July 20, 1 882 J 



NA TURE 



79 



" Vaccination was a beneficent practice. You have 

 discovered its theory and enlarged its applications. You 

 have learned how to produce vaccine matter from a 

 virus ; how a fatal poison becomes a harmless preserva- 

 tive. Your researches on anthracoid disease, and the 

 practical consequences from them, have rendered to agri- 

 culture a service of which all Europe feels the value. 

 But the results already obtained, however brilliant, are 

 nothing in comparison with the applications which may 

 be anticipated from the doctrine to which they are due. 

 You have furnished a sure basis to the doctrine of viruses 

 by associating it with the theory of ferments ; you have 

 opened a new era for medicine by proving that every 

 virus may have its vaccine-matter. 



"Amid these admirable conquests of pure science, natural 

 philosophy, and practice, we might forget that there is 

 one part of the country where your name is pronounced 

 with particular respect — the country once so fortunate, 

 where the silkworm is cultivated. A malady which had 

 spread terror among all the families of our southern 

 mountains had destroyed the fine races they had pro- 

 duced with much care and wise selection. The ruin was 

 complete. Now, thanks to your processes of scientific 

 grainage, the cultivators have regained their security, and 

 the country sees one of its sources of wealth reviving. 



"My dear Pasteur, your life has only known successes. 

 The scientific method, of which you make such certain 

 use, owes you its finest triumphs. The Normal School is 

 proud to count you among the number of its students ; 

 the Academy of Sciences is elated at your researches ; 

 France ranks you among her glories. 



"At a time when, from all parts, testimonies of the 

 public gratitude are arising towards you, the homage we 

 come to offer you in name of your admirers and your 

 friends, may seem to you worthy of special attention. It 

 emanates from a spontaneous and universal sentiment, 

 and it preserves for posterity the faithful image of your 

 features. 



" May you, my dear Pasteur, long enjoy your honour, 

 and contemplate the fruits, ever richer and more nume- 

 rous, of your labours. Science, agriculture, industry, 

 humanity, will feel eternal gratitude to you, and your 

 name will live in their annals among the most illustrious 

 and the most venerated." 



M. Pasteur replied as follows : — 



" My dear Teacher, -It is forty years, indeed, since 

 I had the good fortune to make your acquaintance, and 

 since you taught me to love science and honour. 



" I came from the provinces ; after each of your 

 lectures, I went out from the Sorbonne, transported, and 

 often moved even to tears. From that time, your talent 

 as professor, your immortal works, your noble character, 

 have inspired me with an admiration which has only 

 increased with the maturity of my mind. 



"You must have divined my sentiments, my dear 

 Teacher. There is not a single important circumstance of 

 my life or of that of my family, circumstance happy or 

 painful, which has found you absent, and which you have 

 not, in some sort, blessed. 



" And here you are still among the foremost in expres- 

 sion of these testimonies, excessive truly in my opinion, 

 of the esteem of my teachers, who have become my 

 friends. 



'■ And what you have done for me you have done for 

 all your students. It is one of the distinctive traits of 

 your nature. Behind individuals you have always con- 

 templated France and her greatness. 



" What shall I do henceforth ? Hitherto great eulogia 

 had inflamed my ardour, and only inspired the idea of 

 rendering myself worthy of them by new efforts ; but 

 those which you have addressed to me, in name of the 

 Academy and of learned societies, truly overpower 

 me." 



NOTES 

 The Council of the Society of Arts have elected C. W. 

 Siemens, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., as Chairman for the ensuing 

 year. 



It has now been definitely decided to build a permanent 

 observatory on Ben Nevis. 



It is announced that the Duke of Bedford has given 5000/ 

 for the endowment of a lectureship in physical science at Balliol 

 College, Oxford. 



Dr. George Dickie, ex-Professor of Botany in the Uni- 

 versity of Aberdeen, died at Aberdeen on Saturday morning. 

 The deceased, who was a native of Aberdeen, and was educated 

 at Marischal College, was for some time in practice in the city 

 as a doctor and dispensing chemist. His tastes, however, lay 

 very markedly in the line of botanical research. He held the 

 Botanical Chair in the Queen's College, Belfast, for a number 

 of years, and on the fusion of King's College and Marischal 

 College into one Aberdeen University he was appointed Professor 

 of Botany. He discharged the duties for seventeen years, only 

 resigning in 1877 on account of impaired health. Dr. Dickie 

 had written numerous papers, and published some books con- 

 nected with his favourite study, these including " A Handbook 

 of Flora of Aberdeenshire," which was subsequently supple- 

 mented by a much larger volume, "The Botanist's Guide," 

 published in 1S60. His favourite department of botanica' 

 study w as Algie. On the return of the Challenger expedition he 

 was, for the purposes of study, supplied with the Alga collected 

 during the cruise. 



Let us draw the attention of local natural history societies to 

 the prospectus of the forthcoming International Fisheries Exhi- 

 bition. On some points these societies might be able to render 

 material aid to the Commissioners, who, we believe, are desirous 

 of enlisting their co-operation. Indeed, all of our readers interested 

 in such an exhibition should procure copies of the prospectus by 

 applying to the Secretary, 24, Haymarket, London, S.YV. The 

 Exhibition will cover a very wide field, and therefore appeals to 

 a great variety of interests. 



Prof. A. Smith of the Swedish National Museum, who has 

 been delegated as the representative of Sweden at the Fishery 

 Exhibition in London next year, has commissioned Dr. A. Malm 

 to prepare a collection of the sea fish species of the west coast of 

 Sweden, to be forwarded at the expense of the museum. Dr. 

 Malm will also arrange the collection which the Gothenburg 

 Museum will exhibit, Mr. O. Dickson having offered to defray 

 the expenses thereof. Mr. Dickson has been chosen as the 

 "honorary correspondent " of Sweden at the exhibition. 



The Sydney Morning Herald justly animadverts in strong 

 terms on the geography in some of the school books in common 

 use in New South Wales, under the sanction of the government. 

 These are published by a well-known Glasgow firm, and no 

 attempt has been made to adapt them either to the conditions of 

 the Southern Hemisphere, or to recent knowledge. The Herald 

 gives some choice examples of the " facts " taught to the rising 

 generation at the Antipodes. " At twelve o'clock," the book 

 tells us, "in the day, when you go out to play, if you look at 

 the part of the sky where the sun is shining, that part is called 

 the south ; then turn and look behind you, where the sun never 

 comes, that is the north, it is opposite the south." Again, 

 " the country you live in is Ireland ; it is called an island because 

 it has water all round it, and is not joined to any other country ;" 

 the Herald states, "and this has been taught to Australian 

 children, at the expense of the public of New South Wales, for 

 the last thirty or forty years." In a chapter headed " Austra- 

 lasia," there is the following passage :— ",The name of Austral- 



