SepL 12, 1872] 



NATURE 



401 



pretty, symmetrical, funnel-shaped crater is formed with a 

 circular rim, varying: from a few inches to several feet in 

 diameter. Some of these funnel-shaped chimneys (see 

 Fig. 4) extend out into the lake several feet, and the hot 

 spring deposits may be seen through the clear depths for 

 fifty yards. The same variety of colours, quiet springs, 

 mud springs, old ruins, &.C., that have before been de- 

 scribed, occur here. No geysers have been observed, but 

 the group of mud springs keep up a constant thud-like 

 noise, which can be heard with great distinctness for 

 half a mile. At Steamboat Point are two vents, which 

 keep up a constant pulsatory noise like a high-pressure 

 engine on a river steamboat ; columns of steam are thrown 

 out at each pulsation to the height of 100 feet or more. 

 ( To be continued.) 



NOTES 



We may hope that we and the public have now heard the last 

 of the unfortunate Hooker and Ayrton dispute. We learn that 

 Mr. Ayrton has expressed himself satisfied with Dr. Hooker's 

 explanation of the "offensive" matter in liis letter to Mr. West, 

 and here the matter will probably rest. It would be more satis- 

 fictory to know that all probability of similar unpleasantness for 

 the future had been removed, and that the Government recog- 

 nises the principle that a servant selected to control a great 

 scientific establishment must necessarily be entrusted with all the 

 details of its management. 



The rejection, by the Committee of Recommendations of the 

 British Association, of the resolution of Section D respecting the 

 treatment of Dr. Hooker as Director of Kcw Gardens, resulted 

 in the sendinj up to a subsequent meeting of the committee of a 

 more strongly worded resolution to the same effect, which was 

 then passed, not only by the Committee of Recommendations, 

 but by the General Committee. 



At the meeting of the French Academy on the 2nd instant, the 

 President presented to M. Chevreul a medal which 'had been 

 procured by a subscription among his confrb'cs. M. Dumas in 

 a speech " h la maniere anglaise," as the President expressed it, 

 touched upon the chief services rendered by M. Chevreul to 

 rcience in acknowledgment of which this medal was presented to 

 him. Each subscriber is to receive a copy of the medal, and 

 according to a slip inserted in the Coiiiftcs RcnJus, the subscrip- 

 tion list is still open. 



It is with great regret that we have to record tlie death, 

 at the e.irly age of 3S, after a long and painful illness, of Mr. 

 JohnCargill Brough, F.C. S. He was a man of most accomplished 

 mind and great general culture, and had personally endeared 

 himself to all his acquaintances. Mr. lirough had filled, for 

 about two years before his deatli, the office of secretary and 

 librarian to the London Institution in Finsbury Circus, and had 

 brought new life into its management. 



We hear from Paris of the death, at the age of 42, of one of 



/ the most promising of the younger generation of French 



botanists, M. Gris. He liad written largely on both systematic 



and physiological botany, and held the post of assistant in the 



botanical department of the Jardin des J'laiites. 



The inaugural address of the winter session of the Birming- 

 ham and Midland Institute will be delivered on Oct. 7, by Canon 

 Kingsley, who is the president for the year. 



Mr. G. F. Rodwell, F.R. A. S., &c,, has just been appointed 

 Lecturer on Natural Philosophy at Guv's Hospital, still retain, 

 ing his position as science teacher in Marlborough College. 



The Royal Polytechnic Institution appears, under its new 

 management, to be assiduously encouraging the cultivation of 



Science. We have received a prospectus of classes held in the 

 Institution in quite a number of branches of Natural and Physical 

 Science. 



We notice bom tire Sl/wo! Lalwnitoiy of Physical Science, 

 published in Iowa, U.S., thit the total number of pupils who 

 have attended one or more courses of lectures at the physical 

 laboratory of the Stale University during the school-year of 

 1S71-2, has been 340, representing all the departments of the 

 University. Of these students, 270 have practised at the stands 

 of the liboratory from two to ten hours a week each, and from 

 the reports of the work done and the results, carefully calculated, 

 of the examinations, it would appear that the teaching is varied 

 and thorough. The high importance of laboratory work in the 

 teaching of students is becoming more and more widely re- 

 cognised in practice in the United States, and from this Report 

 we learn that the great majority of the students themselves like 

 the laboratory practice very mucli ; those who do not, we are 

 told, are those who are not fond of any serious men'al work. As 

 the opinion of the writer of the Laboratory Nc-ius in the above 

 work we quote the following note : — " Cine of the principal draw- 

 backs to the perfect success of tlie Laboratory has been the 

 admission of some students ot advanced standing in the dead 

 languages ; we find these students almost invariably less careful in 

 their work, and more hasty and illogical in their conclusions, 

 than the regular beginners ; they also have made the greatest 

 blunders in calculation. As a result, such juniors have failed in 

 competition with common sub-freshmen. I should not refer to 

 these facts, if it were not so frequently asserted that the study of 

 the dead languages constituted an auxiliary to the study of 

 science." 



The Marlborough College Natural History Society has issued 

 ts Report for the half-year ending Midsummer 1S72. In the 

 Preface praise and blame are impartially dealt out to the mem- 

 bers of the Society ; the zeal and industry of individual members 

 are commended in not undeserved terms ; while the apathy and 

 want of energy of the majority of the Society come in for 

 severe censure. In the Botanical department some good work 

 appears to have been done, and the president, the Rev. T. A. 

 Preston, continues his Flora of Marlborough, the present instal- 

 ment embrace the Calyci!lonx>. In Geology nothing has been 

 done; in Ornithology a few of the members have shown active 

 interest in "genuine Ornithology, not merely the taking of 

 eggs, but observations of tire birds themselves and their habits." 

 The greatest triumph has been, however, in Entomology, vhere, 

 thanks to the energy of two or three individuals, upwards of 

 thirty moths have been added to the Society's list. Of the 

 papers printed we may notice a useful one on Shells, by F. J- IL 

 Jenkinson, and one on Thermo-EIectricity and a new Thermo- 

 Electric Battery, by Mr. Rodwell ; others, however, are alluded 

 to in the Prefi-e. We cordially encourage the Marlborough 

 College Natural History Society to continue its worlc. 



Mr. Gould is now engaged cm the preface to his great work 

 on the ■' Birds of Great Britain," and will issue the last two parts, 

 completing the whole, in 1S73. 



A VERY good " Flora of Liverpool " has been published by 

 the Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club. Tlie area included is 

 within fifteen mile; of Liverpool and two of Southport, and 

 embraces some very interesting districts. The work has been 

 performed by a committee of the society appointed for tlie pur- 

 pose, with the assistance of amateurs and previously published 

 records, which have all, when possible, been verified. It appears 

 to have been carried out witli great care, and some valuable 

 notes are appended to the records of some of the species. 



A.MONO the most recently-published foreign flora we may note 

 Dr. J. A. Knapp's "Plants of GaUcia and the Bukowina," just 

 published by Braumiiller, of Vienna, in one thick volume. 



