Nov. 25, 1869 | 
NATURE 
113 
the early training of many children is entrusted ; and if our 
children are to be properly trained, the teachers must first of all 
be faithfully taught. 
Nearly all these women are practically shut out from the lectures 
both at South Kensington and University College, because none of 
the lectures are given in the evening, 
At University College they don’t pretend to care for such an 
audience. At South Kensington something is said about those 
engaged in teaching: a mere mockery; for how can any one 
who is hard at work all day go to a lecture in the forenoon? 
I trust, Sir, you will use your already powerful voice in urging, 
especially on our scientific ‘teachers, the—to me it seems—great 
duty before them to help those who need and cry for help the 
most. M. 
NOTES 
THE three annual medals of the Royal Society have been 
awarded thus: The Copley Medal goes to M. Regnault, one of 
the first among the many living French physicists and chemists : 
one of the Royal Medals has been conferred on Dr. Matthiessen, 
distinguished for his chemical and physical researches ; while 
Sir Thomas Maclear, the Cape astronomer, with whose valuable 
contributions to science all are doubtless familiar, carries off the 
other. The medals will be presented on the 3oth instant, at 
the annual meeting of the Society. 
WE hear that Dr. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., so well known 
for his many scientific researches, has resigned the appointment 
which he held under {the Meteorological Committee. As the 
arrangements between the Meteorological and the Kew Com- 
mittees are not well understood, we may mention that the exact 
appointment resigned is that of Secretary to the Committee, and 
Director of their Central Observatory. 
ALL anxiety regarding the fate of Dr. Livingstone is, we are 
rejoiced to say, at an end. From a recent telegram we learn that 
in May last he was at Ujiji, on the east coast of Lake Tanganyika, 
in lat. 5° S. To this place his supplies had been sent. Burton 
gives the distance from the coast as 540 geographical miles, 
increased by the winding route pursued to 950 miles, occupying 
150 days’ march. It is the great mart for slaves and ivory and 
palm oil, and the most fertile place in that portion of Africa. 
The fair season lasts from May to September. While on this 
subject we would mention that the map which appeared in our 
last issue was drawn by the author of the paper, and did not 
emanate officially, as our expression might seem to indicate, 
from the Royal Geographical Society. 
THE following is an extract from a letter addressed by Mr. Lyon 
Playfair, M.P., to the honorary secretary of the City of London 
Middle-class School :—‘ As part of your freehold I observed some 
inferior houses the site of which would be admirable for chemical 
laboratories and scientific museums in relation to commerce. I 
should like to see built upon this site a building suited for these 
purposes, open to the school during the day, and to the working 
classes in the evening. No boy with such advantages need leave 
the upper classes of the school without being able to examine the 
various kinds of merchandise which he will meet with in his 
occupations, so far, at least, as would enable him to test chemically 
their relative excellences, or detect their adulterations. No boy 
need then leave the school without having had his physical and 
political geography copiously illustrated by objects of natural 
history, in their relation to the imports and exports, upon which 
the prosperity of the country so largely depends. The cost and 
maintenance of such a building as that indicated may be estimated 
at a. sum of from 12,000/. to 15,0007. But what would this sum 
be to the great London corporations, which, by their recent 
public meeting, have shown their anxiety to co-operate in the 
advancement of technical education? Abroad we see much larger 
sums spent in the erection of mere chemical laboratories to 
adyance the industrial education of the people, Berlin and Bonn 
have recently erected them at the expense of 50,000/. each, and 
Leipsic, I understand, at a cost of about 30,0007, The much 
smaller sum that I have indicated as sufficient for your wants 
might be subscribed in a single day by such wealthy corporations 
as the Goldsmiths’, Grocers’, Mercers’, Haberdashers’, Fish- 
mongers’, Drapers’, Skinners’, Merchant Taylors’, Clothworkers’, 
and Salters’ Companies, and others with which you must be more 
familiar than myself. They have expressed themselves zealous 
and willing, and I am sure could not engage in a more profitable 
expenditure.” Here is a fair challenge, which we hope will be 
fairly met. The benefit which would result from adopting- 
Mr. Playfair’s suggestion is simply incalculable. 
Av the Meeting of the French Academy of Sciences on the 
15th inst., M. des Cloiseaux was elected a member of the 
Section of Mineralogy and Geology, in the place of the Vicomte 
d’Archiac. 
THE volume of the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society 
about to be issued will consist of Lieut.-Col. Tennant’s Report 
on the Total Eclipse of the Sun of August 17-18, 1868. It will 
be copiously illustrated with engravings of the various phases of 
the Eclipse. The volume owes much to the scrupulous care with 
which Mr. Warren de la Rue, in the author’s absence, has 
superintended its printing and the enlargement of the photographs. 
THE American Government evince a great liberality in the 
encouragement they afford to scientific publications. It was thus 
that Dr. George Engelmann was enabled to produce the 72 
exquisite plates which illustrate his paper on ‘‘ The Cactaceze of 
the Mexican Boundary Survey,” a district which contains at least 
one-tenth of all the known species of cactus. There is another 
recent instance. Until 1867, the physical geography of the 
Californian peninsula may be said to have been unknown. In that 
year Mr. J. Ross Browne, Mr. W. M. Gabb, of the Geological 
Survey, and Dr. Von Lohr, of the School of Mines, Freiburg, 
made a scientific reconnaissance, with a corps of assistants, through- 
out the whole length of the peninsula. The account of their re- 
searches forms a valuable contribution to geographical knowledge, 
and will be found in Mr. Ross Browne’s ‘‘ Official Report on the 
Mineral Resources of the United States for 1868.” The first 
correct map of the district, almost the whole of which was 
purchased cheap from Juarez by an American yenture, the 
Californian Land Company, at a time when it was probable that 
Maximilian would be successful, was compiled from the labours 
of this party. 
THE first meeting of the Oxford Ashmolean Society for the 
present Term will be held on Monday next, when a communica- 
tion will be made to the society by Professor Lawson, “On the 
Nature of Chlorophyll, and the changes it undergoes.” Mr. 
Heathcote Wyndham will explain also a modification of Galton’s 
Altazimuth for Geological Surveying. Certain specimens recently 
added to the University collections will be exhibited at the meeting. 
WE extract the following from the letter of a correspondent in 
Algeria :—‘‘T was on the point of starting for Grand Kabylie, 
with the view of searching for ferns, &c., when one of those 
horrid tempests came on for which the N.W. point of the 
compass here is celebrated. It did great damage, and its effects 
at Oran were most disastrous. The magnificent new harbour 
recently finished there has been swept away as completely as a 
child’s castle of cards, and, like the Temple of Jerusalem, not one 
stone stands on another. Great efforts were made to preserve it; 
the General Commanding the Provinces went down and sat before 
the waves in a chair, like Canute, with all the material of the 
engineer department, in the way of chains and tackle, around 
him. Sa Grandeur the Bishop came next, with bell, book, and 
candle, and blessed the sea; next came the Mahomedan Mufti 
with his Koran ; but the waves laughed at them all, and toppled 
oyer the immense masses of concrete of which the breakwater 
was formed, like ninepins,” 
