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1873] 
_ THE following courses of instruction of Science Teachers in 
connection with the Science and Art Department will probably 
be organised this summer :—1. Chemistry, Inorganic, 2. Che- 
mistry, Organic, 4 weeks, commencing July 1, Prof. Frankland, 
F.R.S. 3. Magnetism and Electricity, 3 weeks, commencing 
June 24, Prof. Guthrie, F.R.S. 4. Heat and Light, 3 weeks, 
commencing July 17, Prof. Guthrie, F.R.S. 5. Botany, 4 weeks, 
commencing June 24, Prof. Thiselton Dyer. 6. Mechanics, 
4 weeks, commencing June 25, Prof. Goodeve. 7. Geometrical 
Drawing, 3 weeks, commencing June 26, Prof. Bradley. Before 
definite arrangements can be made, however, it is necessary to 
know how many Teachers can and will take advantage of the 
courses ; and therefore all Teachers who wish to attend are 
required to fill up and return a form (Science Form, No. 500), 
which may be obtained by application to South Kensington. If 
more Teachers apply to attend than can be accommodated at 
any course, those will be selected who have passed the highest 
examinations—in which the result of the present May Examina- 
tion will be counted—and have had the most successful classes. 
The Teachers who are selected, and who attend one or more of 
the courses, will receive 2nd class{railway fare and 30s. a week 
while in London. 
In connection with St. John’s College, Cambridge, there will 
be offered for competition, in December 1873, an Exhibition of 
50/. per annum for proficiency in Natural Science, the Exhibition 
to be tenable for three years in case the Exhibitioner have passed 
within two years the previous examination as required for can- 
didates for honours ; otherwise the Exhibition to cease at the 
end of two years. Candidates will have a special examination 
in (1) Chemistry, including practical work in the laboratory ; (2) 
Physics (viz., Electricity, Heat, Light) ; (3) Physiology. They will 
also have the opportunity of being examined in one or more of 
the following subjects:—(4) Geology ; (5) Anatomy; (6) 
Botany ; provided that they give notice of the subjects in which 
they wish to be examined four weeks prior to the examination, 
No candidate will be examined in more than three of these six 
subjects, whereof one at least must be chosen from the former 
group. It is the wish of the Master and Seniors that excellence 
in some single department should be specially regarded by the 
candidates. They may also, if they think fit, offer themselves 
for examination in any of the classical or mathematical subjects. 
Candidates must send their names to one of the tutors fourteen 
days before the commencement cf the examination, The tutors 
are the Rev. S. Parkinson, D.D., Rey. T. G. Bonney, B.D., 
and J. E. Sandys, Esq., M.A. 
From Prof. E. D. Cope we have received the description of 
two apparently new fossil mammalian forms from the Eocene of 
Wyoming, which he places among the Carnivora. JMesonyx 
oblusidens forms, according to the author, a distinct family of the 
fissiped Carnivora, most closely related to the Canide, with 
weakly sectorial teeth, four of them being true molars (a marsu- 
pial character), and short, flattened, ungual phalanges in which 
there are no indications of collars for the reception of the nails 
themselves.- Syxoplotherium lanius may be a Carnivore, but 
the claws were flat, and the scaphoid of the carpus did not 
anchylose with the lunare, which shows that it belongs to a more 
generalised type. It must be remembered that Prof. Marsh has 
described very similar forms from the same strata. 
MEssrs. WILLIAMS AND NorGATE have just issued the 
prospectus of a unique and most elaborate work by Mr. Herbert 
Spencer, consisting toa large extent of the tabulated material 
which he has accumulated for his ‘‘ Principles of Sociology.” 
In preparation for the latter work, requiring as bases of induction 
large accumulations of data, fitly arranged for comparison, Mr. 
Herbert Spencer, some five years ago, commenced, the col- 
NATURE 
a2 obs ard bie gi sy 2d Les By . Py s 
93 
lection and organisation of facts presented by societies of 
different types, past and present. Though this classified 
compilation of materials was entered upon slowly to facilitate 
his own work, yet, after having brought the mode of classifi- 
cation to a satisfactory form, and after having had some of the 
tables filled up, the results appeared likely to be of such value 
that Mr. Spencer decided to have the undertaking executed 
with a view to publication: the facts collected and arranged 
for easy reference and convenient study of their relations, being 
so presented, apart from hypotheses, as to aid all students of 
Social Science in testing such conclusions as they have drawn 
and in drawing others. The work consists of three large divisions. 
Each comprises a set of tables exhibiting the facts as abstracted 
and classified, and a mass of quotations and abridged extracts, 
otherwise‘ classified, on which the statements contained in the 
tables are based. The condensed statements, arranged after a 
uniform manner, give at one view, in each table or succession 
of tables, the phenomena of all orders which each society 
presents—constitute an account of its morphology, its physiology, 
and (if a society having a known history) its development. On 
the other hand, the collected extracts, serving as authorities for 
the statements in the tables, are (or rather will be, when the 
work is complete) classified primarily according to the kinds of 
phenomena to which they refer, and secondarily according to 
the societies exhibiting these phenomena; so that each kind of 
phemonenon, as it is displayed in all societies, may be sepa- 
rately studied with convenience. The three divisions, each 
thus constituted, comprehend three groups of societies :— 
(1) Unetvilised Societies ; (2) Civilised Societies —Extinct or De- 
cayed ; (3) Civilised Societies—Recent or still Flourishing. Several 
sample tables have been sent us, and as a specimen of the classi- 
factory headings under which the immense array of facts are 
grouped, we shall give those belonging to Table IX. of Division 
I. (“ Uncivilised Races”), the Sandwich Islanders, one of the 
Malayo-Polynesian Races. First are given their Inorgunic En- 
vironment (Climate, Surface); Organic Environment (Vegetal, 
Animal) ; Sociological Environment (adjacent tribes), Physical, 
Emotional, and Intellectual Characters. Then follow the tables, 
divided into Structural and Functional, each of which is sub- 
divided into Operative and Regulative. The S:ructural Opera- 
tive is again subdivided into Operative and Regulative; the 
Structural Regulative is subdivided into Political (Ciz/, [Do- 
mestic, (Marital, Tilial), Public], AZ#tary), Ecclesiastical, and 
Ceremonial (AZutilations, Funeral Rites, Laws of Intercourse, 
Habits and Customs). Under Functional, the Regulative is sub- 
divided into Sentiments (Zsthetic, Moral), Ideas (Superstitions, 
Knowledge), and Language ; the Operative into Processes (Dis- 
tribution, Exchange, Production, Arts, Rearing, &c.), and Pro- 
ducts (Land-Works, Habitations, &c., Food, Clothing, Imple- 
ments, Weapons, esthetic Products), Under each final sub- 
division ample details are given, The value of such a work to 
all students of sociology, and of mankind generally, will be in- 
estimable, 
Srr Jostau MAson, who has already built and endowed an 
orphanage at Erdington, near Birmingham, at a cost of more 
than a quarter ofa million, has now arranged to erect and endow 
a Scientific College in Birmingham, for which will probably be 
expended atleast an equalamount. The Zimes gives the follow- 
ing details :—During his long experience as a manufacturer, Mr. 
Mason became deeply convinced of the want of and necessi y for 
“thorough systematic scientific instruction, specially adapted to 
the practical, mechanical, and artistic requirements” of the 
Midland district, and to this want he has determined to devote 
a portion of his remaining property to supply. ‘The institution 
is to be called “ Josiah Mason’s College,” or ‘Josiah Mason’s 
College for the Study of Practical Science.” Regular systematic 
instruction is to be given in mathematics, abstract and applied phy- 
