62 
NATURE 
[Mov. 17, 1881 
Dublin for his various mathematical and physical papers, more 
especially for his researches in chemical optics and his inyen- 
tion of the new and delicate analyser by which they were 
carried out. 
THE Bakerian Lecture at the Royal Society will be given next 
Thursday by Prof. Tyndall, on the ‘* Action of Free Molecules 
on Radiant Heat, and its Conversion thereby into Sound.” 
THE election to the Linacre Professorship of Physiology in 
Oxford University will take place on the 25th inst. 
M. PAUL BERT, the eminent Professor of Physiology at the 
Sorbonne, has been appointed French Minister of Public In- 
struction by M. Gambetta. Two hours only after his nomina- 
tion had been signed by the President of the Republic he read 
before the Academy of Sciences an elaborate paper on ‘‘ Chloro- 
form and other Anesthetics.” This may be considered as a 
token of the interest that the new French Government mean to 
take in scientific matters. M. Cocheéry, of the Post and Telegraph 
Department, is the only member of the old Cabinet who has 
taken office in the new one. 
In view of the great and kindly interest the United States 
have always taken in English Arctic expeditions, the Council 
of the Geographical Society have determined to urge H.M.’s 
Government to undertake an expedition next year in search 
of the Yeannette. It being obviously more easy for the Ame- 
ricans than for this country to send an expedition by sea on 
the side of Behring Strait, it is thought that it would be best to 
despatch a party along the Great Mackenzie River to search the 
coast-line that can be reached from it, and that such work might 
most advantageously be carried out through the agency of the 
Hudson Bay Company. Under these circumstances it will be 
necessary to open communications with the Colonial Office on 
the subject. 
THE authorities of the Crystal Palace sent out on Saturday 
the allotments of space to the principal exhibitors of electric 
light at the forthcoming exhibition. If the various electric 
lighting companies and firms carry out their intentions, the 
palace will be lighted from the London, Brighton, and 
South Coast Railway Stations to the north end. The applica- 
tions from intending exhibitors in other classes than that of 
lighting will be attended to this week, and it is hoped that the 
allotments will be issued on Saturday or Monday next. 
THE Chinese authorities have recently recalled a large number 
of students from Hartford College, U.S., under somewhat peculiar 
circumstances, The youths had been specially selected in China 
to undergo a thorough course of instruction in various branches 
of knowledge in the United States. They were placed under 
the charge of Mr. Yung Wing, who at one time held a high 
diplomatic post at Washington, and whose knowledge of the 
language and country led to his selection for this purpose. A 
large building for their accommodation was purchased by the 
Chinese Government near Hartford, and every thing seemed to 
be going on well. Much surprise was therefore expressed when, 
long before the termination of their course of study, the young 
men were suddenly recalled, and by this time they have all 
reached China. It appears that a high cfficial of the Govern- 
ment, on his passage through America to Europe, examined the 
institution where his young countrymen were being trained. He 
was alarmed to find they were being rapidly Americanised, and 
that some had goneso far as to part with their pigtails, and dress 
in foreign garments. He thought also that he noticed a growth 
of ideas in their minds which, however congenial to a republic, 
were out of the question in China; that the youths’ minds 
would gradually be alienated from their native country, and that 
the impressions which they were imbibing might lead to trouble 
and disaffection in China. He accordingly wrote to Peking, 
H 
recommending the recall of the mission, His views were im- 
mediately adopted ; but it is hoped that the students will not 
lose much, as they are about to be sent to European countries, 
to which the same objections do not exist as to the United 
States. The incident shows very clearly that, however anxious 
the Chinese may be for the science and knowledge of the west, 
they want none of its political doctrines. 
On Tuesday:a deputation, consisting among others of Lord 
Harberton, Sir Antonio Brady, the Hon. Rollo Russell, Capt. 
Galton, C.B., Col. Festing, RE., Prof. Chandler Roberts, 
F.R.S., Mr. Ernest Hart, Mr. George Shaw, and Mr. W. R. 
E. Coles, waited upon the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, 
and asked him to open the exhibition and trials of smoke- 
preventing appliances now about to be held at South Kensington. 
The earnest effort, they said, of the Committee had been to 
encourage general improvement in the methods and appliances 
by which heat was obtained, and thus to secure the advantages 
of greater economy of fuel andlessened smoke. That effort had 
been so far successful that a very considerable number of econo- 
mical and effective grates, stoves, and furnaces had been brought 
forward, and many improved methods of firing and other smoke- 
preventing means had been introduced. The Lord Mayor 
acceded to the request of the deputation, and the Committee 
promised to communicate with him as to the day of opening the 
exhibition, which will probably be about the end of the month. 
THE English Royal Commission on Technical Education have, 
the Zzmes correspondent states, been busy in Paris in visiting the 
higher, the secondary, and the primary schools, and particularly 
those in which manual and technical instruction is provided. It 
is their intention to inquire into the state of instruction in the 
districts in which cotton, woollen, and silk manufactures are 
carried on, and also in some of the chief pottery manufactories 
abroad, and to ascertain what resources are available for the 
same purpose in the corresponding manufacturing districts in 
England—an inquiry which they have already commenced by 
visits to Yorkshire and Staffordshire. During the winter they 
will continue to study the condition of technical instruction in 
the English manufacturing districts, and in the spring it is their 
intention to visit Germany, where the chairman, Mr. Samuelson, 
on a late visit to Berlin, has already set on foot some preliminary 
investigations, 
THE banquet in honour of Prof. Virchow is to be held at 
Rerlin on the roth inst., in the Rathhaus, and promises to be 
highly brilliant and successful. The sum of 30,000 marks, 
originally proposed to be raised for the memorial, appears likely 
to be greatly exceeded. This memorial will consist of a marble 
bust of the Professor, and will be placed in the hall of the 
Pathological Institute on the above-mentioned day, in com- 
memoration of his twenty-five years’ labours as a teacher of 
medical science. 
THE Morning Post states that, among other experiments now 
being conducted by a chemist at the Royal Short-horn Dairy at 
Dytchleys, Essex, the powers of carferal, already well known as 
a filtering medium in the removal of ammonia from sewage, are 
being investigated. It has been found that all ammonia is taken 
up by the carferal, as is indicated by testing the fluid after it has 
passed through it, and the resultant is a material valuable in 
breaking up and manuring heavy land. 
THE Niirnberg Natural History Society recently made an 
excursion to Berg near Neumarkt (Upper Palatinate), and upon 
this occasion a large number of Teleosaurus bones (vertebrae and 
others) were found at the boundary between brown Jurassic and 
Lias. Besides these fine specimens of Belemnites, Ammonites. 
and Terebratule were found. The bones in question are of 
course completely petrified ; the impressions of the scaly hide 
on the back are well preserved. All the objects found are now 
deposited in the Society’s collection, 
