332 



NATURE 



[Fed. 25, 1875 



difficulties which he and his contemporaries had to en- 

 counter in their youth from the want of any means of 

 carrying on their education, especially in science, during 

 the intervals they had to spare from work. The aims 

 which he has in view in founding the College may be 

 gathered from the following extract from his address : — 



" Whatever is necessary for the improvement of scien- 

 tific industry and for the cultivation of art, especially as 

 applied to manufactures, the trustees will be able to 

 teach ; they may also, by a provision subsequent to the 

 original deed, aflbrd facilities for medical instruction ; 

 and they are authorised, aiid indeed enjoined, to revise 

 the scheme of instruction from time to time, so as to 

 adapt it to the requirements of the district in future years, 

 as well as at the present time. It is not my desire to set 

 up an institution in rivalry of any now existing ; but to 

 provide the means of carrying further and completing 

 the teaching now given in other scientific institutions and 

 in the evening classes now so numerous in the town and 

 its neighbourhood, and especially in connection with the 

 Midland Institute, which has already conferred so much 

 benefit upon large numbers of students, and which I am glad 

 to see represented here to-day. My wish is, in short, to give 

 all classes in Birmingham, in Kidderminster, and in the 

 district generally, the means of carrying on, in the capital 

 of the Midland district, their scientific studies as com- 

 pletely and thoroughly as they can be prosecuted in the 

 great science schools of this country and the Continent ; 

 for I am persuaded that in this way alone — by the 

 acquirement of sound, extensive, and practical scientific 

 knowledge — can England hope to maintain her position 

 as the chief manufacturing centre of the world. I have 

 great and I believe well-founded hope for the future of 

 this foundation. I look forward to its class-rooms and 

 lecture-halls being filled with a succession of earnest and 

 intelligent students, willing to learn not only all that can 

 be taught, but in their turn to communicate their know- 

 ledge to others, and to apply it to useful purposes for the 

 benefit of the community." 



Thus it will be seen that Sir Joseph Mason's design 

 has been conceived in a spirit of true wisdom ; he 

 perceives that the prosperity of Birmingham, like the 

 prosperity of the country at large, depends upon the 

 extent to which every branch of history is founded upon 

 a broad and deep scientific basis. He evidently does not 

 intend that his institution will become a mere "Tech- 

 nical" College. We should think that the trustees will 

 carry out the design and wishes of the founder if they aim 

 to make the Mason College do for Birmingham what the 

 Owens College is doing for Manchester. Moreover, we 

 hope that as in the case of Manchester other endowments 

 will be added to that of the wise and generous founder, 

 and that thus the trustees will be able ultimately to carry 

 out his ideas to their fullest development. Meantime all 

 who have the cause of scientific education at heart, all 

 who wish for the highest prosperity of the country, will 

 feel warm gratitude to and admiration for Sir Joseph 

 Mason, a true benefactor to Birmingham, to England, 

 and to Science. 



NOTES 



We can only, this %\eek, express our regret — a regret which is 

 universal — at the death of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., P'.R.S., 

 which took place on Monday last. Sir Charles was born on 

 Nov. 14, 1797, so that he was nearly 78 years of age. We hope 

 to give an obituary notice in our next number. 



We regret to announce the death, on Feb. 1 7, of the cele- 

 brated astronomer, Prof. F. W. August Argelander, at Bonn. 

 He was born at Wemel oir March 22nd, 1790, and began his 

 studies at the University of Konigsberg, where he soon became 

 a zealous pupil of Bessel, and in 1820 his oflicial assistant at 



the Observatory. Three years later, he followed a call to Abo 

 (Finland), and his principal occupation there was the observation 

 of fixed stars showing large proper motions. These observa- 

 tions were continued at Helsingfcr.-, where he settled in 1S32. 

 He succeeded in pointing out nearly 400 fixed stars, which in 

 the time from 1755 until 1S30 have moved over more than 

 fifteen secor.ds in the direction towards the constellrtion of 

 Hercules. In 1837, when his pamphlet " On the Motion of the 

 Solar System " had appeared, he received an invitation from the 

 University at Bonn, where an observatory was being built, which 

 was completed in 1S45. Here he continued his studies most 

 energetically, and particularly investigated the variable stars. In 

 his " Uranonietria" he gave excellent determinations of star-mag- 

 nitudes. His celestial atlas, which was only completed a little 

 while ago, comprises all stars from the first to the tenth mag- 

 nitude ; it is entirely based on his own determinations of 

 position, and decidedly ranks amongst the best works of the 

 kind. 



An important telegram was received by the French Aca- 

 demy of Sciences, at its sittting of the 22nd February, from 

 M. Mouchez, the head of the St. Paul Transit Station. It is 

 said that the observation of internal contacts was perfectly suc- 

 cessful. The external contacts were not good, owing to clouds, 

 the weather having been bad for three months. Numerous 

 photographs have been taken. A steamer had left St. Paul for 

 Cherbourg, bringing the detailed results of the observations. 



At the same sitting, M. Dumas announced that the Academy 

 had received, almost at the same moment, two different parcels 

 sent by two different ships, both consisting of documents sent by 

 Capt. Fleuriais, the head of the Pekin Transit ENpedition. 

 These parcels, having been sealed, will not be opened for some 

 time to come. 



The following quaint extract from the Gazetteer of May 31, 

 1769, will no doubt have some interest for our readers at the 

 present time : — " The Transit of Venus over the sun is a pheno- 

 menon whereby the astronomers can determine the distance of 

 the sun from the earth, and the dimensions of the whole solar 

 system, more accurately than by any other metliod. Such a 

 transit will be visible near Londo"non Saturday afternoon, June 3, 

 a little after seven o'clock, if the weather be fair ; and never more 

 for this age, nor perhaps for many ages to come, will such a 

 phenomenon be seen in this quarter of the world. The curious, 

 both ladies and gentlemen, who are desirous of being entertained 

 with a sight of this phenomenon, may have the best situalicn for 

 that purpose, with the assistance of proper persons and tele- 

 scopes, at Mr. Lightfoot's, at Denmark Hall, on Camberwell 

 Hill, in the road towards Dulwich, where the best of accommo- 

 dations and wines may be had." 



An official intimation has been received from Dr. Neu- 

 mayer confirming the announcement, as regards the Deutsche 

 Seewarte at Hamburg, contained in the Times telegram noticed 

 in our last number. It appears that the Government have pur- 

 chased Herr v. Frceden's interest in the establishment, and that 

 he has no longer any connection with it. It does not yet appear 

 what is the relation of the Hydrographic Office at Berlin, of 

 which Dr. Neumayer is chief, to the Deutsche Seewarte, which is 

 also under him. 



A Society has been fomied in Calcutta for obtaining spectro- 

 scopic observations of the sun. 



We are much gratified to hear that the Committee of 

 the Chester Society of Natural Science recommend for the 

 consideration of the members that a permanent memorial 

 to the lateCanon Kingsley, their founder and president, be 

 established. The memorial proposed and recommended is (i) 

 That a Scholarship (including a medal), to be called "The 



