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NATURE 
| April 27, 1882 
accomplished this work, is testified by the present condi- 
tion of the Schools of Art. 
He was the British Commissioner for the Exposition 
Universelle at Paris in 1855, and on his return to England, 
Marlborough House being required for the use of the 
Prince of Wales, the collections in his custody were 
removed to those iron buildings which had been erected 
by the Commissioners of 1851, and which were com- 
monly known by the alliterative sobriquet of the 
Brompton Boilers. Here, in spite of opposition and 
obloquy, he gradually secured the perfection of the collec- 
tions, notably by the purchase after long and difficult 
negotiation of the Soulage collection in 1857, and the 
provision of adequate buildings for their reception. But 
he did not rest satisfied with success; as early as the 
year 1858 he projected a vast chorus hall, realised in the 
Royal Albert Hall in 1871, and the Horticultural Gardens 
opened in 1862. A Select Committee of the House of 
Commons on South Kensington, which it was thought by 
many would reveal a tissue of “jobbery,” converted 
several of his opponents to a sense of the ability and 
integrity with which he had administered its affairs. 
Though styled the Department of Science and Art, little 
had been done for the propagation of science prior to the 
year 1859. The question then arose as to the propriety 
of doing something to justify the title or of dropping it 
altogether. Mr. Cole’s sympathies lay rather with the 
art side of the question, but he was sufficiently alive to 
the importance of science to urge upon the Lords of the 
Committee of Council the formation of a proper system of 
science instruction. He had the instinct which selects 
the right man for the right place, and found in Colonel 
Donnelly a colleague who ably worked out the details of 
that science teaching which is now going on in 1500 
science schools where over 59,000 students are under 
instruction. 
Mr. Cole next initiated the Exhibition of 1862, to the 
executive of which he acted throughout as general adviser, 
The provision of funds for the erection of the Royal 
Albert Hall was the next pressing question, and these 
General Grey, the Queen’s private secretary, and he, 
raised by a system of subscriptions for boxes and sittings. 
It was determined that South Kensington should not 
enjoy a monopoly of the national collections, and in 
1856 the East London Museum in Bethnal Green was pro- 
jected. In the following year Mr. Cole was again Com- 
missioner for Great Britain at the Paris Exhibition, a 
novel feature which he introduced there being a collection 
of all the newspapers published in the United Kingdom. 
It was whilst in Paris that Sir Joseph Whitworth first 
discussed with him his desire to assist mechanical science 
by the formation of those scholarships which have since 
promoted the scientific education of the artisan, and ren- 
dered it possible for a young man of distinguished ability 
to raise himself to a position which he could scarcely else 
hope to attain. 
Though informed in 1870 by his medical adviser of the 
impaired action of his heart, he did not relax his active 
labours ; not only did he, in the following year control the 
first of the Annual International Exhibitions, but found 
time to busy himself with the disposal of the sewage of our 
great towns. In 1872 he received the Gold Albert Medal 
from the Society of Arts. After 50 years of public service, 
Mr. Cole retired on a full pension specially awarded by the 
Treasury in May, 1873. But his retirement from the South 
Kensington Museum certainly meant no abandonment 
of work. Mr. Cole founded the School for Cookery ; 
edited an edition of T. Love Peacock’s works; projected 
and worked out many details of a universal catalogue of 
printed books; worked at the sewage question as affecting 
Birmingham and Manchester, in which he resided from 
1876 till 1879, to prosecute his work. 
Mr. Cole was nominated a C.B. in 1852, and created a 
K.C.B. in 1875. In 1855 he was made Officer of the 
French Legion of Honour ; in 1867 he received the Aus- 
trian Iron Crown. 
Sir Henry Cole had recently been recommended caution 
on account of the condition of his heart, but no imme- 
diate danger was apprehended. On the day previous to 
his death he was engaged upon the public works that 
employed his time and thoughts. In the evening he 
became seriously ill, and died painlessly at 7.30 p.m. on 
Tuesday, April 18. 
It is difficult to sum up the character of a man who has 
so recently passed away, but it may be said that his 
strong points were his retentive memory, his power of 
organisation, and his firmness of will. When all is said, 
he was a good and genial friend and a devoted servant of 
the public, and when the time comes for a history of Eng- 
lish art education in the nineteenth century, it is not too 
much to say that one of the names which must stand to 
the fore will be that of Henry Cole. 
NOTES 
ON another page we make brief allusion to the irreparable loss 
which science has sustained in the death of Mr. Charles Darwin 
on the 19th instant, in his seventy-fourth year. We hope in an 
early number to refer in some detail to the vast and varied 
work which he has accomplished during the last half century. 
Yesterday, as was fitting, ‘he was laid among his peers in 
Westminster Abbey.” 
At Monday's meeting of the: Royal Geographical Society 
Lord Aberdare announced that the Founder's (gold) medal had 
been awarded to Dr. Gustav Nachtigal for his journey through 
Eastern Sahara in the years 1869 to 1875; and the Patron’s 
(gold) medal to Sir John Kirk, K.C.M.G., M.D., her Majesty’s 
Consul-General at Zanzibar, for his long-continued and unre- 
mitting services to geography in Dr. Livingstone’s Zambesi 
expedition in 1858-63, and in the assistance he had rendered to 
successive expeditions in East Africa during his fifteen years’ 
residence in Zanzibar. : 
ALTHOUGH he has bequeathed most of his large fortune to 
the French Government for scientific purposes, M. Henry Giffard 
has left legacies to several scientific institutions. 
From a Daily News telegram we learn that on Monday night 
the Eclipse Expedition arrived at Gibraltar, all well. A. stiff 
gale and heavy sea were encountered in the Bay of Biscay, but 
no damage was done to the instruments. 
Pror, HAECKEL has reached Egypt on his way home from 
Ceylon ; on returning to Germany after finishing his researches 
in Egypt, he will publish an account of his tour. 
WE regret to state that M. Eugene Frederic Kestner, the 
inventor of the Electrical Thermophone, which has produced 
such striking effects in Germany and and in Paris, died a few 
days ago at Strasburg after a long illness.j He was only 
thirty years of age. This ingenious and laborious young man 
was the only son of M. Frederic Kzestner, who has wmitten a 
number of most interesting works on the music of nature and 
musical philosophy. It was only owing to the illness of M. 
Keestner and his inability to do any work at all for the last few 
months that his wonderful instrument had not been sent to 
in the Electrical Exhibitions of Paris and the Crystal Palace, 
but it is stated that steps will be taken to send it to the Munich 
Exhibition. 
THE second edition of Vol. I. of Thomson and Tait’s “* Trea- 
tise on Natural Philosophy” is now nearly completed ; Part ii. 
being in the press and to be published very soon by the Cam- 
bridge University Press. The work has been carefully revised, 
and amended in many parts. The parts “‘ On the Attraction of 
er) 
