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ment at South Kensington, under the superintendence of 
Professor Oliver, will be valuable for such collections, 
so far as botany is concerned. The Museum at Clifton 
College, built by Mr. Perceval at a cost of goo/., will, we 
understand, be confined to British objects, and will be a 
combination of Museum and Library. 
In conclusion, it cannot be too strongly insisted that 
objects of vertu or of curiosity should be rigidly ex- 
cluded from any Museum, be it large or small, which is 
ostensibly set apart for the illustration of Natural History. 
It may require a certain amount of firmness to draw the 
line, and so run the risk of offending good-natured per- 
sons by the rejection of their proffered help ; but it is 
best to take at once a definite position, and, unless the 
space at command be much larger than is usual in local 
Museums, to refuse even objects of Natural Science which 
do not illustrate some typical peculiarity, or at the least 
tend to the completion of a provincial collection. It is 
better to have a few objects, well arranged, and each 
teaching some definite truth, than hundreds of discon- 
nected specimens, which, however interesting in them- 
selves, are valueless as aids to instruction. 
SCIENCE IN VIENNA 
T is well to turn from time to time to what is doing in 
the cultivation of Science in otherlands. Weareable 
to give the following details of the progress of Science, or 
rather of the machinery for the cultivation of Science, in 
Vienna, from a letter addressed by Prof. Haidinger 
to Dr. E. Doll, the editor of the Readschule, in the De- 
cember number of which periodical the letter appeared. 
It was written by Prof. Haidinger in commemoration 
of the establishment, on the 8th November, 1845, of the 
first Viennese association for the cultivation of pure 
science, the twenty-fifth anniversary of which the writer 
thought deserving of celebration even in the midst of the 
exciting events of the disastrous war then waging between 
two of the most advanced of European nations ; events 
the results of which, as he justly remarks, do not consti- 
tute the highest objects of human life, but on the contrary, 
evils, originating only from our still imperfect civilisation, 
Before the year 1845 it appears from this letter that the 
only scientific societies established in Vienna dealt solely 
with the applications of scientific knowledge. Thus the 
Imperial Agricultural Society was founded in 1807, with 
the warm interest of the late Archduke John. Its pro- 
gress was interrupted by the war of 1809, and its statutes 
were not confirmed until 1812. In 1836 the Imperial 
Medical Society was founded, followed in 1837 by the Im- 
perial Horticultural Society, and in 1839 by the Indus- 
trial Association of Lower Austria. Gatherings of German 
naturalists and medical men took place at Vienna in 1831, 
at Prague in 1837, and at Gratz in 1843. 
In 1835 a step of the greatest importance was taken in 
the establishment of the Imperial Mineralogical Collection, 
which took the name of the Imperial Montanistic 
Museum in 1843. The instruction given at this insti- 
tution was supplemented by the forms of a society. 
In the year 1845, the period of the Industrial Exposi- 
tion produced considerable excitement, and on the 8th of 
November in that year a number of young miners, 
medical men, and naturalists, met inthe Museum, and es- 
NATURE 

[March 16, 1871 
tablished an association under the title of the “ Friends 
of the Natural Sciences in Vienna.” The list of those 
present at the first meeting includes the names of several 
men who have since risen to the highest reputation. 
Haidinger himself, then president of the Montanistic 
Museum, took the warmest interest in the success of the 
nascent society, and endeavoured to bring it into a perfect 
form, but, for some reason, without success. The meet- 
ings, however, were continued until the year 1850, and the 
subscriptions of the members enabled Prof. Haidinger to 
publish seven volumes of * Proceedings ” in 8vo., and four 
volumes of “ Memoirs” in 4to. The association was 
broken up after the foundation of the Imperial Geological 
Institute in 1849, and the library belonging to it was sub- 
sequently presented to that institution. 
1846. The 30th of May is the date of the Imperial de- 
cree for the foundation of an Academy of Sciences in 
Vienna. 
1847. On the 14th of May the statutes of the Imperial 
Academy of Sciences were promulgated, and the first 
forty members nominated. On the 29th of June the first 
functionaries of the Academy were nominated, and on the 
2nd of December its first meeting took place. 
1848. On the 2nd of February, the Imperial Academy 
of Sciences was solemnly opened by its curator, the Arch- 
duke John, and after this meeting the first part of the 
“Proceedings” was issued, forming the commencement 
of along series of most important works in all branches 
of Science. The Academy of Sciences is not a society 
formed by the spontaneous action of its members, but 
rather an exclusive corporation founded by authority. 
1848. On the 8th June, the Austrian Society of Engineers 
was founded, and is the first spontaneously-formed Society. 
1849. The Imperial Geological Institute was established 
on the 15th November, under the Minister von Thinnfeld, 
on the foundation of the Montanistic Museum. This 
Institution partakes of the nature of a school of instruc- 
tion, combined with that of a society. 
1851. The 9th April witnessed the foundation of the 
first spontaneously-formed Natural History Society in 
Vienna, namely, the Zoologico-botanical Society, which 
owes its establishment to the exertions of Georg von 
Frauenfeld, who opened its first meeting on this day with 
an introductory address delivered in the hall of the mu- 
seum of the Botanic Gardens. Frauenfeld was the first 
secretary of this society, a position which he still con- 
tinues to hold. 
1851. In this year also the Imperial Central Institute 
for Meteorology and Terrestrial Magnetism was founded 
under the direction of Karl Kreil, as a sequel to the 
labours of a Meteorological Committee of the Academy, 
appointed on the 18th January, 1849. 
1853. The Antiquarian Society was formed under the 
presidency of Prince Aloys of Liechtenstein, on the 23rd 
March, On the 29th March, 1854, Dr. T. G. von Karajan 
was elected president. This is an independently-formed 
society. 
1855. On the 1st December another independent 
society was established, namely, the Imperial Geographi- 
cal Society, which held its first meeting on this day in 
the rooms of the Imperial Geological Institute. On 
this occasion the first president, Prof. Haidinger, delivered 
an address, 
