eel 
54 
NATURE 
[May 15, 1873 
Vollhard and Von Jolly are the secretaries. 
Bavaria has subscribed 1,000 florins, 
The King of 
TuE purchase for the National collection, by the Trustees of 
the British Museum, of Mr. A. R. Wallace’s splendid collection 
of birds from the Malay Archipelago, will be gratifying to all 
who are interested in science. Mr. Wallace being so thoroughly 
acquainted with ornithology, and having obtained so many of 
the speciniens himself from localities recorded by himself at the 
time, makes the collection much more valuable than the skins 
alone would have been, if they had been accumulated by a less 
thorough master of the subject. That such is the case, is proved 
by the great value of Mr, Wallace’s paper on the Parrots of the 
Malay Archipelago, which appeared in the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society, nearly ten years ago; and another on the 
Pigeons of the same region, published in the /é/s, at about the 
same time. It is also not to be forgotten, that the discovery of 
one of the most important of recent points in physical geography, 
namely, the situation of the line which separates Asia from 
Australasia, in other words, Wallace's line, was made in great 
measure from the observations by the author,—whose name is 
thus deservedly immortalised, —of the differences in the avifaunas 
of Bali and Lombock. 
THOSE of our readers who are interested in University science 
teaching will be glad to learn that Dr. Michael Foster’s course 
of Elementary Biology at Cambridge, which commenced last 
week, is attended by more than 30 students. This unexpectedly 
large attendance has taxed to the utmost the space at disposal. 
However, such arrangements haye been made as will enable every 
student to have a fair though not large amount of space at his 
disposal, each set of reagents, &c., being used in common by 
two or three men. Nothing could illustrate more strongly the 
urgent need for further provision of working-room for biological 
students at Cambridge ; as scarcely any space is now available 
for advanced histological, embryological, or physiological re- 
search. Dr. Foster’s course this term is very similar to that 
given to science teachers in the summer at South Kensington, 
and is the first that has been held in term-time at Cambridge, a 
few students having gone through a like course last long vaca- 
tion. Itis probable that there may be a still larger attendance 
at future courses of this kind, as Dr. Foster announced that he 
should require students to have received this or similar teaching 
before admission to the winter courses of practical physiology. 
Dr. Foster is assisted in the work of practical demonstration by 
Mr. H. N. Martin, D.Sc., M.B. of Christ’s College, Mr. C. 
Yule, B.A. of St. John’s College, and Mr. T. W. Bridge, of 
Trinity College, the newly-appointed Demonstrator of Compara- 
tive Anatomy. 
Mr. JOHN ARROWSMITH, the well-known geographer, died 
on May 2, at the age of eighty-three years. 
A GENTLEMAN writes us that he was invited by the Royal 
Commissioners to act as a juror at the Vienna Exhibition, but 
was at the same time coolly told that our Philistian Government 
had placed no funds at the disposal of the Commissioners where- 
with to defray the necessary expenses of those who are willing to 
devote their valuable time and experience to the service of their 
country, Our readers will not be surprised }at this. Other 
Governments have discovered that even in the most commercial, 
as well as in the highest light, the encouragement of science 
“pays.” The British Government, with five millions on the 
right side of their account, still regard science as a beggarly 
Lazarus, to whom, for mere shame’s sake, they are compelled 
to throw an occasional crumb. As our correspondent says, poor 
little Switzerland has devoted two and a half times the pittance 
our Government have allowed to defray the expenses of the 
Vienna Commission ; while the amount expended by Austria in 
their department of former exhibitions was at least four times as 
much as we have devoted to theirs. 
Cart. F. J. OWEN Evans, R.N.,F.R.S. Chief Naval Assistant 
in the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, and in 
charge of the Magnetic Department, has been appointed Com- 
panion of the Most Honourable Ordemof the Bath. 
THE publication of the eighth volume of the Zoological 
Record which, as we announced some time since, has 
been so long delayed through the unfortunate indisposi- 
tion of one of the contributors may now be shortly expected. 
The ninth volume containing the zoological literature of 1872 is 
now in hand, the}recorders being the same as in the eighth 
volume, with the}exception of Prof. Traquair, whose place is 
supplied by Prof. Liitken of Copenhagen. The Editor will be 
glad to receive separate copies of papers published in journals 
(especially those which have not a very wide circulation) addressed 
to the care of the publisher, Mr. Van Voorst, 1, Paternoster Row, 
London. Such separate copies, however, to be of use, should 
have thejoriginal pagination indicated, 
THE Society of Antiquaries of Scotland has just come into 
the enjoyment of an estate in Caithness, of which the reversion- 
ary interest was bequeathed to it for the purpose of founding a 
Lectureship of Archzeology. 
Mr. BESSEMER intends to found a gold medal, to be given 
annually to any member of the Iron and Steel Institute who may 
have displayed literary capacity, or promoted the progress of 
metallurgical science by original research. 
PRoressoR NeEwcoms’s ‘ New Tables of the Motions of 
Uranus,” are announced as already in the press, and may be 
expected to be published during the approaching summer. They 
have been prepared and will be printed at the expense of the 
Smithsonian Institution. Prof. Newcomb has already, by 
using all known observations of Neptune, compiled the very 
accurate tables for computing the motions of that planet that 
have been used in the “ American Nautical Almanac.” Having 
thus provided for the most distant member of our system, he has 
now returned to Uranus, and finds that his present tables (which 
will complete the survey of the solar system) represent quite 
completely the hitherto inexplicable movements of that body. 
THE Cincinnati Observatory, founded by Prof. Mitchell, 
is, we learn, to be removed, and established in a manner worthy 
of the wealth of Cincinnati. From the drawings it may be 
judged that the dome of the new building will be thirty-five feet 
in diameter in the inside. The new site was highly approved 
of by Prof, Abbe, who continued until lately to be the director 
of the observatory at Cincinnati, and was presented by John 
Kilgour, Esq., who also added thereto the sum of ten thousand 
dollars to provide for the new building. 
Amonc the resolutions adopted by Congress at its last session 
was one authorising the President to invite the International 
Statistical Congress to hold its next, or ninth, session in the 
United States. The invitation is to be formal and cordial, and 
it is provided that should this be accepted the President is au- 
thorised to appoint the usual organisation commission, and to 
take the other preliminary and necessary steps for the meeting of 
this body, and for holding its session at such time as may be 
deemed expedient by the Statistical Congress. 
A TELEGRAM announces that some of the crew of the Arctie 
exploring ship Po/avis, which left New York under the command of 
Captain Hall in 1871, have been landed in Newfoundland, They 
were picked up in an open boat 40 miles from the coast of 
Labrador. It seems, by their statements, that in August 1872, 
the ship, being beset with ice, commenced landing provisions, 
