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Aug. 11, 1870] 
the Institute, and reaching back to Great Charles Street. The 
purchase money, we believe, is more than 20,000/., a magnifi- 
cent earnest of the ultimate scheme which Mr. Mason has in 
contemplation. We make this announcement with the greatest 
pleasure, and ask—Why are citizens who thus consecrate their 
wealth to such noble and enlightened purposes so rare when 
their reward is so great ? 
THE following are the arrangements for the approaching 
fortieth annual meeting of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science, to be held in Liverpool, commencing 
on Wednesday, Sept. 14. President-elect—Professor Huxley, 
LL.D., F.R.S. — Vice-Presidents-elect—The Right Hon. the 
Earl of Derby; Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., D.C.L. ; 
Sir Philip G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. ; Sir Joseph Whit- 
worth, Bart., LL.D., F.R.S. 3 S. R. Graves, Esq., M.P. ; 
J. P. Joule, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S. ; Joseph Mayer, Esq., F.S.A. 
Chairman of Local Executive Committee—The Mayor of Liver- 
pool (Joseph Hubback, Esq.) Local Treasurer—Henry Duck- 
worth, Esq., F.G.S. The sections are—(A) Mathematics an 
Physics; (B) Chemical Science; (C) Geology; (D) Biology ; 
(E) Geography and Ethnology; (F) Economic Science and 
Statistics ; (G) Mechanical Science. These will meet each day 
from eleven to three o’clock, in St. George’s Hall, the Town 
Hall, Free Public Library, and other places to be duly 
announced, General and Evening Meetings —Wednesday, 
Sept. 14: The first general meeting will be held in the Philhar- 
monic Hall, at 8 p.M., when Professor Stokes, M.A., D.C.L., 
will resign the chair, and Professor Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S., 
will assume the Presidency and deliver an address. Thursday, 
Sept. 15: The Mayor’s First Reception at the Town Hall. 
Friday, Sept. 16: Lecture in Philharmonic Hall, at 8.30 P.M., 
by Professor Tyndall, LL.D, ; the Mayor’s Second Reception at 
the Town Hall. Saturday, Sept. 17: Address to Working 
Men, in Concert Hall, Lord Nelson-street, at 8 p.M., by Sir 
John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. Monday, Sept. 19: Lec- 
ture in Philharmonic Hall, at 8.30 p.M., by Professor Rankine, 
LL.D., F.R.S. Tuesday, Sept. 20: Soirée in St. George’s 
Hall, atS p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21 : Concert in St. George’s 
Hall, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22: Excursions to several 
places. Members requiring further information should apply to 
any of the following Hon. Local Secretaries—Wm. Banister, 
B.A. ; Reg. Harrison, F.R.C.S. ; H. H. Higgins, M.A. ; A. 
Hume, D.C.L., LL.D., Municipal-buildings, Dale-street, Liver- 
pool. 
PROFESSOR WINLOCK is now engaged in photographing the 
sun on a plan which, so far as we know, has not before been 
put into practice. He uses a single lens object-glass, 44 inches 
diameter, 40 feet focal length, of crown glass, made by Clark, 
and corrected for spherical aberration by means of an artificial 
star of homogeneous (sodium) light in the focus of a 5-inch 
collimator. The image of the sun is 4} inches in diameter. 
The tube of the telescope points to the North, and the image 
of the sun is thrown in by means of a reflector of plate glass. 
This glass is zof roughened or blackened on one side, because 
when that was done the heat of the sun distorted the plane 
surface. The slit is at the object-glass end of the telescope, 
and that position has the advantage that when it is thrown 
across no dust is shaken down on to the plate, as is apt to 
happen in the usual way of working. It is Mr. Winlock’s in- 
tention to photograph the sun every fair day now. It seems 
also probable that this mode of photographing might be of 
advantage for the partial phases of an eclipse. 
Mr. H. Power, M.B. (Lond.), and Mr. B. J. Vernon have 
been appointed ophthalmic surgeons to St. Bartholomew’s 
Hospital. 
