Dec. 7, 1871J 



NATURE 



III 



LL.D. ; Prof. George Gabriel Stokes, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D. 

 Foreign Secretary : Prof. William Miller, M.A., LL.D. Other 

 Members of the Council : George J. AUman, M. D. ; John Ball, 

 M.A. ; George Burrowes, M.D.; George Busk, P.R.C.S.; Prof. 

 Robert B. Clifton, M.A. ; H. Debus, Ph.D. ; Prof. P. M. Duncan, 

 M.B. ; Piof. G. Carey Foster, B.A. ; Francis Galton ; Thos. 

 A. Hirst, Ph.D. ; Sir John Lubbock, Bart. ; Sir James Paget, 

 Bart., D.C.L. ; The Earl of Rosse, D.C.L. ; General Sir E. 

 Sabine, R.A., K.C.B. ; Isaac Todhunter, M.A. ; Sir Charles 

 Wheatstone, D. C. L. The President's annual address was occu- 

 pied by a rhitnie of the most important advances in science, 

 mainly pliysical, during the year. After alluding to the loss sus- 

 tained by the Society in the deaths of Sir John Ilerschel, Mr. 

 Ba'jbage, and Sir R. Murchison, General Sabine referred par- 

 ticularly to the munificence of Mr. J. P. Gassiot, by which the 

 Ke* Observatory has been transferred to the Royal Society in 

 trust, with an income of 500/. per annum towards the cost of 

 cari'ying on and continuing magnetical and meteorological obser- 

 v.xtions with self-recording instruments, and any other physical 

 investigations that may from time to time be found practicable 

 and desirable in the present building at Kew belonging to the 

 Government ; or, in the event of the Government at any time 

 declining to continue to place that building at the disposal of 

 the Royal Society, then in any other suitable building which the 

 Council of the Royal Society may determine. The following 

 papers and inves'.igations were also specially named by the presi- 

 dent : — " On the Dependence of the Earth's Magnetism on the 

 Rotation of the .Sun," by Prof. Hornstein, of Prigue ; the 

 Pendulum Experiments in India, by the late Captain Bisevi, 

 R.N. ; Mr. EUery's report on the Great Melbourne Telescope ; 

 the Investigations of the Lunar Atmospheric Tide, by M. 

 Bergsma, of Batavia ; and the Memoir by Prof Heer, of Ziirich, 

 on the Fossil Plants brought from Greenland by Prof. Nordens- 

 kiold. The Copley and Royal medals were then awarded, as 

 already noted. 



With regard to the Australian arrangements for observing the 

 Total Eclipse of Tuesday next, we learn that the Royal Society 

 of Victoria (not of New South Wales, as had been previously 

 reported) were up to the end of September making vigorous 

 preparations for an Expedition, but that at that time they were 

 afraid that their plans would be seriously frustrated by the failure 

 of Government aid, which they had been led to expect would be 

 liberally granteL Mr. Ellery, the president, and Mr. Rusden, 

 the secretary of the Royal Society of Victoria, were exerting 

 themselves to the utmost to secure the success of the Ex- 

 pedition, which was to start not later than November 22nd. By 

 the most recent Melbourne papers of October 9 and 10, we learn 

 that, notwithstanding the supineness displayed in the matter by 

 the other Australian colonies, it was still hoped that the Govern- 

 ment of Victoria would render such pecuniary assistance as 

 would make it possible for the Expedition to set out with some 

 chance of success in obtaining results of scientific value. The 

 number ol persons who had already agreed to join the expedition 

 up to that date was twenty, of whom four or five were of Adelaide, 

 three of Sydney, and one or two of Tasmania. No very certam 

 information had been procured about the prevailing w'eather in 

 the latitude where the eclipse will be visible. The destination 

 of the steamer will be Cape Sidmouth, about midway between 

 Cardwell and Cape York, where there is some risk of the weather 

 being unfavourable, inasmuch as during December the N.W. 

 winds frequently bring heavy rain. Probably the Expedition 

 will be broken up into several observing parties, and two or more 

 stationed at different points of the mainland, and one on a neigh- 

 bouring island. 



