Fune 2, 1870] 
THE Royal Dublin Society have commissioned Mr, Catterson 
Smith to paint a portrait of Dr. Joly, to be placed in their 
library. It will be remembered that Dr. Joly presented the 
Royal Dublin Society with a large and valuable library of modern 
books. The society already possessed a library of works on 
Science and Fine Arts, which, however, was very deficient in 
works of modern literature. It will now, with the addition of 
the Joly library, be one of the most useful public libraries in 
Great Britain and Ireland. 
THE Surgical Society of Ireland gave a grand comversazione 
to its members and to the medical men of Dublin on Tuesday, 
the 24th ult. His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant was present. 
The conversazione was held in the Royal College of Surgeons. 
The small museum of the college was lit up, and looked uncom- 
monly well. A series of interesting microscopical objects were 
exhibited by Dr. Barker, Mr. William Archer, Rev. Eugene 
O'Meara, and others. 
M. DE CALIGNY called the attention of the French Academy, 
at its meeting of the 16th of May, to two prizes founded in 1867 
by the Marquis d’Ourches, for the indications of the means of 
preventing people from being buried alive. The first is a prize 
of 20,090 frs. for the discovery of a simple method of recognising 
with certainty the signs of actual death. This method must be 
adapted to the capacities of the most ignorant. The second, ‘a 
prize of 5,000 frs., is for the discovery of a means of recognising 
death by means of electricity or galyanism, or by some other pro- 
cess requiring knowledge for its application. These prizes are 
to be decided by the Imperial Academy of Medicine, within five 
years from the 22nd April, 1868. 
One of the best signs of the times we have seen lately is 
the third annual report of the Rugby School Natural History 
Society for 1869, as giving satisfactory evidence of the interest 
taken in natural science by at all events a few Rugbeians. 
The botanical report for 1869 records the dates of flowering 
of 340 plants, which seem to have been carefully observed for 
three successive years, and a few new localities or plants new 
to the neighbourhood. We find also a thoroughly Darwinian 
paper by Mr. J. M. Wilson on ‘A remarkable instance of 
protective mimicry among the Lepidoptera ;” the well-known 
example of the female of Pagilio Merofe, with an illustration ; 
one on “English Snakes and the Blind-worm,” by Mr. N. 
Masterman, secretary of the society ; an elaborate account by 
Mr. J. M. Wilson of the ‘‘Drifts, Gravels, and Alluvial 
Soils of Rugby and its neighbourhood,” illustrated by some 
carefully-executed drawings; a paper by the Rey. T. N. 
Hutchinson “ On Spectrum Analysis and what it has done ;” 
and one on ‘‘ Norway,” by Mr. Sedgwick. Other papers not 
reported appear to have been read at the meetings, which 
must have been interesting ones. We believe no greater 
service can be rendered to the spread of a taste for natural 
science than an encouragement of these efforts at our public 
schools. 
A Naturat History Society has been organised in Baltimore, 
to be called the Maryland Academy of Sciences; its object being 
to promote scientific research, and to collect, preserve, and 
diffuse information relating to the sciences, especially those con- 
nected with the natural history'of Maryland. Its first president 
is Philip T. Tyson ; Vice-president, Dr. John G. Morris ; Corre- 
sponding Secretary, Dr. Charles C. Bombaugh. 
THE Feuille des Feunes Naturalistesis a praiseworthy attempt 
by a small body of French naturalists to establish an inter- 
national school journal of science and natural history for the 
boys of France, Germany, and England. Contributions, written 
in either of the three languages, are invited from any schoolboy ; 
and they will be received from no other source. The proprietors 
are especially anxious to interest our English schools in their 
NATURE 
89 
enterprise ; and we gladly give publicity to a very novel and 
very admirable scheme. The subscription is four francs per 
annum. The editor is M. E. Dollfus, Dornach, Haut Rhin. 
In reference to Mr. Murphy’s communication in our last 
number respecting the purplish pink colour of the sunlight, we 
learn from correspondents that it was noticed also at Tyne- 
mouth, at 5 P.M., on Sunday, the 22nd ult. ; at Cambridge, at 
IO A.M., on Monday, and in Gloucestershire on both these 
days. In all these cases the sky is described as being hasy at 
the time. 
THE American Gas-Light Fournal speaks of an invention 
which aims at the entire abolition of oils and all other lubricat- 
ing material for boxes, slides, and every condition of motion 
where metallic friction is to be overcome or expected. It is 
claimed that such a result has been fully achieved, and there 
are engines now running with this material, which the proprietors 
aver have worked to complete satisfaction for weeks and months. 
It is the work of a scientific and practical gentleman, well known 
both in America and in Europe, who has spent a great many 
years in the study of physical forces and their effects, with especial 
reference to metals. The exact nature of the present invention 
cannot be given, for the reason that patents are being sought for 
in several countries in Europe, and any clear description of the 
materials and processes would be likely to defeat that end. It 
may, however, be said, in a general way, that the discovery— 
which has received the name of Metalline—consists of such com- 
binations and manipulations of various metallic substances, 
as to make a surface on which the ordinary axles, cranks, 
pins, slides, &c., of iron, steel, brass, or any other metal, will 
run with much less friction, without heat that comes within the 
slightest possibility of danger, and without increase (in fact an 
actual decrease is claimed) of the motive power used. These, 
briefly, are the claims, and the inventor refers to a large number 
of trustworthy gentlemen who have examined and tried the thing, 
and speak from actual knowledge. 
A MOVEMENT is being set on foot in Germany for an altera- 
tion in the laws regulating the sending of dangerous substances 
by rail. WHitherto ether, alcohol, phosphorus, &c., can only be 
sent by special trains plying but once a week between the 
principal stations. Dry guncotton is entirely excluded from the 
railways ; manufacturers are in the habit of sending it moistened 
with a certain quantity of spirits of wine; it thereby loses its 
explosive properties and burns like ordinary cotton. 
Weare glad to see ‘‘Cassell’s Popular Educator” still devoting 
a large proportion of its space to science. In the June number 
articles occur devoted to the following natural sciences :—Ethno- 
logy, geology (illustrated with woodcuts, which we recognise as 
taken from well-known handbooks), botany (a continuation of a 
series of excellent elementary articles), mineralogy, meteorology, 
and the science of heat. 
Dr. C. H. ScHAIBLE, of the Royal Military Academy, Wool- 
wich, sends us ‘*The State and Education,” an historical and 
critical essay, with special reference to Educational Reform. 
The subject is exhaustively treated under the heads—Historical 
Sketch of State education ; Compulsory Instruction ; State In- 
struction; Organisation of State Instruction in Germany ; 
Voluntary Instruction ; State Control of Instruction ; and Reform 
of Education in England ; and the general conclusion arrived at 
may be stated to be the necessity of general, compulsory, un- 
sectarian, primary instruction for all children from six to fourteen 
years ofage, under State control, and gratuitous for the poor. 
AT a recent meeting of the French Horticultural Society, M. 
Duchartre gave a history of the investigations into the nature of 
the phenomenon of variegation. He considers it to be now 
completely established that variegation is of the nature of a conta- 
gious disease, which in the case of grafted plants can be communi- 
