5IO 



NATURE 



[April 2 z 1872 



payable out of the revenues of Magdalen College. The residence 

 required by the College ordinance is six calendar months, at 

 least, between the loth day of October in every year and the first 

 day of the next ensuing July. By the same ordinance the Col- 

 lege may require certain services from the Professor; but the 

 functions and duties of the office are mainly regulated by a statute 

 of the University, the provisions of which, as well as of the 

 College ordinance, may be obtained from tlie President of Mag- 

 dalen, to whom persons intending to become candidates are re- 

 quested to send in their names, and any papers which they may 

 wish to present to the electors in support of their application, on 

 or before the 18th of May. 



The next triennial prize of 300/. under the will of the late 

 Sir Astley T. Cooper, Bart, will be awarded to the author of the 

 best essay or treatise on "Injuries and Diseases of the Spinal 

 Cord." The essays or treatises shall contain original experiments 

 and observations, which shall not ha\e been previously pub- 

 lished, and each essay or treatise shall be illustrated Ly prepara- 

 tions, and by drawings, which shall be added to the.Maseum of 

 Guy's Hospital, and ihall, together with the work itself, become 

 henceforth the property of the Institution. Essays n.iist be sent 

 in to Guy's Hospital on or before January i, 1874. If written 

 in a foreign language they must be accompanied by an English 

 translation. 



Radcliffe Studentships for persons studying medicine, and 

 desirous of making use of the museum and lectures at Oxford, 

 have been awarded to Mr. Francis T. Carey, of Guy's Hospital, 

 and Mr. C. R. B. Keetley, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, on 

 the recommendation of Sir James Paget, Sir William Gull, and 

 Dr. John Ogle ; and to Mr. Farington M. Granger, of the Hos- 

 pital of Leeds, on the recommendation of T. P. Teal, M. A., 

 M.B. 



M. Stewart of Rossall School has been elected to the Ex- 

 hibition of 50/., at St. John's College, Cambridge, tenable for 

 three years, for Natural Science. The examiners also honour- 

 ably mentioned Anderson, of Rugby School, and King's College 

 London. There were seven candidates. The examiners were 

 —Chemistry, Mr. Main ; Physics, Mr. A. Freeman ; Physio- 

 logy, Dr. Bradbury ; Geology, Mr. Bonney ; Botany, Mr. Hiern. 



Captain G. S. Nares vpill, on his arrival in England from 

 the Mediterranean, commission the unarmoured screw corvette 

 Challenger for special exploring and surveying duties in the 

 Pacific. The Challfii^cr is a vessel of 2,306 (1472) tons and 

 1509 (400) horse power. 



It is proposed, according to the American Nali<rallst, to add a 

 department of Science to the executive branch of the United States 

 Government. It is to be composed of the Storm Signal Corps 

 of the army, the Lighthouse Board, and the Coast Survey Bureau 

 of the Treasury, and the Hydrographic Bureau of the Navy. 



We hear that a proposition is on foot to establish an Agricul- 

 tural-Meteorological station at Montrouge, near Paris, under the 

 superintendence of M. Ch. Moureaux. 



A COMMUINCATION to the Corporation of Brown University, 

 in America, was recently presented from Colonel Stephen T. 

 OIney, making a munificent offer of his herbarium and books on 

 botany, on condition that a suitable building should be provided 

 for their reception. It was referred to a committee. 



The officers of the Boston (U.S.) Young Men's Christian 

 Union, recognising the importance of scientific studies and the 

 need of encouraging scientific tastes, h.ive determined to estabhsh 

 in the rooms of the Union a natural histoiy cabinet. Their 

 object in providing such a collection is to foster the growing 

 taste for science among the young men of Boston, and to open a 

 new source of instruction and amusement to the members of the 

 ynion. 



Avery interesting collection of water-colour drawings made 

 by Mr. W. Simpson, on the various excavations below the 

 modern city of Jerusalem, which have been carried on for the 

 past three years by the Palestine exploration, under the superin- 

 tendence of Captain Warren, of the Engineers, is now placed for 

 exhibition in the Gallery, 48, Pall Mall. Most of the drawings 

 are taken in the excavations or in the sacred tombs and caves ; 

 but the artist has made his series complete by two or three 

 which represent the massive walls of Jerusalem as they are now 

 to be seen above ground, as well as that part of them which has 

 been discovered at the depth of 125 ft. 



At the meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical 

 Society on March 19, the President, Mr. E. W. Binney, read 

 an elaborate paper, entitled "Additional Notes on the Lanca- 

 shire Drift Deposits." 



At the Annual Meeting of the Bengal Social Science Associa- 

 tion, Dr. Ewart, the president, delivered an excellent address 

 on the necessity for the introduction into the schools preparing 

 students for the entrance examination of the LTniversity of Cal- 

 cutta, of the study of the rudimentaiy principles of the natural 

 and physical sciences. Alihough the University was avowedly 

 founded on the model of the London University, the traditional 

 policy of the older Universities is apparent in the exclusion of 

 Science ; and a movement commenced last year to introduce ex- 

 amination in various branches of science has at present failed. 

 Dr. Ew.art points out with great force the injury which the higher 

 education has suffered in England from a similar course, and that 

 the " existing metaphysical system of education is fast flooding 

 the country with a class of gentlemen who cannot find occupation 

 suitable to the kind and mature of the training they have received. " 

 "Are we to wait here," he inquires, "simply to follow in the 

 wake of England in this matter ? Is India to go through a long 

 embryo state of preparation like the Western nations, extending 

 over many centuries ? " 



A NEW technical paper has been started at Brussels, entitled 

 C/ironujue de V Industrie, answering to our English papers, the 

 Engineer and Engineering. 



Dr .L. Pfeiffer, of Cassel, has published the two first parts 

 of a work which will be indispensable to every systematic 

 botanist, " Nomenclator Botanicus," being an alphabetical 

 enumeration of the names of all classes, orders, tribes, families, 

 divisions, genera, sub-genera, and sections of plants, published 

 down to the end of the year 1858, with copious references to the 

 authorities, systematic arr.angement, synonymy, and first publi- 

 cation. From the care evidenced in the parts already published, 

 the work will supply a desideratum long felt in botanical litera- 

 ture ; and the author, who is an amateur man of science holding 

 no official position, deserves the thanks of all botanists. Ar- 

 rangements are made by which the work may be carried down to 

 the present time. 



Mr. C. p. Hobkirk, of Huddersfiekl, announces as in course 

 of preparation, A Synopsis of the British Mosses, in I vol. 8vo. 



The long-expected translation of Le Maout and Decaisne's 

 "Traite General de Botanique," by Mrs. J. D. Hooker, is an- 

 nounced by Messrs. Longman as in the press. 



Messrs. Bradbury and Evans have in the press "Botany 

 for Beginners," by Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, F.R.S., a portion 

 of which has already appeared m the columns of the Gardener s 

 Clironicle. 



A VERY interesting series of articles on the animals contained 

 in the Crystal Palace Aquarium, by Mr. Edward Newman, 

 F. L.S., is now being published in The Field. 



The Catalogue of Microscopical Preparations in the Quekett 

 Microscopical Club, consisting of .nbout 2,000 slides, is chiefly 



