5o^ 



NATURE 



\Oct. 17, 1872 



offer^J jOjCCJ ioujLj l.i a medical course for ladies, to be giv.^n 

 at the Imperial College of Physicians. Classes are to be formed 

 ostensibly for midwifery, but this will not exclude the higher 

 studies of medicine. The course is to be one of four years' dura- 

 ton. The threat from Zurich no longer to admit the " unpre- 

 pared Russians " proves thereby a wind that blows somebody 

 some good. "I heir," say; the correspondent of the Scltcol 

 Board Chronicle, " that Madame Souslot's practice at St. Peters- 

 burg is actually undermining that lady's health. " 



The nationalities represented at the International Commission 

 on the Metric System recently sitting at Paris, are the follow- 

 ing : — Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Hungary, Bavaria, 

 Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Holland, Por- 

 tugal, Russia, the Papal See, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, 

 Turkey, Wurtemburg, United States, Chili, Argentine Republic, 

 Colombia, Equador, Hayti, Nicaragua, Peru, San Salvador, 

 Uruguay, Venezuela. We believe, though it is a fact not generally 

 known that Her M.ijesty's enlightened Government at first re- 

 fused to allow England to be represented ! 



The foundation stone of the New Watt Institution and School 

 of Arts, Edinburgh, was laid on Wednesday, gthinst., in Cham- 

 bers Street, the spacious new street which runs on the north side 

 of Uie College, and in front of the Industrial Museum. 



The vestry of Lambeth have appointed Mr. James Muter, 

 F.C.S., analyst to the borough. 



Dr. J. E. Eddison will deliver a course of eight lectures on 

 " The Physiology of Circulation and Respiration, " in connection 

 virith the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. The lec- 

 tures will be strictly elementary, and as much practical illustra- 

 tion as possible will be introduced. The foUowing single lectures 

 will also be delivered during the ensuing season: — "Hill and 

 Valley Sculpture, " by Prof. Archibald Geikie, F. R. S . , November 

 5 and 7 ; "The Meteorology of the .Sun in connection with 

 that of the Earth," by Prof Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., De- 

 cember 3; "Radiant Light and Heat," by Prof. Balfour 

 Stewart, December 13; "The Sense of Hearing," by 

 Michael Foster, M.D., F.R.S , January 21, 1873 ; 

 " The Primitive Social Condition of Man," by E. B. Tylor, 

 r.R.S., February 4 ; " The Exploration of Moab," by the Rev. 

 Canon Tristram, F.R.S., M.arch 4 ; " On some new Phenomena 

 associated with Magnetism," by W. F. Barrett, March 18. 



The following is the syllabus of the twenty-third session of 

 the Manchester Scientific Students' Association : — The Physi- 

 ography of Europe during the Pleistocene Age, by W. Boyd 

 Dawkins, F.R.S. , October 14. On the Glandular Hairs of the 

 Fraxinella, Nettle, and Malpighia, by Charles Bailey, October 

 21. On Comparative Anatomy, by Herbert W. Oakley, October 

 28. On the History of a Mountain, by John Plant, 

 November 4. On Meteors and Meteorites, by Rev. Joseph Free- 

 stone, November iS. On Horology, by Thomas Armstrong, 

 December 2. And the following syllalius of papers is announced 

 to be read at the Microscopical Club : — Glandular Vegetable 

 Hairs, first paper, by Charles Bailey, October 3. On some Im- 

 provements in Oxy-hydrogen Illumination as applied to Micro- 

 scopic Objects, by John Barrow, October 24. The Tetraspores 

 of the Algffi, by John Hardy, November 14. The Polyparies of 

 the British species of Hydrozoi, by Thomas S. Peace, Novem- 

 ber 28. The Micro-Spectroscope, by John Angell, Decem- 

 ber 12. 



During the latter part of September, we learn from the 

 Times of India, Bombay was visited by terribly destructive rains, 

 causing not only serious injury to property, but great loss of life. 

