May 23, 1872] 



NATURE 



69 



eloquently urged on the ground that King's College was an in- 

 stitution founded to promote the union between Science and 

 Religion, and therefore the happiness of mankind. In the course 

 of the meeting it was mentioned that the woiks connected with 

 the Tliames Embankment have entirely destroyed the dining- 

 hsll of the College, entailing a loss of 1,400/. or 1,500/., for 

 which no legal redress can be obtained ; and tl.is although noble 

 dukes receive compensation to llie extent of thousands of pounds 

 for the injury inflicted on the privacy of their girdcns by tlie 

 Sinr.e works. 



0.\ the occasion of the annual conferring of degrees by the 

 University of London on the i5'-h inst., Mr. Lowe, who is a 

 member of the Senate of the Ui.iversity and its representative 

 in Parliament, expressed an opinion in favour of makirg Greek 

 an op'ional subject at the Matriculation Examination, to be sub- 

 st.tuted either by an adiiitional modern language, or by some 

 branch of natural or physical Ecienc?. The pioposed change 

 has now been b.forc the body of graduates for the last two 

 years, but has not yet received the sanction ( f Convocation. 

 At the last meeting, on llie I4tli inst., the subject was referred 

 back to the Annual Committee of Convocation for further con- 

 sideration. In the course of the same speech, Mr. Lowe urged 

 benefactors of education to have money for the endowment of 

 scholarships at the University, rather than of professorial chsirs, 

 on the ground that the pay of lecturcts ought to be in propor- 

 li'n to the amount of instruction ihcy give, i.e. to the number 

 of their pupils. Mr. Lowe appeais, however, to forget that 

 qnality, as well as quantity, is required in teaching, and that this 

 quality cm only be secured by original work, to devo'.e himself 

 to which the professor must be to a certain extent independent 

 tf the emoluments derived from actual teaching. 



The special correspondent of the Daily N'eios, writing from 

 Zmzibar under date of April 19, states that no letters had been 

 received there from either Dr. Livingstone or Mr. Stanley up to 

 lliat date, and that war was still going on in Unyanyembe 

 between the Arabs and the natives. 'I he terrible hurricane of the 

 13th had wrecked every vessel in the harbour of Zanzibar except 

 the Ahydos ; the haibour was then one mass of wreck, and 

 European residents expect that a famine may be the result, the 

 cocoa-nut and cIove-trees,[the chief products of the island, having 

 been almost entirely destroyed, and that trade will be brought to 

 a standstill for some time. Mr. Ho-ace Waller forwards to the 

 Times a letter just received from Mr. Oswell Livingstone, in 

 which he speaks of the expedition being detained in Zanzibar by 

 the hurricane up to April 20 ; and Prof. Corfield sends one to 

 the same journal from Dr. James Christie, physician to the 

 Sullan of Zanzibar, who says that he believes Dr. Livingstone is 

 alive and well, .and that Mr. Stanley has relieved him at Ujiji, 

 and that he would not be surprised to meet them both in Zanzi- 

 bar any day. 



^\'^; are very glad to be able to announce that the United 

 States Senate has unanimously pa;.sed a bill, appropriating 

 50,000 dols. to meet the expenses of the observations upon the 

 tiansit of Venus in 1S74, on the part of the National Observatory 

 in Washington. The bill has been introduced into the Lower 

 House, and will doubtless soon become a law. 



I'ROr. Palmier: of Naples has received an address, signed by 

 seventy citizens of Rome, expressing their .admiration of his 

 character and conduct, and congratulating him on the success of 

 hs efforts to save numerous victims from destruction in the late 

 terrible eruption of Vesuvius. A communication from Rome 

 states that he is to be nominated a senator of the Kingdom of 

 Italy. 



