6io 



NATURE 



[Oct. 27, 1 88 1 



NOTES 



On Monday a preliminary meeting was held in the Mansion 

 House in furtherance of the icheme of the International Elec- 

 trical Exhibition which it is proposed to hold at the Crystal 

 Palace on a very large scale in the winter months. There were 

 present, among others, Mr. William Spottiswoode, Mr. John 

 Holms, M.P. (one of the Lords of the Treasury), Mr. Mungo 

 M'George (Chairman of the Crystal Palace Company), Capt. 

 Douglas Galton, C.B., Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S., Col. Gouraud, 

 Dr. J. Hopkinson, F.R.S., Mr. -C. V. Walker, F.R.S., and 

 many more. Mr. Mungo M'George, in moving the appointment 

 of an influential honorary council to advise with the directors of 

 the Cr-ystal Palace in carrying cut the proposed exhibition, said 

 that no effort should be wanting on their part to make the scheme 

 a great scientific and commercial success. The honorary council 

 was formed of thee pre- ent, and, among others, the Lord Mayor 

 Elect, the President of the Institute of Civil Engineers, Dr. C. 

 W. Siemens, Prof. Adams, Sir H. Cole, Prof. Fleeming Jenkin, 

 Mr. W. Crookes, Sir E. J. Reed, M.P., Sir Edward Watkin, 

 M. P., Sir Herbert Sandford, and mai.y more. Major Flood Page, 

 the manager of the Crystal Palace, read a report, which stated 

 that communications have been opened wi'.h the leading exhi- 

 bitors at the Electrical Exhibition in Paris, and with others who 

 have made the development of electricity their special study ; 

 and, although but a very short period has elapsed since the first 

 steps were taken, the responses have been such as to render it 

 certain that an effective and varied display will be made at the 

 Crystal Palace. Most of the best-known systems of electric 

 lighting will be represented — among others, the Siemens, Bru^h, 

 British Electric, Electric Light and Power Generator Company's 

 systems, the Joel, PiUen, Edison, Swan, Maxim, Weston, 

 Lonlin, RapieiT, and Gerard lights ; and various new lamps will 

 be exhibited for the first time in public. The storage of elec- 

 tricity will, it is hoped, be illustrated by Faure's and De Meri- 

 tens' secondary batteries. Telephones, which are not nearly so 

 much used in England as elsewhere, will be strongly repre- 

 sented ; and the various applications of electricity as a motive 

 power will be seen in Trouve's boats and other interesting ex- 

 hibits. Many eminent scientific men have expressed great 

 interest in the undertaking, and intend to become exhibitors. 

 Colonel Gouraud promised all the help of his fellow-country, 

 men towards the success of the Exhibition, which, though 

 following that at Paris very sharply, might be more attrac- 

 tive to American exhibitors, for it would be one stage 

 nearer home, and its arrangements would be conducted in a 

 language which the exhibitors could understand. Capt. Galton 

 expressed a hope that military and submarine electricity would 

 be suitably and adequately represented on the occasion. Sir 

 James Anderson also supported the proposal, v\ hich was carried 

 unanimously. Major Flood Page then read a resume of the 

 arrangements for the exhibition, w hich stated that the principal 

 objects to be admitted, were comprised in the following : — 

 Apparatus used for the production and transmission of electricity; 

 magnets, natural and artificial ; mariners' compasses ; applica- 

 tions of electricity — to telegraphy and the transmission of 

 sounds, to the production of heat, to lighting and the production 

 of light, to the service of lighthouses and signals, to apparatus 

 giving warn'ng, to mines, railways, and navigation, to military 

 art, to fine arts, to galvano-plastic, electro-chemistry, and to 

 chemical art*, to the production and transmission of motive 

 pow er, to mechanical arts and horology, to medicine and surgery, 

 to astronomy, meteorology, geodesy, to agriculture (in its appli- 

 cation to industries), to apparatus for registering, to domestic 

 uses, lightni g conductors. Major Page earnestly hoped that 

 Mr. Fawcett would allow the Post Office exhibit at Paris to be 

 shown at the Cry-tal Palace, and that Mr. Childers, as Secretary 



of State for War, would give aid to experiments in electricity as 

 applied to military purposes. 