The elevation of Mr. W. R. Grove, Q.C., to the judicial 

 bench is a noteworthy event in the history of the personnel of 

 Science. It is well known that the author of the "Correlation of 



Forces," and quondam President of the British Association is an 

 authority of no mean rank on some of the most abstruse questions 

 of law. 



The E.xhibition of Stone Implements (Neolithic and Savao-e) 

 at the Apartments of the Society of Antiquaries in Somerset 

 House will be open at the meeting of the Society this evening, 

 and from the Sth to the 14th inclusive from eleven to four. Cards 

 of admission may be obtained from the secretary. 



We learn from Prof. H. A. Newton, of New Haven, Conn. 

 that between il'20 P.M. on November 13, and l'45 a.m. 

 November 14, ninety- eight meteors were seen, though the sky 

 was cloudy. Not more than one-tenth of them were, however 

 regarded as belonging to the meteor stream of November. Prof. 

 Newton thinks that if the earth met the stream this year, it was 

 either before or after the interval of observation. 



An application has been received by tlie Kew Committee ol 

 the Royal Society from Dr. Jelinek, Director of the "Central 

 Anstalt (iir Meteorologie and Erdmagnetismus," to procure for 

 that establishment a set of self-recording magnetographs similar to 

 those at Kew. The request has been complied with ; and it is 

 hoped that the apparatus will be ready for transmission to Vienna 

 in March next, being the time named by Dr. Jelinek as that at 

 which the new building in course of erection in that city is ex- 

 pected to be completed. The Committee has also been apprised 

 by a letter from Mr. Stone, Astronomer Royal at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, that he had at that date applied to the Admiralty for 

 a set of magnetographs, similar to those at Kew, to be employed 

 at the Cape. The Kew Committee hold themselves in readiness 

 to supply the desired apparatus when they may receive directions 

 to that effect from the Admiralty ; such directions, however 

 have not yet been received. If Mr. Stone's request is granted 

 the Cape Observatory will be the third in the British Colonial 

 Dominions employing such instruments, the other two being the 

 Colaba Observatory under Mr. Chambers at Bonibay, and the 

 Mauritius Observatory under Mr. Meldrum. 



It is reported that the French Government intends to establish 

 two schools, one at Lyons and the other at Nancy, in place of 

 the Strasburg medical school. The Strasburg professors are to 

 go to Lyons ; and it is expected that that school will assume an 

 important poshion in consequence of the large amount of hos 

 pital accommodation in the city. At Nancy, physics, chemistry 

 and physiology will be more especially taught. 



Harpe/s IVeek/y announces the death, in Boston, of the Rev. J. 

 A. Swan, on October 31, at the age of forty-eight. Mr. Swan 

 has been long known among his New England friends for his 

 love of natural history and his skill in the use of the microscope ; 

 and during his residence at Kennebunk, although a devoted 

 pastor in that village, he found time to make numerous im- 

 portant explorations and observations in the natural history of 

 the vicinity. Failing in health a few years ago, he visited 

 Europe, and on his return was appointed to the responsible post 

 of secretary of the Boston Society of Natural History, in con- 

 nection with Prof A. Hyatt, succeeding Mr. Scudder in charge 

 of the business of the society. Apart from his scientific accom- 

 plishments, Mr. Swan was endeared to all his friends by personal 

 qualifications of the rarest merit. 



The Society of the Friends of Science, in Posen, propose, on 

 February 19, 1S73, to celebrate the 400th birthday of the eminent 

 astronomer, Nicholas Copernicus, at his birth-place, in the 

 village of Thorn. In addition to the festivities of the occasion, 

 they intend to publish an accurate biography of their country- 

 man, and to prepare a monumental album, as also to strike an 

 appropriate medal. A prize of 500 ihalers is offered for the best 

 biography that can be prepared before January i, 1872, to be 

 based only upon authentic documents. 



