Nov. 11, 1869] 
NATURE 
59 
we can only hope that the five nominations yet to be made will 
be equally acceptable. There ismovement too in other quarters. 
The University of Durham is stirring, and desires to establish 
a school of Physical Science, and to change its humdrum terms 
of twenty-four weeks in the year, for terms of eight months. 
All hail to the innovation! Theology at Durham will now have 
Science fora companion. And the great county of York does 
not mean to be left behind, for a preliminary meeting of the 
general council of the Yorkshire Board of Education has been 
held at Leeds, to talk about the establishment of a Science 
college. Should this come to pass, the youth of the North of 
England will have a fair opportunity for scientific education, for 
Lancashire is already provided with a college at Manchester. 
WE learn from the Astronomical Register that an Observatory 
of the first order has been recently inaugurated at Florence with 
much solemnity, and in the presence of a large number of 
scientific men of all countries: among them being many astrono- 
mers who had come to Florence to discuss the measurement of 
the great European arc. From the municipality of Florence, the 
provincial council, the Government, and the King himself, have 
come the necessary funds : Professor Donati stating that in Italy, 
at all events, the maxim is well understood that “as private 
means are insufficient for continuous scientific researches, and as 
it is clear, that every advance of science, whatever it may be, 
becomes sooner or later of the greatest public benefit to all 
classes ; it is therefore natural and just that the public coffers, 
and those of the wealthy, should unite to enrich the patrimony 
of science, which is the patrimony of all.” What a happy day 
it will be for England when her administrators and statesmen, 
and Cabinet Ministers, come up to the Italian standard, when 
the governing classes are sufficiently educated, and single-minded, 
and far-sighted, ‘< help in the erection of scientific workshops. 
A crying want at the present moment is a Physical Observatory. 
He would be a brave man who would suggest that the munici- 
pality of London and the Government should supply us with one! 
HERE is a welcome piece of news from the London Gazette -— 
** The Queen has been graciously pleased to give orders for the 
appointment of Joseph Dalton Hooker, Esq., M.D,, Director of 
the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, to be an Ordinary Member 
of the Civil Division of the Third Class, or Companions of the 
Most Honourable Order of the Bath.” 
THE Geographical Society commenced work on Monday 
evening, the piece de resistance being a long communication from 
Dr. Livingstone, full of interest and important details, to which 
we may return; the main drift of it is already known to our 
readers. 
MELBOURNE no longer enjoys a monopoly of Australian 
science. A “ Royal Society of New South Wales,” to which we 
heartily wish success, has been established in Sydney, and the 
first volume of its “Transactions” is now before us. This 
publication—an octavo of about ninety pages—may be accepted 
as an earnest of good work yet to come ; for, besides the inaugural 
address by the President (Rev. W. B. Clarke) it contains mathe- 
matical, geological, astronomical, and statistical papers. Chief 
Justice Cockle, F.R.S. (who, by the way, is President of a 
Philosophical Society in Queensland), contributes a paper on 
Non-linear Coresolvents ; Mr. Gerard Krefft one on the Bones 
found in a Cave at Glenorchy, Tasmania; Mr. Smalley, the 
Government astronomer, one on the Mutual Influence of Clock 
Pendulums ; and Prof. Pell one on the Rates of Mortality and 
Expectation of Life in New South Wales, as compared with 
England and other countries. In all, there are seven papers in 
the volume, and we congratulate our cousins at the antipodes on | 
their meritorious contributions to the cause of science, 
On Saturday last the Cambridge Philosophical Society cele- 
brated their jubilee by a dinner, Professor Cayley occupying the 
chair. It was pleasant to hear the venerable Professor Sedgwick 
give an account of the formation of the Society, and bless God 
that he had lived to see it so far on its way. 
From Saint John’s College, Cambridge, we learn that besides 
seven minor scholarships or exhibitions, there will be offered for 
competition an exhibition of 50/. per annum for proficiency in 
Natural Science, the exhibition to be tenable for three years in 
case the exhibitioner have passed within two years the previous 
examination as required for candidates for honours ; otherwise 
the exhibition to cease at the end of two years. The candidates 
for the Natural Science exhibition will have a special examina- 
tion on Friday and Saturday the 29th and 3oth of April, 1870, in 
chemistry, including practical work in the laboratory, physics 
(electricity, heat, light), and physiology. They will also have the 
opportunity of being examined in one or more of the following 
subjects, geology, anatomy, botany, provided that they give 
notice of the subjects in which they wish to be examined four 
weeks prior to the examination. No candidate will be examined 
in more than three of these six subjects, whereof one at least 
must be chosen from the former group. It is the wish of the 
master and seniors that excellence in some single department 
should be specially regarded by the candidates. They may also, 
if they think fit, offer themselves for examination in any of the 
classical or mathematical subjects. The exhibitions are not 
limited in respect to the age of candidates. 
WE are promised a new illustrated weekly—the Graphic— 
shortly, and we observe with pleasure that Science is to find a 
place in it, 
THE attention of the Ethnological Society during their 
last session was directed (in a series of able papers recorded in 
their journal) to the Megalithic remains—cromlechs, dolmens, 
stone circles, &c., such as are found in our own island, as well 
as in all parts of Southern Europe, in India, Arabia, and in 
Africa along the shores of the Mediterranean. The desirability 
of collecting evidence of at least relation of race in their 
builders, which the identity of form and size of these stone 
wonders suggest, whether found in Kaseem, in Arabia, or in 
Avebury in Somersetshire—induced the assistant-secretary of the 
Society to send a competent photographer to take views of the 
stone circles of Wiltshire. In these views, 12 inches by 10, by 
a simple method of scale measurement, the exact dimensions are 
recorded, and the compass bearings noted; enabling the closet 
student to make careful comparisons. Will not our learned 
societies, and munificent individuals interested in prehistoric 
studies, come forward to provide funds to secure a systematic 
delineation of at least the European Megalithic structures ? 
WELL-CONSTRUCTED maps are among the most needful appli- 
ances of scientific education: we are glad to notice a Physical Map 
of India, compiled by the Librarian R.G.S. of a size suflicient to 
render it easy of use, yet showing distinctly the comparative 
mountain elevations, the great alluvial plains, river systems, &c. 
This map, which has been adopted by one of our greatest educa- 
tional establishments, is, we understand, the first of a series. 
At the last meeting of the German Chemical Society in Berlin, 
the President, Prof. Hofmann, opened the proceedings by referring 
to the great loss the Society had sustained through the death of 
their honorary member, Thomas Graham; and remarked: 
“Graham’s was one of those singular minds which create an 
open new roads of science. Our young society deems itself 
fortunate to see his name inscribed amongst its members. Let 
us honour his memory by rising from our seats.” On the gth of 
October, a German chemist of high standing followed Graham 
into the grave. Otto Luiné Erdmann was born in Dresden, in 
