37° 
units of measures of capacity had been previously estab- 
lished in this country at different periods. In Magna 
Charta, three such units are recited, “there shall be 
throughout our realm, one measure of wine, one measure 
of ale, and one measure of corn.” Of these, the most 
ancient known was the Winchester corn bushel, of the 
capacity of about 2150°42 cubic inches, together with the 
Winchester corn gallon of 272} cubic inches. We have 
no record of any other standard measures of capacity 
being actually constructed, until the standard ale gallon of 
282 cubic inches was added by Queen Elizabeth, and the 
standard wine gallon of 231 cubic inches by Queen Anne. 
All these old standard measures were discontinued as 
legal measures in 1824, and the new imperial standard 
gallon of 272°274 cubic inches, and the bushel of 2218°191 
cubic inches, constructed and verified under Capt. Kater’s 
superintendence, have since continued to be the standard 
ans of imperial measure for liquids and for dry commo- 
ities, 
The Exchequer standards of the imperial gallon and 
bushel formed part of the complete series of secondary 
standards constructed and accurately verified under 
Kater’s superintendence in 1824, These standards, to- 
gether with other secondary standards, subsequently 
legalised, have served for regulating all the commercial 
weights and measures of Great Britain and her colonies 
and dependencies from 1824 up to the present time. The 
Exchequer standards were transferred to the Standards 
Department of the Board of Trade in pursuance of the 
Standards Act, 1866. 
H. W. CHISHOLM 
(To be continued.) 
THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 
ee session of this young Association which has just 
been concluded at Lyons appears to have been alto- 
gether successful, and according to the Reports read 
the Association is in an exceedingly prosperous condition, 
both as to number of members, income, and the carrying 
out of the scientific aims which it has in view. The 
number of members who attended the Lyons Congress 
was very satisfactory. The capital fund at the end of 1872 
was 136,464 francs, and the income for 1873 is expected 
to be 24,000 francs. One of the aims of the Association 
is to give an impulse to Science in the provinces, and, as 
we recorded some time ago, the members of the Associa- 
tion resident about Bordeaux have formed a local asso- 
ciation, and it is hoped a similar result will follow in the 
case of each town where the yearly meetings are held. 
The Association has received invitations for its next 
session from various French cities, and it has been 
decided to hold the meeting of 1874 at Lille. M. Wurtz 
was elected President for the ensuing year. 
The accounts which have come to hand are mainly 
concerned with the work done in the Medical Section. 
Last week we gave a few extracts from the Presidential 
Address of M. De Quatrefages, and shortly we hope 
to be able to give a résumé of the work done in 
the various sections, as well as of the more important 
public lectures. Meantime we shall give a brief sketch 
of the general work which has been done. 
In the general meetings, Dr. Blanc, an Indian military 
surgeon, read an important paper “on the means of 
arresting the propagation of cholera,” founded on 
experiments made by himself, M. A. Gaudry, Professor 
at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, gave a lecture on 
a botanical subject. Dr. Bertillon also gave a 
lecture on “ Demography,” ze. the Natural History of 
Society. M. de Lesseps talked in a familiar and pleasant 
way of the proposed railway across Central America. 
M. F, Papillon read a paper on the connection between 
NATURE 
| in the Polar regions. 
[Sepz. 4, 1873 | 
the Sciences and Metaphysics, and the Abbé Ducrost 
gave a lecture on the Prehistoric Station of Solutré, 
The part of the Congress which is undoubtedly the 
most attractive consists in the excursions and the public 
lectures ; the former interest strangers, and the latter, 
members. Besides the special excursions organised by 
certain sections and parties of amembers, there have been 
three general excursions—one to the prehistoric station of 
Solutré ; a second to the sides of the plateau of Les 
Dombes ; a third to the mines and furnaces of Voulte-sur- 
Rhéne, in Ardéche, and a fourth, which set out last 
Friday and was to last for two days, to Geneva and the 
shores of its lake. 
There have been three public lectures: the first was 
given by M. Karl Vogt, of Geneva, on Volcanoes; the 
second by M. Janssen, on the Physical Constitution of the 
Sun; and the third by M. Aimé Girard, on the Recent 
Progress of Industry. 4 
NOTES 
THE final arrangements for the Bradford meeting of the British — 
Association are as follows :—The first General Meeting will be 
held on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 8 P.M. precisely, when Dr. 
Carpenter, LL.D., F.R.S., &c., will resign the Chair, and the 
President-Elect, Prof. W. A. Williamson, F.R.S., will assume ~ 
the presidency, and deliver an Address. On Thursday evening, © 
Sept. 11, at 8 p.M., a Soiree ; on Friday evening, Sept. 19. at 
8.30 P.M., a discourse by Prof. W. C. Williamson, F.R.S., of © 
Manchester, on Coal and Coal Plants; on Saturday evening, 
Sept. 20, a Lecture on Fuel to working men only, by Mr. 
Siemens, F.R.S. ; on Monday evening, Sept. 22, at 8.30 P.M., 
a Discourse on Molecules, by Prof. Clerk Maxwell, F.R.S. ; on 
Tuesday evening, Sept. 23, at 8 P.M., a Soiree ; on Wednesday, ~ 
Sept. 24, the concluding General Meeting will be held at 2.30 
P.M., and in the evening a Grand Concert will be given in St. 
George’s Hall, at 8 P.M. The excursions on Thursday, 
Sept. 25, will be to Harrogate, Ripon, Studley, Bolton Abbey, — 
Gordale Scarr, Malham, Clapham Caves, Settle Caves, and 
Ingleboro’. Lists and prices of lodgings, and other general in- 
formation will be given, on application at the Local Secretaries’ 
Office, \ Bradford. ; 
Ir is said that a portion of the immense wealth of the late 
eccentric Duke of Brunswick is to be devoted to the founding 
of a Faculty of Medicine in Geneva. s . 
Tue King of Prussia has conferred on Prof. Helmholtz the 
Order of Merit for Science and Art. 
THE October number of Letermann’s Mitteilungen will 
contain an account of Professor Nordenskiéld’s Arctic Expe- 
dition during 1872-3, in the direction of Spitzbergen, which has 
not, geographically, been very successful. The steamer So/hem 
reached Tromsé on August 6, and the following telegram of 
that date has been received from Prof. Nordenskidld :— 
“Just arrived here, all well. My resolution to undertake an- 
other ice-journey towards the north after the sledge-journey 
round North-east-land, has been rendered impracticable through 
want of provisions, which has compelled us to return. Instead 
of this we have undertaken extensive deep-sea dredgings as well 
as botanical, magnetic, and geological researches. I bring 
with me, besides other from various formations, very important 
collections of Miocene flora, as well as of two formations which 
belong to an older geological period hitherto altogether unknown 
These collections throw new light upon 
the prevailing flora and the climate of former periods, as well as 
upon the changes which these have undergone,” 
ACCORDING to the report of the Meteorological Department 
an earthquake occurred at Nottingham at ten minutes to seven 
o’clock on Friday morning last. : 
