Feb. 26, 1885] 



NA TURE 



393 



student's entrance is from the corridor, and adjoining this 

 entrance is a lavatory and cloak-room (30J for their use. 

 The laboratory is fitted with work-tables for about twenty 

 students. Along the west wall is a long work-table, fitted 

 with gas and water. The space below this table is divided 

 into cupboards and drawers for the use of students. On 

 the north wall a draught chamber, and combined heating 

 store and sand bath, of novel design, have been provided, 

 and at different positions slate slabs for galvanometers, 

 &c, have been fixed to the walls as in the private labora- 

 tory. The roof is left open to add to the height of the 

 room, and for convenience for experimental arrangements. 

 The room is lighted by windows in two sides, and by a 

 row of large skylights on each side of the ridge. 



Astiircase, G,leadsfrom the apparatusroom to two rooms 

 on the second floor. One of these has been constructed 

 without iron to ensure a uniform magnetic field. No 

 magnets or a large mass of iron will be stored below, and 

 the room will be available for absolute electric measure- 

 ments. The other room is a gallery about 37 feet long 

 and 10 feet wide, constructed for optical and photometric 

 work. 



A second stairway leads to a small room communicating 

 with the gallery above the lecture table, and with a flat 

 space on the roof which has been constructed as a station 

 for observations of atmospheric electricity. The collector 

 of electricity will be placed outside on the flat roof, 

 and connected with a station electrometer in the small 

 room below. 



A stair, H, at the south end of the general physical labora- 

 tory leads to some valuable rooms in the basement, which 

 have been set apart for practical electricity, workshop 

 (with lathe and forge), magnetic room, battery room, store 

 room, &c. 



Returning to the chemical side, the preparation and 

 apparatus rooms (39, 40) occupy the position corresponding 

 to that of the preparation and elasticity rooms on the 

 physical side. The preparation room is fitted with proper 

 work-tables, and communicates with the lecture-theatre 

 by a sliding panel. The private laboratory (35) corresponds 

 to the apparatus room of the physical department. It is 

 fitted with a work-table for four persons, and a large 

 draught chamber and sand bath, and communicates with 

 a special balance room (34) on the west side. The general 

 chemical laboratory (32) corresponds in position with the 

 physical laboratory, and is fitted with work-tables for 

 twenty-four students. These tables have been constructed 

 according to a special design embracing all the most 

 recent improvements. Around the north end of the labora- 

 tory have been, placed sand baths, draught chamber, large 

 distilling table, sink and table for water and air baths. A 

 portion of the south end of the laboratory has been 

 partitioned off and fitted up as a combustion and blow- 

 pipe room(3i). Atthenorth endabalanceroom (33) hasbeen 

 fitted up, and in this room, as well as in the private b dance 

 room, the floor is completely isolated from the laboratories, 

 and the tables for the balances are supported on strong 

 brackets firmly fixed to the stone walls. The lighting of 

 the laboratory is managed in the same way as that of the 

 physical laboratory, the skylights along the east side of 

 the ridge of the roof being made to open. 



A staircase, J, leads from the general laboratory to the 

 first floor of the chemical department, which is_ occupied 

 with rooms specially designed and fitted for photographic, 

 gas analysis, and spectroscopic work respectively. A 

 ladder leads to a flat roof for experiments which require 

 to be made in the open air. A second stair, 1, leads from 

 the general laboratory to the basement, where there is a 

 rough operation room, joiners' shop, and metallurgical 

 room. 



The arrangement of the rooms and the construction 

 of the lecture tables, work-tables, and other fittings have 

 been carried out by Mr. Richard Davies, architect, 

 Bangor, under the direction and superintendence of Profs. 



A. Gray (Physics) and J. J. Dobbie (Chemistry), and in 

 accordance with sketch plans furnished by them. 



The addresses on Scientific Laboratories which Sir 

 William Thomson delivered on the opening of the above 

 laboratories we shall give in our next number. 



NOTES 



The Geological Society has this year awarded the Wollaston 

 Medal to Mr. George Busk for his researches on Fossil Polyzoa 

 and on Pleistocene mammalia ; the Murchison Medal to Prof. 

 Ferdinand Roemer, the eminent palaeontologist of Breslau ; the 

 Lyell Medal to Prof. H. G. Seeley, for his long-continued work 

 on Fossil Saurians ; and the Bigsby Medal to M. Renard, of the 

 Brussels Museum, on account of his petrographical researches. 



The annual meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 was held on February 23 before a very large audience. M. 

 Rolland, the President for 1SS4, was as usual in the chair. He 

 delivered the customary address, alluding to the members of the 

 Academy who died during the past year, and gave a rhume of 

 the principal scientific facts of the same period. M. Arago 

 (Emmanuel), the eldest son of Francois Arago, who is French 

 Ambassador to Berne, had come to Paris in order to be pre- 

 sent at the delivery of the iloge on his illustrious father, 

 who died thirty years ago. The delay must be attributed to 

 the political career of the Perpetual Secretary of the Academy o' 

 Sciences, who, having been a member of the Government of 

 the second French Republic, was not a grata persona to the 

 then authorities. The speech was delivered by M. Jamin, who 

 was one of his successors in the seat he occupied in the section 

 of Physics. M. Bertrand fills his place as Perpetual Secretary. 

 The number of prizes delivered is too great to be reported at 

 full length. We must content ourselves by mentioning the 

 laureates who have worked at questions of general interest. A 

 part of the prize of 6000 francs for progress in efficiency of naval 

 forces has been awarded to the Hydrographic Mission to Tunisia, 

 and to a work of M. Baills on artillery. The Monthyon prize 

 has been awarded to M. Riggenbach, a Swiss engineer, for his 

 railways in mountainous districts. The Poncelet prize, for 

 progress in mathematics, to M. Houel, for the whole of his 

 works. The Lalande prize, for astronomy, to M. Radau, for a 

 memoir on refractions ; and the Salz prize, for the same science, 

 to M. Gurzel, for a disquisition on ancient eclipses in order to 

 determine the value of the secular acceleration of the motion of 

 the moon. The Tremont prize has been awarded to M. de 

 Taste for his works on meteorology. M. Marsault has received 

 a gratification of 1500 francs for his studies on lamps for 

 miners. This gentleman is director of the Bessages collieries. 

 The cholera prize was not awarded. M. Durand-Claye, an 

 engineer of the Municipal Service of Paris, who is a strong sup- 

 porter of the system called "tout a Vigout," took a prize of 

 statistics for his researches on diffusion of typhoid fever. 



Mr. Alexander Agassiz has resigned his position as a 

 Fellow of Harvard College, and Science states that his resigna- 

 tion was naturally accepted by the Corporation with great 

 reluctance. The Bulletin of the University just published con- 

 tains the formal notes taken at the meeting of October 24, which 

 state "that the wide range of his sympathies and interests, the 

 confidence and affection which he inspired, and the varied infor- 

 mation which he possessed both as a man of business and as a 

 man of science, made his services as a fellow of singular value to 

 the University ; that his great gifts within the past thirteen years 

 to the scientific departments, and especially to the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology, which amount to more than half a million 

 of dollars, make him one of the chief benefactors of the University, 

 and entitle him to its profound gratitude." 