Dr. LAPEYRERE insists in the France médicale, on the desira- 
bility of disposing of the bodies of the slain during the Franco- 
NATURE 
301 
German war by incremation ‘rather than’ sepulture. Although 
there is a feeling against this mode of obsequy during present 
times, he points out that it was practised by the most civilised 
nations of antiquity. The burial of the dead after a battle is 
always a difficult task ; it is probably never done so completely 
as to destroy the probability of the tainted air giving rise to all 
kinds of infectious diseases ; and when we recollect the enor- 
mous masses of men concentrated in a small space in the present 
conflict, and the season of the year, the matter becomes one of 
very serious moment. 
THE fearful destructiveness of so-called ‘‘ natural” causes of 
death, as compared with even the most sanguinary battles, is 
shown by the fact that during the siege of Sebastopol, the French 
army lost 20,240 men by death in the field or as the result of 
their wounds, 75,000 from epidemic and other diseases. During 
the Italian campaign of two months, the French losses were 
3,664 killed or mortally wounded, 5,000 from disease. 
THERE was a shock of earthquake on the 12th July at 
Smyrna. It was not very strong, but lasted a considerable time. 
The previous shock was on the 24th June, and was felt at different 
parts of Asia Minor and in Cyprus, Crete, and Egypt. Of the 
July shock there were only particulars at the last advices of its 
having been felt at Aivali and some other inland points of Asia 
Minor, We learn further that the earthquake of the 24th June 
was felt at Damascus at 6" 15™p.m. It was felt also in the town 
of Zebedani inthe Anti-Lebanon, N. W. 
THE Geological Survey of Italy will begin its regular definitive 
work next August. Commencing with Florence, it will first of 
all complete the study of a portion of that province. As the 
Ordnance map on the scale of I to 50,000 is not yet completed, 
the Geological Survey will make use of the map made by the 
Austrian Ordnance surveyors on the scale of 1 to $6,400, enlarged 
by photography to the scale of I to 50,0¢o. 
WHATEVER claims Sir Christopher Wren may possess to be 
considered the originator of the Thames Embankment, it is 
hardly fair to leave out of sight those which belong to Sir John 
Kiviet. The latter gentleman was a refugee from Rotterdam who 
came to England in 1666, and possessed some of the ingenuity 
of his brother-in-law Admiral Van Tromp. It does not appear 
howsoon after the Fire of London it occurred to SirJohnto propose 
a river embankment, but as early as 2nd December, 1666, we find 
him examining the soil of the foreshores with a view to discover- 
ing whether it was suitable for making clinker-bricks. On the 
6th of March following Evelyn definitely proposed to the Lord 
Chancellor ‘* Monsieur Kiviet’s undertaking to warfe the whole 
river of Thames, or Key, from the Temple to the Tower, as far 
as the fire destroied, with brick, without piles, both lasting and 
ornamental.” We may presume it was favourably received by 
Lord Clarendon, as upon the 22nd of the same month Evelyn had 
audience of the King with reference to building the Quay, and a 
few days later Sir John Kiviet and the Diarist ‘*‘ went in search 
for brick earth in order to a greate undertaking.” No further 
mention is made of the ¢*heme, and we may perhaps conclude 
that it was abandoned ei: ‘on account of the unpopularity of 
the inventor (whose Dutch extraction would at that time have 
been anatural bar to success), or of the fall of Clarendon at the 
ignominiots close of the war with Holland. At any rate, Kiviet 
has some right to divide the honours with Wren, though, in view 
of the work just completed, we cannot regret that its execution 
was reserved for our own times. 
THE Food Journal for August, which contains some excellent 
articles, thus sums up the possible influence of War on our 
food supplies :—‘‘ Free trade in live-stock is by no means synony- 
mous with /vee trade in meat. France will now get meat whence 
she cannot get live-stock. Her soldiers and sailors will eat the 
salt beef and por: of Cincinnati, Chicago, and St, Louis. 
