April 12, 1883} 
NATURE 
565, 
NOTES 
THE Queen has signified her intention of conferring the honour 
of Knigh$hood upon Prof. Frederick Augustus Abel, C.B., 
F.R.S., in recognition of the valuable services rendered by him 
to the War Department and to other departments of the Govern- 
ment in his capacity of War Department Chemist. 
Her Majesty has also been pleased to confer the honour of 
Knight Commandership of the Bath on the Right Hon, Lyon 
Playfair, C.B., M.P., F.R.S. 
Weare glad to learn that the Hong Kong Observatory scheme, 
to which we have frequently adverted, has at last become so far 
a fait accompli that Dr. Doberck of the Dunsink Observatory 
has been appoi.ted astronomer to the new institution by the 
Secretary for the Colonies. ‘The opportunities afforded for in- 
dependent and original work in Hong Kong are very great, and 
we are sure the head of the new Observatory will make the most 
of them, Dr. Doberck is at present attached to the Kew Obser- 
vatory, and expects to leave England with his first assistant early 
in June. Lord Derby is taking a marked interest in the new 
Observatory, and we are glad to learn is making Dr, Doberck a 
very liberal allowance for the purchase of instruments. 
THE Davis Lectures for 1883 will be given in the lecture room 
in the Zoological Society’s Gardens, in the Regent’s Park, on 
Thursdays, at 5 p.m., commencing June 7, as follows :—June 7, 
Ungulate Mammals, by Prof. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S.; June 14, 
Our Snakes and Lizards, by Prof. Mivart, F.R.S.; June 21, 
The Lamprey and its Kindred, by Prof. Parker, F.R.S.; June 28, 
Birds and Lighthouses, by J. E. Harting; July 5, he Niger 
and its Animals, by W. A. Forbes; July 12, South American 
Birds, by P. L. Sclater, F.R.S. ; July 19, The Siberian Tundra, 
by Henry Seebohm. These lectures will be free to Felluws of 
the Society and their friends, and to other visitors to the 
Gardens. 
Our readers will doubtless be surprised to learn that the 
masterly address on Darwin and Copernicus, of which we publish 
a translation in another column, has called forth much hostile 
criticism in Germany. It was read before the members of the 
Berlin Academy of Sciences, of which Prof. Du Bois Reymond is 
Secretary, at their last annual meeting. Shortly afterwards one 
of the Clerico-Conservative newspapers of the German capital 
called attention to what it was pleased to call the public lauda- 
tion of one of the worst and most dangerous atheists by a 
member of a public -body supported by the State. Many other 
papers of the same views immediately followed suit; while the 
notorious Court Chaplain, Stocker, whose exploits as a Jew- 
baiter furnished the Berlin correspondents of the daily papers 
with a good deal of matter about twelve months ago, preached 
along sermon against Prof. Du Bois Reymond and his views. 
His example was followed by other members of the so-called 
“* Orthodox ” clergy in Berlin and the provinces. But the Court 
Chaplain is also a member of the Prussian Parliament; so not 
content with crushing ‘‘ atheism” fron the pulpit, he put a ques- 
tion in the House on the subject, supported by Herr Windthorst, 
one of the leaders of the Ultramontane party. They were 
answered by Prof. Virchow and the Prussian Minister of Public 
Instruction, thus causing a whole sitting of the Prussian Landtag 
to be taken up by a debate on the graceful tribute to the 
memory of Darwin, That such things should take place in 
Germany, which has always been considered the home of 
philosophic freedom, really seems to justify the remark of 
the author of ‘‘Darwin and Copernicus,” that freedom of 
thought, which, after taking its rise in England in the middle of 
the eighteenth century, passed through France to Germany, 
where it attained a fuller and more systematic development, 
seems now to be passing away from the latter country again! 
Let us hope that it is coming to our shores once more, as the- 
Professor says it is. 
THE Swedish subscription to the Darwin Memorial is now 
closed, The number of subscribers is 2294, and the amount 
subscribed 400/. 
THE 7zmes Paris correspondent telegraphs as follows under 
date April 10:—A shameful trick has been played on the- 
Academy of Sciences. The Ko6nigsberg student, Hermann 
Minkowsky, who with the late Prof. Henry J. $. Smith was 
declared to have gained the great mathematical prize of 3000 
francs, had simply pirated Prof. Smith’s communication to the 
Royal Society in 1868, on the representation of a number as 
the sum of five squares. He had even copied a slight error in 
it, The Academy, therefore, at a secret session yesterday an- 
nulled its original decision and declared that the whole prize 
had been gained by the distinguished English professor, who 
unfortunately has not lived long enough to expose the hoax. 
WE would again draw the attention of local scientific societies 
to the circular which has been issued by the Committee of the 
British Association appointed to consider certain matters in con- 
nection with such societies. These societies will be doing them- 
selves as well as the Committee service by forwardinz the 
information desired without further delay. 
THE Scotch Universities Bill, which has been introduced by: 
the Lord Advocate, establishes an Executive Commission, and. 
gives them extensive powers for reorganising the Universities, 
including the power of revising existing foundations and endow- 
ments, and of founding new Professorships. They will also have 
authority to affiliate Colleges in other parts of the country with 
the University of St. Andrews ; and, if satisfied that that Uni- 
versity is no longer able to perform its functions, to dissolve it,. 
and create a new Corporation. The Bill also proposes that a 
grant of forty thousand pounds a year shall be given to the Scotch 
Universities from the Consolidited Fund. 
THE committee for the organisation of the Congress of 
Orientalists in Holland has issued a circular letter explaining 
the reasons for the alteration of the time of meeting of the Con- 
gress at Leyden from 1884 to the present year. The last 
congress, which met at Berlin in 1881, decided that the next 
should take place at Leyden in 1884; but, the committee say, 
since then, as it has been arranged that an international colonial 
exhibition was to be held in Amsterdam this year, it was thought 
better, after consultation with the previous committee, and after 
having obtained the sanction of the Netherlands Government, to 
hold the Oriental Congress at the same time. It is accordingly 
notified that the Congress will assemble at Leyden from 
September 10 to 15 of the present year. A small exhibition of 
literary curiosities, manuscripts, rare books, &c., will be held at 
the same time. Oriental scholars desirous of being present, or 
of reading papers, are invited to communicate with Mr. W. 
Pleyte of Leyden before the end of July, in order that the 
necessary accommodation may be prepared, 
THE Fafan Mail inannouncing recently the death of a.student 
of the Imperial College of Engineering, Mr. Yamada, from over- 
study, refers to his docility, untiring assiduity, and very remark- 
able ability. The writer, who appears to possess intimate 
knowledge of the subject, speaks thus of Japanese students in 
general :—‘‘ It is hard for those to think ill of Japan who have 
watched these gentle, earnest-hearted lads, set themselves, almost 
before they have ceased to be children, with unflagging resola- 
tion to accomplish the task their fathers bequeathed to them 
unattempted, the task of winning for their country the place they 
hope to see her one day oceupy. ‘ Very fine, forsooth!’ we can 
hear your professional maligner exclaim, ‘but after all what 