At the first meeting of this session of the Birmingham Philo- 

 sophical Society, the Rev. H. W. Crosskey (secretary) read the 

 annual report, in w hich it was stated that the Council last year 

 reported that Dr. George Gore, F. R. S., had accepted the posi- 

 tion offered him, and that the amount of 150/. per annum had 

 been allotted to him in order that he might have greater facilities 

 for continuing in Birmingham his original researches. Dr. Gore 

 had forw arded a report stating that since he had been intrusted 

 with grants from the Birmingham Endowment of Research 

 Fund, he had made, partly with the aid of those grants, the 

 follov\ing researches in physics and chemistry, which had been 

 communicated to the Royal Society, and published, as follows : — 

 Thermo-electric behaviour of aqueous solutions with platinum 

 electrodes ; influence of Voltaic currents on the diffusion of 

 liquids ; experiments on electric osmose ; phenomena of the 

 capillary electroscope ; electric currents caused by liquid diffusion 

 of osmose ; influence of Voltaic currents on diffusion of liquids ; 

 and phenomena of the capillary electroscope. He hoped before 

 long to submit to the Philosophical Society an original communi- 

 cation. In addition to the before-mentioned researches, and 

 as an entirely separate matter, he had been aiding the cause of 

 original research by preparing for publication a small book on 

 " The Scientific Basis of National Progress," and it was now 

 being printed. 



A NEW zoological station is to be established at Banyuls-sur- 

 Mer, on the Mediterranean, at the end of the natui-al prolonga- 

 tion of the mole at the beach of Fontaule. The building will 

 be of considerable size, have several apartments, and be well 

 lighted. It is expected that the laboratory will be ready for work 

 by January. M. Lucaze-Duthiers intends to illuminate the 

 aquarium by electricity. This station will really be an annexe 

 to that at Roscoff, permitting the study of marine zoology to be 

 carried on in \\ inter, when it has often to be suspended on the 

 colder coast of the Atlantic. The municipality of Banyuls, 

 mostly very humble individuals living in an out-of-the-way place, 

 have lent cordial and substantial support to the enterprise. 



The arrangements for the festival in honour of the twenty- 

 fifth anniversary of Virchow's appointment as Professor to the 

 University of Berlin — an anniversary which coincides with his 

 sixtieth birthday- are now being made, we learn from the Lancet' 

 An influential committee, comprising the iiamesof Prof. Bastian, 

 Director of the Royal Ethnological Museum, Town-Councillor 

 Friedel, Prof. Kiister, Dr. Voss, Herr Ritter, &c., have asked 

 permission of the Town Council to grant the use of the large 

 hall in the Rathhaus and to defray the cost of the decorations, 

 as on the occa-ion of the banquet to Dr. Schliemann. The 19th 

 of November has been fixed for this festival. The most interest- 

 ing part of the proceedings will be the lianding over to Prof. 

 Virchow the title-deeds of a new institution to be devoted to the 

 prosecution of scientific researches especially relating to anthro- 

 pology, of which he will have the full control. As a politician, 

 an anthropologist, and an antiquarian, no less than as a patho- 

 logist. Prof. Virchow has claims not on Germany alone, but on 

 the whole of civilised hum.aniiy ; and we heartily join in the 

 desire to do him honour. 



The first gener.il meeting of the London Sanitary Protection 

 Association was held on Tuesday at the Society of Arts, 

 Adelphi, Prof. Huxley, the president, in the chair. Mr. 

 Holmes, the treasurer, stated that the Association had been in 

 operation only for a few months, and for a certain portion of 

 that time its action had been susj ended by legal difficulties. 

 The number of members enrolled up to the 15th of this month 

 was 126, the total contributions, together with a loan of 100/, 



