Sept. 25, 1884] 



NA TUBE 



5i7 



NOTES 



M. Janssen has been appointed by the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences to represent the French Government in the Congress 

 which is to be held at Washington to determine the choice of the 

 first geographical meridian. It is just to state that the original idea 

 of a universal first meridian belongs to France, and that as far back 

 as 1632 a decree signed by Louis XIII. and proposed by Cardinal 

 Richelieu established a universal meridian on the island ofFerro. 

 This meridian was ultimately abandoned by Cassini to gratify 

 Louis XIV. 's pride, and the Paris one was retained by the 

 Metric Commission in 1793 under the pretence that an arc of 

 this meridian had been measured for determining the length of 

 the unit of measure. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. Heinrich Schellen, 

 formerly director of the Cologne Realschule, and author of two 

 well-known works, " Der electromagnetische Telegraph" and 

 "Die Spektralanalyse." Besides these, Dr. Schellen published 

 a book on arithmetic, an excellent German version of Padre 

 Secchi's great work on the sun, and various other works on 

 physical subjects. It was under his directorship and by his 

 efforts that the Cologne School was raised from the rank of 

 " Biirgerschule " to that of "Realschule erster Ordnung," and 

 that it attained the high reputation it now enjoys. He died in 

 Cologne in the first week of September, aged sixty-six 

 years. 



We regret to announce the death of M. Jean Augustin Barral, 

 the Perpetual Secretary of the French Societe d' Agriculture, 

 and the chief editor of Z' Agriculture, a periodical of large 

 circulation, and which, of all the Continental agricultural papers, 

 was .the most intensely devoted to the adaptation of English 

 principles of rural economy to French conditions. M. Barral 

 was born in Metz in 1820, and was a pupil of the Polytechnic 

 School, where he was a repeiiteur of chemistry for some time. 

 He became most intimately connected with Bixio, the editor of 

 Maison Ruslique. Bixio and Barral made twi daring aero- 

 nautical ascents from the Observatory grounds in 1850, when 

 they ascended to an altitude of lS,ooo feet, a height unsurpassed 

 except by Glaisher and Tissandier. When Arago died he 

 selected M. Barral, who had acted as his secretary for a long 

 period, to publish his works. The Barral edition contains twelve 

 large octavo volumes, exclusive of the " Astronomie Populaire," 

 which fills four other volumes, and has been translated into 

 almost every language. M. Barral edited the Revue Horticole 

 and the Journal d' Agriculture Pratique for many years ; it was 

 on the occasion of the death of his friend Bixio that he resigned 

 and started V Agriculture, of which he was not only the editor 

 but also the proprietor. He edited for ten years the Revue de la 

 Presse Scientifique, an influential paper whose publication was 

 stopped after a brilliant existence of eight years. M. Barral 

 was a very popular character, much appreciated in Paris, where 

 his loss will be heavily felt. Besides his editorial work he has 

 written some popular works on scientific topics, and he leaver a 

 number of academical essays, of which some have been edited 

 under the form of \ amphlets. 



The death is announced at Meran of Dr. Settari, one of the 

 authorities on Lepidoptera. 



A Warsaw correspondent informs us that on the 16th inst. 

 there died in that city Jakob Natanson, formerly Professor of 

 Chemistry in the principal school there. The late Prof. Natanson 

 prepared carbamide synthetically by the action of ammonia gas 

 on phosgene (COCU in 1856. Prof. Natanson wrote many scien- 

 tific papers in the Polish language ; the most valuable are a text- 

 book of chemistry (" Krotki myklad chemii organierTej ") and a 



treatise on organic chemistry. He also improved the methods of 

 determining the density of vapours. 



Messrs. Cassell and Co. announce the forthcoming publi. 

 cation of " A History of British Fossil Reptiles," with 268 plates, 

 by Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B. The edition, it is stated, consists 

 of 170 copies only (each copy being signed by Prof. Owen), and 

 no further number can be produced, as the plates from which 

 the illustrations have been printed have been destroyed. 



The German Association of Naturalists and Physicians met 

 last week at Magdeburg. 



The French Association for the Advancement of Science has 

 decided that its next meeting will be held at Nancy. The 

 President of this session, which promises to be most interesting, 

 will be M. Friedel, member of the Academy of Sciences and 

 Professor of Chemistry at the Sorbonne. The general secretary 

 will be M. Collignon, Professor of Mechanics to the Ecole des 

 Ponts and author of the text-book on mechanics used in almost 

 every French academy. 



The autumnal meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute was 

 opened at Chester on Tuesday, when Dr. Percy, F.R S., was 

 elected President. 



The Social Science Congress has been meeting at Birming- 

 ham during the past week. In the Education Department Mr. 

 Oscar Browning was President, and in his inaugural address he 

 contrasted the ardent desire for a University education displayed 

 by the Germans, who were content to beg to obtain it, with the 

 apathy displayed in England. Our primary education was 

 organised in a manner which became more effective every year. 

 A complete system of University education which should lead 

 the best scholars from the primary school to the University, and 

 which should educate the bulk of the middle class, could not be 

 said to exist. This was a crying want ; it paralysed the activity 

 of England in many directions, and the want could not be 

 adequately supplied without the initiative of the State. On the 

 Continent there might be too much theory and too little practice, 

 but in England we had suffered until lately from having no 

 theoretical training at all. He advocated such a technical 

 education as that by which the Continent had progressed so 

 much during the last half-century. Contrasting Germany and 

 England he showed how a youth naturally fitted for an aca- 

 demic career could, however poor, by State aid go to the 

 German University, while he had no such sure road in England. 

 The best means by which this deficiency in our national life 

 could be supplied, he thought, would be, first, by putting our- 

 selves on an equality with other nations by determining that in 

 every town in England of a certain size there should be at least 

 one State school, where, for a very moderate charge, an educa- 

 tion of the classical type should be given equal to the best which 

 the country could supply, and that by the side of this, either in 

 the same school or in a separate establishment, according to the 

 population of the town, there should be facilities for passing a 

 curriculum of modern education which should fit a man either 

 for a commercial or for a scientific career. It could not be 

 hoped that such schools would be self-supporting, and the time 

 would come when the amount co tributed by the Budget to 

 national education would mark the national prosperity. — In 

 a paper in the same Section, Dr. II. W. Crosskey said that 

 in order that science may be effectively taught in public ele- 

 mental}- schools, it must be taught experimentally. Actual de- 

 monstrations must accompany the lessons at every stage. It 

 imi^t be taught systematically and continuously. The "getting 

 up" of some branch of science during three or four months as 

 a " specific subject " is of little use. Special science demon- 

 strators must be appointed. No man can be a good demonstrator 

 who does not devote to the work the greater part of his daily 



