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NATURE 
[Dec. 1, 1870 


NOTES 
As will be seen from another column, the Eclipse Expedition 
is now fully organised, and all the parties will be on their way 
before our next number appears. The Organising Committee, 
who have done about three months’ work in a fortnight, deserve 
all praise for their untiring efforts, and we may hope that they 
will be adequately rewarded by the results obtained. We may 
mention that on the representation of the Organising Committee, 
the Government have communicated with the French and 
German Governments with a view of securing the services of M. 
Janssen, who, if he canbe got out of Paris, will accompany Mr. 
Lockyer to Sicily. 
Ir is stated that Prof. H. J. S. Smith, F.R.S., has been 
appointed to succeed the late Dr. W. A. Miller as a member of 
the Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and the Advance- 
ment of Science. 
THE annual election of the Council and officers of the Royal 
Society took place yesterday, when the following gentlemen were 
elected, viz. :—President: Gen. E. Sabine, K.C.B. Treasurer : 
William Spottiswoode, M.A. Secretaries: William Sharpey, 
M.D.; G. G. Stokes, M.A. Foreign Secretery: Professor W. H. 
Miller, M.A. Other Members of the Council: George Burrows, 
M.D.; Heinrich Debus, Pa.D.; P. M. Duncan, M.B.; Sir P. de 
M. Grey Egerton, Bart.; Prof. G. C. Foster, B. A. ; Francis Galton; 
J. P. Gassiot; J. D. Hooker, C.B, M.D.; William Huggins ; 
Prof. G. M. Humphry, M.D.; J. Gwyn Jeffreys; Sir J. Lubbock, 
Bart.; C. W. Siemens; Prof. A. J. S. Smith, M.A.;Prof. John 
Tyndall, LL.D.; and Prof. A. W. Williamson, M.D, 
Ir is with very great regret that we have to announce the dis- 
ablement of two of our most prominent scientific men. Sir R. 
I. Murchison has been stricken with an attack of paralysis, and 
Professor Balfour Stewart was among the sufferers by the col- 
lision on the London and North-Western Railway on Saturday 
evening last. In the latter case, though the injuries are severe, 
one thigh broken, and a great shock to the nervous system, we 
may hope that Professor Stewart will shortly be restored to his 
friends and to science. At the moment of going to press, we 
hear that Sir R. Murchison’s state is considered somewhat im- 
proved, and that Sir W. Ferguson reports Prof. Stewart to be 
going on satisfactorily. 
Tue Anniversary Session of the St. Andrews Medical Graduates 
Association will be held at the Freemasons’ Tavern, Great Queen 
Street, on Friday and Saturday, December 2nd and 3rd. On 
Friday, at 7.30 P.M., Dr. Whitmore will read a paper ‘‘ On the 
results of Sanitary Legislation on the Health of the Metropolis 
and our present urgent Sanitary requirements.” On Saturday, 
at 5 P.M., the President, Dr. Richardson, F’.R.S., will deliver the 
Anniversary Address ‘ For the Future of Physic.” 
AT the first ordinary meeting for the session of the Society of 
Arts, held on the 16th ult., the following silver medals were 
awarded :—To Mr. Thomas Dickins for his paper ‘‘On Silk 
Supply ;” to Mr. James Collins for his paper *‘ On Indiarubber, 
its History, Commerce, and Supply ;” and to Mr. William Bridge 
Adams for his paper ‘‘On Tramways for Streets and Roads 
and their sequences.;”’ and the Prince Consort’s Prize of twenty- 
five guineas to Mr. Edward Turner Sim, who, at the Society’s 
examination, had obtained during the last four years the largest 
number of first-class certificates. 
Counts H.,Wilcjek and G. Wurmbrand have been engaged, 
at the instance of the Viennese Anthropological Society, in an 
examination of the Austrian lakes, and have found remains of 
pile-dwellings in the Attersee. One of them belongs to the Stone 
period. 


AT the remote city of Indianapolisan Academy of Sciences has 
just been formed under the presidency of Professor E. T. Cox. 
The exclusive object of the association is the cultivation and im- 
parting of knowledge of the natural and physical sciences. 
Though the number of members at present does not appear to 
be large, it will, no doubt, like most other things in the Far West, 
increase rapidly. We wish all success and a prosperous future 
to this the youngest society for the advancement of natural history. 
THE recently published volume of Bentham’s “ Flora Austra- 
liensis” (vol. y.) includes the natural orders from ‘Myoporinez 
to Proteacez. 
Messrs. MACMILLAN will shortly publish, as one of their 
series of school class-books, Lessons in Elementary Physics, 
by Prof. Balfour Stewart. 
WE have just received the first part of the second edition of 
Schellen’s Spectral-analyse. The preface states that it has been 
carefully revised, and considerable additions made, in accordance 
with the progress of science since the publication of the first 
edition, especially in the application of spectrum-analysis to the 
sun. It is copiously and beautifully illustrated. 
THE third section of *‘ Husemann’s Pflanzenstoffe in chemischer, 
physiologischer, pharmakologischer, und toxikologischer Hin- 
sicht,” does not, as was expected, complete the work, It is 
occupied with vegetable acids and neutral substances. 
Mr. MATTHEW WILLIAMS, jun., has reprinted, from ‘“‘ Es- 
says of the Birmingham Speculative Club,” a paper on ‘‘The 
Relation of the Universities to Practical Life.” The writer's aim 
is to assert the claims of experimental science to a higher place 
in the scheme of English University education. 
that such a plea should still be necessary. While it remains so, 
however, we welcome all who, like Mr. Williams, can break a 
lance in the cause of true progress in such a manner as to appeal 
even to the most “‘ practical” sympathies. Why should not 
others in the great centres of English industry take up the 
subject? Agitation works wonders in the political world; who 
knows what it might not in time effect for science ? 
On-the 7th of August the most severe shock of earthquake 
since April 1868, has been felt in the Hawaian Archipelago. The 
time was 4" 10" A.M., and the shock was felt generally in Maui, 
Molokai, and Hawaii, but not so much in Honolulu. The 
dainage done was not so great, but it was considered remarkable 
that the shock lasted ten seconds—a long period fora single 
shock. The cause of its diminished violence is attributed to its 
being vibratory and extremely regular. In Molokai the earth- 
quake was accompanied by a tremendous roar, and appeared to 
have a circular motion, so that no precise direction could be 
noticed. It is stated that the fissures on the Kau side of Mauna- 
loa are constantly steaming, and that smoke is issuing from the 
crater of Makeaweoweo in great volume. 
H.M.S. Zealous, bearing the broad pennant of Admiral Far- 
quhar, having visited St. Charles, one of the Galapagos Islands, 
has found sufficient objects of interest to induce the Admiral to 
make another trip there in October, to examine the natural 
history of the place. 
On Thursday, the 29th September, two violent shocks of 
earthquake occurred at Lima, in Peru, about 10 P.M., causing 
much alarm. 
A PASSENGER reports to the Rangoon Times a waterspout seen 
on the Irawaddy River on the 31st of August in the Chwaygeen 
Creek. He saw a dense mass of clouds, and then a whitish 
cloud, which resolved itself into a large waterspout. It soon 
partially dispersed, but formed again, and remained about ten 
minutes, sometimes straight, at others curved. The convex 
It is monstrous 
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