622 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 25, 1883 



Norway : the Government Geographical Survey. Tasmania : 

 Commissioners of Fisheries. United Kingdom : Dr. F. Day (2), 

 the Princess Louise, Rd. Collett, Dr. Francis Day, Mrs. 

 Bleeker, Arthur Grevenstuk. Sweden : Prof. Baron A. K. 

 Nordeuskjold, Prof. F. A. Smith, W. von Wright. Denmark . 

 H. V. Feilder. Norway : Prof. G. O. Sars, Prof. II. Mohn. 

 Mammals, Birds, &c. — India : Bombay Museum. Canada : 

 Canadian Government. United States : United States Fish 

 Commission. Sweden : Oscar Dickson, Stockholm Museum, 

 Baron Nordenskjold. 



Ben Nevis Observatory was duly "inaugurated" on 

 Wednesday last week amidst a snowstorm. The ceremony 

 passed off successfully, Mr. Murray formally accepting from Mrs. 

 Cameron Campbell, the proprietress of the ground on which the 

 Observatory is built and over which the road is made, the key 

 of the buildings, which all present seemed to think well adapted 

 for their purpose. 



The Home Secretary has acquainted the Meteorological 

 Society that Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to grant it 

 permission to adopt the prefix "Royal." The Society accord- 

 ingly becomes the " Royal Meteorological Society." To all 

 workers in meteorology, whether Fellows of that society or not, 

 this public recognition of the importance of the science' cannot 

 but be most gratifying. 



Prof. Edward Hull, F.K.S., Dr. E. Hull, and Mr. H. 

 Hart have left London for Suez, under the auspices of the 

 Palestine Exploration Society, to explore the valley of the 

 Jordan. At Suez we understand that the party will have the 

 advantage of the experience of a member of the firm of Messrs. 

 Cook, under whose guidance the expeditionary party are then to 

 proceed. During Prof. Hull's absence from Ireland the lectures 

 on geology in the Royal College of Science, Dublin, will be 

 delivered by Mr. A. B. Wynne, late deputy superintendent of 

 the Geological Survey of India. 



It is suggested that the memorial to the late Prof. Jevons 

 might take the form of a studentship, of the annual value of not 

 less than 100/., the holder of which shall devote himself to 

 economic or statistical research ; and that to commemorate the 

 connection of Jevons with Liverpool, in which he was born, and 

 with Manchester and London, in which so many of the best 

 years of his life were spent, the election to the studentship be 

 vested in representatives of University College, London, Owens 

 College, Manchester, and University College, Liverpool, to be 

 appointed for the purpose. Among the members of the com- 

 mittee formed for the purpose of forwarding the proposed 

 memorial are — the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of West, 

 minster, the Marquis of Hartington, M.P., the Earl of Derby, 

 the Earl of Kimberley, the Bishop of Manchester, Lord Windsor, 

 Mr. Chamberlain, M.P., Sir R. Cross, M.P., Sir Charles Dilke, 

 M.P., Mr. Childers, M.P., Mr. Fawcett, M.P., Mr. Mundella, 

 M.P., Sir J. Lubbock, M.P., Sir T. Brassey, M.P., Mr. J. 

 Cross, M.P., Mr. L. Courtney, M.P., Mr. Robert Giffen, Prof. 

 T. E. Thorpe, Prof. Caird, Prof. J. S. Nicholson, Mr. W, 

 Knight, Prof. Marshall, Principal Edwards, Principal Peterson, 

 Rev. R. Harley, Prof. W. Dallinger, Prof. Adamson, Prof. 

 Roscoe, Prof. Balfour Stewart, Prof. YY. Wallace, Prof. G. H. 

 Darwiu, and Prof. G. Carey Foster. Subscriptions may be 

 paid to the credit of the treasurer of the Jevons Memorial Fund, 

 with the Manchester and Salford Bank (Limited), and will be 

 received, among others, by Messrs. Williams, Deacon, and Co., 

 London. 



