Mar. 7, 1872] 



NATURE 



569 



tion is given. The payments consist of an entrance-fee 

 of 5 fl., and a payment of 50 fl. per annum ; and in addi- 

 tion 6 fl. is charged for every day's work of 7 hours in the 

 chemical laboratory ; 10 fl. for 2 afternoons of 3 hours in 

 the physical laboratory. 



In addition to the subjects required in each special de- 

 partment, lectures or instruction are given in the following 

 subjects, and attendance at some of them is strongly re- 

 commended to all students, in order to give a wider 

 culture than would be attained by exclusive attention to 

 his special pursuit : — (i) Exercises in Literature and 

 History ; (2) the French and English Languages ; (3) 

 the General History of Art ; (4) National Economy ; (5) 

 Commercial Knowledge ; (6) the Principles of Jurispru- 

 dence ; (7) Physical Geography; (8) Zoology; (9) Sys- 

 tematic Botany ; (10) Singing and Gymnastics. 



The course in the LowerSchoolextcndsovertwo years,in 

 which the folio Afing subjects are compulsory : — First year. 



(1) History and Literature with the German Languages ; 



(2) Higher Algebra ; (3) Stereometry and Trigonometry ; 

 (4) French ; (5) Outline Geometry ; (6) Free-hand 

 Drawing. Second year, (i) History and Literature with 

 the German Language ; (2) Analytical Plane Geometry ; 



(3) Algebraic Analysis, the Differential and Integral 

 Calculus; (4) Higher Algebra; (5) Experimental Phy- 

 sics; (6) Mechanics; (7) French; (8) Free-hand Dravv- 

 '"o ; (9) Outline Geometry. 



In the special schools for Architecture, Engineering, 

 Mechanics, Technical Chemistry, and Agriculture, the 

 entire course extends over a period of from two to four 

 years. The extent to which the studies are carried will 

 be illustrated by the following abstracts of the curriculum 

 in the Agricultural School, the shortest of the courses : — 

 First year (i) Experimental Physics; (2) Experimental 

 Chemistry ; (3) Chemical Exercises ; (4) Histology 

 and Morphology ; (5) Vegetable Physiology ; (6) Syste- 

 matic Botany (with excursions) ; (7) Zoology ; (8) Minera- 

 logy ; (9) The Study of Rocks ; (10) Anatomy of Domestic 

 Mammalia; (11) Physiology of Domestic Mammalia; 



(12) External form of Domestic Mammalia ; (13) Agricul- 

 tural Implements and Machines ; (14) National Economy ; 

 (15) Mathematics ; (16) The Drawing of Plans. Second 

 year — (i) Chemical Exercises ; (2) Agricultural Chemistry; 

 (3) Practical Microscopy ; (4) Practical Physiology ; (5) 

 The Diseases of Plants ; (6) General Agriculture ; (7) 

 Special Agriculture ; (S) General Breeding of Animals ; 

 (9) Special Breeding of Animals ; (10) The Commerce of 

 Agriculture; (11) The Cultivation of Garden, Orchard, 

 and Vine ; (12) Internal Diseases of Domestic Mammalia ; 



(13) External Diseases of Domestic IMammalia ; (14) 

 Technology (Heating and Lighting) ; (15) Agricultural 

 Book-keeping; (16) Irrigation, Tilling, &c. ; (17) History 

 and Literature of Agriculture ; (18) Practical Geometry. 



To assist in the studies of the pupils there are 

 chemical and physical laboratories, an experimental farm, 

 mineralogical, zoological, and botanical collections, models 

 of machinery, designs, libraries, excursions into the 

 country, &c. Under special circumstances students can 

 be admitted as " Hospitanten " to certain only of the 

 studies, without going through the entire course ; but care 

 is taken that this does not interfere with the regular 

 studies of the other students. 



