86 



NA TURE 



[May 27, 1880 



this period reached a very advanced development indeed, 

 as may be seen from the appended figure of a golden cap 

 found in Tipperary. It is most beautifully ornamented in 

 repousse. 



Silver and gold ornaments in this age became abundant. 

 The concluding chapters in the book are on the Overlap 

 of History (the Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, and Greek 

 Influences) and on Britain in the Historic Period (the 

 Exploration of the British Coasts, and Roman Britain). 

 We cannot follow the author further, but commend his 

 book to our readers as one that will well repay perusal 

 throughout. 



THE HYDROGRAPHIC DEPARTMENT 



WE observe that some of our contemporaries have 

 opened their columns to certain strictures upon a 

 public department standing well, and to our knowledge 

 deservedly so, in the estimation of scientific circles in 

 this and other countries. 



It would appear that a Lieutenant of the Royal Navy, 

 unknown, as we are informed, in his profession from the 

 fact of his having retired from its active service at an 

 early age, amused himself some few years back by a 

 yachting excursion on the shores of Norway, in a small 

 and crazy decked boat, undergoing, as might have been 

 anticipated, some hardships in this excursion, which ex- 

 tended into the rigorous winter of that region. Gaining 

 thus some knowledge of the coast traversed— but necess- 

 arily, from its great extent and intricate character, know- 

 ledge of a very superficial kind— the Lieutenant's experi- 

 ences have recently formed the subject of an evening's 

 entertainment at the Royal Geographical Society. 

 Somewhat unfortunately for the ends of science and navi- 

 gation, this adventurous cruise in a crazy barque has been 

 in consequence dignified into a hydrographical survey, 

 an appellation ludicrously inapplicable from the conditions 

 under which the cruise was made, as related by the 

 adventurer himself 



The ambitious voyagcur, now extending his operations, 

 under the leadership of an official of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, has just addressed an audience at the 

 Society of Arts on the "Trade Routes between England, 

 Norway, and Siberia." We had expected at least some 

 shreds of information on this topic, but find ourselves 

 treated instead to a rude and ungenerous attack on the 

 Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, for some 

 supposed shortcomings in its dealings with the officer, 

 to whom the department had confided— mistakenly it 

 seems — the revision of tlie sailing directions of that part 

 of Norway on which the Lieutenant claimed to be an 

 authority. 



The Society of Arts commends itself to all reasonable 

 men for the breadth and strength of its operations ; we re- 

 gret that it should in this instance have been exploit(5d 

 and made the arena, under cover of a legitimate object, 

 for an attack, from personal motives, on a public depart- 

 ment which has done and is doing good and honest 

 service for the seamen of all nations. We believe we are 

 only performing an act of merited justice in directing 

 attention to the endeavours of a small, obscure, but self- 

 asserting clique, bent apparently on discrediting a valu- 

 able and efficient department, affiliated in many ways to 

 science, and well known to many of its ablest workers. 



NOTES 



Prof. W. II. Miller died at Cambridge on Thursday, May 

 20, in his eightieth year. He graduated in 1S26, being Fifth 

 Wrangler, and shortly afterwards became a Fellow of St. John's 

 College. He served his college as tutor during several years. 

 On the resignation of Dr. Wliewell in 1832 he became Professor 

 of Mineralogy. He published his celebrated "Treatise on 

 CTystallogi-aphy " in 183S. This work was at once adopted by 



some of the most eminent foreign a7stallographers, and may 

 now be said to be universally accepted. It was translated 

 into German and French. Plis "Manual of Mineralogy" 

 appeared in 1854, and, like the former book, forms an 

 era in the history of the science. It is full of the results 

 of his own careful research. He is the author of several 

 other books, and of numerous memoirs published in the 

 various scientific journals. The memoir on the standards 

 of weights is a classical research on the subject of weights, and 

 is a monument of delicate and careful research. He was Foreign 

 Secretary of the Royal Society, and was presented with the 

 Society's gold medal in 1S70 for his numerous contributions to 

 science. Cambridge has especial cause to. be grateful to him 

 for the very splendid collection he has brought together. The 

 collection consists almost entirely of donations; and the two 

 noble gifts of the Hume and Brooke collections mark in a strik- 

 ing manner the appreciation in which Prof. Miller was held by 

 lovers of minerals. 



On the same day as Prof. Miller died Prof. David Thomas 

 Ansted, F.R.S., at the age of sixty-six years. Prof. Ansted 

 was born in London in the year 1814. He graduated at 

 Jesus College, Cambridge, was a Wrangler in 1S36, and was 

 elected in due course a Fellow of his college. In 1S40 he was 

 appointed to the Professorship of Geology in King's College, 

 London. Five years later he became lecturer on geology at 

 Addiscombe College, and also at the Civil Engineering College 

 at Putney. About the same time he was made assistant secre- 

 tary to the Geological Society, whose quarterly journal he edited 

 for many years. From about 1850 down to a very recent date 

 he was extensively engaged in the application of geology to the 

 engineer's work, in mining, and in various other departments of 

 industry. He has also been frequently employed as an examiner 

 in physical geography under the officers of the Government 

 Department of Science and Art. Prof. Ansted's works are very 

 numerous ; among them may be mentioned — besides his contri- 

 butions to the transactions of learned and scientific societies — his 

 " Application of Geology to the Arts and M.inufactures," his 

 "Physical Geography," his " Elementary ^Course of Geology 

 and Mineralogy," and " The World we live in." Prof. Ansted 

 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1844. 



General Myer has sent a letter to his numerous correspond- 

 ents, requesting, on behalf of the United States, that the hour 

 for taking the simultaneous meteorological obteiTations, froia 

 which are constructed the U.S. Weather Maps, be changed to a 

 time thirty-five minutes earlier than at present ; in other words, 

 as regards the British islands, that the observations be made at 

 oh. Sm. p.m., instead cf oh. 43m. p.m. Greenwich mean time, 

 and that the change be made to take eflect on September i, 

 1880. The proposed change being rendered necessary by the 

 exigencies of the .Signal Office, the request will doubtless be 

 gladly acceded to. 



The second example of Archaopteryx is, we are informed, at 

 present merely on deposit in the Geological Museum of Berlin, 

 under the care of Dr. Beyrich, although it is expected that 

 arrangements will shortly be made for its purchase by the 

 authorities of that institution. It was bought from Dr. Haeber- 

 lein, of Pappenheim, by Herr Siemens, of BerHn, for the sum 

 of 20,000 marks (1,000.'.), in order to save it from an impending 

 transfer to America, and to secure this valuable specimen for 

 German science. 



The " Leopoldinische-Carolinische " Academy of Naturalists 

 at Halle has presented this year's Cothenius medal to Dr. A. 

 Michaelis, Professor of Chemistry at the Polytechnic High 

 School of Karlsruhe, in recognition of his valuable researches 

 in organic substances containing phosphorus. 



