I04 



NA TURE 



[December i, 1898 



II may be assumed also that the leading members of the 

 tlovernment look with favour upon the plan, though nothing 

 can be done without the consent of Parliament. The financial 

 details will require to be closely examined. We believe, how- 

 ever, it can be shown that the bargain would be a good one for 

 the State, if the Government were to take over the existing 

 charges on the property of the Imperial Institute, amounting in 

 all to about 5000/. a year for rent, taxes, and interest on 

 mortgage. To replace the University of London in a position 

 equal to that in which it stands at present, if it is dispossessed 

 of the Burlington Gardens estate, would probably cost a good 

 deal more, and it would leave no margin, either in sp.ice or in 

 money, for the new work which ought to be undertaken if our 

 educational system is to stimulate and nourish our industries 

 and our commerce. It is, in our judgment, most probable that 

 the conspicuous place in the public eye given to the reconsti- 

 tuted University by its installation in the magnificent buildings 

 uf the Imperial Institute, especially if it were to be given the 

 designation of the Imperial University of London, would attract 

 substantial support, on a scale not unworthy of the Empire, 

 both in the shape of liberal benefactions and of the enthusiastic 

 and enlightened co-operation of able men. This policy will in 

 no respect interfere with the development of systematic and 

 ■ irganised teaching, for which an opportunity will henceforward 

 be atVorded, and for the bestowal of degrees founded on such 

 leaching, but will rather complete and strengthen it. .\t the 

 same time, a higher value and a wider extension will be secured 

 for the external examinations of the University, which opens 

 its doors to competitors from every part of the Empire. It 

 will not be creditable to the British people or to the inhabitants 

 of London, if there is not an energetic attempt to bring what 

 ought to be the centre of the most advanced methods of 

 education up to the level of the work that has been done not 

 only in Berlin and Leipzig, but in many smaller German towns. 



NOTES. 

 The anniversary meeting of the Royal Society took place 

 yesterday as we went to press. An account of the meeting and 

 the annual dinner will be given next week. 



M. Dei'F.ret has been elected a member of the Paris 

 -Academy of Sciences, in the Section of Mineralogy, in succession 

 to the late M. Pomel. 



Prof. D'Arcy Thomtson, of University College, Dundee, 

 has been appointed to the office of Scientific Member of the 

 Eishery Board for Scotland, vacant by the resignation of Sir 

 John Murray. 



Mr. R. T. Baker has been promoted from assistant curator 

 to curator of the Technological Museum, Sydney. 



We notice with much regret the announcement of the death 

 of Dr. G. G. AUman, E. K.S., formerly Regius Professor of 

 Natural History in the University of Edinburgh. We regret 

 also to have to announce the death of Mr. Edwin Dunkin, 

 F. R.S. , the distinguished astronomer. 



The Southern Cross, with Mr. Borchgrevink and the other 

 members of the Antarctic expedition under his direction, arrived 

 at Hobart (Tasmania) on Monday. It is expected that the 

 voyage will be continued in a fortnight's time. 



It is with great pleasure that we announce the fact that 

 the prize problem of the Naturwissenschaftlich-Mathematischen 

 Eacultat of Heidelberg, for a determination of the velocities of 

 various gases and vapours at dilTerent temperatures, has been 

 successfully won by Mr. Ernest Stevens, of Brighton, for which 

 he has been awarded the gold medal. 



At the last meeting of the Council of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, 112 candidates were elected. This is the largest 

 numt>er elected at any one meeting, and it makes the member- 

 ship of the Society considerably exceed four thousand. 

 NO. I51S, VOL. 59] 



A VIOLENT Storm was experienced along the New England 

 coast of the United Stales on Sunday, and did an immense 

 amount of damage. It is reported that the wind reached a 

 velocity of ninety miles an hour at Block Island. 



We learn from ihe British Medical Journal that the monu- 

 ment to Prof. Charcot, which is to stand in front of the Sal- 

 p^triere, will be unveiled on Sunday next, December 4, at ten 

 a.m. NL Leygues, .Minister of Public Instruction, will preside 

 at the ceremony. 



The gypsum boulder, found in the boulder clay of Great 

 Crosby, and described in previous numbers of Nature, has now 

 been finally set up in Islington, Great Crosby. The District 

 Council, advised by Mr. T. Mellard Reade, have had it erected 

 upon a pedestal in the attitude in which it lay embedded in the 

 clay. This was found a difficult thing to do, but the result is 

 most successful, and makes the boulder not only of greater 

 scientific value, but artistically more efiective and picturesque. 



It is announced in Science that the U.S. Board of Ordnance 

 and Fortification has decided to institute an investigation of 

 the possibilities of flying machines for reconnoitreing purposes 

 and as engines of destruction in time of war, and 25,000 dollars » 

 of the fund at the disposal of the Board was appropriated for • 

 the purpose. The experiments will be carried out under the 

 direction of General A. W. Greely, of the Signal Service, who 

 will have the advantage of the advice of Prof. Langley. 



At the meeting of the Society of Public .\nalysts to be held I 

 next Wednesday evening, December 7, an illustrated lecture I 

 will be delivered by Mr. A. H. .\llen, of Sheffield, on "The! 

 use of the micro-spectroscope, and the methods of delecting I 

 blood in chemical-legal investigations." Any persons who 1 

 may be interested in the subject are invited by the Council to 

 attend. Intending visitors, who will not be introduced by 

 members of the Society, are requested to apply for tickets to 

 Mr. E. J. Bevan, Hon. Secretary, 4 New Court, Lincoln's 

 Inn, London, W.C. 



The College of Physicians of Philadelphia announces that the 

 next award of the Alvarenga Prize, being the income for one 

 year of the bequest of the late Senor Alvarenga, and amounting 

 to about 180 dollars (36/.), will be made on July 14, 1S99. 

 Essays presented for competition may be upon any subject in 

 medicine, but must not have been published. They should be 

 received by the Secretary of the College on or before May I, 

 1899. 



By the death of Prof. Michele Stefano di Rossi, which 

 recently look place at his home at Rocca di Papa, seismologists 

 have lost from their ranks an enthusiastic worker whose name 

 will long be remembered. By his voluminous writings in 

 the Bolletini del Vulcanismo Italiano, of which he was editor, 

 and his " Meteorologica Endogena," di Rossi drew the attention 

 of the people of Italy and the world to the importance of study- 

 ing the ubiquitous movements of the earth's crust ; and there is 

 no doubt that it was in great measure the result of this incentive 

 that we now find in the Italian peninsula the elaborate system 

 which exists for seismological investigations. During his later 

 years failing health prevented his taking any active part in 

 the modern developments of seismology ; but it was always a 

 pleasure for him to visit the observatory a few steps from his 

 own door, where with Dr. Cancani he could watch and discuss 

 the work of others. The subject to which he devoted the greatest 

 attention was perhaps tromometry, in connection with which he 

 devised many instruments, and made very many thousands of 

 observations. Di Rossi's tremor-recorders are to be seen in 

 nearly all the Italian observatories ; whilst the Rossi-Forel 

 scale, as indicating the intensity of an earthquake disturbance, 

 has found acceptance throughout the world. 



