned safely to their owners. 



A HYGIENIC laboratory has been established in the University 

 of Bonn. The new institution will be under the direction of 

 Prof. Finkler. According to the British Medical Journal, 

 there is now no university in Prussia without a hygienic labora- 

 tory. From the same authority we learn that the Bengal branch 

 of the Pasteur Institute was successfully inaugurated on January 

 30, in the presence of a large company. 



The Duke of York visited King's Lynn on Friday, and 

 opened a new technical school built by the Corporation at a 

 cost of ;i^3,ooo. 



The order of S.S. Maurice and Lazarus has been conferred 

 upon Sir Joseph Lister, M. Pasteur, and Prof. Virchow, by the 

 King of Italy. 



Mr. Henry O. Forbes has been selected by the Library 

 Committee of the Liverpool Corporation for appointment as 

 Director of the Liverpool Museums. 



The late Dr. J. K. Hasskarl, whose death we announced on 

 January 25, has, says the Chemist and Driiggist, bequeathed his 

 library to the University of Strassburg, and his herbarium to the 

 University of Leyden. 



Prof. Billroth died at Abbazia, on February 6, at sixty-five 



years of age. He principally devoted his attention to military 



surgery, and published a number of valuable papers on that 



branch of his profession. It is .said that during the last few 



NO. 1267, VOL. 49] 



months of his life he was engaged in completing a work upon 

 the physiology of music. 



We regret to announce the death of Mr. Peter Redpath, a 

 generous benefactor to science in Canada. Mr. Redpath took 

 an active interest in the McGill College and University, Mon- 

 treal, and in 1880 built, at his sole expense, a museum in connec- 

 tion with the University. This building, known as the Peter 

 Redpath Museum, is used for the exhibition and study of speci- 

 mens in geology, mineralogy, palaeontology, zoology, botany, 

 and archaeology. In October last, a library, capable of holding 

 130,000 volumes, and added to the University buildings through 

 the liberality of Mr. Redpath, was opened in the presence of a 

 Targe and influential gathering. The sums spent in erecting the 

 museum and library are said to amount to nearly ;^75)000. Mr. 

 Redpath died at Chislehurst on February i, in his seventy-third 

 year. 



Prof. Edmond Fremy died on Saturday, at Paris. We 

 are indebted to the Times for the chief points in the following 

 sketch of his career. The son of a professor of chemistry at 

 St. Cyr, he was born at Versailles on February 28, 1814, and 

 after studying with his father, became a teacher at the Ecole 

 Polytechnique. In 1857 he was elected into the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences as successor of Baron Thenard. The amount of 

 Fremy's scientific work is enormous. His first publications 

 date from 1835 ; they relate to the precious metals, and 

 attracted the attention of the scientific world. His investigations 

 on ozone (in conjunction with Becquerel), on the ammoniacal 

 bases of chrome and cobalt, on fluor spar and the reproduction 

 of minerals, will remain classical. In organic chemistry, also, he 

 made numerous important researches, and as manager of the 

 Saint Cobain Works he superintended the manufacture of soda 

 and sulphuric acid, the tempering of glass and steel, the refin- 

 ing of castings, &c. Not long ago he published, jointly with 

 one of his pupils, M. Verneuil, a work, which was the fruit of 

 years of study, on the artificial production of rubies. He was 

 the author, with Pelouze, of a treatise on chemistry in six 

 volumes, and in 1881 began the publication of a chemical 

 encyclopaedia. 



In addition to the names we gave last week, the Lancet says 

 that the following are some of the principal delegates who have 

 been appointed to represent the various Governments at the 

 International Sanitary Conference which opened in Paris 

 yesterday. Great Britain : Mr. Constantine Phipps and Dr. 

 Thorne Thorne, C.B., F. R. S. British India : Surgeon-General 

 Cuningham. France : M, Barrere, M. Hanotaux,Prof. Brouardel, 

 Prof Proust, and M. Monod. Germany ; Herr von Schoen and 

 Herr Mordtmann. Holland : Dr. Ruysch and M. de Stuers. 

 Russia : M. Michel de Giers, together with technical delegates. 

 Austria-Hungary : Count Kuefstein, Dr. Hagel, and Dr. 

 Karliuski. Greece : M. Criesis and M. Vafiades. Italy : 

 the Marquis de Malaspina and Dr. Pagliani. Portugal : M. 

 Navarro. Sweden and Norway : M. Due. Turkey : Tuskan 

 Bey, Nouri Pasha, Boukowski Pasha, and Dr. Haindy Bey. 

 Persia : A delegate yet to be appointed by the Persian Ministry 

 in Paris. Egypt : Achmet Pasha Choukry, M. Mieville, and 

 Sedky Pasha. The remaining countries — Belgium, Denmark, 

 and Spain — have not yet announced their delegates. 



The Executive Committee of the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute have changed the name of the Guilds Central Institu- 

 tion, in Exhibition Road, South Kensington, to the Guilds 

 Central Technical College. 



The gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society has been 

 awarded to Mr. S. W. Burnham for his discoveries of binary 

 stars and researches in connection with them. At the annual 

 general meeting of the society, to be held to-morrow, the pro- 

 posal will be made that henceforth the meetings be held at 



