274 

courtyard of the Collége de France when M. Levavasseur was 
lecturing on political economy, and the young professor was. not 
disturbed by the projectile, portions of which broke through the 
windows, He continued lecturing, saying, ‘‘ Those who fear such 
things have only to leave the place.” 
THE addition to the building for the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology at Cambridge, at an expense of upwards of 60,000 dol- 
lars, is rapidly going on, Prof. Agassiz has returned to 
Cambridge with restored health, and with new plans for the 
enlargement of his museum. Prof. O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, 
has just returned with his party from the Rocky Mountains. 
THE /ndépendance Belge, in its number for January 9, pub- 
lishes an extract from the Com/tes-rendu del’ Académie des Sciences, 
in which M. Elie de Beaumont describes the experiments used 
in directing the course of the balloon which fell at Rheims. In 
accordance with what was said in one of our recent numbers, M. 
Elie de Beaumont, who had witnessed the ascent, explained to 
his colleagues that the wind was bearing to the East, but that 
owing to the deviation the balloon would reach Switzerland ! 
He was, however, most unfortunate. The captain of the directing 
balloon arrived recently at Lille. Experiments directed by M. 
Mangon have proved that a balloon 90,000 cubic metres measure- 
t requires forty-two foot- ds t e with a rapidity of a | f : : 
pepe ps Bee ee anel cde: x babes aad | the chair filled for so many years by Dr. Edward Hitchcock, sen. 
yard per second, which is a very important result for future ex- 
periments, The mass of gas and balloon is about three tons. 
Mr. J. HOPKINSON, the Senior Wrangler of 1871, is a native 
of Manchester. He was educated at Owens College; and at 
Easter 1867 obtained the Senior Mathematical Scholarship at 
Trinity, after open competition. In 1868 he also obtained the 
Sheepshanks Astronomical Scholarship. In 1867 he was awarded 
the exhibition in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, at the first 
examination for the B.Sc. degree at the London University ; and | 
at the second examination for the same degree in the following 
year he carried off the Scholarship in Mathematics and Natural 
Philosophy. Mr. Jas. W. L. Glaisher, the Second Wrangler, is 
the son of Mr. Jas. Glaisher, F.R.S., director of the Meteoro- 
logical Department at the Greenwich Observatory, He received 
his education at St. Paul’s School, where he gained the first 
mathematical prizes in 1805, 1866, and 1867. On leaving 
school he entered Trinity College with a Senior Campden 
Exhibition. He is the author of a paper read before the Royal 
Society in March 1870, on the numerical value of the sine- 
integral, cosine-integral, and exponetical-integral. 
THE Delegate Government of Bordeaux has established a 
Scientific Commission, presided over by M. Marié Davy, the 
meteorologist, and having amongst its members the Professor of 
Analysis at the Polytechnic School of Paris, M. Silberman, 
Head of the Physical Laboratory at the Collége de France, and 
some local scientific celebrities, 
M. LEVERRIER is said to be hiding ina country place near Mar- 
seilles, assuming a false name, and living like a private man with 
one of his intimate friends. 
M. THENARD, a member of the French Institute, who had 
retreated to his home on the Céte d’Or, was taken prisoner 
and sent to a fortress in Germany as a hostage. The Pre- 
sident of the French Institute has protested against the 
arrest. M. Thénard is the son of the celebrated Professor of 
Chemistry, and belongs to the agricultural section. He is a 
landed gentleman of considerable property. 
THE elephants and other animals of the same description 
at the Jardin des Plantes were sacrificed to the necessities 
of the war. Members of the French Institute were present on 
the spot in order to_witness the effects of the shots on the huge 
brutes, and some parts of the body were set apart for careful 
NATURE 
| dissection, 
| Fed. 2, 1871 


M. Milne-Edwards has taken advantage ‘of the 
| circumstance to prepare a paper, which must have been already 

presented to the French Institute, and which will create a sensa- 
tion in the scientific world. 
DurtnG last session the American Congress made an appro- 
priation of 50.000 dollars for Arctic exploration, with the promise 
that the scientific operations of the expedition were to be pre- 
scribed by the National Academy of Sciences. Captain Hall 
was appointed by the President of the United States to command 
the expedition in question, and a commission of the National 
Academy, recommended by Professor Henry, is to act in con- 
cert with him, and to prepare a manual of scientific inquiry for the 
use of the expedition, ‘‘which will, undoubtedly,” says the 
American Naturalist, ‘interest a large circle of readers when 
published.” 
Mr. A. Hyatt has been appointed Professor of Palaeontology 
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. E. S. Morse 
has been chosen Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology 
at Bowdoin College, and has been appointed lecturer in the same | 
branch at the Maine Agricultural College. Dr. A. S. Packard, 
jun., editor of the American Naturalist, is to lecture on Economic 
Entomology at the same institution. Mr. B. H. Emerson has 
recently been elected Professor of Geology at Amherst College, 
THE American Naturalist states that Dr. Hagen has recently 
returned from Europe, having purchased, through fundssupplied by 
a lady in Boston, for the Cambridge Museum, a Parisian collection 
of weevils of great extent and value. He has also brought over 
his own unrivalled collection of Neuroptera. Its presence in the 
United States is most fortunate for this department of ento- 
mology. The same journal gives us the following additional 
items of entomological intelligence :—Congress is about to print 
an entomological report by Townend Glover, the entomologist of 
the Agricultural Department. It will form an exceedingly useful 
work, and will deserve the widest circulation. 
of Baltimore, has ready for publication by the Boston Society of 
Natural History, descriptions of the Hemiptera of the Harris 
entomological collection. Gradually the unpublished results of 
the labours of Dr. T. W, Harris are being given to the public. 
Mr. J. A. M‘NIEL, who has made two expeditions to Central 
‘America, is now in Philadelphia preparing for a third archzo- 
logical excursion to Nicaragua. 
In the number of the Quarterly Fournal of Education for 
January is a short article on school books, in which occur the 
following remarks, which we commend to the notice of those in- 
terested :—‘‘ The vast majority of elementary works are written 
specially as aids to assist the student in cramming a certain 
specified subject, so that he shall be able to pass some particular 
examination. Now every examination differs to a certain extent 
from any other examination, and text-books are therefore required 
to point out and elucidate these differences. For example, one is 
told that it is almost imperative to use Buckmaster’s Chemistry in 
preparing for the science examinations, whilst Miller's, William- 
son’s, Gill's, or Barff’s works upon the subject, although admitted 
by competent authorities to be the best of their kind, are kept in 
the background. On the other hand, in preparing for the London 
University examinations, it is better to use the latter works. . . . 
Frequently, again, an examiner writes and publishes a text-book, 
and, of course, he has a predilection for the peculiarities of his 
own offspring ; and, by so framing his questions that a knowledge 
of Ais book is necessary, he increases its sale, and thereby the 
balance at his banker’s.”” Without subscribing to the inuendo 
contained in the last sentence, we think the Journal here points 
out a weak place in our examination-system. Great complaints 
are made—and these do not come from rejected candidates—that 
the mode in which questions are sometimes put at these exami- 
Mr. P. R. Uhler, . 
