128 
NATURE - 
[Fune 15, 1871 

mouth would be perfectly unendurable ; and we might 
have prolonged our stay for hours. Having thus far 
perfected the instrument, I wrote to Captain Shaw, the 
chief officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, asking him 
whether such a respirator would be of use to him, His 
reply was prompt; it would be most valuable. He had, 
however, made himself acquainted with every contrivance 
of the kind in this and other countries, and had found 
none of them of any practical use. He offered to come 
and test it here, or to place a room at my disposal in the 
City. At my request he came here, accompanied by three 
of his men. Our small room was filled with smoke to 
their entire satisfaction. The three men went successively 
into it, and remained there as long as Captain Shaw 
wished them. On coming out they said that they had not 
suffered the slightest inconvenience ; that they could have 
remained all day in the smoke. Captain Shaw then tested 
the instrument with the same result. From that hour the 
greatest interest has been taken in the perfecting of the 
instrument by Captain Shaw himself. He has attached 
to the respirator suitable hoods. The real problem is 
practically solved, and I can only say that if a tithe of 
the zeal, intelligence, and practical skill were bestowed on 
the cotton-wool respirator that Captain Shaw has devoted 
tothe fireman’s respirator the sufferings of many a precious 
life might be spared, and its length augmented.* 
The lecture was concluded as follows :—“ Thus have we 
been led from the actinic decomposition of vapours through 
the tails of comets and the blue of the sky to the dust of 
London, from the germ theory of disease down to this fire- 
man’s respirator. Instead of this trivial example, I could, 
if time permitted, point to others of a more considerable 
kind in illustration of the tendency of pure science to lead 
to practical applications. Indeed those very wanderings 
of the scientific intellect which at first sight appear 
utterly unpractical, become in the end the wellsprings 
of practice. Yet I believe there is a philosophy embraced 
by some of our more ardent thinkers (who I fear on many 
points commit the well-intentioned, but fatal mistake of 
putting their own hopeful fancies in the place of fact) that 
would abolish these wanderings of the intellect and fix it 
from the outset on practical endsalone. I donot think that 
that philosophy will ever make itself good in the world, or 
that any freedom-loving student of nature could or would 
tolerate its chains.” 
A short time before the lecture I had an opportunity of 
inspecting the apparatus of Mr. Sinclair, which has been 
tested and highly spoken of by the superintendent of the 
Manchester Fire Brigade. The original idea is due to 
Von Humboldt, who proposed it for the Hartz mines. 
Galibert constructed the apparatus in an improved form, 
and it has been still further improved by Mr. Sinclair, 
who has purchased Galibert’s patent. [t consists of an 
air-tight bag, from which issue two tubes that unite on a 
single one with a respirator mouth-piece. The bag is 
filled with air, and the wearer inspires through one valve 
and expires through another. The expired breath is 
carried to the bottom of the bag, and is stated to remain 
there in consequence of the chilling experienced in its 
passage downwards. A bag of not inordinate size is stated 
to be sufficient to supply aman with air for twenty minutes. 
Mr. Sinclair’s apparatus was exhibited during the lecture, 


NOTES 
WE are able to state that the Council of the Royal Astrono- 
mical Society are considering the steps necessary to be taken to 
insure observations being made of the Total Solar Eclipse visible 
* Mr. Ladd has also proposed a form of mouth-piece which promises 
well, and Mr. Cottrell has attached toit an ordinary fencing-mask. This will 
probably be the form of apparatus finally adopted. 

in Ceylonnext December. We need scarcely remark that there 
is no subject which is at present engaging the attention of scientific 
men more important than that of the nature of the Corona, and 
it will be a disgrace to the science of the age if the next eclipse 
is allowed to pass over without every effort being made to in- 
crease our knowledge. 
Tue Astronomer Royal requests us to state that he will be 
obliged for the loan of any unpublished observations made during 
the recent total eclipse. Communications to be addressed to 
him at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. 
WE are glad to learn that the Right Hon. Mr. Robert Lowe 
has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. We have before 
in these columns stated our belief that Science has every reason 
to expect a favourable recognition of her claims from him as 
Chancellor of the Exchequer if proper claims are put forward in 
a proper manner, and we reiterate the assertion, It was unfortunate 
that the first grant of public money for which Mr. Lowe was 
asked, for scientific purposes, was allocated in a way which 
made Mr. Lowe somewhat indignant, a feeling which was how- 
ever shared by many men of science. It was also unfortunate 
that the requirements of science in the matter of the Eclipse 
Expedition were not properly put before the Government in 
the first instance, but it is now a matter of history that Mr. 
Lowe was satisfied with a semi-official statement of the claims of 
Astronomy, and not only at once granted the required aid, but 
threw all the power of the Government into completing the neces- 
sary arrangements, The same may be said of the Dredging 
Expeditions. The willingness of a Chancellor of the Exchequer 
after all, however, is not the only thing requisite for State recog- 
nition of the claims of Science. We want a proper scientific or- 
ganisation, and proper scientific representation. That Science 
here is in a chaotic state, is the well-founded opinion of many of 
our scientific men ; and if this condition of things is allowed to 
continue, students of Science must expect that their wishes shall be 
ignored or lost sight of in the rush of other more emphatically 
asserted claims. 
THE official statements made under the head of ‘‘ University 
Intelligence” in the daily papers have been lately very remark- 
able. We noticed, not very long ago, that Prof. Max Miiller 
was called Professor of Comparative Physiology! What will 
Dr. Rolleston say to this? A few days afterwards it was 
announced that Mr. Reinold, the Lee’s Reader of Physics at 
Christ Church, would give a course of lectures on Statistical 
Electricity! ! Surely no one but Mrs. Malaprop herself could 
have made such blunders ; while to cap all, a day or two ago we 
were informed (again in the official ‘‘ University Intelligence ”) 
that the Commemoration at Oxford was an ‘‘ interesting event !” 
Surely this is rather hard on Alma Mater ! 
ASTRONOMY, may we say astrology, like many other things, is 
being put on a new footing at Constantinople. For many years 
the chief functionary in this department of science has been the 
Sultan’s chief astrologer, but we believe he is now little called 
upon by Abdul Aziz to cast horoscopes for a lucky time, as 
the Sultan starts at a punctual hour, and the astrologer 
has chiefly to cast the ephemerides for the Salnameh, or official 
almanack, a periodical growing in respectability. Lectures in 
Physical Science are given in Turkish by Mussulman Professors 
at the Darul Funoun, or University, though there are godly men 
in Islam who maintain that such teaching is contrary to scripture. 
The time in Constantinople is a sore puzzle. As the day begins 
at sunset, and has to be divided into twenty-four hours, at sun- 
down begins a general setting of watches, because steamboat 
departures and other incidents are regulated by Turkish time. 
The chief object for which expensive clocks and watches are 
bought by the Turks is for working out the canonical hours of 
