March 10, 1870} 
ISAO G gl 8 
487 
of the British Association. If any city more than another 
needs the sanitarian besom it must surely be Glasgow, when it 
is remembered that it enjoys the unenviable notoriety of having 
the highest death-rate of all the great towns of the kingdom. 
Its desire to get this stigma removed is indicated by the fact 
that the Police Commissioners, at their last meeting, on the 
motion of a genuine sanitarian, the chairman of the Health 
Committee, voted the sum of roo/. towards defraying the 
expenses of the British Association Committee referred to 
above. We understand that the fund already amounts to 
upwards of 1,000/. 
THE Swiney Lectures on Geology are to be delivered at the 
London Institution, by Dr. Cobbold, F.R.S., commencing on 
March 1oth, During the course it is proposed to discuss, among 
other subjects, ‘The scope and tendency of the physical and 
biological sciences,” ‘The best modes of acquiring adequate 
conceptions of geologic time,” “‘ Evidences of the incompleteness 
of the geological record,” and “The claims of geology as an aid 
to the acquirement of high mental culture.” 
ON the 13th of January died F. T. Otto, Professor at the 
Polytechnic School of Brunswick, known chiefly as the trans- 
Jator of Graham’s ‘‘ Elements of Chemistry.” Two editions of 
this translation having been rapidly sold, a third edition was 
commenced in 1852, in which the plan of the original was 
entirely changed. Otto treated mineral chemistry in three 
volumes ; theoretical chemistry being reserved to Buff, Kopp and 
Zamminer, and organic chemistry to Kolbe and Fehling. Otto’s 
chemical researches were not considerable. His books, however 
on the manufacture of vinegar and on agricultural industry are 
held in great esteem. Otto was born in Saxony in 1809. 
THE paper to be read on Thursday at the Royal Society, by 
Mr. Warren de la Rue, Dr. Balfour Stewart, and Mr. Loewy, is 
expected to be of great interest. 
PROFESSOR UNGER, of Vienna, a well-known botanist, whose 
death we reported last week, was, it is now stated, found mur- 
dered in his bed at Graz; and no trace of the murderer has as 
yet been discovered. A priest has taken this opportunity to 
assert from the pulpit at Cilly, Styria, that the body of the late 
philosopher had probably been destroyed by the deyil himself, 
who had just claims upon his soul ! 
WE learn from the Socéety of Arts Journal that a Hygienic 
Council, attached to the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, has 
been created, with the function of improving the drainage, 
enforcing proper street scavengering and public cleanliness, both 
in the capital and throughout the provinces. Its further duty 
will be to improve existing civilian hospitals, and establish new 
ones where needed. 
THE examination of candidates for the Royal Agricultural 
Society’s prizes will take place in the week commencing 
26th April. 
THE Royal Asiatic Society offer to treat with any learned 
Society for the use of rooms in their new premises in Albemarle 
Street, which are more than they require. 
THE Photographic News announces the death of Mr. Bingham, 
an English photographer long resident in Paris, and at one time 
assistant to Faraday. 
THERE is a talk of an International Congress of Geographers 
at Antwerp. Many eminent French savamts have promised to 
_take part. 
Mr. ALGLAVE reports in the Reve des Cours Scientifiques 
that the Sars Fund now amounts to about 260/. 
WE acknowledge the receipt of the ninth number of the Ave 
Sunday Advocate, with a supplement, containing Professor 
Huxley’s lecture ‘‘On the forefathers and forerunners of the 
English people ”—a paper by Wm. Duthie, Esq, ‘‘ On the social 
economy of Sunday, stating reasons for the opening of picture 
galleries, museums, and gardens, and running railway trains and 
steamboats on Sunday ”—also the first of Dr. Carpenter's lectures 
“*On the physical conditions and animal life of the deep sea.” 
Cosmos complains that the approaching réunion at the Sor- 
bonne instead of being an assemblage of philosophers is to be 
merely a gathering of students, to compete for and receive 
prizes. 
WE acknowledge the receipt of the Meteorological Tables 
for the Quarter ending 31st December last by Mr. Glaisher. 
THE Revue des Cours Scientifigues states that the botanical 
collection formed by Baron Delessest, and since maintained by 
his son, who died lately, has been left to the town of Geneva. 
The library has been deposited in the Academy of Sciences. 
WITH reference to Prof. Stanley Jevons’s paper, read last 
month at the Royal Society, on the representation of logical 
processes by mechanism, it seems right to mention that Mr. 
Alfred Smee, F.R.S., published a book twenty years ago on 
the ‘* Progress of Thought,” in which engravings were given of 
a machine for the representation of mental operations. At 
present it is difficult to see what would be the utility of such 
machines ; but if they are to be regarded as a step towards one 
that will some day be really useful, then the invention may be 
accepted as something more than an ingenious curiosity. 
In the report of the Royal Commission on Pollution of 
Rivers, the presence of arsenic in the water and mud of rivers 
near alkali works is pointed out, and it is also stated that the 
London sewage at Barking contains as much as ‘004 of arsenic 
in 100,000 parts. 
Tue Levant Herald states that the Turkish Government is 
about to adopt the French Metric System. It is to be gradually 
brought into use. The oke very nearly corresponds to the 
kilogramme. 
Tue second of a course of weekly lectures on subjects con- 
nected with Economic Science, especially as concerned with 
labour and capital, under the auspices of the Social Science 
Association, was delivered inthe house of the Society of Arts, John 
Street, Adelphi, on Tuesday evening, by Frederick Hill, Esq:, 
on ‘The Identity of the Interests of Employers and Work- 
people.” The chair taken by George Godwin, Esq. 
THE Council of the Society of Arts will consider the award 
of the Albert medal early in May next. 
AN injunction has been granted to restrain the Corporation of 
Leeds from discharging sewage into the river Aire. 
THE first Exhibition of Spring Flowers at the Gardens of the 
Royal Botanic Society, is to take place on the 30th and 31st of 
this month. 
AT a Session of the Council of University College, London, 
on Saturday last, Mr. George Grote, president, in the chair, Mr. 
Henry Maudsley, M.D. Lond., Fellow of the College, was ap- 
pointed Professor of Medical Jurisprudence. A Whitworth 
Exhibition of 252, was awarded to Mr. Robert Forsyth Scott, 
a student of the college. 
THE new chemical laboratory erected for the use of the 
scholars at Eton College has just been opened for school pur- 
poses, under the superintendence of Mr. Madan. There are two 
large rooms, one of which will be used for lectures and the 
other for school purposes. 
From a circular lately issued to the Government science 
teachers, we learn that the Lord President and the Vice- 
President of the Committee of Council on Education have 
found it advisable to modify the provisions of the Council’s 
minute of the 30th November, 1869, in reference to the mode 
of paying those teachers for their arduous work of instructing 
the industrial classes in elementary science, Since the teachers 
