No:k 



iSS6] 



NA TURE 



83 



NOTES 

 The President and Council of tlie Royal Society have this 

 year awarded the Copley Medal to Franz Ernst Neumann, of 

 Konigsberg (For. Mem. R.S.), for his researches in theoretical 

 optics and electro-dynamics, and the Davy Medal to Jean 

 Charles Galissard de Marignac, of Geneva (For. Mem. R.S.), 

 for his researches on atomic weights. Prof. S. P. Langley was 

 awarded the Rumford Medal for his researches on the spectrum 

 hy means of the bolometer. The Royal Medals have, with the 

 approval of Her Majesty, been awarded to Mr. F. Galton and 

 Prof. Guthrie Tait, the former eminent for his statistical inquiries 

 into biological phenomena, and the latter for his various mathe- 

 matical and physical researches. The medals will be presented 

 at the anniversary meeting on November 30. 



Mr. Charles William Peach, the eminent scientific ob- 

 server, died in February last, and, not long afterwards, a 

 memorial was addressed to the First Lord of the Treasury, 

 praying that his daughter, Jemima Maiy, might, on account of 

 her very slender provision, be placed on the Civil Li^t. The 

 memorial, subscribed by about 140 eminent persons, resulted in 

 a Treasury grant of 200/. being sent to Miss Peach, after the 

 expiry of five months. The grant so made being totally inade- 

 quate by way of provision, while it fails to denote the high sense 

 entertained of Mr. Peach's scientific services, it has been deter- 

 mined to secure, by private subscription, the means of providing 

 Miss Peach with a permanent annuity. Of the sum necessary 

 to effect this, the Treasury grant of 200/. will of course form 

 the nucleus. The Committee believe it is unnecessary to do 

 more than allude to Mr. Peach's more conspicuous services. For 

 half a century he gratuitously supplied to contemporary inquirers 

 tlie fruits of his research. When Mr. Hugh Miller was engaged 

 in preparing his work on the " Old Red Sandstone," Mr. Peach 

 conveyed to him those specimens from Caithness which mate- 

 rially availed him in illustrating his subject. By his discovery 

 of Silurian fossils in the rocks of Cornwall, he enabled Sir 

 Henry de la Beche, then at the head of the Geological Sur- 

 vey, to obtain a scientific basts for mapping the rocks of 

 Devon and Cornwall. In connection with this important work, 

 also, by his discovery of Lower Silurian fossils in the north-west 

 of Scotland — thereby affording the key by means of which the 

 structure and age of the rocks of the Scottish Highlands must 

 be determined — it was the opinion of Sir Roderick Murchis^n 

 that Mr. Peach had rendered service such as merited a special 

 recompense from his country. From the Devonian rocks of 

 Cornwall and the Old Red Sandstone of the north of Scotkand 

 he procured the fish fauna which supplied a share of the material 

 used by Sir Philip Egerton, Prof. Huxley, and Prof. E. Kay 

 Lankester in preparing their several descriptions. In their 

 monographs, Mr. Darwin and Dr. Carpenter have acknowledged 

 liis valuable contributions to a knowledge of the Balanidas and 

 the Polyzoa, while many other naturalists were also indebted to 

 him for most important zoological observations made along our 

 coasts. Mr. Peach made a valuable collection of the fossils of 

 Brora, Sutherlandshire (Jurassic), now in the British Museum. 

 His discoveries have largely availed in elucidating the fossil flora 

 of the Old Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous r^'cks of Scot- 

 land. In the department of recent marine animals and plants, 

 he has added hundreds of new species to the British lists. In 

 acknowledgment of his scientific acquirements, he received 

 honours from t'le leading scientific Societies ; and in 1875 he 

 ■was awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh one of their 

 gold medals. After twenty-one years of arduous labour in 

 connection with the Coastguard, Mr. Peach was in 1845 trans- 

 ferred by Sir Robert Peel to the Department of Customs, as 

 suggested by the Council of the British Association ; but this 

 change, while adding to his leisure, did not materially enhance 



his emoluments. I:i ilie public service his highest incom;; was 

 150/., his retiring allowance bjing 130/. Such remuneration as 

 he received for his scientific services he applied exclusively to the 

 cause of research. He attained his eighty-fifth year, and in his old 

 age it \\ as a source of deep anxiety to him as to how he should 

 be able to provide for the devoted daughter to whose help and 

 affectionate care he was so much indebted. Five hundred pounds 

 are wantel, and th's amount there ought not to be much diffi- 

 culty in procuring. An account is opened in the Bank of Scot- 

 land, for the receipt of contributions, under the care of Mr. 