The lioyal Danish Society of Copenhagen offers the follow- 

 ing prizes for competition during the ensuing year : — For a de- 

 scripiiou of the spectra of the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter, 



Saturn, and Uranus, which shall determine the question relating 

 to the position and special nature of the principal lines, accom- 

 panied Iiy a critical comparison of the resuhs previously ob- 

 tained by Huggins, Secchi, Vogel, and, as respects Jupiter, liy Li 

 Sueur, of Melbourne — the gold medal of the Society, tu^e'hjr with 

 a sum of money of fifty Danish ducats (450 frs.). For a thorough 

 research into the organic reproduction of on; of the groups of 

 setiferous Annelida;, the Naidid.-e, ScylUdaj, or SerpuIiJx, 

 (Specially with relation to the question whether the same indi- 

 viduals are both gemmiferous and sexual, or whether the sexual 

 and or^^anic modes of reproduction are strictly sepai'ated in 

 dilferent individuals and generations, accompanied by the neces- 

 s iry drawings — the gold medal of the Society. The essays may 

 be written in Latin, French, English, Geman, Swedish, or 

 Danish; and mu^t be addressed before the end of October 1873 

 to the secretary of the society, M. J. J. S. Steenstrup. 



Some little time ago we noticed in our columns an effort that 

 was being m.ide to r;iie a memorial to the late Sir R. Rede, the 

 founder of the Rede Lecture at Cambridge, and we are glad to 

 be able to state that in consequence several fresh subscribers 

 have added their names to the list, so that the fund now amounis 

 to So/ , which is exactly one half of the sum required for the 

 window that it is proposed to fill with stained glass in the church 

 where the remains of this far-seeing friend to knowledge rest. 

 The Rede Lecture is to be delivered in the Senate IIou5e, Cam- 

 bridge, on Friday, 24th inst., by iMr. Edward H. Freeman, 

 D.C. L., on the Unity of History, and it is hoped that members 

 of the University, as well as others interested in the promotion 

 of science, will contribute towards the completion of the memorial 

 of which a partial commencement has been made by inserting 

 aporiionof theglass. The Rev. Professor Selwyn, D.D., has 

 kindly consented to receive subsciiptions at Mortlock's Bank, 

 Cambridge, "Rede Meraoriil Fund;" and Mr. Norman 

 Lockyer, F.R. S., the late Rede lecturer, in London, at 6, 

 Old Palace Yard, Westminster. The names of the subscribers 

 will be found in our adverlising columns. 



We have to record .wit'i great satisfaction the appointment of 

 Mr. M. J. Darlington Ward, B.A., F.L.S,, to be one of ller 

 Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. iMr. Barrington Ward was a 

 scholar of Magdalene Ilall, and first of his year in iNatural 

 Science at Oxford. lie has recently occupied the post of Science* 

 master at Clifton College. 



The post of teacher of Chemistry at Cli'"ton College will be 

 vacant at the end of the present term. 



Ajiong recent deaths of persons eminent in Science, Ilarpii' s 

 Weekly mentions that of Dr. .Samuel Jackson, former Professor 

 of the Institutes of Medicine of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, which took place at Philadelphia on the 5th of April last. 

 Dr. Jackson was born in Philadelphia in i/S", and was therefore 

 eighty-five years of age. He held the position of active professor 

 for twenty-eight years, and retired in 1863. He was well 

 known as a physician and surgeon of great eminence, and fjr 

 a long time occupied a leading position. He was also an 

 author of some celebrity, and popular as a lecturer. His most 

 important work was "The Principles of Medicine," first pub- 

 lished in 1S32, and which has gone through numerous editioai 



A COMMUNICATIOX W3S presented to the Nation.al Academy 

 of Sciences at Washington, at its annual meeting, on April 

 16 last, from Prof. Agassiz, dated Monte Video, February 26. 

 In this he expresses his gratification at finding evident traces 

 of glacial action in the vicinity of Monte Video, as shown by 

 the occurrence of phenomeni which were quite sr'isfactory to 

 his mind. lie leaves the question undecided as to the origin 

 of the erratic boulders found scattered over the surface, but 

 hopes that his further investigation in the southern hemisphere 

 will enable him to supply the necessary data. 



