Dec. 1, 1881] 
deliberations of the Congress. Perhaps, however, the most im- 
portant of all (with the exception of the choice of electrical units) 
will prove to have been the impetus given to electrical science by 
the interchange of ideas that took place among the leading 
physicists of all nations, and the light that was thrown on the 
various problems which came under discussion in the meetings of 
the Congress. 
I cannot conclude this imperfect sketch of this important 
Congress better than by quoting the eloquent words of M. 
Dumas at the conclusion of its sittings: ‘‘ Greek mythology, in 
its happy personification of the forces of nature, placed the 
winds and the waves under the direction of divinities of the 
second rank; it made the celestial representative of light its god 
of poetry and of the arts; and by an admirable forethought, it 
reserved lightning for Jupiter. Science and incustry have long 
since laid their hands on the forces which air and water have 
placed at the disposition of man. Steam, animated by fire, has 
enabled him to overcome many obstacles and to rule the waves. 
Light has no longer any secrets from science, and the arts are 
daily multiplying its marvellous applications, But there re- 
mained one labour to accomplish: namely, to wrest lightning 
itself from the hands of the ruler of the gods, and to bend it to 
the needs of humanity. This is the feat which the nineteenth 
century has now accomplished, and of which this Congress is the 
evidence and the witness. This feat will mark an epoch ever 
memorable in history ; and, amid the turmoil of politics and of 
questions which agitate the human mind, it will be recognised 
as the characteristic feature of our era, The nineteenth century 
will be the century of electricity.” 
(Zo be continued.) 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
CAMBRIDGE. —The following is the speech delivered in the 
Senate House on November 24 by the Public Orator (Mr. J. E. 
Sandys, Fellow and Tutor of St. John’s) in presenting Dr. Thomas 
Sterry Hunt for the Honorary Degree of LL.D. :— 
‘* Dignissime domine, domine Procancellarie, et tota Academia: 
‘*Scientiam illam Geologicam, quae, in orbis terrarum origine 
et natura investiganda, neque temporis finibus terminatur neque 
saeculorum spatio coercetur, nos certe pro rei magnitudine, tem- 
poris praesertim angustiis impediti, orationis brevissimae intra 
spatium laudare non possumus. lIuvat potius hodie scientiae 
tam magnae professorem insignem vestro omnium nomine salu- 
tare, qui in republica illa maxima trans Atlanticum natus, nostrae 
tamen, provinciae Canadensis rupibus explorandis quinque et 
viginti annos dedicavit ; qui de omnium animantium (ut nonnullis 
videtur) antiquissimo, quod Eozoon Canadense nuncupatur, 
doctissime disputavit ; qui (ne plura commemorem) non modo 
vetustissimorum illorum saxorum, quae Laurentia nominantur, 
sed-aliorum quoque complurium originem primam vicesque varias 
sagacissime investigavit. Quid autem si, in tot tantisque argu- 
mentis totiens retractandis, non semper sibi constare, non semper 
eadem sentire, visus est? Vos certe ex Academicae philosophiae 
disciplina didicistis, virum vere sapientem (ut Ciceronis nostri 
verbis utar) ‘quod dixerit, interdum, si ita rectius sit, mutare; 
de sententia discedere aliquando.’ Ceterum idem necessitudinis 
vinculo in perpetuum duraturo nobiscum idcirco conjunctus est, 
quod professoris illius nostri, qui has inter umbras plusquam 
quinquaginta annos studiis Geologicis lumen praetulit, et interpres 
et defensor egregius exstitit. O utinam hospiti nostro, nuper ex 
italia ad nos advecto, mox autem, favente (uti par est) Neptuno 
suo, in patriam transituro, inter tot aedificia variis doctrinae 
studiis consecrata, novum illud Museum quod Nestoris illius 
nostri sempiternum fore monumentum iamdudum exspectamus, si 
non ad ipsum finem adductum, at inchoatum certe ostendere 
potuissemus. Ipsi meministis veteris poetae monitum illud ;: 
“**Gratia ab officio quod mora tardat abest’; 
vestrum igitur officium est, viri Academici, qui beneficiorum 
tantorum non immemores estis, monumentum illud magnum ad 
exitum felicem quam maturissime perducere ; nos interim nostro 
qualicunque laucis officio perfuncti, plausus illos vestros, qui 
hospiti nostro iam diu debentur, non iam amplius morabimur. 
