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NATURE 



{/Jar. 28, 1872 



apprenticed to a trade, have been left at liberty to forget the 

 little they learnt at school. Attendance at Sunday schools and 

 evening instruction provided by the State and charitable societies 

 ^vere perfectly optional. By a law just passed this liberty is 

 abridged, and compulsory attendance at evening schools exacted 

 for a period of three years. Thii is, we believe, the first time 

 in the annals of the world that an attempt has been made by a 

 State to extend the education of the humbler classes beyond the 

 merest rudiments, and after they have entered upon the business 

 of life. Saxony, already the best taught portion of Germany, 

 v.'ill by the new law be more than ever in advance of her sister 

 States. 



It has been necessary to remove the Parliamentary copies of 

 the Imperial standards, in consequence of the wall of the Palace 

 at Westminster, in which they were immured, having been pulled 

 down in order to form an entrance to the refreshment rooms. 

 On the 7th of March, 1S72, in the presence of the President of 

 the Board of Trade and five other public functionaries, the 

 standards were deposited in their new resting place in the wall 

 on the right-hand side of the second landing of the pubHc stair- 

 case, leading from the lower waiting-hall up to the Commons' 

 Committee Room. One alteration has been made. When the 

 standards were originally immured, a brass plate was fixed 

 upon the wall bearing the following inscription in old English 

 letters : — " Within this wall are deposited standards of the 

 British yard and the British pound weight, 1853." The word 

 " measure" has now been inserted after "yard." 



In another column will be found an article on the recent 

 meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, referring, among other 

 matters of interest, to the new puddling machine. We learn 

 that an agreement has been entered into between Mr. Danks, the 

 inventor, and a combination of iron manufacturers representing 

 the different districts, whereby the latter undertake to have 200 

 furnaces on his plan put up within six months, and in considera- 

 tion of his permission to do so, to pay him 50,000/. at that time, 

 whether the furnaces are in operation or not. This step, which 

 adds something like 450 furnaces to our producing power, will 

 effect such a revolution as has never before occurred in the history 

 of this branch of industry, and it is the more to be wondered at 

 when it is remembered that, till July last, it was thought that 

 hand-puddling must for ever continue, every machine to do 

 away with it having, before that, entirely failed. 



THE&i'/w Times says that the late Professor Pictet-dela-Rive 

 has left the whole of his remarkable palieontological collection 

 to the Museum of Natural History, and the greater part of his 

 valuable scientific library to be divided between the Academic 

 Museum and the Library of the city of Geneva. 



We learn with regret of the death, at his plantation, not far 

 from Vera Cruz, of Dr. Charles Sartorius, a gentleman well 

 known in the United States and Europe as a naturalist and 

 meteorologist. Few students of the zoology and botany of 

 Mexico have failed to become acquainted with the labours of the 

 doctor, as shown by the numerous specimens sent to the museum 

 of the Smithsonian Institution and to the American Entomo- 

 logical Society, &c. 



The French Minister of Agriculture and Commerce has 

 ordered the institution at the Central School of Arts and Manu- 

 factures at Paris of a new course of lectures to be devoted to the 

 higher teaching of agriculture. 



The Annual Meeting of French savants, held at Paris under 

 the auspices of the Ministry of Public Instruction, will commence 

 on Monday, April i, at the Sorbonne, and continue on the three 

 following days. 



We regret to learn that the proposed Dredging Expedition 

 of the Noma is postponed, one of the party being seriously 



ill, and her owner somewhat unexpectedly having to join 

 his regiment in May instead of autumn. He is anxious to 

 employ a vessel large enough to carry a good stock of fuel 

 for a donkey engine, to save time and labour, and the Noma 

 being small for this, and for carrying a steam launch, as is also 

 to be desired, Mr. Marshall-Hall will, in all probability, part 

 with her. If he is successful in organising the more extensive 

 undertaking now proposed, he fully expects to contribute very 

 interesting observations to marine science, and to investigate 

 several chemical questions, besides the zoological work. 



Prof. Pepper, who h.as done good service in working some 

 of the more popular and easily-illustrated departments of science 

 at the Polytechnic, is about to leave that Institution, and to start 

 an exhibition on his own account at the Egyptian Hall, Picca- 

 dilly, in conjunction with Mr. T. W. Tobin. 



Prof. Luther has discovered a new planet (No. 118) of the 

 I Ith magnitude. The discoverer suggests the name " Peitho." 



At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, held on 

 Monday evening last, Mr. W. Giffard Palgrave read a paper, 

 detailing a journey made by him during his late residence as 

 Consul in Asia Minor. He began by giving a rough account of 

 the general divisions of that region, confining himself more par- 

 ticularly, however, to that tract of country consisting of table- 

 land, formerly knovra as Armenian, and where, moreover, the 

 Tigris, Euphrates, and other important rivers take their rise. 

 Many observations made of phenomena in the neighbourhood of 

 the range of mountains known as the Kolat Tagh all tended to 

 show beyond doubt that at some period or other glaciers must 

 have formed and existed in large quantities in the immense tracts 

 of mountains, though at the present time the climate is too genial 

 to allow the snow to remain even on the ridges and peak 

 throughout the year. A short insight was afforded into the 

 volcanic features of the place, and also into the mineralogical 

 formation of the soil. From this it appeared that mines, if only 

 persons were found enterprising enough to work them, might be 

 opened which would yield a surprising amount of lead and a 

 considerable quantity of silver, and would most likely prove very 

 lucrative. 



The educational importance of our large schools, not only to 

 their actual pupils but to the inhabitants of the surrounding 

 neighbourhood, is being happily illustrated at Taunton. An 

 able lecture on " The Theory of Musical Tone," was delivered 

 last week to a large audience in the College School Dining-hall 

 by Mr. E. B. Tylor, F.R.S. It was largely illustrated by ex- 

 periments, and the valuable apparatus was left behind him by 

 the lecturer as a present to the School. It is hoped that other 

 lectures on Science, Art, and Literature, will succeed ; and that 

 gentlemen of eminence will be found to aid, by their presence 

 and teaching, so praiseworthy an attempt. For some time past 

 the Botanical Lectures at the .School have been attended not 

 only by the pupils, but by a considerable number of strangers ; 

 and a class of forty students will present themselves for the 

 approaching South Kensington Examination in Botany. There 

 is already a small Botanical Garden, well furnished and laid out, 

 which will be largely increased when the funds of the School 

 permit. O, si sic omnes ! 



Mr. Fairgrieve, successor to Mr. George Wombwell, is about 

 to sell by auction his well-known menagerie. Tlie catalogue com- 

 prises 186 lots, and includes a large number of monkeys, ten lions 

 and lionesses of various ages, a tiger and tigress, a male and 

 female elephant, three boa constrictors, and a large number of 

 other animals, and appurtenances. The sale will take place at 

 Edinburgh, and will commence on April 9, unless the whole 

 menagerie is previously disposed of by private contract. 



Gentlemen interested in the improvement of Geometrical 

 Teaching may obtain a copy of the Association's Second Annual 



