NATURE 



{Feb. 5, 1885 



(1) the paper, (2) the lens, or (3) the sphere. In the pre- 

 sent apparatus the first method has been adopted, and 

 now the camera is about twice as long as it was in June. 

 As a consequence the circular image is enlarged, and the 

 light therefore weakened, and that at a time of year when 

 it can least be spared. If the focus is altered by moving 

 the lens, the winter circle is small and the summer circle 

 is much larger. This would perhaps be too much to the 

 advantage of the winter sun. If, however, the lens and 

 paper are maintained at a constant distance, and the 

 sphere alone moved, the circles are more nearly of the 

 same diameter throughout the year, the winter one still 

 remaining the smallest. This seems, therefore, to be the 

 most advantageous arrangement, and the one that will be 

 adopted in future. It may be possible also to find positions 

 for the sphere, lens, and paper such that the intensity of the 

 image is a true measure of the intensity of the sun's light ; 

 at present, however, this has not been done, the want of 

 sunlight and the press of official work having prevented 

 the carrying out of the necessary experiments. A more 

 sensitive paper might also be used with advantage, and 

 in observatories where photographic processes are carried 

 on daily there would be no difficulty on this score, but 

 my principal object was to devise some economical instru- 

 ment requiring only easy manipulation, so that at a con- 

 siderable number of places the instruments might be set 

 up, giving a more useful average of the duration of sun- 

 shine than can be obtained from only a few stations. The 

 instrument also gives a record when the sun is shining 

 through light clouds ; in this case the image is somewhat 

 blurred and naturally weakened, and it may be difficult 

 or impossible to employ any scale for measuring the in- 

 tensity under such conditions, but it must be remembered 

 that, even when the sun is shining in this imperfect man- 

 ner, it is really doing work on the vegetation of the earth, 

 and deserves to be recorded. 



It may be well to say that the instrument is in no way 

 protected. Some friends, whose opinion I highly value, 

 urged me to patent it ; but as I strongly hold the view- 

 that the work of all students of science should be given 

 freely to the world, the apparatus was described at the 

 Physical Society a few hours after the advice was given, 

 lest the greed of filthy lucre should, on further delibera- 

 tion, cause me to act contrary to my principles. 



Cooper's Hill, January 20 Herbert McLeod 



NOTES 

 Prof. Prestwicii has been elected a Corresponding 

 Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences in the place of 

 the late Italian geologist, Quintino Sella. 



Sir William Thomson opened the laboratories at Univer- 

 sity College, Bangor, on Monday, with an address, in which he 

 referred to the spread of the laboratory system and the good 

 results which thereby had accrued to science and scientific edu- 

 cation. We hope in an early number to give a detailed report 

 of Sir William Thomson's address, with a description and plan 

 of the laboratories. 



The honorary degreee of LL.D. has been conferred upon 

 Prof. Ray Lankester by the University of St. Andrew's. 



We understand that Dr. Dallinger, F.R.S., will take the 

 opportunity of his presidential address to the Royal Microsco ical 

 Society to give an account of a new septic organism. The 

 address, which will be fully illustrated, will be delivered on 

 Wednesday next at 8 p.m. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences has decided to send a mis, ion 

 to explore the districts in the south of Spain where the recent 

 earthquakes took place. M. Fouque, Professor of Geology in 

 the College de France, is appointed chief of the mission, which 

 was to leave Paris last week. The other members are M. Levy, 



m'ni'-g engineer and sub-director of the geological laboratory of 

 the College of France ; M. Bertrand, mining engineer ; M. 

 Barrois, of the Faculty of Sciences at Lille ; and MM. Killian 

 and Oppret, of the College of France. 



Amongst the honorary members elected to the Italian Society 

 of Geography at its meeting of the 25th ultimo was Mr. 

 Joseph Thomson. 



A Meeting of much interest was held at the Rooms of the 

 Asiatic Society on Munday in connection with the establishment 

 of a British School of Archaeology at Athens. Already Germany, 

 France, and the United States have been in the field for some 

 time ; but though the Greek Government has presented to the 

 English Society a choice site of considerable extent for a school, 

 funds are lacking wherewith to erect the building and carry on 

 the work. We need not insist on the value of archaeology in 

 historical research, — all the speakers on Monday were agreed 

 as to that ; for a scientific knowledge of the past, it bears the 

 same relation to academical study as the researches carried on 

 by the Naples station do to the home study of biology. At 

 present only 4000/. are in the hands of the Committee, but four 

 or five times that amount is required ere the School can start 

 with any hope of efficient work. There are several learned 

 societies with ample means, interested in the varied work which 

 would be carried on by such an institution, and to these, and to 

 individ als who have money to spare and wish to put it to a 

 good use, we commend the scheme. The treasurer is Mr. Walter 

 Leaf, Old Change, E.C. 



We regret to learn of the death of M. Dupuy de Lome at the 

 age of sixty-eight years. M. de Lome was well known as a 

 naval engineer, and his name is intimately associated with 

 modern ballooning. 



The Council of the Royal Meteorological Society have ar- 

 ranged to hold, at 25, Grea' George Street, S. \V. (by permission 

 o r the President and Council of the Institution of Civil Engin- 

 eers), on the evenings of March 18 and 19 next, an Exhibition 

 of Sunshine Recorders and Solar and Terrestrial Radiation In- 

 struments. The Exhibition Committee invite the co-operation 

 of those interested, as they are anxious to obtain as large a 

 collection as possible of such instruments. The Committee 

 will also be glad to show any new meteorological apparatus 

 invented or first constructed since last March ; as well as photo- 

 graphs and drawings possessing meteorological interest. 



I.N his inaugural address as Lord Rector at St. Andrew's last 

 week, Lord Reay stated very forcibly his ideas of what a uni- 

 versity should be at the present day, encouraging every form of 

 culture and research. Referring to science, Lord Reay asked : 

 ' Are we to have a separate Faculty of Science? I should say 

 certainly. Just look at the field covered by a Faculty of Science. 

 It is preparatory for medical science, and our engineers, our 

 manufacturers, our analysts, our botanists, our zoologists, our 

 astronomers, our naval constructors, our geologists, our biolo- 

 gists, our physiologi-ts, our mineralogists, our agriculturists, 

 should obtain scientific degrees. I do not see why a faculty 

 having such an immense area should remain linked with another 

 which has quite different objects to pursue. The same work 

 done by the French Ecole Polytechnique I wish to see done at 

 the universities ; and if the Germans have lately spent 340,000/. 

 on a new college for technical education at Berlin, I should like 

 to ask what possible reason can be adduced for stinting science- 

 teaching in Scotland at a moment when the report on technical 

 instruction has pointed out that ' theoretical knowledge and scien- 

 tific training are of pre-eminent importance, as in the case of the 

 manufacturer of fine chemicals, or in that of the metallurgical 

 chemist, or the electrical engineer, and that to these the higher 

 technical instruction may with advantage be extended to the age 

 of twenty and twenty-two.' Here, then, is a clear case even for a 



