NATURE 



{Feb. 2 2, 1872 



The Radcliffe trustees at Oxford, anxious to aid one or more 

 advanced students in the scientific study of preventative or 

 curative medicine, offer 10/. a month, for three months, to a 

 student of St. Bartholomew's, Guy's, or St. George's Hospitals, 

 desirous of working for that time in 0.<ford. He will have 

 opportunities of studying physics, chemistry, geology, the higher 

 parts of biology, clinical and sanitary medicine. Candidates must 

 be recommended on intimate personal knowledge by the Dean or 

 secretaiy of their medical schools, and will not be submitted to 

 an examination. The first election will be in the last week of 

 February. There will be an election of another student in April. 



A GENTLEMAN named Millard has bequeathed to the Presi- 

 dent and Fellows of Trinity College, Oxford, 8,000/. for the 

 advancement of mathematical and general science. 



The University of St. Andrew's has conferred the degree of 

 LL.D. on Mr. Archibald Cunningham Geikie, Professor, of 

 Mineralogy and Geology in Edinburgh University. 



The Royal Irish Academy have granted from the fimd at 

 their disposal for scientific research, the following : — 50/. to C. 

 R. C. Tichborne, for Researches on the Dissociation of Salts in 

 hot solutions, and on the History of the Terebenes ; 30/. to E. 

 T. Hardman, for Chemico-Geological Researches ; 25/. to Prof. 

 R. S. Ball, for Researches in the Motion of Vortex Rings ; 

 25/. to Prof S. Downing, for Researches on the Motion of 

 Water thiough Curved Tubes; 50/. to P. S. Abraham, for 

 Biological Researches on the Coast of Madeira. 



Robert Patterson, F.R.S., died at hs residence, Belfast, 

 on the 14th. He was born in April 1802. Educated at the 

 Belfast Academy, in his early days he contemplated the Irish 

 Bar as a profession, but finally devoted himself to mercantile 

 pursuits. At a very early age he was an ardent student of 

 Natural History, and in 182 1 he joined with a few others to 

 form the Natural History Society of Belfast. Among the first 

 papers read before this Society were a series by Mr. Patterson 

 on the insects mentioned by Shakespeare, which were afterwards 

 published. His most important contribution to biological 

 literature was, perhaps, his "Zoology for Schools," the first 

 part of which appeared in 1S46. This little work proved a 

 great success. It was adopted by the Commissioners of Irish 

 National Schools, and also by the Committee of Education in 

 England, and most certainly gave a great impulse to the study 

 of Zoology among the school classes of Great Britain. This 

 led to the issue in 1853 cf "Zoological Diagrams," large 

 coloured plates whicli have proved of material assistance 

 to both the teacher and the taught. He was a member o! 

 the British Association in its early days, and we believe 

 that the daily printed "Journal of Proceedings" was an 

 idea that originated with him. Of the different positions of 

 honour and trust held by Mr. Patterson in his native town, we 

 need not here speak. He vva5 elected a member of the Royal 

 Irish Academy in 1856, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1859. His genial and kindly presence will be missed by very 

 many of hij old and young friends. 



Harper s Weekly notes the death of Mr. W. Harper Pease, at 

 Honolulu, about the last of July, 1871. This gentleman was an 

 American, born, we believe, in Pennsylvania, and was occupied 

 for a long period in natural history pursuits. During the Mexi- 

 can war he visited that country, under the protection of the 

 American army, and madeextensive coUectionsof birds, which were 

 deposited in the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, 

 among them some new species described by Mr. Cassin. About 

 the year 1853 he visited the Sandwich Islands, and occupied 

 himself for a time as a surveyor, and was sufficiently well pleased 

 with the climate and country to remain there, marrying a native, 

 and adapting himself to the customs of the people. During the 



whole of his residence in Polynesia he was engaged in studying 

 the mollusca of the Sandwich Islands, and gradually extended 

 his research to the species of all the Polynesian group, making 

 collections either directly or through the medium of Mr. Garrett 

 and others. Numerous communications from his pen upon 

 Polynesian conchology have appeared in the youryial dc Coit^ 

 chologie of Paris, the Conchologkal yoiiriial of Philadelphia, 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, and 

 elsewhere, and he has long been recognised as a thorough 

 naturalist and reliable author. He had accumulated around him 

 at Honolulu a very large library of conchological works, which, 

 indeed, lacked few if any of the more important treatises. He 

 enriched the principal cabinets of America and Europe by fur- 

 nishing extensive collections, by which means he obtained, in 

 part, the facilities for procuring the books needed for his in- 

 vestigations. He was for several years in ill health, and his 

 death by consumption was not at all unexpected by his friends. 



We also learn from Harper's M'eekly of the death in Reading, 

 Pennsylvania, on December 26, 187 1, of Mr. Charles Kessler, 

 in the sixly-sixth year of his age. Mr. Kessler was known 

 as an ardent and successful student of entomology, devoting 

 himself to the lepidoptera, or butterflies, and bringing together 

 a very large collection of insects of this order. We have not 

 heard what disposition is to be made of this collection, but 

 we presume it will ultimately come into the possession of some 

 one of the natural history museums of the country. 



Prof. Wvville Thomson has been prevented from lec- 

 turing to his students for the past fourteen days, owing to a mild 

 attack of continued fever. He hopes, however, to be able to 

 begin again on Wednesday next. Dr. Cfiristison has also been 

 laid up for some day;, owing to an attack of ephemeral fever. 



We learn from the Academy that the African traveller and 

 botanist. Dr. Schweinfurth, has happily returned in safety to 

 Europe, and though he has suffered the loss of the greater part 

 of his invaluable collections and drawings, he has brought back 

 a harvest of information and experience which places his journey 

 among the most succersful of modern times. After his great 

 journey west of the Upper Nile, in the country of the Niam- 

 Niam and Monbuttu, he made a short excursion from his head- 

 quarters, the Seriba Ghatta, westward to Kurkur and Danga, 

 positions formerly visited by Petherick, arid returning, planned a 

 much more extended journey, when a fire broke out in the 

 Seriba Ghatta on the 2nd of December, 1S70, which not only 

 destroyed the station, but with it the whole property of the 

 traveller. Fortunately, a portion of his collection was at that 

 time already on its way to Berlin. Provided with a few necessaries 

 at Seriba Siber, the headquarters of the Egyptian troops, the 

 indefatigable traveller made a tour in a part of Fertit hitherto 

 unvisited by Europeans from December 1870 to February 1871, 

 during which he found that the Bachr-el-Arab is unquestionably 

 the main stream of the basin which mouths in the Nile at the 

 Bachr-el-Ghazal. Having been deprived by the fire of every 

 instrument by means of which any mechanical reckoning of the 

 distances traversed during this journey could be made, the ex- 

 plorer, with an energy perhaps unexampled, set himself the task 

 of counting each step taken, and in this way constructed a very 

 satisfactory survey of his route. 



Harper's Weekly announces the receipt of advices as late as the 

 5th of November from Mr. William PI. Dall, whose return to 

 Alaska under the auspices of the Coast Survey we have already 

 chronicled. Mr. Dall is well known for the encyclopedic work 

 published by him some time ago upon Alaska, the result of 

 several years' residence in that region. His present [losition gives 

 him unusual advantages for observation and research, and will 

 doubtless be made the most of in gathering an important mass of 



