332 

NUTES 
WE understand that the Home Secretary has intimated to Dr. 
Lyon Playfair, member for the Edinburgh University, that he 
will submit the name of Mr. Geikie, F.R.S., to the Queen as 
first professor in the new Chair of Geology in that university. 
This has been done at the express recommendation of Sir Rode- 
rick Murchison, who, as already announced, has given the sum 
of 6,000/. to found the chair. In spite of her great mineral 
wealth, Scotland has no school of applied science like the State- 
supported establishments in London and Dublin. It is matter 
for congratulation, therefore, that the first appointment to the 
first Chair of Geology established in Scotland should have been 
given to one whose position as director of the Geological Survey 
in that part of the United Kingdom will enable him to act 
effectively in the teaching of the practical applications of geology. 
THE trustees of the British Museum have wisely not departed 
from precedent in appointing Mr. W. Carruthers, F.L.S., 
F.G.S., to the Keepership of the department of Botany, in the 
room of Mr. J. J. Bennett, lately resigned. Mr. Carruthers has 
been Mr. Bennett’s senior assistant for eleven years, during which 
time he has done much to render the extensive botanical collec- 
tions of the Museum readily accessible and useful to the public. 
Mr. Carruthers is widely known for his numerous and impor- 
tant papers on Vegetable Palzeontology, in which he has greatly 
contributed to a knowledge of the structure and affinities of ex- 
tinct forms of vegetation. 
ACCORDING to a constant practice strictly adhered to for 
almost two centuries, at the first sitting in January of the 
French Académie des Sciences, the vice-president for the pre- 
ceding year fills the office of president, and keeps it for twelve 
months. But M. Coste having left Paris before the siege, the 
change in the presidency could not take place. The members 
present, to the number of thirty-one, elected the vice-president 
for 1871, who will be president for 1872, M. Faye was elected 
and proclaimed by M. Lionville, who was then in office. The 
election took place with the thermometer at — 6° C. No fire 
was allowed to be lighted, in consequence of the scarcity of fuel. 
Dr. W. B. CARPENTER recently delivered his Lecture, ‘‘ On 
the Temperature and Life of the Deep Sea,” at the Hulme 
Town Hall, Manchester, and it is reprinted as one of the penny 
series of ‘‘ Science Lectures for the People,” to which we re- 
cently referred in terms of commendation. 
THE report of the commissioners appointed by the Lord- 
Lieutenant and General Governor of Ireland in October 
1868 to inquire into and report on the Artificial Cultivation 
and Propagation of Oysters, and the methods used in some 
parts of Great Britain and France for these purposes, has just 
been printed. It forms an octavo blue-book of nearly 200 pages, 
and is illustrated with woodcuts and ten plates. We hope in a 
future number to give a short notice of the recommendations 
offered in this report. 
WE understand that the library of the late Dr. Matthiessen, 
including a large selection of valuable works on chemistry and 
physics, is to be sold to-morrow, at Puttick and Simpson’s 
Auction Rooms, in Leicester Square. 
Pror. Kart Kocu, of Berlin, proposes the establishment in 
that city of a Dendrological Garden, to be specially devoted to 
the cultivation of species and varieties of all kinds of foreign 
trees and shrubs. Plans of the proposed garden were shown at 
the last meeting of the Council of the Royal Horticultural 
Society. 
M. JANSSEN is now at Bordeaux preparing his’ memoir on 
the Eclipse, for presentation to the French Académie | des: 
Sciences, 
NATURE 

[ Fed. 23, 1871 
THE Astronomer Royal for Ireland has just published the first 
part of a series of astronomical observations and researches made 
at Dunsink, the Observatory of Trinity College, Dublin. This 
part contains results of observations made with the South 
Refractor from June 1868, to October 1869, and consists of 
88 quarto pages and three plates, printed at the expense of the 
Board of Trinity College. We purpose, in an early number, to 
give a short account of the College Observatory and of the equa- 
torial erected for the fine 11fin, object glass presented by Sir 
James South to the college, 
THE following is a list of the third series of lectures arranged 
by the Sunday Lecture Society to be delivered at St. George’s 
Hall, Langham Place, on Sunday afternoons, at half-past three 
o’clock :—Feb. 26—Mr. Moncure D. Conway, on ‘* The Past 
and Present of New England: its Early History, Physical Fea- 
tures, Literary and Religious Development, and Sketches of 
leading thinkers—Emerson, Theodore Parker, &c.” March 5— 
Jon A. Hijaltalin, of Iceland, on ‘‘Iceland: its Physical 
Features, Volcanoes, Hot] Springs, &c., the Manners and Cus- 
toms of its Inhabitants.” March 12—W. G. Clark, M.A., 
Vice-Master of Trinity College, and late Public Orator, Cam- 
bridge, on ‘‘ Protestantism.”” March 19—J. Norman Lockyer, 
F.R.S., on ‘*The Total Eclipse of Dec. 22.” March 26—T. 
Spencer Cobbold, M.D., F.R.S., on ‘‘ The General Structure 
and Development of Ferns.” April 2—Edward Maitland, B.A., 
on ‘‘ Jewish Literature and Modern Education ; or the Use and 
Mis-use of the Bible in the School-room.” April 16—W. K. 
Clifford, M.A., on “The History of the Sun: an Explanation 
of Laplace’s Nebular Hypothesis, and of Recent Controversies 
in regard to the Time which can be allowed for the Evolution of 
Life.” April 23—Prof. J. S. Blackie, on ‘‘ War; its Causes, 
Character, and Consequences.” 
Art the sitting of the 23rd January, the French Academy learned 
the death of M. H. Regnault, son to M. Regnault, the learned 
member ef the section for physics. This young man, a painter 
of rising fame, had been killed when attacking the woods of 
Buzepval on the rgth of the same month. A deliberation of the 
assembly was taken to congratulate M. Victor Regnault, the 
father, then at Geneva. The body having been found was buried 
in the Pére La Chaise before a deputation from the Academie des 
Sciences, Académie des Beaux Arts, and Académie Francaise, 
The proceedings were recorded in the Comptes Rendus. 
DurinG the week ending 18th February upwards of 3,500 
British objects, consisting of sculpture, pottery, woollens, and 
educational works and appliances, were delivered at the buildings 
of the International Exhibition of 1871, besides foreign objects 
from Bavaria, Belgium, and Saxony. 
WE are informed that public meetings on the subject of 
Science and Art Education have recently been held in many 
places in the West of England. The well-known Royal Albert 
Museum at Exeter, with its Science and Art classes, museum, 
and free library, has done much towards attracting attention 
to the value of scientific knowledge in this part of England. 
The Plympton Grammar School, which has just been reorganised 
under a new scheme, will include the teaching of chemistry and 
drawing as a regular part of the school course. 
ProFr. PHILLIPs is busily engaged at Oxford upon his new 
work on the ‘‘ Physical Geography and Geology of the Thames 
Valley.” This volume will contain numerous plates of fossils, 
illustrative of the various beds to be met with in the district, all 
of which are drawn by the learned Professor himself. In addi- 
tion to these the numerous drawings of the magnificent series of 
Ceteosaurian remains lately acquired by the Oxford Museum will 
cause this volume. to be eagerly looked forward to by every 
geologist:and paleontologist 
