152 
NATURE 

1870 
| Dec. 22, 


expedition was in the hands of trained men belonging to one of 
Her Majesty’s ships. We lear that nothing has occurred which 
need in the least imperil its success, and t ust that even the 
ladies of the party will have suffered nothing worse than tem- 
porary inconvenience and alarm. 
Mr. J. R. Hin, writing to the 7zmes, states that, although 
the Eclipse of the Sun, which takes place to-day, will have been 
exceeded in magnitude by more than one of the eclipses which 
have been visible in this country during the last thirty years, it 
will yet be the greatest eclipse that can be witnessed in England 
during the remaining thirty years of the present century, and on this 
account possesses a degree of interest which does not always 
attach ‘to partial eclipses. If we take successive intervals of 
thirty years, commencing with 1781, and note only those eclipses 
visible in London, in which the moon has covered more than 
half the sun’s diameter, we find between 1781 and 1810 two 
eclipses, between 1811 and 1840 six eclipses, between 1841 and 
1870 seven eclipses, while between 1871 and 1900 there will be 
one eclipse only of similar magnitude. This single eclipse in 
the ensuing interval of thirty years will not occur until the last 
year of the century, or till the 28th of May, 1900, and the 
magnitude will not then quite reach 07 of the sun’s diameter. 
The next solar eclipse visible in England is a small one on the 
morning of May 26, 1873. 
Tue French Eclipse Expedition may not have proved a failure, 
as has been feared. We have received intelligence from Paris 
that on the 1st December M. Janssen left in a balloon, assisted bya 
No letter was given him in order to prevent the Prussians 
detaining him as a prisoner of war. A balloon reached Brittany 
about that time, and was styled a private balloon. Telegrams 
and notices were sent to France from Mr. Lockyer, to invite M. 
Janssen to join the English Eclipse Expedition, but it appears 
that nene of these communications haye reached him, owing to 
the interruption of regular postal telegraphic service in France. 
M. Janssen was intending to proceed to Medeah, an Algerine town. 
sailor. 
Some time ago we announced that Sir Roderick Murchison 
had offered the munificent sum of 6,000/. for the endowment of 
a Chair of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Edin- 
burgh, on the understanding that the annual proceeds of this sum 
would be supplemented bya grant from Parliament. We are 
happy to state that Government has consented to this proposal, 
and has agreed to recommend an annual grant of 2007. This 
desirable result (for which the University, we believe, is largely 
indebted to the earnest co operation of its member, Dr. Lyon 
Playfair) will be welcomed as another evidence that our autho- 
rities are not so indifferent as they have been supposed to be to 
the claims of scientific education. 
Dr. IfuREAU DE VILLENEUVE, secretary to the French 
Aéronautical Society, and editor to the Aeronaut, a paper 
devoted specially to aéronautics, has established at his residence 
an ambulance for aéronauts. He had to attend toa few cases 
from accidents of different descriptions in the management of 
captive balloons, and fewer of soldiers who had drawn the 
ropes for their aérial observations. M. de Villeneuve is to 
open a regular course of lectures on aéronautics at the Petite 
Sorbonne. It is the third time that a regular course of lectures 
has been delivered in Paris on this subject: the first time by 
Dupuis Delcourt, at the Athénée about forty-five years ago, 
when Comte was delivering his lectures on Positive Philosophy ; 
the second time by M. W. de Fonvielle, at the Lecture Hall 
of the Boulevard de Capucines, three years ago. 
Tue new Meteorological Observatory established by the city 
of Paris in the well-known Palais du. Bey de Tunis, which was.a 
part of the great Champ de Mars. Exhibition, is no longer in 
operation. . It was put into requisition to be used as a barracks, 



M. Sainte-Clair Deville, the elder, who was the director, has 
protested against such a requisition, but his protest was wholly 
disregarded. 
M. Marie Davy is now in Paris, and engaged in meteoro- 
logical observations, as well as M. Chapelas Coulvier Gravier, 
who keeps his watch from the Luxemburg Palace for falling stars. 
He publishes regularly the records of the observations in the 
Comptes Rendus and the Fournal Officiel. We has published a 
description of several magnificent auroral displays, which were 
described by several witnesses in different papers. 
A very influentially-signed memorial from heads of houses, 
professors, tutors, lecturers, and fellows of colleges in the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, has just been sent to the Lord President of 
the Committee of Privy Council on Education. The memorial 
prays that women may be appointed to the office of Inspector of 
Schools, and points out some of their qualifications for that 
responsible office. The memorial is signed by seventy-two resi- 
dent graduates, all of whom are fellows of colleges or hold 
college or university offices in the University of Cambridge. 
Among those who sign are the Vice-chancellor and five other 
heads of houses, including the Masters of Trinity and St. John’s ; 
nine university professors ; the senior tutors of every college, 
with three exceptions; all the tutors, assistant tutors, and 
lecturers of Trinity College, with two exceptions; and of the 
remainder all except eight are engaged officially in teaching in 
the Colleges or University. 
THE death is announced, in his seventy-first year, of the Rey. 
Joseph Bancroft Reade, President of the Royal Microscopical 
Society. IIe was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where 
he took his B.A. degree in 1825, when he was thirty-sixth senior 
optime in the mathematical tripos. In 1839 he was presented 
by the Royal Astronomical Society to the vicarage of Stone, 
near Aylesbury, and at the time of his death was rector of 
Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury. 
WE shall be much obliged to any of our correspondents who 
will oblige us (for the purpose of drawing up a tabular account) 
with particulars of any hitherto unrecorded meteorological phe- 
nomena which may have occurred during the present year, as 
auroras, earthquakes, large sun-spots, meteors, storms, volcanic 
eruptions, haloes, &c. Similar information will be very accept- 
able from the continent of Europe, America, or_the Southern 
Hemisphere. ” : 
THE Royal Horticultural Society has been compelled, by the 
pressure on its funds, to dispose of a portion of its gardens at 
Chiswick, the most valu able portion of its property in a scientific 
point of view. Among the articles sold were a number of fine 
trees, Pyramid Pears, Dwarf and Trained Apples, Filberts, 
Wellingtonias, Cupressus, Piceas, Araucarias, &c., in all no 
less than 12,757 plants, fetching about 600/, The portion of the 
Gardens which still remains covers about 33 acres; and the 
orchard will be reorganised on a smaller scale, and the trials and 
experiments, practical and scientific, will still be carried on. 
The Gardens were originally founded in 1821. 
THE galleries of the Royal Albert Hall, which are to be used 
for the display of architectural drawings and models in the 
forthcoming International Exhibition of 1871, are approaching 
completion. Architects have been invited to inspect the Hall, 
and to see the galleries appropriated to their works, on Wednes- 
day, December 21, at 11.30 A.M. Some trials of the acoustic 
properties of the building were to be made between 12 and 12.30. 
THE Journal of the Society of Arts states that the Council of the 
Society has sanctioned a plan for establishing a National Train- 
ing School of Music. For promoting this purpose itis proposed 
that.a musical section of, the society be. instituted,.with a separate 


