168 
possible influence on the growth of coral reefs on its 
shores, 
The first operations under the new direction were carried 
on between Key West and Havana, along the route now 
occupied by a telegraph cable. Dredgings were made at 
depths varying from 90 to 300 fathoms, and yielded 
Crustaceans, Annelids, Mollusks, Radiata, Foraminifera, 
Sponges, a single vegetable specimen, being a minute 
alga, Centroceras clavulatum, and “a number of nodules 
of a very porous limestone, similar in colour and texture 
to the limestone forming the range of low hills along the 
shore of Cuba, but composed apparently of the remains 
of the same animals which were found living.’ Among 
these Deltocyathus, Caryophyllia, and Pteropods were 
recognised in the stone, and found in various stages of 
fossilisation. 
At the end of a descriptive list of the specimens col- 
lected during the cruise, M. de Pourtales remarks ;—“ It 
would be premature to compare this deep-sea Fauna with 
the animals inhabiting the regions of lesser depth on the 
coast of Cuba or Florida. In the first place, many of the 
smaller forms—such, for instance, as the Bryozoa or the 
Hydroid polyps of those shores—are not yet sufficiently 
known to enable us to say if any of the species dredged 
exist in any other than the abyssal region. Then, a very 
different value must be assigned to the different classes of 
animals under examination. Thus, the dead shells must 
be left out of the question, at least the smaller ones, for 
they may have dropped with the excrement of fishes, or, 
in the case of Pteropods, have sunk from the surface after 
the death of the animal. The Crustaceans and Annelids 
being abundant and generally sedentary, will, when better 
known, afford good characteristics of the regions of un- 
equal depth. The same remark applies to the sponges 
and the Foraminiferze ; the great abundance of the latter 
and the ease with which they can be brought up by the 
sounding lead render them particularly useful.” 
From this it will be understood that the United States 
Coast Survey is in good hands, and may be expected, 
when the time comes, to take part in the suggested 
dredging expedition all across the Atlantic, when England 
and the States, after accomplishing each a half, are to 
meet and shake hands in mid-ocean. 
NOTES 
PROFESSOR HENRY, the President of the American Academy 
of Sciences, and Director of the Smithsonian Institution, is now 
in this country ev vowée to the Continent to attend the meetings 
of the International Commission on Standards. 
WHEN presiding over the distribution of prizes for the 
Faculty of Arts and Laws at University College, London, on 
Friday last, the Bishop of Exeter made some admirable remarks 
on the nature of atrue system of education, and of the places 
which ought to be occupied by classics, mathematics, and natural 
science, and the proper method of teaching them. In all true 
teaching a scientific method is indispensable ; it is because this 
scientific method has been applied to instruction in Greek and 
Latin, that such good results have been obtained in this depart- 
ment of education. ‘The introduction of scientific teaching has 
not hitherto met with the same success because it has not been 
carried out in the same spirit. In very many instances, those 
who are endeavouring to promote the study of natural science as 
a part of education, have made‘the great mistake of omitting 
altogether that which is essential to true study, namely, scientific 
method. The reason why the teaching of the natural sciences 
still hangs back in our public schools is, in great measure, the 
unscientific method in which science has been taught by many. 
To form a part of real education, the study of science must be 
pursued in the same rigorous manner as that of classics or mathe- 
NATURE 
[Sune 30, 1870 
matics ; it will then prove as hard work to the learner, and the 
result of its introduction must be most beneficial. While the 
exclusive study of mathematics must fail as a complete discipline 
for the understanding, and the great mathematician may be 
uncultivated as a man, it is very rarely that you see such a result 
in the student of external nature ; therefore, this study must rank 
by the side of the other, and must hold a place in no way inferior 
toit. The practical importance given to these remarks by the 
experience of Dr. Temple at Rugby, ought to make them carry 
great weight with all teachers of science. 
Dr. HeEnricr has been elected by the Council of University 
College, London, Professor of Mathematics, in the place of Dr. 
Hirst, who resigned the professorship, on his appointment to the 
Assistant-Registrarship of the University of London, Dr. Hen- 
rici had acted as Prof. Hirst’s assistant during the whole of the 
session just ended, He had pursued his mathematical studies at 
Carlsruhe under Professor Clebsch, and subsequently at Heidel- 
berg, where he attended Prof. Hesse’s lectures on mathematics, 
and those by Prof. Kirchhoff on theoretical physics. While at 
Heidelberg he took his degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the 
highest grade, and the Philosophical Faculty of the University 
considered the dissertation which he wrote on that occasion to 
have so high a scientific value, that they recommended the goyern- 
ment of Baden to recognise its importance by conferring upon Dr. 
Henrici a special public distinction. Dr. Henrici subsequently ~ 
prosecuted his studies at Berlin and Kiel, and then came to Eng- 
land, where he has resided nearly five years, 
THE completion of the deep-sea cable between Falmouth 
and Bombay was celebrated last Thursday evening by an enter- 
tainment given by Mr. Pender, chairman of the British-Indian 
Submarine Telegraph Company, at which royalty largely assisted. 
Complimentary messages were exchanged between the Viceroy 
of India and the President of the United States, the distance of 
8,442 miles being accomplished in forty minutes ; between the 
Prince of Wales and the Khédive, the Prince of Wales and the 
King of Portugal, the Prince of Wales and the President of the 
United States, and the Prince of Wales and the Viceroy of 
India. This is the first instance of direct telegraphic communi- 
cation between India and America. The comic side of tele- 
graphic communication was presented by the message between 
the Prince of Wales and the Viceroy, which, though despatched 
soon after twelve at night, and only nine minutes on its way, 
reached Lord Mayo at five in the morning, when his lordship 
was, naturally enough, fast asleep. What will be the result 
when the earth is completely girded witha telegraphic cable, and 
a message is sent to the antipodes? The question between 
night and day will be expanded to one between to-day and to- 
morrow, to say nothing of yesterday. 
THE Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and the 
Adancement of Science has held two meetings since our last 
issue, 
THERE will be an election at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 
October next, to six Demyships and one Exhibition. Of the 
Demyships, one will be mathematical, one in natural science, four 
classical. The Exhibition will be in natural science. It is 
necessary that candidates for the exhibition should prove to the 
satisfaction of the electors that they cannot be supported at 
college without such assistance. Evidence on this point will be 
considered as confidential. No person will be eligible for the 
Demyships who shall have attained the age of twenty years, and 
(in the case of candidates in mathematics and natural science) 
who is not sufficiently instructed in other subjects to matriculate 
as a member of the college. The stipend of the aboye Demy- 
ships and Exhibition is 757 per annum, inclusive of all allow- 
