Apru 20, 1882] 
NATURE 
591 
Earl’s Court. Sir Henry was in his usual health until Monday 
last, when he visited a photographer’s and sat for his portrait. 
On returning home, he complained of feeling unwell, and 
gradually became worse. The cause of death is stated to be 
disease of the heart. 
WE have received a most remarkable communication in the 
form of a pamphlet from the late Professor of Physics and 
Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy, which, were it not 
for his high scientific position and extended experience, we 
should hesitate to allude to. The grievance mostly complained 
of is the want of discipline existing amongst the cadets, so much 
so that the instruction in the above-mentioned very important 
subjects could only be carried on in an imperfect manner detti- 
mental to the service. That sucha state of affairs has or does exist 
in animportant public department like the Royal Military Academy 
isa very serious matter. The pamphlet, for which Prof. Bloxam 
is answerable, exposes, if correct, a state of things that certainly 
should not exist in any educational establishment, and more 
especially not in one of the importance of this school for the 
future officers of the army. The following, from one of the 
letters contained in the pamphlet, certainly exhibits, if correct, a 
very undesirable state of affairs. ‘‘ During the last ten years, I 
have pointed out to successive Governors, that the character 
of the classes was deteriorating, and I have now to state, 
with profound regret, that the conduct of the majority, when 
they first come under my instruction, and of a considerable 
proportion up to the end of their curriculum, is that of boys in 
an ordinary boarding-school with a very low standard of morals 
and discipline ; so that the position which was formerly held by 
Professors Faraday and Abel has now become that of an usher, 
and such services as I am competent to render as a teacher of 
science are in a great measure lost to the Academy, although a 
knowledge of chemistry and physics has become more than ever 
necessary fo the Scientific Corps.” 
THE honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon Mr. 
G. J. Romanes, F.R.S., by the University of Aberdeen. 
M. HENRY GIFFARD, the eminent French engineer, the in- 
ventor of the injector known by his name, of captive balloons, 
and of the experiments with directing steam balloons, has died after 
a protracted illness, at his residence at Paris, at the age of 
fifty-seven. He was unmarried, and has left his large fortune, 
amounting to several millions of francs, to the French Govern- 
ment to be devoted to the promotion of scientific research. 
AT the Royal Institution the probable arrangements for the 
Friday evening meetings after Easter are as follows :—April 21 : 
Prof. Dewar, Experimental Researches of Henri Ste. Claire 
Deville, Hon. M.R.I.; April 28: Prof. Abel, Some Dangerous 
Properties of Dusts; May 5: Prof. R. Grant, The Proper 
Motions of the Stars; May 12: A. G. Vernon Harcourt, The 
Relative Value of Different Modes of Lighting ; May 19: Sir 
Frederick Bramwell; May 26: Sir Henry S. Maine, Sacred 
Laws of the Hindus; June 2: H. H. Statham, The Intellectual 
Basis of Music ; June 9: Prof. Burdon Sanderson, The Excita- 
bility of Plants. 
Wirh the exception of Mr. Samuelson, M.P., and Mr, 
Slagg, M.P., the Royal Commissioners on Technical Education, 
viz., Mr. Woodall, M.P., Professor Roscoe, Mr. P. Magnus, 
Mr. Swire Smith, and the secretary, will leave England on 
Friday for a tour of several weeks in Switzerland and Germany, 
beginning at Alsace. Mr. Woodall, who will return earlier than 
the other members of the party, proposes also to visit the famous 
potteries of Saarguemines. In the course of their tour the com- 
missioners will visit anumber of works, technical schools, &c., in 
observations as to the influence of scientific and technical 
education upon industrial pursuits and foreign manufactures. 
Mr. E. W. Wuire, F.Z.S., of Buenos Ayres, who was pre- 
sent at the inauguration, on March 15, of the Continental Exhi- 
bition, held in the outskirts of that city, sends us a short notice 
of it. The building of wood and zinc, painted of asombre colour, 
and a pretty close copy in miniature of that of the Paris Exhibition, 
covers about eight acres of ground, occupying the site of the 
Plaza Once, The present Exhibition is the result of the unceas- 
ing efforts of the Industrial Society of Buenos Ayres. To foster 
South American, and especially native, production, and stimulate 
their industries, were the special objects of the Committee, so 
that Europe was debarred as an exhibitor, in all but the single 
item of machinery. his restriction put upon exhibits witheut 
the limits of the continent of South America seems to Mr. White 
a suicidal policy, as it is only by comparison with the superior 
that the inferior has a chance of improvement. ‘‘ What imme- 
diately strikes the observer on passing through the galleries is 
the wonderful profusion of native products, especially from the 
provinces, but the paucity of purely native industries ; for 
although the city and province of Buenos Ayres make a good 
show in leather work, furniture, and carved woodwork, glass, 
inks, jewellery, millinery, carriages, typography, lithography, 
photography, liquors, beers, biscuits, metal castings, mosaic 
and tilework, &c., such is chiefly due to the intelligent 
foreign workmen resident in her midst, making use to a very 
great extent of foreign material; whilst, on the other hand, 
ores, marbles, wines, cereals, wool, silk, hides, leather, tans, 
woods, lignite, medicinal herbs, rice, tobacco, sugar, cotton, 
fruits, manures, dried and potted meats, fossils, &c., of the 
interior parts of the country astonish and indicate a future wealth 
which is boundless. Agricultural machinery is well represented, 
and forms a very interesting feature of the Exhibition; here 
England maintains her supremacy, owing to the intelligence and 
activity of her agents. Far otherwise, however, is it in other 
classes of machinery, such as that adapted to sugar manufacture, 
in which France, with inferior resources, rules as sole monarch ; 
the fact is the moral of the bundle of faggots is lost upon our 
countrymen, who are always disunited, always late, and never 
leain, never forget. The inauguration took place in the midst 
of great splendour. Dr. Avellaneda, the ex-President of she 
Republic, and the honorary president of the Exhibition Com- 
mittee, delivered the inaugural address, which was a brilliant 
piece of oratory, to which General Roca, the President of the 
Republic, surrounded by the whole diplomatic corps, foreign 
and native, replied in a very effective speech, declaring the 
Exhibition open.” 
WE are glad to welcome the Wew Zealand Fournal of Science, 
the first number of which for February, has come to hand (Dune- 
den, Wilkie, and Co.). Itseems to have been started in a proper 
spirit, and we trust it will continue as it has begun, to devote its 
pages to science in New Zealand, and to form a means of inter- 
communication between workers in science there. Among the 
articles in this number are the following :—‘‘ What is an Earth- 
quake?” by Prof. F. W. Hutton; ‘‘A Visit to the Weka Pass 
Rock Paintings,” by Mr. W. M. Maskell ; ‘‘On the Preserva- 
tion of Invertebrata,” by Prof. T. J. Parker; ‘‘On a Common 
New Zealand Pycnogonid ;” ‘‘ The New Zealand Micro-Lepi- 
doptera;” with general notes, meetings of societies, and cor- 
respondence, 
WE have received from Messrs. Triibner and Co, a handsome 
and richly illustrated quarto, ‘‘ The Horse in Motion, as shown 
by Instantaneous Photography, with a Study in Animal Mecha- 
nics, founded on Anatomy and the Revelations of the Camera, 
in which is demonstrated the Theory of Quadrupedal Motion,” 
order to be able to include in their next report the result of their by J. D. B. Stillman, A.M., M.D. The investigations are 
