272 



NA TURE 



\Fcb. I. 1S72 



The Second Course of Cantor Lectures for the session will 

 be delivered by tlie Rev. Arthur Rigi;, M. A., on "M'-chanism." 

 Tlie first lecture will be given on Monday evening, leb. 5, at 

 eight o'clock, and the remainder on following Mondays ti'l 

 March 11. 



The Alhaueiim states that Mr. E. J. Reed, C.B., late Chief 

 Constructor of the Navy, i5 about to establish a new quarterly 

 magazine of a scientific character, the first number of which will 

 appear early in March, to be devoted to the improvement of 

 nival architecture, marine engineering, steam navigation, and 

 seamanship generally. It will be called N'lval Science, and will 

 be under the joint editorship of the Rev. Dr. WooUey, Director 

 of Education to the Admiralty, and Mr. Reed. 



The following are th; number of entries for the clisses at the 

 Newcastle College of Phyical Science for the present term : — 

 Evening classes— chemis'ry, 36 (incUiding one lady) ; physics 4° 

 (including four ladies) ; geology, 19 ; alvanced matht-matics, 15; 

 elementary mathematics, 24 ; political economy, 12 (this clabs 

 will not be held). Day classes. New entries at Epiphany term — 

 chemistry, 8 ; physics, 7 ; mathematics, S ; geology, 3. 



The following are appointed trustees to the Alder Memorial 

 Fund, of which we spoke last week : — Sir W. G. Armstrong, 

 Mr I. L. Bell, Mr. J. Blacklock, Mr. \l. B. Brady, Mr A. 

 Hancock, Mr. D. P. Morison, Mr. R. S. Newall, and the Rev. 

 A. M. Norman ; who have received the following suggestion 

 from the subscribers: — "That it should be suggested to the 

 trustees that the establishment of a College of Physical Science 

 in Newcastle appeirs to offer opportunities for the employment 

 of the fund in furtherance of zoological science, more likely to 

 be generally appreciated as a memorial of our late distinguished 

 naturalist than the scheme oiiginally proposed, and that in the 

 event ol the establishment of a chair of biology in the College, 

 the application of the interest of the fund might propprly take 

 the form of a scholarship or other reward for proficiency in 

 zoology, to be associated with Mr. Alder's name." 



The Natural History Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne has re- 

 ceived a gift of 20/. from the Misses Bewick ; which sum is to 

 be applied in defraying the cost of new cabinets as they might 

 be required. The Society has also been presented with a most 

 valuable collection of fossils from Mr. M. R. Pryor, Fellow of 

 Trinity College. Cambridge, consis'ing of about 140 species of 

 Upper Greensand fossils from Cambridgeshire ; 130 species from 

 the Red Crag ; a line series from tlie Lower Greensand Copro- 

 lite Bed of the Eastern Counties ; a fair representative collection 

 from the Oxford Clay at St. Ives, Huntingdon ; and a number 

 of Chalk fossils ; all admirably mounted and named. 



A RESOLUTION has been presented to the Congress of the 

 United States providing for the printing of a number of copies 

 of the report of the investigation by Prof. Hajden upon the 

 gtolo^y of Nebraska and Wyoming territory. 



I^J a letter from Government House, Barbadoes, January 

 6, 1872, to one of our contributors, the Hon. Rawson Raw- 

 son writes : — " Ai^assiz, Count Pourtales, and a party of savans 

 have just left this. The United States suiveying vessel in 

 which they go to the Pacific had to put in for .some slif;ht 

 repairs. 1 hey weie here for two days and I went on board and 

 spent one diy with them. Agassiz pronounced my collec- 

 tion of .'■hells quite unique in scries of specimens, from the 

 youngest stage to adult. He was in ecstacics with the Holopus* 

 which he spent hours in examining, and 1 had to let him take it 

 away to describe it in all oetail. He had seen and studied 

 D'Orbigny's H. rait«ii, and thinks mine the same .'prcies, 

 but that it is of the normal form, while the one D'Orbigny 



' Vide Notes on Hith/iiis. By Dr. J. E. Gray. Annals and Mag Nat. 