 Robert Gray, Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh, as Treasurer of 

 the fund. Among the members of the Committee are Sir 

 William Turner, F.R.S. ; Sir Joseph D. Hooker; Archibald 

 Geikie, F.R.S., Director-General of the Geological Survey of 

 Great Britain and Ireland; Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. ; 

 Prof. Tait ; John Murray, V.P.R.S.E., Director of the Chal- 

 lengir Expedition Commission, Edinburgh ; William Pengelly, 

 Torquay ; and others. 



Our readers must have noticed the recent telegrams con- 

 cerning the beleaguered position of Dr. Emin Bey at 

 Wadelai, on the Upper Nile, some 50 miles north of Lake 

 Albert Nyanza. Emin Bey was Governor of the old Equatorial 

 Province of Egypt, and his administration of the province was 

 of a model character. Moreover, he did much before the Mahdi 

 insurrection broke out for the promotion of a knowledge of the 

 natural history and geography of the Upper Nile region, as will 

 be seen from his many communications to PeUrmaiDC s Mitteil- 

 ungen. His last communication is in the current number of the 

 Mitteilungen, and is dated January last. In it, notwithstand- 

 ing his critical position, he speaks of his collections. When the 

 news of Emin Bey's position first reached this country, the 

 Government regarded it as their duty to do what they could to 

 rescue or succour him, and the Intelligence Branch of the War 

 Office made all inquiries as to routes, among other things taking 

 counsel with Mr. Joseph Thomson. There are many difficulties 

 in the way, especially since the death of Mtesa, King of 

 Uganda ; but the Government, we believe, have by no means 

 given up the idea of communicating with Emin Bey. Mr. 

 Stanley has expressed his willingness to lead an expedition, and 

 Mr. Thomson shows, in yesterday's Time:, how the thing can 

 be done. He believes rightly that the route across Masai Land 

 followed by himself is the directest and shortest, and it is really 

 not necessary to pass through Ugand i at all ; a sweep could be 

 made round by Lake Baringo and the Suk country, and so west- 

 wards 300 miles to Wadelai. Moreover, it seems to us that the 

 route by the west side of the Victoria Nyanza on to the Albert 

 Nyanza is worthy of consideration. Certainly, if Mr. Thomson 

 imdertakes to lead a relief expedition, he could accomplish it 

 speedily and peacefully. The English Government is bound to 

 do everything in its power to prevent any disaster falling upon 

 so valuable a life ; and if they mean to do anything it ought to 

 be quickly, or else it may be too late. 



M. P.^STEUR, according to the Times Paris Correspondent, 

 exhausted by the incessant labours of the last few years, was to 

 leave on Tuesday, by the advice of his family and friends, for 

 Bordighera, where M. Bischoft'sheim has placed his villa at his 

 disposal The Times Correspondent, before his departure, ascer- 

 tained from M. Pasteur the precise state of the Pasteur Institute 

 subscription and of his experiments. The subscription has now 

 nearly reached l,8jo,ooof., but contributions still flow in, though 

 rather more slowly, and M. Pasteur has reason to hope that we 

 shall eventually reach the sum required. The Paris Municipality 

 has given a gratuitous lease for 99 years of 2500 metres of 

 ground, the site of the old College RoUin. This area being in- 

 sufticient for the laboratories, not merely for rabies, but for other 

 ontagious maladies, he has asked for a lease for 99 years 

 of 2500 metres adjoining, and he expected that this proposal 



