53Q 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 28, i! 



Becquerel had been created expressly for him, in accordance 

 with a recommendation of the Academy of Sciences. To give a 

 proof of the exceptional activity exhibited by Becquerel up to 

 the age of ninety years, M. Fremy stated that he had published 

 during his life not less than 529 works or papers in scientific 

 periodicals. M. Barras, Perpetual Secretary of the French 

 Agricultural Society, reviewed the services conferred by 

 Becquerel by his works on agriculture. M. Berthelot, a 

 member of the Municipality, returned thanks to the savants, and 

 the proceedings terminated by a banquet given to the scientific 

 guests by the Becquerel family. All the speakers made allusion 

 to the merits of M. Becquerel the younger and of his son, now 

 rlpftiteur to the Polytechnic School. 



The burthen of the address of Mr. Woodall, M.P., in the 

 Education Department of the Social Science Congress at Not- 

 tingham, was that without science in our systems of education, 

 our industries are bound to wane before those of other countries 

 where a scientific system of technical education exists. He 

 showed what is being done in Germany and France in this 

 respect, and how much headway we have to make before we can 

 reach the standpoint of these countries. In this department Mr. 

 Rowland Hamilton read a paper on the endowment of research. 

 " As to the endowment of the more special forms of research as 

 more commonly understood," he said, " there is hardly any limit 

 which it is desirable to assign to it provided due assurance is 

 given that the work desired is efficiently carried out. The ser- 

 vices thus rendered are pre-eminently of general and national 

 importance, and must be provided for by national expenditure. 

 The economic doctrine o c supply and deoiand as regards the 

 interchange of individual services is wholly inapplicable to the 

 question. The difficulty lies in the administration of the funds 

 devoted to such purposes so as to insure that they are given to 

 tho.e duly qualified to use them. The method of State grants 

 in aid, dispensed through the agency of existing societies and 

 learned bodies who have earned a title to public confidence, 

 might be largely developed with the greatest advantage and the 

 relative functions of the Government and of such sojieties in 

 their relation to this subject were discussed. The multiplication 

 of ' idle fellowships ' had a demoralising tendency. While any 

 undue interference on the part of the central aduiini-trati in was 

 to be altogether deprecated, it was essential to reserve to the 

 State an ultimate and quasi juiicial control, which woull best 

 secure that publicity and definite responsibility which are the 

 best safeguards against abuses in any dire ;tion." Inspeakiiv* 



1 the subject of technical trailing Mr. Hamilton remarked that 

 it was n )t neces-ary to teach special crafts in primary schools, 

 but it was mo it desirable that a general se'eatific groundwork in 

 technical knowle Ige should be included in a system of national 

 education. 



The Iron and Steel Institute meeting at Vienna has evidently 

 been a great success. Several subjects of great manufacturing 

 i nportance have had the benefit of being discussed by men expe- 

 rienced in various methods : and the hospitality towards the 

 English visitors has been profuse. 



WHEN Admiral Mouchez received the news of the obsi rva- 

 tions made by Thollon of the new comet he telephoned it to the 



1 lavas agency, and it was telegraphed by them to every paper in 

 France. This is the first time that this organisation has been 

 used in France for scientific purposes, and for the future it will 

 be employed for any notable celestial occurrence. 



We are pleased to learn that the result of the letter which 

 appeared in our columns a few weeks ago has been that a short 

 course of popular science lectures has been planned, to be given 

 on Friday evenings at the Victori 1 Hall, Waterloo Road. If 

 this experimental course is successful it is proposed to extend it. 



Admission is one penny (or threepence and sixpence for balcony 

 seats), and the hall will seat 2500. 



Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. will shortly add 

 to the International Scientific Series, translations of Ribot's work 

 on "Diseases of Memory, an Essay in the Positive Psychology," 

 and of N. Joly's work on " Man before Metals." These will be 

 followed by Mr. Robert H. Scott's "Elementary Meteorology," 

 and Prof. Sheldon Amos's "Science of Politics." 



We have received three new parts of the " Encyclopaedia dcr 

 Naturwissenchaften," published by Trewendt, of Breslau — parts 

 5 to 7 of 'he second division. Part 5 contains the continua- 

 tion of Kenngott's Word-book of Mineralogy, Geology, and 

 Palaeontology ; in this we find two specially interesting articles 

 by Lasaulx — on Continents and Delta Formations. In the 6th 

 part we have the Word-book of Chemistry by Ladenburg and 

 Collaborateurs. One of the leading articles in this part is that 

 on Alkaloids, by Jacobsen, of Rostock. The 7th part is 

 devjted to Pharmacological Botany, by Wittstein. 



" The Tropical Agriculturist" is the title of a monthly record 

 of information for planters of coffee, tea, cocoa, cinchona, india- 

 rubber, sugar, tobacco, cardamoms, palms, rice, and other 

 products suited for cultivation in the tropics, published by 

 Messrs. A. M. and J. Ferguson, of Colombo. Haddon and Co. 

 are the London agents. 



After an address by the President, Mr. Shadworth H. 

 Hodgson, I.L.D., on October 9, and a paper on Spinoza on 

 October 23, the Aristotelian Society propose devoting the 

 meetings in November and December to a series of papers 

 on the relation of Leibnitz and Wolf, and Locke, Ber- 

 keley, and Hume, to Kant. In January the Society will com- 

 mence the study of Kant's Critic of Pure Reason, which will 

 raise for discussion the validity of the primary concepts of 

 science, and which will occupy the remainder of the session. 

 The meetings will be held at 8, John Street, Adelphi, at 7.30 

 p.m. Particulars may be obtained from the Honorary Secre- 

 rary Dr. A. Senier, I, Bloomsbury Square, W.C. 



It is estimated by Prof. Dufour (Arch, ties Sciences) that in a 

 disastrous hailstorm on August 21 last year, about 100,000 cubic 

 metres of ice fell in the district of Morges alone in a few 

 minutes, and probably more than 1,000,000 cubic metres in the 

 whole canton de Vaud that afternoon. Yet this is a small 

 matter compared with the terrible hailstorm of July 13, 1788 (re- 

 garding which he makes some calculations). He gives some 

 interesting facts, which seem to have been overlooked, in the 

 history ai paragrties, or hail-preventers. Old men in the Canton 

 de Vaud remember such apparatus, of lightning-rod character; 

 being set up in several vineyards in 1S25 ; the object being to 

 hinder the formation of hail, by withdrawing electricity from 

 the clouds. A hailstorm in July 1S26 devastated, it is said, the 

 best protected vineyards, and the paragrties were then removed. 

 Vet it was on receipt of encouraging and credible testimony from 

 Italy and France (Prof. Dufour shows by extracts) that this 

 brief experiment was made. Considering the distmce of hail- 

 forming clouds from the highest paragrties, it is difficult, the 

 author considers, to admit an influence of such apparatus ; yet 

 it must be remembered that electricity is " nn veritable fluide a 

 surprises"; often showing new and unexpected properties. Lately 

 it is said to have been observed in some Swiss cantons, that 

 showers of hail are more rare near forests than in unwooded 

 districts. Prof. Dufour notes this as a matter calling for investi- 

 gation. A forest may be regarded as a c ollection of paragrlles, 

 and should it be proved to have the influence referred to, the 

 theories which prevailed in 1S24 and 1S23 would gain new 

 support. 



