248 



NA TURE 



{jfan. 14, 1886 



alty Manual for Deviations of the Compass," who knew 

 the difficulties of that work for his fellow-seamen, should 

 wish to present the subject, on which he had worked so 

 long, in an elementary form more suitable to their every- 

 day requirements. Evans therefore, in 1S70, published 

 his " Elementary Manual for Deviations of the Compass,'" 

 a ivork which has been very well received by the nautical 

 world, and has been translated into various European 

 languages. 



With the exception of some papers read at certain 

 meetings of the British Association, and two lectures read 

 at the Royal United Service Institution in 1865 and 1873, 

 Evans subsequently relaxed his personal investigations 

 into the magnetism of iron ships, and turned more to 

 terrestrial magnetism. 



Thus, in 1872, he contributed a paper to the Royal 

 Society, on the magnetic declination in the British 

 Islands, and compiled the magnetical instructions for the 

 voyage of H.M.S. ChaUt-iigcr, being again assisted in 

 this, and for the last time, by his old fellow-labourer, 

 Archibald Smith. 



Lastly, in 1S78, Evans read an able and instructive 

 lecture, on the magnetism of the earth, before the 

 Geographical Society, showing the distribution and direc- 

 tion of the earth's magnetic force and the changes in its 

 elements as then known. 



Capt. Evans was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 in 1862. He sat for many years on its Council, and was 

 more than once a Vice-President. He was also a Fellow 

 of the Royal Astronomical and Geographical Societies ; 

 he served for many years as member of the Meteorological 

 Committee of the Royal Society, and on the change in 

 the constitution of that body became a member of its 

 Council. 



In recognition of his public services the Companion- 

 ship of the Bath was conferred upon him in 1873, 'ind in 

 1 88 1 he was advanced to the Commandership of the 

 same order. 



Sir Frederick Evans's last public service after his re- 

 tirement from the Admiralty in 18S4 was as the British 

 Delegate at the Congress of Washington for the esta- 

 blishment of a prime meridian and questions kindred 

 to it. 



JOHN MORRIS 

 pROFESSOR JOHN MORRIS died on Thursday, 

 -'■ January 7, having been laid aside by illness for 

 several months. Born at Homerton in iSio, he spent 

 almost the whole of his life in or near London. For 

 many years a pharmaceutical chemist at Kensington, he 

 passed all his spare time in exploring the neighbourhood 

 of the metropolis and in collecting from field and book 

 the great store of geological knowledge which was one 

 of his especial characteristics. But science claimed 

 more and more of his time, and at last he abandoned 

 business entirely. In 1855 he was appointed Professor 

 of Geology at University College, London, which post 

 he held till 1877, when he was succeeded by Prof 

 Bonney. In 187S the honorary degree of MA. was 

 conferred upon him by the University of Cambridge. 



Morris was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society 

 in 1845, ^rid, whilst in health, was a constant attendant 

 at its meetings. He received the first Lyell Medal in 

 1876, and has four times received the Wollaston Dona- 

 tion Fund. In the Geologists' Association he has been 

 an earnest worker, having been twice its President, and 

 always one of the foremost leaders at its excursions. 



The earliest publication by Prof Morris was " Observa- 

 tions on the Strata near Woolwich," in the Magazine of 

 Natural History for 1835. Most of his own descriptive 

 papers refer to the south-east of England and in the 

 Oolitic districts, but in association with others he has done 

 i mportant work elsewhere. His paper with Murchison, 



'■ On the Palseozoic and their Associated Rocks of the 

 Thiiringerwald and the Harz," read before the Geological 

 Society in 1855, is still one of the best accounts of those 

 districts in the English language. He was joint-author 

 with Dr. Lycett of an important monograph for the 

 Palaeontographical Society on the Oolitic MoUusca. 



Considering the enormous amount of information stored 

 in Morris's mind, one is surprised that comparatively so 

 little original work came from his pen, and especially that 

 so few species of fossils except those of the Great Oolite 

 bear his name as their author. For this, however, we may 

 perhaps be thankful ; he may have been equally well em- 

 ployed in reducing the number of those already in use. 

 This he did to good purpose in his " Catalogue of British 

 Fossils," the first edition of which was published in 1843, 

 the second in 1854. From that date onwards he was 

 engaged in collecting materials for a third edition, which 

 unfortunately he did not complete. Every working geologist 

 and palaeontologist has made constant use of this book, 

 and those who have used it most best know the vast 

 amount of labour which its preparation entailed. It is 

 not a mere list, compiled from various authors ; but 

 nearly every species has been critically examined and the 

 synonymy carefully traced. 



Fond of conversation, a ready and pleasing public 

 speaker, Morris was always glad to impart his knowledge 

 to others. This knowledge was varied and exact ; 

 minerals, rocks, and fossils were equally familiar to him, 

 and he was well read in the wider questions of physical 

 geology. 



He was held in high regard by all who knew him ; and 

 those who gathered around his grave at Kensal Green 

 came to pay the tribute of personal friendship not less 

 than that of admiration for scientific worth. 



DISTRIBUTION OF DRIVING-POWER IN 

 LABORATORIES 



A NOVEL arrangement has been adopted at the 

 -'^ Physiological Laboratory at Cambridge, and at the 

 Owens College, Manchester, for driving instruments in 

 various rooms by means of a central motor. At the 

 Brown Institution shafting has been used for the same 

 purpose. This method is commonly used for driving 

 machines which require a good deal of power, but it is 

 not suitable for laboratories where the power is often 

 required in many rooms, on different floors and some 

 distance apart, thus causing great complication in the 

 fittings. Again, when shafting is used, the instrument to 

 be driven must be placed opposite a pulley on the shaft ; 

 in the arrangement about to be described, the instrument 

 may be moved to any part of the tables, and the tables 

 can be fixed in any part of the rooms. 



We will now describe in detail the arrangement as 

 applied in the Laboratory at Cambridge. The motor is 

 an Otto gas-engine. It was found most convenient to 

 place it in the cellar. 



In Fig. I a pulley, B, fixed to a short length of shafting, 

 is driven by a cord from the fly-wheel of the gas-engine, 

 shown at a. The small pulleys at C are necessary to 

 guide the cord in the required direction. This direction 

 is vertical, hence no sag can compensate for changes of 

 length due to stretching and the varying moisture of the 

 atmosphere. The following arrangement was therefore 

 adopted. Two grooves are turned in the pulley B, over 

 which the cord passes twice, having between the first and 

 second time passed under a pulley which supports a 

 weight, W. Thus, the only effect of a change of length 

 in the cord is to raise or lower the weight. 



The short length of shafting driven in this manner by 

 the pulley b is used to distribute the power to various 

 rooms. A cord runs to each room, and forms a separate 

 system, which can be stopped or started independently. 

 This is done in the following manner. Fig. 2 shows a 



