3 68 



NA TURE 



{Feb. 19, 1885 



their hundreds ! The audience, though larger than usual, was 

 not exceptionally so. Notwithstanding the somewhat technical 

 and abstruse nature of the subject, involving an explanation of 

 the application of the principles of spectrum analysis to solar 

 physics (in which the oxyhydrogen lantern illustrations were, 

 during half the lecture, a great assistance), this large audience 

 of unskilled labourers, men and youths, listened for nearly an 

 hour and a half with the closest attention, strongly resenting 

 the solitary attempt at interruption, and at the close of the 

 lecture were most enthusiastic in their approval. Why cannot 

 the same thing be done in other large towns, and must we wait 

 for London municipal reform to get it done in the metropolis ? 



In La Nature of February 14, under the title of "The 

 Struggle for Existence," is a curious account of an attack on a 

 dog by a flock of crows. The account of the affray is given by 

 M. Magin, director of St. Albert Glassworks, Anecht, Nord. 

 M. Magin states that in January last, when the ground was 

 covered with snow, his dog (a Griffon) was in a field adjoining 

 the workshop, when he was attacked by a flock of crows. About 

 a hundred were in the field, but only about thirty actually joined. 

 Dividing themselves into two parties, one attacked the poor dog 

 before, and another behind. Rising about two metres above 

 ground, they would plunge their beaks invariably into a bleeding 

 wound. When the dog was rescued by the workmen he was in 

 a dilapidated state, his eye torn out, and a deep wound in the 

 neck. The crows remained about the place for some time 

 after the rescue of the dog. 



The Statistical Society proposes to celebrate the jubilee of its 

 foundation on June 22 and 23 next. It is proposed to invite to 

 the celebration distinguished statisticians from foreign countries, 

 several of whom, it is hoped, will be Government representatives. 



The Mersey tunnel was opened on the 13th inst. ; it was 

 begun in the end of 1879. It may be stated that the length of 

 the projected railway is two miles and a half, from James Street, 

 Liverpool, to Green Lane, Tranmere ; and from shaft to shaft 

 the distance immediately beneath the River Mersey is about 

 one mile. For the two stations in James Street, Liverpool, and 

 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, the necessary excavations were 

 some time ago completed. 



For the first time, we believe, in English warfare, balloons 

 are to be utilised in the Soudan Campaign. The transport 

 Queen sailed on Monday from the Thames with the Balloon and 

 Telegraph Corps for the Suakin Expeditionary Force. Three 

 balloons are taken out with all the necessary appliances to be 

 used for taking observations of the enemy's positions. All have 

 been made at the School of Engineering. Compressed hydrogen 

 for inflating the balloons is carried in iron cylinders, 12 feet long 

 by I foot diameter, but these are only for a reserve supply, and, 

 weighing half a ton each, will be left behind at the base of 

 operations, where, also, a gas factory and pumping station will 

 be put up. Materials for this purpose are on board the ship, 

 including a small gas-holder, and all the necessary chemicals for 

 making more gas are provided. About a hundred lighter cylin- 

 ders, easily carried by men, form part of the equipment. Each 

 of these, which are 9 feet long, contains 120 feet of hydrogen in 

 a compressed state, and, as they are emptied, they will be taken 

 back to be recharged at the Suakin station. One waggon, con- 

 taining one ton of stores, will suffice for a balloon ascent. 

 Captive ascents only will be made, in which the balloons will be 

 tethered by rope or wire, both of which are taken. Communi- 

 cation by telephone will be established between the cir and the 

 ground, and the chief employment of the balloons will be to 

 take observations of the enemy's movements. 



A meeting, called together with the object of obtaining 

 a more extended support for the Parkes Museum, was 

 held at the Mansion House on Friday, the Lord Mayor 



(Mr. Alderman Nottage) presiding. The Lord Mayor, in 

 opening the proceedings, said the object of the organisers of the 

 Parkes Museum was to promote the physical welfare and happi- 

 ness of, he might say, the human race. Capt. Douglas Galton 

 read a statement on behalf of the joint committee of members and 

 council, from which it appeared that the museum was founded at 

 a meeting presided over by Sir William Jenner in July, 1876, in 

 memory of the late Edmund Alexander Parkes, who was the 

 first Professor of Hygiene in this country. The Queen and other 

 members of the Royal Family had subscribed to the funds, and 

 had taken great interest in the Institution. Out of it had arisen 

 the International Medical and Sanitary Exhibition, and the 

 Health Exhibition. The Museum is open free for a part of every 

 day in the week. The lectures have been given for the benefit 

 of the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, the Institution 

 of Builders' Foremen and Clerks of Works, and the Metro- 

 politan Building Societies. The Museum has also been placed 

 at the disposal of teachers of hygiene, and classes have attended 

 from University College, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Guy's 

 Hospital, the Royal Engineers, and the Young Men's Christian 

 Association. The reading-room, with its valuable library of 

 sanitary literature, has always been a distinguished feature of the 

 Museum, and has recently been enhanced by the addition of 

 1500 volumes contributed by the Council of the International 

 Health Exhibition. For upwards of eighty years the Museum 

 has been maintained by voluntary contributions. To keep it 

 open to the public it has become necessary that at least 1000/. 

 should be raised by the end of the present month. The Duke 

 of Cambridge moved " That the statement which has been read 

 affords conclusive evidence that the Parkes Museum of Hygiene 

 is meeting a great educational want, and is worthy of increased 

 support." There were two chief considerations which presented 

 themselves to his mind — the first was, that the Society must get 

 out of the difficulties it was in ; and next, the Museum must be 

 established on a sure footing, so as to enable its advantages to 

 be extended. The premises at present occupied by the Society 

 must be re-engaged, and it would be necessary to widen its utility 

 in coming years. Mr. Ernest Hart said he thought the wealthy 

 and practical City of London could not be proud of its attitude 

 towards this valuable Institution. Nearly all the supporters of 

 the Museum came from the West-end, and were largely from 

 among the professional and medical classes. The importance of 

 the Museum might be gathered from an outside indication — 

 namely, that the idea had been imitated, and the example 

 extended in the United States, in France, in Italy, and Japan. 

 He thought they were entitled to support, not only from the 

 great merchants and bankers of the City, but from the Corpora- 

 tion and the City Companies. The Parkes Museum was a mere 

 skeleton sanitary museum. It was without a laboratory, without 

 lectures, without demonstrators. In other countries the State 

 subsidised their Health Museums, and that it was deserving of 

 the highest recognition from a merely commercial point of view 

 had been conclusively shown by Sir James Paget's statistics as 

 to the pecuniary national loss from preventible disease. A list 

 of subscriptions amounting to 1006/. was announced. 



The death is announced of Mr. Hodder M. Westropp, the 

 well-known archaeologist, at the age of sixty-four years. 



Prof. John Marshall on Saturday, in the theatre of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, delivered the annual Ilunterian 

 oration before a distinguished medical audience. The orator 

 considered the mental attitude which " the Founder of Scientific 

 Surgery" would probably assume towards the active work and 

 salient opinions of our times. The revelations of microscopical 

 research and the growth of a new department of anatomy, histo- 

 logy, would have delighted Hunter, and his acquiescence in the 

 truth of a modified cell-theory of the formation of tissues, and in 



