370 



NATURE 



{Mar. 7, 1872 



Palace is closed to the general public. Mr. Norman Lockyer 

 has consented to give the first course of lectures. This step 

 talven by the Committee is in every way to be commended, and 

 we look with confidence to the success of these lectures as paving 

 the way for others in various parts of the country, which may 

 eventually do much towards popularising Science among the 

 masses. 



Prof. P,' M.4RTIn Duncan, F.R.S.,is now deUveiing the 

 course of Lectures on Biology to the class for the Higher Educa- 

 tion of Women at South Kensington, in the place of Prof. 

 Huxley, who is still in Egypt for the complete restoration of his 

 health. 



Mr. W. Marshall Watts, D.Sc, of the London Uni- 

 versity, has been appointed to an assistant mastership in Giggles- 

 wick Grammar School, Yorkshire. The governors have settled 

 that chemistiy, including practical work in a laboratory, and 

 physics, shall hereafter be taught in the school, and the teaching 

 of these branches of science has been entrusted to Dr. Watts. 

 Until recently Dr. Watts has had the main charge of the teaching 

 of chemistry in the Manchester Grammar School, a school 

 which has been eminently successful in obtaining scholarships in 

 physical science at Oxford. Mr. E. K. PurneU, Scholar and 

 Prizeman of Magdalen College, Cambridge, lias also lately been 

 appointed to a classical mastership in Giggleswick School. 



The Council of the St. Andrews Medical Graduates' Asso- 

 ciation are about to appeal to the many friends of the late Pro- 

 fessor of Medicine in the University of St. Andrews, to aid them 

 in an attempt to make a more fitting provision for his widow than 

 Dr. Day's ill-health allowed him to accomplish. We regret to 

 learn that suchjan appeal is necessary, and heartily wish it success. 

 The Haberdashers' Company have recently awarded Mr. 

 Webb, the Senior Wrangler of Cambridge, 50/. for three con- 

 secutive years ; he having been a pupil of the Rev. C. M. 

 Roberts at Monmouth, of which school the Haberdashers' 

 Company are governors. They also propose to grant four ex- 

 hibitions of 50/. to the children or grandchildren or apprentices 

 of Liverymen of the Company under certain restrictions, to be 

 tenable for three years. In addition to the above, one exhibition 

 of 50/. will be specially granted to a scholar of any school under 

 tlie Company's management. The sum of 150/. will also be 

 appropriated towards assisting the education of children of the 

 Livery of the Company. 100/. yearly will also be awarded as 

 a pi'ize to the inventors of anything new in haberdashery. 



As the period of the Transit of Venus in 1874 approaches, 

 astronomers both at home and abroad are becoming more and 

 more active in their preparations ; and the American committee 

 on tliis subject, it is understood, has already decided in consider- 

 able part upon the stations to be occupied. Of the result of 

 their conclusions we hope to give an account before long to our 

 readers. In Russia the committee, under Prof. Struve, proposes 

 the establishment of a chain of observers, at positions 100 miles 

 apart, along the region comprised between Kamschatka and the 

 Black Sea. The German committee has decided on recommend- 

 ing the organisation of four stations for heliometric observations 

 of the planet during its transit, one of them in Japan or China, 

 and the others probably at Mauritius, Kergaelen, and Auckland 

 islands ; and three of these, witli the addition of a fourth station 

 in Persia, between Mascate and Teheran, wiU be equipped for 

 l)hotogi'aphic observations also. The French, before the war, 

 suggested that stations be established at St. Paul Island, New 

 Amsterdam, Yokohama, Tahiti, Noumea, Mascate, and Suez. 

 How far this programme will be carried out under the changed 

 circumstances of that country remains to be seen^ 



We have received a letter from a valued correspondent, callmg 

 attention to some defects in the arrangements for the study of the 

 Natural Sciences, and especially of Botany, at the University of 



Cambridge. The letter we refrain from publishing, in the belief that 

 the good work which is now proceeding at the Universities will 

 be carried out eventually far more completely than it is at pre- 

 sent, and that even Botany may ultimately receive the attention 

 that it deserves. 



The Brazilian steamer to New York brings advices of the safe 

 arrival at Pernambuco of tire steamer Hassler, with Prof. Agassiz 

 and party. They were to leave for Rio Janeiro, in company 

 with the Ticonderaga, on Jan. 16. As there are several gentle- 

 men on board who have undertaken to supply information in 

 regard to the movements of the vessel, we shall doubtless before 

 long have full accounts of the progress made up to the date men- 

 tioned; although in regard to the subject of deep-sea soundings 

 and supposed discoveries connected therewith we must probably 

 wait, for correct details, for the official report to be made by 

 Count Pourtales direct to the Superintendent of tlie Coast 

 Survey. 



The " Amiual Report of the Secretary of the Interior for the 

 United States on the Operations of the Department for the year 

 ending October 31, 1S71," states that the results of Prof. 

 llayden's expedition, in accordance with his instructions to in- 

 vestigate the geology and natural resources of the little known, 

 but interesting, region about the source of the Yellowstone and 

 Missouri rivers, shows it to have been a complete success, and fully 

 to justify the liberal provision made by Congress for it. A pre- 

 liminary report of the results was to be presented to Congress at 

 an early date. A great amount of valuable notes and specimens, 

 illustrating the agricultural, mineral, zoological, and botanical 

 wealth of the West, was secured. 



We learn that the .Smithsonian Institution has recently suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining two complete skeletons of the remarkable 

 tapir of the highlands of the United States of Colombia, known 

 to naturaUsts as Tapirus pinchaqiic or roulini. Previously only 

 the skull had been obtained by Roulin, by w hom it was first 

 made known, and it was one of the rarities of the great anatomi- 

 cal collection at Paris. The Smithsonian Institution had before 

 obtained a number of skulls and a skeleton of the still more 

 remarkable tapir of Panama, which had remained undistinguished 

 from the common species of Panama till within a few years, when 

 first described, under the name of Elasmognai/ms bainiii, by 

 Prof. Gill, from two skulls in the Smithsonian collection. There 

 are no external or dental differences between the tapirs corre- 

 sponding with the marked differences in the skulls ; the external 

 differences being confined to the contour of the forehead, the 

 colour, and the character of the hair. In the mountain tapir, 

 as miglit be expected in an animal dwelling in such elevated 

 regions, the hair is long and coarse, and is of a black colour, 

 strongly contrasting with that of the common tapir of South 

 America ; it is also somewhat smaller than that species, and 

 has the forehead less arched from the occiput. It is confined to 

 the highlands, and is separated, at least so far as is known, by 

 quite a wide band of country from the common species. 



The Report of the officers of the Peabody Academy of Sciences 

 of Salem, lately made to the trustees, presents a satisfactory 

 statement of the progress made during the past year. This estab- 

 lishment received a moderate endowment from George Peabody, 

 of London, and the income is expended m the care of the 

 valuable museum belonging to the Academy. The directors of 

 the establishment are iMr. F. W. Putnam and Dr. Packard. 

 The principal additions to the museum of the Academy during 

 the year have consisted mainly of insects and archceological 

 specimens, and also a series of the animals inhabiting the Mam- 

 moth Cave of Kentucky. All of these, together with the collec- 

 tions previously in the museum, have been properly arranged 

 and classified, and tend to render the museum very attractive. 

 The report urges very strongly the propriety of securing an addi- 

 tional endowment, to enable the Academy to publish in its 



