tailed crab (Nautilograpsus minutus) swarms on esi | Pe eis oF linear: weed 
and on every floating object, and it is odd to see how the 
little creature usually corresponds in colour with whatever 
it mayhappen toinhabit. Mr, Murray, who has the general 
_ superintendence of our surface work, bringsin curious stories 
_ ofthe habits of these little crabs. We observe that although 
every floating thing upon the surface is covered with them, 
they are rarely met swimming free, and that whenever 
they are dislodged and removed a little way from their 
resting place, they immediately make the most vigorous 
efforts to regain it. The other day he amused himself 
teasing a crab which had established itself on the crest of 
_ a Physalia. Again and again he picked it off and put it 
on the surface at some distance, but it always turned at 
once to the Physalia and struck out, and never rested 
until it had clambered up into its former quarters. 
On Thursday, the 19th, we sounded in 2,750 fathoms 
in a grey mud containing many foraminifera. Position 
of the ship at noon, lat. 35° 29’ N., long. 50° 53’ W. 
The wind now gradually freshened, and for the next 
three days we went on our course with a fine breeze, force 
from 4 to 7, from the southward, sounding daily at a depth 
of about 2,700 fathoms, with a bottom of reddish grey 
ooze. On ‘Tuesday the 24th the trawl was put over in 
2,175 fathoms, lat. 38° 3’ N., long. 39° 19’ W., about 500 
_ miles ircm the Acores. "As in’ most of the deep 
_ trawls on grey mud, a number of the zocecia of delicate 
branching polyzoa were entangled in the net. One 
of these on this occasion was very remarkable irom the 
extreme length (4 to 5 mm.) of the pedicels. on which its 
avicularia were placed. Another very elegant species was 
distinguished by the peculiar sculpture of the cells, re- 
minding one of those of some of the more highly orna- 
mented Lepralia. WYVILLE THOMSON 
(To be continued.) 
ee a 
; 
: 
THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 
HE second session of the French Association was 
opened at Lyons last Thursday, by an inaugural 
address from the President, M. de Bie who 
pointed out the almost inconceivable advance of Science 
during the past century, and the importance of Science 
in education. 
In speaking of scientific education, the President said 
that the devotees of literature accused Science of stifling 
sentiment and imagination ; she kills, say they, the ideal 
and stunts intelligence by i imprisoning it within the limits 
of reality; she is incompatible with poetry. The men 
who speak thus have never read Kepler the astronomer, 
Pascal the geometer, Linnzus the naturalist, Buffon the 
zoologist, Humboldt the universal savant. What ! says 
the President, Science stifle scntiment, imagination, 
she who brings us every hour into the presence of 
wonders! She lower intelligence, who touches on all the 
infinities ! When ///¢érateurs and poets know Science better, 
they will come and draw from her living fountain. Like 
Byron of our time, like Homer of yore, they will borrow* 
from her striking imagery, descriptions whose grandeur 
will be doubled by theirtruth. Homer was a savané for 
his time. He knew the geography, the anatomy of his era ; 
we find in his verses the names of islands and. capes, 
technical terms like clavicle and scapula. None the less 
he wrote the Iliad. 
No, the study of Science will never suppress the genius 
of an inspired poet, of a true painter, of a great scuiptor. 
But she will bring more light to the path of an erring 
soul. She will perhaps transform into a wise man, or at 
least into a citizen useful to himself and others, one who 
without her would only have been one of those pretended 
incomprehensible geniuses, destined to perish of misery, 
of impotency, and of pride. While fully admitting the 
WATURE 349 
important place of literature in education, he would wish 
to see children initiated at an early age into the facts, the 
ideas, the methods of Science. 
Governments, such as they have hitherto been, have al- 
most always acted as if they had no need fer the men 
who study Nature and her forces. But when any critical 
or important event occurs, then it is found necessary to 
appeal tothem. Of whom are the j juries of International 
Exhibitions composed? No doubt each State sends its 
worthy merchants, its tried chiefs of industry, its eminent 
agriculturists, but it also, and above all, sends its 
men of science. At these important times peoples are 
comparirg their real strength, and each feels that 
it is for its honour in the present and its prospects in the 
future that the truth should appear; and to enlighten 
them, whether it be concerning cannons or silk- manufac- 
tures, telescopes or crystals, jewellery or hardware, it is 
felt that Science is indispensable, and men of science are 
appealed to. 
But once the Exposition is closed, the State leaves the 
men of science to return to their studies. I wish, said 
M. de Quatrefages, it kept them in the service of their 
country. These men whcm we ask to understand and 
jucge of woncers would certainly be able to show how to 
produce thim. When Science is everywhere, it would 
certainly not ke useless to Government to have it in their 
power to be enlightened at any time on scientific ques- 
tions. Although less pressing, less impe rious than in the 
days of peril, the wants of agriculiure, of industry, of 
commerce, like those of the army and ravy, co not 
change their nature. 
ing to the savants ? 
A day will come when every great Administration will 
have its Consulting Committee, composed almost exclu- 
sively of men of science, and then many mistakes 
will be avoided, and many forces utilised which are at 
present lost. "But in order that such an institution 
should be born and developed, it is necessary that the 
function of Science be universally comprehended and 
accepted, To attain this result is one of the chief aims 
of the French Association, 
Why wait the necessity for appea!- 
CHRISTOPHER HANSTEEN 
es the 11th of April Jast, Hansteen died at Christi- 
ania at the advanced age of 88, having been born 
on the 26th September, 1784. On leaving the cathedral 
school of Christiania, where he received his early edu- 
cation, he entered the University of Copenhagen in 1802, 
as a student of law, which, however, he soon abandoned Jor 
the more congenial study of mathematics. In 1806, he 
began his work as a public instructor in the capacity of 
mathematical tutor in the gymnasium of Fredricksburg, 
in the island of Zealand, and there he began also his life 
work as an original investigator by instituting researches 
into terrestrial magnetism. He first acquired distinction 
by taking the prize which had been offered for the best 
essay on this subject, by the Royal Society of Science of 
Copenhagen ; and shortly thereafter, viz. in 1814, was 
appointed to the chair of ‘Astronomy in the University cf 
Christiania, which had been recently founded by Frederick 
VI. of Norway. 
His great work, entitled “ Untersuchungen tiber den 
Magnetismus der Erde,” was published in 1819, at the 
expense of the King. ‘his work was illustrated with an 
Atlas of Maps, and was the most satisfactory collection of 
observations on the variations of the needle, and was 
besides distinguished for its broad philosophical. general- 
isations. In the iurther prosecution ot his physical 
researches, he made his well-known journey into Siberia 
as far as Kiachta and Irkutsk, accompanied by Erman 
and Due, the expenses of this journey being libcraiiy 
defrayed by the Norwegian Government. The establisi- 
