128 



NATURE 



\yune 13,1872 



Great credit is due, amongst others, to Mr. Walter 

 Morrison, M.P., and to Messrs. John Birkbeck, Sen. and 

 Jun., who have spared neither time, trouble, nor expense, 

 and that in face of many discouragements. 



R, H. TIDDEMAN 



NOTES 



The belief in the safety of Dr. Livingstone caused by the 

 telegrams whicli we published a fortnight ago, has been strength- 

 ened by further intelligence received since our last issue. The 

 following telegram was to hand in London on Saturday last 

 by the Falmouth, Gibraltar, and Malta Telegraph Company : — 

 "Kirk reports from Zanzibar Livingstone safe at Unyanyembc. 

 Visited north end of Tanganyika. Rivers said to flow into Lal<e 

 Tanganyika. Stanley near the coast with letters. -Governok." 

 No date is attached to the telegram ; but at the meeting of the 

 Royal Geographical Society on Monday evening, Sir Henry 

 Rawlinson stated that he considered all doubt now to be re- 

 moved, and that the intelligence now in hand is really authentic 

 He laid great stress on the well-known cautiousness of Dr. Kirk 

 in receiving and communicating information respecting Dr. 

 Livingstone. The following despatch from the Sultan of Zan- 

 zibar to Sir H. Rawlinson was read at the meeting : — " In the 

 name of the Most Merciful God. — To our esteemed friend. Sir 

 Henry Rawlinson. May the Almighty preserve him in health 

 and happiness. — Your friend is quite well, and the object of our 

 letter is to inform you that at the auspicious moment of our safe 

 return from performing tlie pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca 

 and Medina, my friend the Consul called on me and presented 

 to me Lieutenant Dawson and his companion, and at the same 

 time he delivered to me the letter from Her Majesty's Secretary 

 of State for Foreign Affairs, Earl Granville, and also the gift pre- 

 sented by the Royal Geographical Society, through the President. 

 And it has pleased me much to do that which is considered 

 advisable, and that I am enabled to aid the people in their search 

 for my friend Dr. Livingstone, and I pray God that certain in- 

 formation regarding him may soon be received, and I will give 

 my aid to those gentlemen whom you have sent in attaining their 

 object. And the Consid having requested me to grant the use 

 of my steamer to the above gentlemen to convey them to Mom- 

 bassa to procure men to accompany their expedition, I have done 

 so, and, please God, I will continue to render assistance to those 

 whom you have sent in your endeavour to explore the mysterious 

 regions of the unknown country, because their object is praise- 

 worthy, and tends to increase our knowledge of what the 

 Almighty has created in these our countries. — From your friend, 

 BuRFASH BIN Sayyid. — Dated Zanzibar, the 5th day of Safr, 

 year 1289 of Hejira, corresponding with the 14th April, 1S72." 

 Further telegraphic intelligence may be expected at any moment, 

 and should this arrive we purpose next week to resume tlie 

 present state of our knowledge respecting Dr. Li\'ingstone's 

 safety. 



We learn with great regret, from the scientific editor of 

 Harper's Weekly, of the death of Dr. William Stimpson, late 

 Secretary of the Academy of Sciences of Chicago. Dr. Stimp. 

 son's health has been quite precarious for several years past, 

 making it necessary for him to proceed every winter to tire 

 warmer climate of Florida, and the past winter was spent by him 

 in the same region. He was engaged in the earlier part of the season 

 on board the United States Coast Survey steamer Baehe, ih super- 

 intending a series of dredgings, which, however, he was com- 

 pelled to ab.mdon through increasing ill-health, and returning 

 not long since to the residence of his father-in-law, near Balti- 

 more, he became gradually worse, and died there on the 26th of 

 May. For a time a pupil of Prof. Agassiz at Cambridge, Dr. 



Stimpson made his first mark as a scientific author in 1851, in a 

 work on the shells of New England, which was soon followed 

 by a paper on the marine invertebrates of Grand Manan, pub- 

 lished by the Smithsonian Institution in 1S53, and which is still 

 a standard work on the zoology of the mouth of the Bay of 

 Fundy. Shortly afterwards he was appointed zoologist to the 

 North Pacific Exploring Expedition, in which he was occupied 

 for several years. When the late Mr. Robert Kennicott went 

 to Alaska, in 1865, in the service of the Russian Telegraph Ex- 

 pedition, Dr. Stimpson moved to Chicago to take charge of the 

 general affairs of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and main- 

 tained that connection until bis death. As a scientific investi- 

 gator Dr. Stimpson occupied a very high rank for the thorough- 

 ness of his researches and the clearness and accuracy of his 

 descriptions, in these respects leaving nothing to be desired. 

 No one, with the exception, perhaps, of Prof. Dana, has 

 described so many new species of marine animals as he. The 

 detailed accounts of his new species, forming a large number of 

 valuable zoological monographs, with large numbers of illustra- 

 tions, and nearly ready for publication, were unfortunately all 

 destroyed by the Chicago fire, together with most of the types of 

 his species — a calamity which of course affected him severely, 

 and in all prob.Tbility materially influenced the state of his heftlth. 

 Among these works were synopses of the moUusca of the East 

 coast of North America, and of the Crustacea of both coasts, to 

 be published by the Smithsonian Institution. 



It is rumoured that the dignity of K.C.B. is about to be 

 conferred upon Mr. G. B. Airy, Astronomer Royal, and Pre- 

 sident of the Royal Society. 



The Albert medal of the Socie'.y of Arts has been awarded 

 by the Council this year to Mr. Henry Bessemer, " for the 

 eminent services rendered by him to Arts, Manufactures, and 

 Commerce, in developing the manufacture of steel." The 

 Conversazione of the Society will be held on Wednesday, 

 June 19, at the South Kensington Museum. 



Mr. Chambers, F.R.S., Superintendent of Colaba Obser- 

 vatory, has been presented by the Bombay Harbour Board 

 with a valuable gold watch and chain for his service towards 

 the port in putting up a time ball. 



The examiners in the Natural Science School at Oxford, Dr. 

 W. Ogle, Mr. R. H. Bosanquet, and Mr. A. W. Reinold, have 

 issued the subjoined Class list : — Class I. : Henry Cooper, All 

 Souls' ; J. P. Eavwaker, Merton ; C. J. Moullin, Pembroke. 

 Class II. : H. Green, Queen's College. Class III. : E. C. D. 

 Fox, Exeter. Class IV. : J. A. Lloyd, St. John's. 



The following ladies have passed the examination for special 

 certificates of higher proficiency at the University of London : — 

 In Mathematics and Mechanical Pliilosophy, Mary Stewart 

 Kilgour, Ladies' College, Cheltenham ; in Geology and Palaeon- 

 tology, Laura Gertrude Eaton, Ladies' College, Cheltenham ; 

 in Political Economy, Jane Ellen Harrison, Ladies' College, 

 Cheltenham ; and in Harmony and Counterpoint, Mary Amelia 

 Bennett, North London Collegiate School for Ladies. 



Prof. Hu.mphry, F.R.S., will commence his Course of 

 Three Lectures on Human Myology at the Royal College of 

 Surgeons on Monday, June 17, at 4 P.M. They will be con- 

 tinued on Wednesday and Friday at the same hour. The 

 lectures will discuss the morpholog}- and teleology of the mus- 

 cular system of man. 



A TELEGRAM from Madras, printed in the Times, states that a 

 court of inquiry is being held, with closed doors, on the conduct 

 of Mr. Pogson, the Government Astronomer, who seems to be 

 held responsible for the damage done by the late disastrous cy- 



