42 
NATURE 
[Wov. 10, 1881 
artist have constructed some subtle key whereby they can 
discover at once the position of any required figure, but 
it is hidden to our clumsier intellect ; and when a plate 
contains from thirty to fifty-nine figures, numbered appa- 
rently without any definite order, the task of picking out 
any given figure becomes rather tedious. Having said 
this, however, we have said all that we think we can 
say against the beautiful plates which accompany Prof. 
Agassiz’ most interesting “ Report on the Echinoidea of 
the Challenger.” H. W. MACKINTOSH 
NOTES 
THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Society will be held, 
as usual, on St. Andrew’s Day, the 3oth inst. 
the list of the Council and Officers nominated for election :— 
President, William Spottiswoode, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D. ; 
Treasurer, John Evans, D.C.L., LL.D.; Secretaries, Prof. 
George Gabriel Stokes, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., Prof. Michael 
Foster, M.A., M.D.; Foreign Secretary, Prof. Alexander 
William Williamson, Ph.D.; other members of the Council, 
Francis Maitland Balfour, M.A., I. Lowthian Bell, F.C.S., Sir 
Risdon Bennett, M.D., Prof. Thomas George Bonney, M.A., 
Prof, Heinrich Debus, Ph.D., Alexander John Ellis, B.A., Sir 
John Hawkshaw, M.I.C.E., Thomas Archer Hirst, Ph.D., 
William Huggins, D.C.L., LL.D., Prof. Thomas Henry Huxley, 
LL.D., Prof. Joseph Lister, M.D., Prof. Daniel Oliver, F.L.S., 
Prof. Henry Enfield Roscoe, B.A., LL.D., Warington W. 
Smyth, M.A., Henry Tibbats Stainton, F.G.S., Edward James 
Stone, M.A. Prof. Huxley having retired from his office as 
one of the secretaries, as we intimated last week, Dr. Michael 
Foster has been named in his stead. 
THE Treasury has, it is stated, awarded the late Astronomer- 
Royal, Sir George Airy, a pension of I1oo/, per annum, in 
consideration of his long and valuable services. 
Most of our readers will have heard with regret, and pro- 
bably surprise, that Prof, Ferrier has been charged with a breach 
of the Vivisection Act. On the general question our opinion is 
well known, but into the merits of this particular case we cannot 
enter so long as the trial is pending. 
THE Queen has conferred the honour of Knighthood upon Mr. 
Erasmus Wilson, President of the Royal College of Surgeons. 
THE death is announced of Dr. Bouillaud, the doyen of 
medical science in France, and Member of the Academy of 
Medicine and Academy of Sciences. He was born at Angouléme 
in 1796. 
THE impending change in the French Cabinet has brought 
forth an unusual number of regulations from the Minister for 
Public Instruction. Two of the more notable are the creation 
at Limoges of a Government school for industrial arts and a 
general reorganisation of the veterinary schools of Alfort (near 
Paris), Lyons, and Angouléme. 
M. KELLER, who is a Member of the French Senate, has met 
with an accident in his laboratory. His hand has been severely 
burnt by an explosion, and he will probably not be able to 
resume work for a month, 
THE experiments at the Paris Opera with the electric light 
have been successful so far as concerns incandescent light, which 
is now regularly used. A final decision on the matter will be 
come to very shortly. 
Our Paris Correspondent writes that the success of the Sie- 
mens Electrical Railway has been so great that the Municipal 
Commission appointed to report on the possible application of 
electricity will advise the experiment of an elevated railway in 
some part of Paris. The only objection to the erection of such 
a line on the Boulevards is its aspect, which it is supposed 
will not be sufficiently ormamental. A large number of practical 
suggestions will be made by this Commission. 
The following is 
Tue Russian Government has made a grant of 14,000 roubles ~ 
for next year for two Polar observing stations :—One at the 
mouth of the Lena, and the other, of second rank, but also 
for meteorological and magnetic observations, on one of the 
islands of New Siberia. 
THE Corporation of Chesterfield deserves credit for their enter- 
prise ; they have decided to dispense with gas entirely as far as 
public lighting is concerned, and to replace it with the electric 
light. The lighting will be done by means of about twenty-two 
Brush ‘‘arc” lamps and about seventy Lane-Fox incandescent 
lamps. Doubtless the example of Chesterfield will soon be 
followed by other towns. 
THE Council of the Society of Arts, on the recommendation 
of the judges in the late competition of plant labels, are pre- 
pared to renew the offer of a Society’s silver medal, together 
with a prize of 5/., which has been placed at their disposal for 
the purpose by Mr. G. F. Wilson, F.R.S., for the best label for 
plants. The object of the offer is to obtain a label which may 
be cheap and durable, and may show legibly whatever is written 
or printed thereon ; the label must be suitable for plants in open 
border. These considerations will principally govern the award. 
Specimen labels, bearing a number or motto, and accompanied 
by a sealed envelope containing the name of the sender, mus 
be sent in to the secretary of the Society not later than May r 
1882. 
THE Royal Commission on Technical Instruction, presided 
over by Mr. Samuelson, M.P., has begun its work in Paris by 
visiting the Ecole d’Apprentis in the Boulevard de la Villette, 
the Ecole d’Horlogerie in the Faubourg du Temple, and those 
communal schools in which handicrafts are taught. After 
inspecting the secondary and higher technical schools of Paris 
the Commissioners will proceed to Chalons, Lyons, Rouen, and 
some manufacturing towns in the North of France. 
AT the ordinary meeting of the Council of the Sanitary Assur- 
ance Association, held at the offices, 5, Argyll Place, Regent 
Street, on Wednesday, October 26, Prof. Hayter Lewis, F.S.A., 
in the chair, certificates were issued under the Corporate Seal of 
the Association to those subscribers who had carried out the 
recommendations of the Association with regard to the sanitary 
arrangements of their houses. These certificates, which are as 
yet a new feature in connection with provident householding, 
are not of less importance than Fire Insurance polices. The 
certificates are signed by the chief sanitary officer of the Associa- 
tion, Prof. Corfield, M.D., and the surveyor, Mr. Mark H. 
Judge, and they guarantee the satisfactory condition of the 
houses to which they refer; the inspection, report, and super- 
vision of the work, where alterations are necessary, being made 
personally by both officers. The certificates are issued subject 
to an annual inspection of the property, for which the members 
are charged a small fee, according to the rateable value of the 
houses ; for instance, for a house rated at So/. the fee is half-a- 
guinea for each annual inspection, while for a house rated at 
200/. the fee is two guineas, Detailed reports of works in pro- 
gress were made, and correspondence thanking the Council for 
the thoroughness of the reports and supervision of work was 
read. It is just twelve months since the first meeting of the 
Association was convened, under the presidency of Sir Joseph 
Fayrer, K.C.S.1., to form an organisation which should apply 
the combined sanitary knowledge and experience of medical 
men, architects, and others by means of specially qualified officers 
who should yearly inspect the houses of members and report 
upon their drainage, water supply, and ventilation. The Asso- 
ciation was soon after incorporated by special licence of the 
Board of Trade, by which it is bound to apply the whole of the 
income and property of the Association solely towards the pro- 
motion of its objects, and no dividend or profit can be paid 
directly or indirectly to the members. The work of the Associa- 