 Among the many instances of destruction on September 19 

 was that which occurred at tlic Library of the Asiatic Society — 

 the largest collection of books, perlups in India. The library is 



located in a series of rojms in the northern wing of the Town 

 ILiU, and before the commencement of the monsoon the roof 

 had, as usuil, been inspected, and, as it was supposed, made 

 tlioroughly water-proof. Whether owing to bad repairs, or to 

 the excessive force of the downpour, the Jwater found its way 

 into one of the rooms — the room in which the librarian has his 

 office — and completely saturated and more or less destroyed about 

 three thousand volumes, chiefly works on jurisprudence. The 

 expensive illustrated books, which are kept in the same room, 

 fortunately escaped thegener.al drenching. The injured volumes 

 were spread out in the Town Hall to dry, but it is feared that the 

 larger number of them are totally destroyed. 



AuROR.E BoRE\LES were visible on the 3rd of August at Stettin 

 and Cracow, on the 4th atEmden, on the 8th in North America, 

 on the 9th atEmden and Thurso, on the 15th at various localities 

 in England and Stettin. On the 7th of August a smart shock of 

 earthquake was felt at Innsbriick, which was followed by three 

 more on the 8th of the same month. 



On the 9th and loth of September a severe hurricane passed 

 over the islands of Guadaloupe, Martinique, Dominica, St. 

 Kitts, Barbadoes, &c. Sixteen vessels, including the steamer 

 hleinan, was wrecked at Martinique, and several lives lost. 

 Every vessel in the port of Dominica was struck to pieces, and 

 there also many lives were lost. Several ships were driven on 

 shore at St. Kitts. The gale lasted all day on Tuesday, the 

 ig'.h instant, the barometer commencing to fall from ten o'clock 

 on the previous morning. 



The following is from the Atheneum : — A singular controversy 

 has occurred at Constantinople. The Government have deter- 

 mined that instruction in the Imperial School of Medicine shall 

 be given in Turkish, and have removed all the professors who 

 cannot speak the national language. Of course this his occa- : 



sioned an outcry on the part of the friends of those French- 

 speaking professors who have spent many years in the country 

 and have not chosen to acquire its kanguage. The Turks say 

 they started their school as a national school, and not as a foreign 

 one ; that the pupils receive inadequate insti-uction from its being 

 conveyed in a foreign language ; and that they have not been 

 Supplied, as they expected, with manuals in Turkish. The 

 authorities have, therefore, determined to run the risk of the 

 change, and attempt to get for this school, as for others, books 

 and teaching in the vornacuLir. They maintain that, as medicine J 



has for ages been taught in Arabic, it can be taught inTurki,sh. 



The Rlonitcur Sdentifique informs us that at Proskau, in Upper 

 Prussian Silesia, near the Prussian-Polish frontier, an agricultural 

 college on a large scale has been established by the State, in 

 which everything relating to agriculture, horticulture, arbori- 

 culture, and the rearing of cattle, horses, bees, and poultry is 

 practically taught. In addition to several smaller lecture-rooms, 

 there are two large amphith iatres, wliich will accommodate 200 

 students each ; three separate chemical laboratories ; a large dis- 

 tillery ; beetroot sugar works ; model brewery ; museum for 

 mineral and botanical collections ; collection of agricultural im- 

 plements ; library containing 6,000 volumes ; four farms. 5,000 

 hectares of forest land, and 4,000 hectar,-s (= 2 "47 acres to the 

 hectare) of arable meadow land are attached to this institution, 

 in which instruction is given by a staff of twenty-four professors. 

 Proskau has 1,900 inhabitants, of whom 1,500 are Poles. 



The Times of India of August the i6th states that an agri- 

 cultural society, to be called the " Bombay Presidency Agricul- 

 tural Society," composed of influential gentlemen, has been 

 organised in Bombay. The object of the society is to diffuse 

 agricultural knowledge amongst the people in the Bombay presi- 

 dency, by establishing a journal and issuing separate tracts on 

 agriculture in Marathi and Guzerati, and, if possible, by founding 

 schools for this special purpose. The journal and tracts w.'U 



