26 
NATURE 
[| Vov. 4 1869 
call here on his far more than princely munificence, to be the 
cry of the poor to heayen for bread and fresh air, in his own 
country, he finds the progress of Science alone needing his 
fostering aid. We have before us the first annual report of the 
Trustees of the Peabody Academy of Science, giving a full account 
of the manner in which the gift of 140,000 dollars is to be 
expended or invested, and of the progress already made in the 
buildings, natural history collections, musuems, and published 
proceedings, which we trust will worthily carry down the name 
of Peabody to posterity. 
M. Louis LAcazE has bequeathed to the French Academy 
of Sciences the funds necessary for the foundation of three prizes 
of 10,000 francs each, to be awarded every second year. The 
sciences for which these prizes are to be given are Physiology, 
Physics, and Chemistry. 
Wer understand that Mr. James Young intends founding in 
Glasgow an institution for the study of Technology, to be opened 
in the course of the ensuing year. 
A FRrencu translation of Professor Huxley’s Elementary 
Physiology is announced. 
WE understand that the appointment of Master of the Mint 
has not yet been filled up. 
EARTHQUAKES seem approaching inconyeniently near us. 
On Sunday night and Monday morning severe shocks were felt at 
Frankfort, Darmstadt, Wiesbaden, and Mayence; while a 
succession of shocks on the night of October 2, seems to have 
been unpleasantly violent, as the following extract from a letter 
from Coblentz, with which we have been favoured, will show :— 
“The greatest event we have had lately was an earthquake! It 
was on the night of Saturday, October 2, a little before 12, when 
most people were in bed, ard were startled out of their sleep. 
I was wide awake, luckily, so came in for the whole ; the noise 
was most alarming, and when my bed shook under me I guessed 
what it was. People in the town ran into the streets, and there 
was general alarm, as the shocks were so severe. The worst 
was about ten miles off, where chimneys fell and some walls 
cracked, but everywhere the accompanying noise seems to have 
been very great, like a train running under the house in bumps 
and jerks. The whole extent of the earthquake was very 
considerable, and many said they had never felt so bad a one 
before.” 
HERE are some notes from Oxford :— 
On the 28th ult., the Warden and Fellows of Merton 
College elected Professor Clifton, F.R.S. (as Professor of 
Experimental Philosophy) to a Fellowship in the College. This 
is, We believe, only the second time that a college has availed 
itself of the power given by its new statutes of electing a professor 
to a fellowship, the person so elected being unconnected with the 
college in question, either by past or present membership, or by 
his professorship. Instances have occurred of the election of 
Professors to Fellowships in the colleges to which their Professor- 
ships were attached, but in this case the authorities of Merton 
College, without the least pressure or solicitation from without, 
have acted up to their increased powers given them by the last 
statutes, although the professorship is attached to Wadham 
College. We hail this piece of news with the greatest pleasure, 
as it indicates the desire which is now beginning to show itself, 
to devote the funds represented by fellowships to the purposes 
of University work, rather than to treat fellowships ,as simple 
prizes. The triennial elections of members of Council of the 
University is an important event at Oxford, as that body has sole 
power of initiation in University matters. The following were 
elected as the result of the poll on Thursday last :—The Dean 
of Christ Church ; the Presidents of Trinity and Magdalen ; 
Professors Price, H. Smith, and Scott ; Mr. Ince, of Exeter ; 
Mr. Liddon, of Christ Church, and Mr. Fowler, of Lincoln. 
The deputy appointed by Sir Benjamin Brodie to deliver lec- 
tures for him this term is Mr. A. Vernon Harcourt, of Christ 
Church. There are nineteen ‘‘ unattached students ” among the 
Freshmen, unattached students being persons who have availed 
themselves of the recently granted privilege of becoming members 
of the University, without becoming members of any College. 
Mr. Lawson, the Professor of Botany and Rural Economy, 
will give a course of Lectures during the ensuing term on the 
minute anatomy of plants. They are to be delivered in the 
Herbarium at the Botanic Gardens every Tuesday and Friday at 
8 p.m. Is this hour fixed as the one at which it is most likely 
that members of the University, interested in Botany, will attend? 
We well remember when Prof. Lindley lectured at University 
College, London, to audiences of from eighty to a hundred 
students at 8 A.M. An election to the Lee’s Readership in 
Anatomy will be holden at Christ Church on Saturday, De- 
cember 18, Candidates for the office are requested to apply for 
information to the Dean on or before Saturday, the 13th of 
November. 
AnD here is a note from Cambridge :—The Rev. T. G. 
Bonney, B.D., Tutor of St. John’s, has been appointed Lecturer 
in Natural Science at Cambridge ; and Mr. Trotter, of Trinity, 
will lecture on Electricity, Magnetism, and Botany. We under- 
stand that these arrangements have been made because the staff 
of university professors is not large enough to do all the teaching 
in Natural Science that is required. We congratulate the 
University on the increased desire for instruction in these sub- 
jects ; but is the number of men in the University competent to 
teach them so small that it has been found necessary to entrust 
Electricity and Botany to the same lecturer ? 
ASTRONOMY 
The Astronomical Congress at Vienna 
Tue German Astronomical Society, although it dates from only 
one or two years back, is already in earnest work, and this year 
a Congress, extending over several days, was held at Vienna, at 
which not only were the president and council elected for the 
next year, but many papers of astronomical importance were 
read. Count Marshall has been good enough to send us the 
following account of the meeting :—The Society numbers actually 
209 members, most of them superintendents of German and Extra- 
German Observatories ; about 50 met at Vienna, among whom 
MM. Struve, of Pulkowa (President), Moller (Sweden), Forster 
(Berlin), Scheibner (Leipzig), Hersch (Neufchatel), Lieut.-Gen. 
Bager (Berlin), Prof. Schaub (Trieste), Prof. Julius Schmidt 
(Athens), Mr. Schonfeld (Mannheim), were perhaps the most 
eminent. On Sept. 13, the first day of meeting, M. Struve opened 
the session with an exposition of the purpose of the Society and 
the recent progress of astronomy, especially of the knowledge of 
the physical nature of celestial bodies. Since the last meeting at 
Bonn, the number of members, the pecuniary resources, and the 
library have notably increased, and the following publications 
have been issued: Two years of the Quarterly Periodical, 
Dr. Auwers’s paper on Variable Proper Movements, Dr. Lesser’s 
Tables of Pomona, and Dr. von Asten’s new Tables of Reduction 
for the ‘* Histoire céleste Frangaise.” The study of the Asteroids, 
new Lables of Jupiter and of Comets, especially of the periodical 
ones, are in active preparation. Prof. Auwers distributed copies 
of tables for the reduction of positions of fixed stars from 1750 
up to 1840, prepared at the Observatory of Pulkowa; and gave 
an account of his own new reduction of Bradley’s observations, 
undertaken by order of the same Observatory, and of his tour to 
England for this purpose, during which he found, at Oxford, 
a number of old and very complete observations of fixed stars. 
The President referred to his connection with the German North 
Polar expedition. Prof. Julius Schmidt exhibited and explained 
a map of the Moon 6 feet in diameter, made at the Observatory 
of Athens. Prof. Zollner (of Leipzig) detailed his recent observa- 
tions of the Sun on the Janssen-Lockyer method. 
~ September 15.—Prof. Bruhns (Leipzig) commemorated the 
hundredth birthday of A. von Humboldt, and distributed the 
