Feb. 7, 1884] 



NA TURE 



343 



this intensely practical problem is an excessively difficult 

 one, requiring for its successful prosecution no small 

 expenditure of time, labour, thought, and money. 



NOTES 

 The Royal Society at their last meeting elected the following 

 five savants foreign members : — Anton de Bary (Strasburg), 

 Carl Gegenbaur (Heidelberg), Leopold Kronecker (Berlin), 

 Rudolph Virchow (Berlin), Gustav Wiedemann (Leipzig). 



We are inforuied that it has been arranged that Sir William 

 Thomson will give, at Johns Hopkins University during the first 

 twenty days of October next, eighteen lectures on "Molecular 

 Dynamics."' 



Captain W. J. L. Wharton, R.N., at present in command 

 of H.M. surveying vessel Sylvia, has been selected to succeed 

 Capt. Sir F. Evans, K.C.B., as Hydrographer to the Navy. 



On Tuesday afternoon, at Oxford, Convocation witnessed in 

 the Sheldonian Theatre the most excitirg scene that has been 

 en.icted m the University since ihe opposition to Dean Stanley 

 ■ as Select Preacher. Last summer Convocation passed by a 

 small majotity a vote of lo,coo/. for a new physiological labora- 

 tory. The vote was opposed by the anti-vivisectionists and by 

 some on the ground of economy. A memorial got up by Mr. 

 Nicholson against vivisection having produced no effect on the 

 Council, the opponents of Prof. Burdon Sanderson determined 

 to oppose the decree brought before Convocation on Tuesday 

 for empowering the sale of stocks for the 10,000/. voted last 

 June. The decree was supported by the Dean of Christchurch, 

 Dr. Acland, and the Warden of Keble, and was oppcsed by 

 Prof, Freeman and Mr. Nicholson. After a stormy debate the 

 vote was carried by 1S8 votes against 147. The result was 

 received with enlhu-iasm, and Oxford is to be congratulated on 

 it. To what shifts Dr. Sanderson's opponents were put 

 may be seen from what the Times calls " the most astonishing 

 speech " of Mr. Freeman the historian, " who afforded a curious 

 example of the confusion of thought into which even intelligent 

 men may be led by an over-ind.ilgence in sentiment. It would 

 be as reasonable, said Mr. Freeman, for the historian to illus- 

 trate the fesiivities of Kenilworth by an actual bull-baiting as for 

 the physiologist to experiment upon living animals. Mr. Free- 

 man, in his zeal to establish the scientific character of the his- 

 torian, forgets the difference between description and discovery, 

 and ignores the fact that the physiologist, at least under the 

 existing law, makes bis experiments not for the instruction of 

 I upils, but with a view to discover what is as yet unknown. A 

 uiore curious article in the indictment against vivisection we have 

 njt met with since the celebrated letter in which Sir George 

 Dujkett told the Koyal Commission that he had no evidence to 

 give, but that he considered vivisection 'an abomination introduced 

 froui the Continent going hand in hand with Atheism.'" The 

 Tuius in its leader on the subject treats it sensibly and moderately. 

 "All those who are open to argument have been long ago con- 

 vinced that science cannot proceed on her beneficent way without 

 the aid of experiments, some of which must be painful ; and 

 those who are njt open to argument, and those who believe, like 

 some of the wiseacres wnose opinion is on record, that 'medical 

 science has arrived probably at its extreme limits,' are not likely 

 to be convinced by anything that can be said or by any facts that 

 can be brought against them. Parliament, on the recommenda- 

 tionof one of the strongest Koyal Commissions ever appointed, 

 has legislated in the matter, and physiological experiment is now 

 under limitations as severe as it is possible for it to be consist- 

 ently with any kind of progress in discovery. Abuses are of 

 the rarest occurrence. Men like Dr. Sanderson are not only 

 humane, but they ate conscious that public opinion is awake on 



the matter, and their discretion as to what should be done and 

 what should not is absolutely to be trusted. It is to be hoped 

 that the sensible action of Convocation will not only encourage 

 the Waynflete Professor to proceed as >his scientific conscience 

 may guide him, but will convince the well-meaning but irra- 

 tional opponents of scientific freedom that further action on 

 their part would be not only vexatious but unsuccessful." 



By the election of Dr. J. H. Gilbert to the sep.arate chair of 

 Rural Economy, Oxford has gained a man of European reputa- 

 tion, whose advent to the professoriate all parties will welcome. 



Dr. p. P. C. HoEK, of Leyden, writes to inform us of the 

 death of Prof. Dr. H. Schlegel, Director of the Royal Museum 

 of Natural History at Leyden, on January 17 last. Schlegel 

 w^as born in 1S04 iu Altenburg (Saxony). It was intended to 

 make him a brazier, but on his paying a visit to Vienna about 

 1824, his love for natural history was awakened. He came to 

 Leyden in 1825, and tried to obtain an appointment as traveller 

 for the Museum of Natural 'History, of which Dr. Temminck 

 was then superintendent. He did not receive that appointment, 

 but stayed in the Museum as preparator. He remained in this 

 position until he was nominated conservator in 1839. He was 

 appointed to the post of Director of the Museum in 1858 after 

 the death of Temminck. Schlegel was doctor Jwiioris causa of the 

 Leyden University, member of the Royal Academies of Sciences 

 of Amsterdam and Berlin, &c. The Leyden Museum of Natural 

 History, well known to every zoologist, has become under 

 Schlegel's superintendence one of the richest in existence. For 

 descriptive zojlogy, and especially that of the vertebrata, 

 (reptiles, birds, and mammals), Schlegel was a first authority ; 

 the number of pipers and monographs published by him in these 

 groups is very considerable, and their scientific importance 

 great. 



The death is announced of M. Richard Cortambert, fils, at 

 the age of forty-eight years. He was attached to the geographi- 

 cal department of the National Library, and, in company with his 

 father, had published many geographical works. 



ADMlliAL MouCHEZ read a paper before the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences at the sitting of February 4, in which he stated that 

 it was impossible to make any observations with large instru- 

 ments in the old establishment at present the headquarters of 

 French astronomy. He proposes to erect a new observatory on 

 a site in the vicinity of Paris. Admiral Mouchez states, more- 

 over, that to find the money required it would be advisable to 

 sell the new grounds which were annexed to the Observatory in 

 the time of Leverrier. The extent of this land is about 28,000 

 square metres, and the Admiral states that the sale might realise 

 4/. per metre. This ground u as given to the Government by the 

 City of Paris, which sold it for the nominal price of 4/. ; it is 

 supposed tliat the Municipal Council will oppose the scheme, 

 which has come to light quite unexpectedly. 



By the last mail from Iceland we have received a communica- 

 tion from Dr. Sophus Tromholt, dated Reykjavik, middle of 

 December, in « hioh he informs us that the weather had till then 

 been mild and very unfavourable for his researches, in con-e- 

 quence of vvhicla he defers to the next mail giving to Nature an 

 account of his studies in the island. By the same mail apparently 

 the reports which have lately been circulating in the Scandinavian 

 press of terrific eruptions in the island have also arrived. It is 

 stated in private letters that in November two enormous columns 

 of smoke were seen in the direction of the great Vatnajokull, and 

 that ashes had fallen iu the Seidi^fjord. According to the direction 

 it seemed as if this eruption was far more easterly than thit 

 occurring in the spring. In connection herewith it may be of 

 interest to call attention to the note published in Nature (vol. 

 xxix. p. 135), in which it is reported that on the night of 



