262 
ments, or for the support of the lectures to ladies, or as Mr. 
Walter Morrison desires, for the improvement of the incomes of 
village schoolmasters ? 
Assuredly all these claims, and more, will be put in for the 
residue of the funds—and I think it will be more than half— 
which will remain unemployed when we have pulled down our 
old Universities and set up our German teaching establishments 
in their stead. And shall we be able to offer any resistance to such 
de ands, unless we can come forward vow with the courage 
of our opinions, and present the whole of our scheme for a 
scientific as well as a teaching organisation, the former on a no 
less complete scale than the latter, instead of keeping half of our 
scheme, and the more important half of it, in our pockets? Mr. 
Flower will remember the old lines :— 
*¢ When land is gone and money spent 
Then learming is most excellent.” 
In conclusion, I would refer for a moment to Mr. Flower’s 
fifth paragraph, in which he seems to say that the interruption 
of research and study by teaching work or by official duties, is 
rather an assistance to them. As this statement is very often 
made, but always without the addition of any reasons for the 
opinion, I would respectfully ask Mr. Flower to let us know 
why an interrupted employment is more likely to prosper than 
a continuous one? what is the precise advantage of distracting 
intellectual force from the work it has to accomplish? and why 
the members of the Government, or, say, the jury in the Tich- 
borne case, should not also be compelled to deliver at least one 
course of lectures during the London season ? 
July 25 C. E. APPLETON 
Method of Endowment 
I HAVE read with much interest the three articles which have 
appeared in NATURE under the above title. The author of 
these articles has not as yet indicated the manner in which the 
object which he proposes is, in relation to the Universities, to 
be attained. He may intend to do this hereafter; but as the 
absence of any really practical scheme has been mentioned in 
the public journa's as an objection in the way of such endow- 
ment as that proposed, I may perhaps be permitted to offer one 
or two suggestions on the matter. First, it appears certainly 
desirable that the Fellowships at the Universities should not be 
abolished, but that the conditions of their tenure should be 
changed. Scholarships of considerable yalue, and tenable for a 
limited number of years, might still be awarded after strict ex- 
amination ; but the Fellowships should be reserved exclusively 
for the recognition of a capacity for original research, proved by 
the publication of memoirs, or otherwise. 
there would be little need for an Order of Intellectual Merit. 
The title of ‘* University Fellow” might well suffice. I have 
used the expression ‘‘ University Fellow,” for though it would 
still be desirable that a certain proportion of the Fellows should 
be required to reside at the several colleges, yet it would pro- 
bably be considered preferable that the power of election should 
be transferred from the colleges to a University Council. Such 
a Council would have to discharge a function similar to that 
annually performed by the Council of the Royal Society. To 
prevent favouritism and nepotism, it would be requisite that the 
names of all candidates should be published, together with the 
grounds on which each bases his candidature. Similarly the 
names of the selected candidates should be published, toge- 
ther with the reasons by which the Council have been influenced 
in their selection. But, it will probably be said, supposing that 
the Council have in their seleciion exercised a wise and un- 
biassed judgment, what is there to preveut the Fellowships from 
degenerating into mere sinecures? How is the continuance of 
original research to be secured? Probably there would be, in 
this respect, little danger in the case of those who have already 
proved their capacity for original work. But if it be contended 
that the danger is real, it would not be difficult to provide 
against ic by granting Fellowships, not for life, but for ten or 
fifteen years, and by renewing them, on the expiry of the original 
term, only to those who have given strict proof of the continu- 
ance of their researches, making exception, of course, in the case 
of persons disqualified from work either by age or disease, 
NATURE 
Under such a system | 
aay 
ey gee 
‘ 
» * 
| Fuly 31, 1873" 
Such a scheme as that I haye suggested would, I venture to 
think, be both practical and useful, though many matters of de- 
tail would still remain to be considered. 
July 24 
M. A. 
Mechanical Combination of Colours 
As you have kindly requested me to give a short account in 
Narure of the instrument I designed’ to illustrate the “ com- 
bination of colours,” I haye much pleasure in complying with your 
request. The instru- 
ment was designed to 
show the colour that 
resulted from the 
mixture of all or any 
of the colours of the 
spectrum given by 
any light. The con- 
struction is as fol- 
lows :— 
To the centre of a 
disc, A, which can be 
caused to revolve by 
the wheel G, a plain 
mirror, B, is fixed at 
an angle of 45° to the 
surface of the disc. 
In front of the mirror 
is placed a prism, D. 
At the edge of the A... 
disc there are placed ) 
different slides, E, 
for cutting off any 
particular rays ; also, 
above the mirror, is a 
small slit cut in a 
piece of brass, C, to 
admit the ray under 
examination. 
xx isa ray of light, 
which passing through 
the slit C, is deflected 
at right angles by the 
mirror B through the 
prism D, and is then 
received in the form 
of a spectrum upor 
the screen SS. As 
soon as the wheel G 
is set in motion the ; 
spectrum also moves round the conical screen SS, and when a 
certain velocity is arrived at, the colours combine and form the 
original coloured light which is entering at the slit C. In the 
same way, by using the slides, any two or more colours may be 
combined to form the resultant colour. 
FREDERICK J. SMITH 
denen ee ene a see ee eee nese aan eee emeenen 
On seeing the Red Flames on the Sun’s Limb with a 
Common Telescope 
ON observing the partial eclipse of the sun on Dee, 22, 1870, 
it occurred to me whether it might not be possible to see the 
red flames on the sun’s limb without waiting for a total solar 
eclipse, or whether it was possible to make an artificial eclipse 
sufficiently perfect to admit of the red flames being seen. Ac- 
cordingly I cut out several circular discs of thin brass (blackened 
on both sides), leaving three arms projecting from the periphery 
of each of such length that when the ends were bent they 
should slide into the tube of the eye-piece. I placed one 
such disc in the eye-tube as near to the field lens as possible to 
avoid its getting hot ; but here a difficulty presented itself which 
I had not foreseen,—the disc was a trifle too large, and it shut 
out the sun altogether. I put in a smaller one which admitted 
too much of the sun’s light. I afterwards tried several, and 
it required a considerable amount of filing and scraping to 
produce one just the right size to cover the sun’s disc and no 
more; especially as the least jarring or vibration of the telescope 
would cause the edge of the sun to be seen first on one side and 
then on the other. After several trials at different times I suc- 
ceeded on January 16, 1872, in seeing on the south-western limb 
axed flame. It appeared rather wider at the top than the bottom 
ai 