LAKE VILLAGES IN SWITZERLAND 



y/ T T is satisfactory to find that the correspondents of some 

 ^ of the daily journals are now in the habit of giving 

 scientific information to their readers. The following is 

 taken from the Standard : — 



" An interesting archffiological discoveiy has recently 

 been made on the shores of the Lake of Bienne. The 

 Swiss Government has been for a long time endea- 

 vouring to drain a considerable tract of land between the 

 two lakes of Moral and Bienne, but in order to do this 



effectually it has been found necessary to lower the level 

 of the latter by cutting a canal from it to the lake of 

 Neuchatel. At the beginning of the present year the 

 sluices were opened, and the waters of the Lake of Bienne 

 allowed to flow into that of Neuchatel. Up to the present 

 time the level of the Bieler See has fallen upwards of 

 three feet, and this fall has brought to hght a number of 

 stakes driven firmly into the bed of the lake. This fact 

 becoming known, a number of Swiss archaeologists visited 

 the spot, and it was decided to remove the soil round these 

 stakes to see whether any remains of a Lacustrine village, 

 which they suspected had been raised upon them, could 

 be traced. At a distance of between five and six feet 

 from the present bed of the lake the workmen came upon 

 a large number of objects of various kinds, which have 

 been collected and are at present under the custody of Dr. 

 Gross, of Locrass. Among them are pieces of cord made 

 from hemp, vases, stags' horns, stone hatchets, and utensils 

 used apparently for cooking. The most precious specimen 

 is, however, a hatchet made of nifphrite (the name given 

 to a peculiarly hard kind of stone from which the Lacus- 

 trines formed their cutting instruments). This hatchet is 

 sixteen centimetres long by seven broad, and is by far the 

 largest yet discovered in any part of .Switzerland, no other 

 collection having any measuring more than eight centi- 

 metres in length. A quantity of the bones found at the 

 same time have been sent to Dr. Uhlinann, of Miinchen- 

 buchsee, for examination by him, and he finds that they 

 belong to the following animals, viz. : — stag, horse, ox, 

 wild boar, pig, goat, beaver, dog, mouse, &:c., together 

 with a number of human bones. If th; level of the lake 

 continues to sink, it is hoped that further discoveries will 

 be made, and the scientific world here is waiting the 

 result of the engineering operations with keen interest." 



NOTES 

 We have great pleasure in announcing that Prof. Andrew C. 

 Ramsay, F.R.S., has been appointed Director-General of the 

 Geological Survey in the room of the late Sir Roderick I. 

 Murchison. 



At the moment of going to press we have received the an- 

 nouncement of the death of Prof. Goldstiicker, the eminent 

 Sanscrit scholar. He died on Wednesday morning. 



Mr. G. B. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, and Prof. Agassiz, 

 were elected foreign associates of the Acadcinie des Sciences at 

 Paris in the room of the late Sir J. Herschel and Sir R. I. 

 Murchison at the meeting on the 26tli ult. 



Dr. Maxwell Simpson, F.R.S., has been elected as suc- 

 cessor to the late Dr. Blyth in the chair ;of Chemistry, Queen's 

 College, Cork. Dr. Simpson is well known to men of science 

 at home and abroad as an accomplished chemist, and one who 

 has been especially distinguished for his original researches. 



T)IE Crystal Palace Company's School of Art, Science, and 

 Lileralure is about to take an Important step, having for its ob- 

 ject the emphasising of the science branch of the school, in order 

 that eventually the south of London may be provided with an 

 institution which, in a measure, may represent the Royal and 

 London Institutions which already exist in the west and centre. 

 The step consists in adding to the courses of lectures on scientific 

 subjects already given special courses to be given from time to 

 time by scientific men of eminence, similar to the courses given 

 in the Institutions before referred to ; and it is hoped that the 

 same lectures and the same standard of excellence and illustration 

 may be secured. As tlie lecture theatre of the school has been 

 burnt down, the lectures, pending its rebuilding, are to be given 

 in the theatre in the Crystal Palace ; but it need scarcely be stated 

 that these lectures have no connection with the Crystal Palace, 

 except so far as the .School of Art, Science, and Literature is 

 connected with it, and that they will be given at a time when the 