“Ergo vobis praesento Regiae Societatis Londinensis Socium, 
wrum, de studiis Geologicis optime meritum, Thomam Sterry 
unt. 
OxForD.—The Brackenbury Natural Science Scholarship at 
Balliol College has been awarded to Mr. T. F. McArthur, of 
NATURE 
119 
Manchester Grammar School. Proximeaccessit, Mr. J. J. Hart, 
Exhibitioner of the College. The following gentlemen distin- 
guished themselves in the examination :—Mr. A, Ford Smith, 
Bedford Modern School; Mr. A. Wentworth Jones, Clifton 
College ; and Mr, P. Hawkridge, Derby School. Mr. Ford 
Smith was elected to a Natural Science Exhibition. 
The Statute respecting the inspection and licensing of lodging- 
houses was finally passed by Congregation on November 23. 
The following clauses were inserted concerning the duties of the 
Controller of Lodging-Houses and the Sanitary Inspector :— 
‘©The Controller shall inspect every house proposed to be 
licensed for the residence of Undergraduates ; he shall also visit, 
with or without notice, every licensed house once at least in each 
year, and report thereon to the Delegates. 
“There shall be a Sanitary Officer appointed by the Delegates, 
for such period and under such conditions as they may deter- 
mine. He shall inspect every house proposed to be licensed for 
the residence of Undergraduates, and shall make a Report to the 
Delegates on the sanitary condition of each house thus inspected. 
He shall also visit each licensed lodging-house once at least 
in every year, and any licensed lodging-house at any time by 
the order of the Delegates. The stipend of the Sanitary officer 
shall be determined by the Delegates in conjunction with the 
Curators of the University Chest. 
‘* The Delegates may obtain, when occasion shall arise, addi- 
tional advice, whether medical or of any other professsional 
kind. Any person whom they may thus employ shall receive 
such fee as shall be agreed on by the Delegates in conjunction 
with the Curators of the University Chest.” 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Meteorological Society, November 16.—Mr. G. J. Symons, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Twenty-seven gentlemen were 
elected Fellows of the Society. —-The evening was devoted to an 
account of the gale which passed across the British Isles, October 
13-14, 1881, which had been prepared by Mr. G. J. Symons, 
F.R.S., with the assistance and co-operation of Mr. C. Harding 
and other gentlemen. There is evidence of the storm being formed 
in the Atlantic, about 150 miles south of Nova Scotia on October 
10, and that at noon onthe 13th there wasa considerable disturb- 
ance about 600 miles west of Galway. At that time there were 
scarcely any instrumental indications in the British Isles of the 
coming storm; the barometer was falling at Valentia, but not 
rapidly, and at some of the western English stations it was 
rising. The curves of barometric fluctuation show very plainly 
the advance of the depression from west to east, for while at 
Valentia the minimum occurred at 2 a.m. on the 14th, on the 
east coast of Norfolk it is recorded that it did not occur till 
4p.m. This fact, coupled with others, seems to indicate an 
easterly progression of the barometric minimum at nearly forty 
miles per hour. As far as the sea is concerned, the chief force 
of the gale was felt on the afternoon of the 14th in the German 
Ocean, and there the great loss of life and destruction to shipping 
seems mainly due to the exceptionally violent squalls which were 
peculiar to this gale, as well as to the extremely sudden manner 
in which the wind increased to hurricane force. The afternoon 
became quite darkened by the salt water blown into the air, so 
that it was impossible to see a ship’s length ahead. The baro- 
metric chart for 9 a.m. on the 14th showed that the pressure in 
the north of England was an inch lower than in the south, and 
nearly two inches lower than in the South of France. The area 
over which injury was produced was very large, and although 
not without precedent, it was happily rare. The record of 
56 lbs. per square foot at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 
was the highest ever registered in that locality, and close by 
thirty-five trees were blown down in the park, and fifteen feet 
blown off the top of a spire which had been erected about forty 
years, the stone of which shows no sign of decay, and which 
had retained its position almost, if not wholly, by the gravitation 
of its mass. The general opinion seems to be that the structural 
damage over the greater part of the country was by no means 
unprecedented, and in the greater part of Ireland and the south- 
west of England was not even of an unusual character ; but along 
the east coast and in the East Midlands the damage was ex- 
cessive, and on the north-east coast unprecedented. In Scotland 
the destruction of trees was enormous.—Mr, J. Wallace Peggs, 
F.M.S., also read a paper on the structural damage caused by 
the gale as indicative of wind force, and remarked that since the 