An improvement so useful and suggestive as to deserve notice 

 in these columns, has been recently applied by the proprietors of 

 " Bradshaw's Railway Guide" to the map of Great Britain which 

 accompanies that indispensable manual. It consists in ruling 



meridian lines at every 1 j' of longitude, or every 5m. of time 

 from Greenwich, so as to show at a glance, sufficiently nearly 

 for practical purposes, the difference between the local time at 

 every town in the United Kingdom, and Greenwich or railway 

 time. The difference, it is true, is small enough to be neglected 

 is the eastern counties ; but is considerable enough to require to 

 be remembered in the western half of these islands. A traveller 

 leaving Falmouth by night train with an appointment in London 

 for 10 a.m. the next morning, may be much inconvenienced if 

 he forgets that oh. 40m. by his watch is 10 a.m. for his purpose. 

 We have only to suppose our traveller to be going from New- 

 York to Chicago or from Paris to Vienna, to see the great con- 

 venience of this unobtrusive addition to railway maps. But 

 there is another advantage which will be realised whenever these 

 time meridians replace meridians of longitude on school maps, 

 as they are bound to do by degrees. It is that they tend to give 

 clear ideas of longitude, of the earth's diurnal revolution, of time 

 itself. Meridians, as such, are mere coordinates of position, 

 and have no necessary connection with time, and the ideas of 

 many even educated people are extremely hazy on their mutual 

 relations. Messrs. Blacklock of Manchester probably make no 

 pretension to be educational reformers, but in taking the initia- 

 tive in this improvement, they are in fact, thanks to the great 

 circulation of " Bradshaw," helping to prepare the public mind 

 for the adopti >n of a universal first meridian, and giving great 

 assistance to the schoolma*ter. 



The red spot on Jupiter continues to be well visible. Mr. W, 

 F. Denning writes that on the mornings of October 16 and 18 he 

 observed the spot with a 10-inch reflector, power about 212, and 

 found it a tolerably easy object, though it is very much fainter 

 than the belts. At times the shape of the spot could be dis- 

 tinctly m?de out notwithstanding the constant vibration of the 

 telescope by the high wind prevailing. Mr. Denning adds that 

 with favourable atmospheric conditions this marking ought to be 

 an easy object for telescopes above 6 inches aperture. 



The only changes proposed to be made in the constitution of 

 the Council of the Mathematical Society for the ensuing session 

 are the substitution of Messrs. W. D. Niven, F.R.S., and J. 

 Hammond, M.A., in the place of Mr. C. W. Merrifield, F.R.S. 

 (who, we regret to say, is obliged to resign on account of ill 

 health), and Dr. J. Hopkinson, F.R.S. 



Science Classes have been established in Warwick during 

 the past week. A largely attended public meeting was held on 

 the i6tb, under the presidency of the mayor, when an address 

 on the value of science teaching was delivered by the Rev. W. 

 Tuckwell. Fifty names were announced for an immediate 

 chemistry class ; and it was proposed to form general classes in 

 geology or botany, with a special working-men's class in practical 

 geometry and elementary mechanic 5. 



Mr. J. G. Baker of the Kew Herbarium, the president of 

 the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, who has already written floras 

 of North Yorkshire and of Northumberland and Durham, is 

 intending to print this winter a flora of the English Lake Dis- 

 trict, on which he has been long engaged, and will be glad to 

 receive any contributions towards it. 



From Science we learn that a number of gentlemen met in the 

 library of the American Museum of Natural History in New- 

 York City, on September 26 to 28, and founded the American 

 Ornithologists' Union. The membership consists of active, 

 foreign) corresponding, and associate members. The active 

 membership is limited to fifty residents of the United States and 

 Canada; the foreign, to twenty-five non-residents of the United 

 States and Canada; the corresponding, to one hundred residents 

 of any country ; the associate being composed of any number of 

 residents of the United States and Canada. The officers of the 