 Hist, vq!. viii., 4ih series, p. 394. 



described was both incomplete and abnormal. I had Dr. Gray's 

 sketch with me, and certainly the resemb'ance to it was very 

 great. I think I may fairly regard it as the gem of my collec- 

 tion ; but in writing of it I must not forget to tell you of our 

 day's dredging. It was successful be\ond our expectations — four 

 live specimens of a fine new crinoid, like Apiaoiiais, which 

 Agassiz was able to watch alive for hours ; a Plcurotoinaria 

 Qaoyana, of which tlie artist was able to draw the animal ; a 

 new an-^ wonder ully beautiful species of Latiaxis, Brachiopods 

 In any numljer, vitreous sponges in nnss, some new Echini. Vou 

 can fancy ihe state Agassiz was in, and time would quite fail me 

 to tell you of all the interesting things he said about the various 

 forms as he recognised them. Need I say that all this has 

 determined me to make an effort to get our shores dredged, 

 beginning in shallow and going out to the depth ihey dredged at, 

 i.e , about forty or fifty fatfioms. We shall, doubtless, get lots of 

 treasures, upon the duplicates of wliich you shall have first 

 claim." 



Prof. B. A. Goui.D writes fiom the Argentine National 

 Observatory at Cordoba, under date December 8. 1871, that the 

 new observatory had then been formally inauguratrd about si.'C 

 weeks, af er a series of most unexpeced and vexatious obstacles 

 and delays. The climate had, however, proved far less propitious 

 than had been expected, the cloudy nights being nearly as 

 numerous as the clear ones, although no ram falls during one 

 half the year. When, hovvever, t^e sky is clear, it is of a won- 

 dioustransparency.starsof the seventh magnitude being distinctly 

 visible on favourable nights to the naked eye, and the planets 

 magnificent in their brilliancy. The large equa'orial was already 

 in adju.tment, and Prof. Gould had had some beautiful views of 

 Saturn. Owing to :he breaking out of the epidemic in Buenos 

 Aires at the beginning of 1S71, all communication with Europe, 

 by post or otherwise, had been a' most entirely suspended during 

 the year ; faint rumours of the success of the eclipse observations 

 in Spain in December 1870 had but just reached Cordoba. 



A BLACK marble slab, bearing the following inscription in 

 brass characters, has just been placed over the grave of the late 

 Sir John Herschel, in the north aisle of the nave of Westminster 

 Abbey : — 



JOHANNES herschel 



GULIELMI HKkSCHEL 



NATU OPERE FaMA 



FILIUS UNICUS 



"CCELIS EXPLORATIS" 



HIC PKOPK NEWTONUM 



RRQUIESCIT 



GENERATIO ET GENERATIO 



MIRACILIA DEI NARKABUNT 



PSALM. CXLV. 4, 5. 



VIXIT LXXIX. ANNUS 



OBIIT UNDtCIMO DIK MAII 



A D. MDCCCLXXL 



The following account of the fall of a meteorite is taken from 

 Gruiethuisen's "Naturgeschichtedes Gestirnten Himmels:" — On 

 July 24, 1790, at 1030 P.M. a fiery globe larger and brighter 

 than the full moon, as seen fnim Morme-, passtd from S. to N. 

 in 2s. , and burst leaving a white cloud. 3 m. after explosion 

 the two observers heard a heavy thunder-clap that shook the 

 windows and opened some of them. The 15 leagues distant 

 chain of the Pyrenees grve a c mtinuous echo lasting 4s. 

 The fragments fell in exTaordinary qumtity between Juliac and 

 Barhoan, 4 hours N. and 5 hours NE. from Mormes ; they fell 

 fused so as to bake the impression of straw, and mske no sound 

 on the roof ol houses, weigh ng 4 "loth" to 20 "pfund." 

 The bill of fire was seen from Bayonne, Auch. Pau, Tanbes, 

 Borde.iux, and To.ilouse, from the latter place only as something 

 larger than a fixed s'ar. 



We give a fuller account of the volcanic eruption at Ternite 



