[ Oct. 2, 1873 
NOTES 
Ir would be well if our men of science were to be found more 
frequently distributing prizes and taking an interest in the 
schools in which, thanks to the wisdom and energy of Mr. 
Cole, so many thousands of our people are learning science. In 
this Prof. Williamson has just set a good example by distributing 
the prizes at the Keightley School of Science and Art on 
Thursday last. Prof. Williamson, at the end of his speech, 
remarked that ‘‘ We in this country give a peculiar position to 
Science in relation to material affairs. If we find a coal-seam 
we look upon it as wasteful not to work it and make the most of 
it, but what he said was, that to leave the clear heads and true 
hearts of our countrymen left useless was a greater waste, be- 
cause he believed that they were infinitely more valuable than 
any coal-seam that ever was discovered.” 
AN anonymous donor has placed a large sum in the hands of 
the Committee of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, for 
the foundation of a Lectureship on the Laws of Health, and also 
for a prize fund in connection with the class. Dr. Corfield has 
been offered the post for this year, has accepted it, and will 
deliver an inaugural lecture in the Town Hall, Birmingham, on 
. Thursday, October 9, at 8 p.M., on ‘‘ Sanitary Progress.” The 
course will begin on Tuesday, October 14, at 8 P.M., and be 
continued on succeeding Tuesdays until some time in April. It 
is intended more especially for the working classes, and both 
men and women will be admitted. 
THE programme of the Birmingham and Midland Institute 
for Session 1873-4 is a very full one, and, to judge from what is 
set down, is well organised in its departments, and doing a 
thoroughly good educational work among all classes of the popu- 
lous and important district in the midst of which it is established. 
At a merely nominal fee it places valuable scientific instruction 
within the reach of the poorest artisan. 
Sir SAMUEL and Lady Baker left Alexandria for London on 
Tuesday. 
WE would draw our readers’ attention to a letter from Pro- 
fessor Thiselton Dyer, in this week’s number, on the Oxford 
Fellowships in Science about to be competed for. ,We hope 
that, at any rate, the matter of Research will be taken into 
consideration. 
NExT year’s meeting of the American Association for the: 
Advancement of Science will be held at Hartford, Conn., and 
the officers elect are :—President, Dr. John L. Le Conte, of 
Philadelphia ; Vice-President, Prof. C. S. Lyman, of New 
Haven; Gen. Sec., Dr. A. C. Hamlin, of Bangor; Treasurer, 
Mr. W. S. Vaux, of Philadelphia. 
THE Italian Association for the Advancement 
meets on the 20th inst. 
THE business of the Social Science Congress opened at 
Norwich yesterday, with a meeting of the Council, after which 
there was a special service in the Cathedral; and in the: 
evening the inaugural address was delivered by the Presi- 
dent. To-day the exhibition of sanitary and educational appa-~ 
ratus and appliances at the Drill Hall, kindly lent for the 
occasion, will be opened with an address by the High Sheriff of 
Norwich. The address of the President of the Council, Mr. 
G. W. Hastings, will follow, after which the depawtments will 
meet in their respective rooms, and in the evening a soirée will 
be given by the local Executive Committee in St. Andrew’s 
Hall. On Friday morning Mr. Joseph Brown, Q.C., will 
deliver his address as president of the De partment of Jurispru- 
dence and Amendment of the Law ; anda fter the meetings of the 
various departments for the reading and discussion of papers, a 
working men’s meeting in St. Andrew’s I fal], at which the Mayor 
will preside, will conclude the bysiness «>f the day. On Satur¢lay 
of Science: 
an address on education will be delivered by Prof. W. B. 
Hodgson, LL.D., and after the rising of the departments the 
President of the Congress will distribute the certificates and 
prizes to the successful candidates at the last Cambridge middle- 
class examination. The address of Capt. Douglas Galton, C.B., 
F.R.S., president of the Health Department, will be given on 
Monday morning. The departments will meet as usual in their 
respective rooms, and in the evening a grand concert will be 
given in St. Andrew’s Hall. Mr. Thomas Brassey, M.P., wi 
deliver his address 02 Economy and Trade on Tuesday, and 
after the business of the departments a sorrée will be given in St. 
Andrew’s Hall by the Mayor, and the concluding meeting, pre- 
ceded by a meeting of the Council, will be held on the Wednes- 
day. In connection.with the Congress there will be a conference 
on female education, and in the Exhibition short addresses will 
be delivered daily in the afternoon on the subject of the articles 
exhibited in the various classes. Excursions to various places, 
it is understood, are being arranged. 
THE Diana, screw steamer, in which Mr. B. L. Smith left 
Dundee in May last on a voyage of discovery to the Polar Seas, 
by the Spitzbergen route, arrived in Dundee on Saturday last. 
The Daily News sums up the voyage of the Diana as follows :— 
A succession of gales was experienced—the weather on almost | 
all occasions when the ship was in the open sea being such that, 
although she was provided with complete apparatus for sound- 
ing, deep-sea temperatures, &c. not nearly what was intended ~ 
has been accomplished. Owing to the unfavourable nature of 
the ice, little in the way of exploration has been possible. The 
time had, however, been very fully occupied in dredging, trawl- 
ing, photographing, surveying, and making as complete and 
perfect collections as circumstances permitted of the flora of 
Spitzbergen. Specimens of rare birds have been secured, and 
collections made, probably the first of any value. The collec- 
tions of marine plants and animals are likely to prove especially 
interesting, and it has been discovered, among other things, 
that some parts of those seas hitherto reported as almost desti- — 
In the way of 
geology everything possible was done in the parts unexplored — 
tute of fish, abound in cod of excellent quality. 
by the Swedes, and numerous specimens of fossils have been 
brought back from the hitherto unyisited parts of the coast of 
the north-east land. From the appearance of open water seen 
in this expedition beyond Cape Platen, and also reported by the 
Swedes as existing—ascertained during their sleigh journey—it 
seems to be by no means certain that the route farther north- 
wards which the Diana on leaving England hoped to reach does 
not exist, and the question still remains open, were it possible to 
reach this early in the season, whether a means of reaching a 
higher latitude to the north-east of Spitzbergen is not available. 
Mr. Smith has ascertained that the North Cape is situated on 
an island separated by a sound from the main land, and to this — 
extent a knotty point has been determined. The expedition 
never got beyond 81°, while Mr. Smith in his expedition of 1871 
got to'$1‘24°. He states that the Diana behaved admirably, 
but he did not realise his anticipations which would be achieved 
by the substitution of steam for sailing power. 
Wrru reference to our announcement of the forthcoming’work 
by Mr. Boyd Dawkins on Cave Hunting,—the new line of inquiry 
which has added so much to our knowledge of ancient man,—we 
may now state the work will comprise the physical history of 
caves and thcir relation to the general physical geography of the 
district, as well as the history of their contents ; and will treat of 
the men who have inhabited the caves of France, Spain, and 
Britain, during the historic, pre-historic, and pleistocene ages. 
The subject bristles with problems ethnological, archzeological, 
and geographical, and demands a careful criticism that will 
sift the certain from the uncertain. The evidence will be 
given from which it may be concluded that the Eskimos lived as 
