April 25, 1872] 



NATURE 



509 



speed of a little more than twenty-two miles per hour, the 

 centre arriving at St. Thomas about 4 P.M. on the 21st. 

 What was the speed and force of its rotary motion, I have 

 no means of correctly ascertaining ; but there is no doubt 

 that near the centre it very greatly exceeded that of its 

 progressive motion. The diameter of the storm was 

 about eighty miles, the outer circles taking in at the 

 same time Montserrat in the south, and Barbuda in the 

 north ; but was not felt beyond those islands. In its pro- 

 gress towards the west and north it may have extended 

 itself, as is frequently the case with these storms. 



On the afternoon of September 25, we again had indica- 

 tions of an approaching cyclone, though not so marked and 

 distinct as on the former occasion. The gale set in about 

 10 P.M., from N. by E., and continued till 10 A..M. on the 

 26th, the wind changing to N.N.W. and S.W. The 

 centre just touched the north of ihe island at 4 A.M. on 

 the 26th. The force of the wind was at no time very 

 great, and did not prove destructive on land — though 

 causing much anxiety and alarm during its progress. The 

 barometer did not fall on this occasion more than half-an- 

 inch. G. W. Westerby 



Antigua 



PROFESSOR S. F. B. MORSE 



INTELLIGENCE has already been received in this 

 country of the death of Samuel Finley Breese Morse, 

 the eminent electrician, who died at New York on the 2nd 

 inst. at the age of eighty-one. Prof. Morse was the son 

 of the Rev. Jedediah Morse, well known as a geographer, 

 and was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th 

 of April, 1 79 1. He was educated at Yale College, but, 

 having determined to become a painter, he came to 

 England in 181 1, formed a friendship with Leslie, and in 

 1 8 13 exhibited at the Royal Academy a colossal picture 

 of "The Dying Hercules." He returned to America, 

 and for a few years foUov/ed the profession of a portrait 

 painter. In 1829 he again visited England, and on his 

 return voyage was accompanied by Prof Jackson, the 

 eminent American chemist and geologist, through whose 

 influence he turned his attention to the conduction of 

 electricity through metallic wire, a subject in which the 

 chemical tastes displayed by him while at College gave 

 him additional interest, and to which he now devoted the 

 whole powers of his mind. 



Between 1835 and 1S37 Prof. Morse invented several 

 machines which more or less foreshadowed the electric 

 telegraph ; and obtained from Congress a vote of 30,000 

 dollars, with which to make an experimental essay be- 

 tween Washington and Baltimore. The first electric 

 telegraph completed in the United States was the line 

 between these cities, which was finished in 1844. Since 

 that time the Recording Electric Telegraph of Morse has 

 been adopted over the whole country, and at the time of 

 his death there were not less than twenty thousand miles 

 of electric wires, stretching over the States between the 

 Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. 



Prof. Morse received during his life recognition of his 

 services to science from a large number of foreign Govern- 

 ments and scientific societies, not the least remarkable 

 being the one inspired by the late Emperor of the French. 

 At his suggestion delegates from France, Russia, Sweden, 

 Belgium, Holland, Austria, Sardinia, Tuscany, the Holy 

 See, and Turkey, met at Paris, and voted an award of 

 400,000 frs. to Prof. Morse as a testimonial of appreciation 

 of his services. 



A record of Prof. Morse's scientific career would not, 

 however, be complete, without referring to a controversy 

 which some years ago occupied the attention of the scientific 

 world in the United States, in which he was engaged with 

 Prof. Henry, now President of the Smithsonian Institution 

 at Washington. So much personal matter was introduced 



into the dispute that a special committee of the Board of 

 Regents of the Smithsonian Institution was appointed to 

 investigate the matter, the report of which now hes before 

 us. The result of this investigation is summed up as 

 follows : — 



" We have shown that Mr. Morse himself has acknow- 

 ledged the value of the discoveries of Prof Henry to his 

 electric telegraph : that his associate and scientific assis- 

 tant. Dr. Gale, has distinctly affirmed that these dis- 

 coveries were applied to his telegraph, and that previous 

 to such application it was impossible for Mr. I\lorse to 

 operate his instrument at a distance ; that Prof. Henry's 

 experiments were witnessed by Prof H.t-U and others in 

 1832, and that these experiments showed the possibility 

 of transmitting to a distance a force capable of producing 

 mechanical effects adequate to making telegraphic 

 signals; that Mr. Henry's deposition of 1849 . • . • 

 is strictly correct in all tlie historical details, and 

 that, so far as it relates to Mr. Heniy's own claim as a 

 discoverer, is within what he might have claimed with 

 entire justice ; that he gave the depojition reluctantly, 

 and in no spirit of hostility to Mr. Morse ; that on that 

 and other occasions he fully admitted the merit of Mr. 

 Morse as an inventor ; and that Mr. Morse's patent was 

 extended through the influence of the favourable opinion 

 expressed by Prof. Henry." 



The conclusion therefore which must be arrived at, and it 

 is one of no small importance in the history of electrical and 

 telegraphic science, is that to Prof. Henry, and not to Prof. 

 Morse, is unquestionably due the honour of the discovery 

 of a principle which proves the practicability of exciting 

 magnetism through a long coil, or at a distance, either to 

 deflect a needle or to magnetise soft iron. 



Pi of. Morse's services to science as a successful applier 

 of this principle in its practical details are so unquestion- 

 able, that we feel we are but doing a duty in setting this 

 question right on this side the Atlantic. 



NOTES 



The following are the names of the candidates who have been 

 selected by the Council of the Royal Society for admission into 

 that body at the forthcoming annual election : — Surgeon-Major 

 Andrew Leith Adams, Prof. W. G. Adams, F. Le Ores Clarke, 

 M.R.C.S., Prof. John Cleland, M.D., Dr. M. Foster, Dr. 

 Wilson Fox, Dr. Arthur Gamgee, Rev. Thomas Ilincks, Prof. 

 W. Stanley Jevons, Prof. T. Rupert Jones, Dr. George Johnson, 

 Major T. G. Montgomerie, R.E., Dr. E. L. Ormerod, E.J. 

 Routh, and Dr. W. J. Russell. 



At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, held on 

 Monday evening last, a letter was read addressed to the Presi- 

 dent by Dr. Kirk, H. B. M. consul at Zanzibar, in which that 

 gentleman expre.ssed himself very hopefully of Dr. Livingstone's 

 safety. He thinks there is nothing discouraging in the last news 

 received of him, and that we cannot expect to hear again unti 

 the war at Unyanyembe is closed. 



H.R.H. THE Duke of Edinburgh will hold a reception on 

 Saturday evening next in the Picture Galleries of the International 

 E.xhibition and in the Royal Albert Hall, on behalf of the Prince 

 of Wales and the Royal Commissioners. 



We understand that Lieut-Colonel Strange, F. R.S., will 

 exhibit at the ordinary meedng of the Royal Society on Thurs- 

 day, May 2nd, the Great Theodolite designed by him for the 

 Great Indian Trigonometrical Survey of India, and will read a 

 paper descriptive of it. 



The electors of the Waynflete Professorship in Chemistry at 

 Oxford have given notice that it is their intention to proceed to 

 the election of a Professor some time in Act term next. The 

 endowment assigned to the Professorship is 600/. per annum. 



