2 42 



NATURE 



[July io, 1890 



it was supported by Mr, A. G. White, the President of the 

 Master Builders' Association. The Mayor then made the pre- 

 sentation. Mr. Roberts, in responding, drew attention to the 

 fact that the city contained no monument or record of the 

 labours of the two great Liverpool astronomers, Lassell and 

 Jeremiah Horrocks, and expressed his willingness to join in any 

 movement having that object in view. He also explained that 

 his reasons for leaving Liverpool were because of the unsuitable 

 nature of the atmosphere for taking observations. 



It is expected that the Electrical Standards Committee will 

 arrange for a discussion, at the Leeds meeting of the British 

 Association, on the best values to adopt for the units of electrical 

 measurement. 



Mr. W. C, Macdonald, a merchant of Montreal, has just 

 made a munificent contribution to McGill College. He has 

 given 150,000 dollars to the Law Faculty for the endowment of 

 the Dean's and another chair, and also 50,000 dollars for the 

 endowment of a Chair of Experimental Physics, and has offered 

 to ei-ect buildings for the Faculty of Applied Science, to include 

 class-rooms and laboratories. Altogether, the value of Mr. 

 Macdonald's gift is about 400,000 dollars. 



At a meeting of the Council of the South Wales University 

 College on the 2nd inst., Mr. Archibald C. Elliott was elected 

 to the Engineering Professorship just founded at Cardiff. 



The death took place, on the 29th ult., of Mr. Alexander 

 Parkes, of West Dulwich, and formerly of Birmingham, at the 

 age of seventy-six years. Mr. Parkes was well known as the 

 inventor of the substance parkesine or celluloid, and also of 

 many important manufacturing and metallurgical processes. 



The death, on the 2nd inst., is announced of Mr. John Page, 

 chief engineer of the canals of the Canadian Dominion, and the 

 projector and constructor of the enlarged St. Lawrence Canal 

 system. 



The German Emin Pasha Relief Committee has received a 

 telegram announcing the arrival of Dr. Peters with his Expedition 

 in Usugara. 



At the invitation of Sir William MacGregor, Mr. C. Hedley, 

 of the scientific staff of the Queensland Museum, has gone to 

 New Guinea for the purpose of making a thorough scientific 

 investigation of the invertebrate fauna of the east coast of that 

 country. 



Mr. James Bennett has (according to the Colonies and 

 India) been commissioned by Lord Knutsford to proceed to 

 Lagos, to make full inquiry into and report upon the mineral 

 and vegetable resources of the colony with 'a view to their 

 further development. Mr. Bennett is the inventor of a special 

 process for extracting, by means of chemicals, pure rubber from 

 the milk of the wild fig-tree, of which several species are to be 

 found in Lagos and the neighbourhood, and it seems likely that 

 considerable advantage will accrue to the colony from his visit. 

 Mr. Bennett will devote particular attention to such products as 

 rubber, gums, fibres, and minerals, in which it is thought that 

 the present trade of the colony may be largely increased, or 

 which are considered likely to become subjects of local 

 manufacture. 



Mr. Brown, the South Australian Government Geologist, 

 has left Adelaide for the north, having been specially com- 

 missioned to carry out the geological survey of the Macdonnell 

 Ranges, and to report on the Hale River gold-field. He will be 

 joined on the journey by two members of the Board already 

 selected, and some valuable work will, it is thought, be 

 accomplished by the party before they return. 



According to the Report of the Oxford University Exten- 

 sion scheme which has been issued, and which comes up to the 

 NO. 1080, VOL. 42] 



commencement of July, " Since June 1889, 148 courses have 

 been delivered in 109 centres by 25 lecturers. Examinations 

 were held at the conclusion of 119 courses, and the examiners 

 have awarded certificates of merit or distinction to 927 candi- 

 dates. The courses were attended by 17,854 students, and the 

 average period of study covered by each course was 10 weeks." 

 In 1885-86 the number of courses delivered was 27 only, and 

 the number of lecture centres 22. Amongst the chief signs of 

 progress recorded are (i) a great extension of University teaching 

 in small towns ; (2) a marked increase in the number of working 

 men attending the lectures ; (3) the arrangement of a number of 

 successful and well-attended courses during the early summer 

 months ; (4) the establishment of 36 Students' Associations at 

 various centres ; and (5) the federation in two new districts of 

 the various lecture centres. The Students' Associations are 

 very valuable, inasmuch as "they encourage the students to 

 undertake regular reading throughout the year in preparation 

 for, or in continuation of, the courses of lectures." The federa- 

 tion movement is also extremely helpful. It enables the diffi- 

 culty sometimes experienced in procuring lecturers to be more 

 easily surmounted, and it fosters and stimulates local interest in 

 the study undertaken. The Committee regrets that a greater 

 proportion of students do not present themselves for examina- 

 tion, but those who do go through the ordeal appear, on the 

 whole, to come out very creditably. Scholarships are given to 

 the writers of the best essays on a number of subjects connected 

 with those studied during the course; and "amongst the 

 successful essayists," we are told, "were two carpenters, two 

 clerks, a fustian weaver, an artisan employed in a Government 

 dockyard, and three elementary teachers." In an examination 

 recently held, those who were awarded certificates included " a 

 national schoolmistress, a young lawyer, a plumber, and a rail- 

 way signalman." Again, we are informed that "a course of 

 lectures on zoology recently given by an Oxford lecturer in 

 Devonshire was attended by a student whose essays convinced 

 the lecturer of her singular powers of accurate and original 

 observation. She was encouraged by the lecturer to undertake 

 a course of systematic study, and at his suggestion became a 

 candidate in the examination for scholarships at Somerville 

 Hall, where she was elected to the second scholarship." 



At the third summer meeting of University Extension and 

 other students, which is to be held at Oxford in August, Mr. 

 E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., will lecture on the influence of courtship 

 on colour, and Mr. Francis Gotch on the physiology of the 

 nervous system ; Prof. Patrick Geddes will deal with problems 

 of evolution, organic and social; Prof. Green, F.R.S., will 

 give a course on geology; and Mr. C. Carus- Wilson lectures on 

 geological phenomena. The teaching of geography, by Mr. 

 H. J. Mackinder ; protective adaptations in plants, by Mr. J. 

 B. Farmer ; and some aspects of light, by Mr. V. Perronet 

 Sells, are also subjects announced in the programme. 



During the cruise of the Garland on the west coast of 

 Scotland in June, for the purpose of examining oyster and 

 mussel grounds, Mr. Anderson Smith records the following 

 captures of more especial interest to naturalists. The large 

 Pennatula quadrangularis was found to be commonly dis- 

 tributed in great abundance in several lochs. The rare Isocardia 

 cor was taken in the trawl in Loch Sunart, alive. Balanoglossus 

 was obtained from deep water off Dunvegan, Skye, and may be 

 considered the first specimen recorded from Scotland. The rare 

 fibh Cepola rubescens, L., or Red Band-fish, was taken off Jura, 

 and is an addition to the fauna of the outer waters, although 

 one or more specimens have been recorded from the Clyde area. 

 Among Crustacea many interesting species were found, and the 

 individual supply was such as to lead to the presence at some 

 time or other of a more plentiful fish supply than was met with 

 during the cruise. 



