July 1, 1880] 



NA TURE 



205 



Finally, I understand that the Kew Committee are 

 about to take in hand the subject of the progress of 

 magnetic weather and to investigate it in a matiner 

 peculiarly suitable to an institution possessing relations 

 with numerous self-recording magnetic observations. 



BALFOUR Stewart 



NOTES 

 The fund which has been established by the members of the 

 Birmingham Philosophical Society for the endowment of original 

 research already amounts to 700/. in donations, and to 70/. in 

 annual subscriptions. Out of this a sum of 1 50/. per annum for 

 three years has been voted to Dr. George Gore, F.R.S., which 

 amount is, in the terms of the grant, placed at his disposal in 

 order that he "may have greater facilities for continuing in 

 Birmingham his original researches." The council of the society 

 proposes to make other grants as soon as the funds will pemiit. 

 We have already spoken of the enterprise and public spirit of 

 this society in establishing the fund ; it is gratifying that they 

 have been able to make a beginning so speedily, and the success 

 of the scheme cannot be doubted. Dr. Gore's address is now the 

 Institute of Scientific Research, No. 67, Broad Street, Bir- 

 mingham. 



We are glad to hear that Mr. L. Fletcher, M.A., Fellow of 

 University College, Oxford, has been appointed to succeed Prof. 

 Story-Maskelyne as keeper of the Mineral Department of the 

 British Museum. Mr. Fletcher was appointed first assistant in 

 the department a little over three years ago, and the energy and 

 ability with which he discharged the duties of that appointment 

 promise well for the future of the Mineral Department. 



We regret to have to announce the death of Mr. Henry 

 Ludlam, which occurred last week from the mpture of a blood- 

 vessel. He had been in failing health for some months, but 

 seemed on the road to recovery when the hn^morrhaje occurred. 

 He was well known in the mincralogical world as one of the 

 most assiduous and able of private collectors, and his valuable 

 collection was one of the objects of interest which foreign 

 mineralogists vi^iting this country wished to coniult. He has 

 carried out his intention, announced several years ago, of 

 bequeathing the collection to the Jermyn Street Museum. This 

 gift will render the collection of this museum second only to that 

 of the British Museum, and will, in fact, render it a formidable 

 rival in the case of some of the rarer and more beautiful 

 minerals. Mr. Ludlam was always willing to allow his mincra- 

 logical friends to consult his collection, and also frequently 

 supplied them with specimens for examination. 



The Council of the Society of Arts havejawarded medals to 

 the following gentlemen for papers read during Ihe session 

 which is just over : — Major-General H. Y. D. Scott, C.B. 

 F.R.S., for his paper on " Suggestions for Dealing with the 

 Sewage of London;" A. J. Ellis, F.R.S., for his paper on 

 "The History of Musical Pitch ;" John Sparkes, for his paper 

 on " Recent Advances in the Production of Lambeth Art 

 Pottery ; " Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A., for his paper on " The 

 History and Art of Bookbinding;" W. Holman Hunt, for his 

 paper on " The Present System of Obtaining Materials in use 

 by Artist Painters, as compared with that of the Old Masters;" 

 Thomas Fletcher, for his paper on "Recent Improvements in 

 Gas Furnaces for Domestic and Labcratory Purposes ; " John C. 

 Morton, for his paper on " The Last Forty Years of Agricultural 

 Experience; " Prof. Heaton, F.C.S., for his paper on " Balmain's 

 Luminous Paint;" Capt. Abney, R.E., F.R.S., for his paper 

 on "Recent Advances in the Science of Photography." 



Lord Norton has all along protested that he is not un- 

 favourable to the teaching of science in elementary schools, and 



is evidently hurt at the incredulity with which his protestation is 

 received by those one-sided individuals who persist in judging 

 his intentions by his actions, and not his words. He is evidently 

 of opinion that the only difference between himself ani those 

 who would maintain the Code unaltered, is one of method. 

 There are people so benighted as to believe that as science deals 

 with things, it is hopeless to teach it apart from these things ; 

 who believe that if you want to make children know what 

 a daisy or a buttercup is like, and to understand its structure, the 

 shortest and most effectual way is to show them the flower and take 

 it to pieces in some sort of systematic way before their eyes. But 

 these people are all wrong. Why should children and teachers 

 put themselves to the trouble of soiling their hands by pulling to 

 pieces nasty weeds, when the thing can be much better done 

 from books? Lord Norton, as we learn from a contemporary, 

 has resolved to triumphantly refute these deluded people, by 

 himself compiling a series of reading lessons in botany, warranted 

 to teach the children of our elementary schools all that it is safe 

 and wholesome for them to know. Evidently modem science 

 and its methods are all wrong; books, after all, are the only 

 instruments of education, and the sooner we make a holocaust of 

 all modem scientific implements and methods the belter. Might 

 we suggest to Lord Norton that after he has completed his botani- 

 cal enterprise he might compile a series of lessoas in engineering, 

 civil and mining, for the purpose of saving the neophytes in 

 these departments the necessity for spending their time in sooty 

 workshops and stifling mines? In fact there seems no end to 

 the enterprise which Lord Norton is about to " inaugurate ;" if 

 he is able to carry it on to completion, he will probably eam for 

 hhnself a right to be considered the most remarkable educationist 

 of his time. In the meantime Her Majesty's reply to the address 

 « hich the Lords were persuaded to adopt is virtually a quiet 

 snub ; Avhile in the Commons Mr. Mundella has declared that 

 the Givemment have no intention of lowering the standard of 

 education in the country. Does not this look rather bad for 

 the success of Lord Norton's projected compilation? 



It is a tacitly-accepted practice, and one so beneficial to 

 student-readers as to be almost imperative, that writers of 

 original scientific memoirs should, wherever their researches 

 touch upon common ground with those of older workers of 

 standing, give references (at the very least in a decent foot-note) 

 by which the student may be able to tum at once to the ipsissima 

 verba of the possible authorities. We regret to notice an 

 increasing tendency of late to slovenliness in the way of making 

 such references on the part of some of the younger generation of 

 enthusiastic would-be discoverers. Even the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Society itself are not exempt from this modem weed, for 

 in a recent paper we find the following given as references : — 

 Phil. Mag., 1850, Pogg. Annakn, 1S58, and— for an important 

 deduction from a paper by Clausius — Phil. Mag., 1851. Is it 

 too much to request the writers of Royal Society papers to be at 

 least a little more explicit in their allusions? We cannot 

 suppose that such references are made vague with any sinister 

 purpose. 



Dr. p. p. C. Hoek of Leiden writes:— "The zoological 

 station of the Netherlands Zoological Society for the summer 

 months of this year is erected in the neighbourhood of Nieuwediep 

 Harbour. The use of the station is free to the members of the 

 Society and to strangers introduced by one of the members. 

 The laboratory is furnished as completely as possible "ith all 

 the implements— optical and steel instruments excepted— neces- 

 sary for anatomical, histological, and embrj'ological researches ; 

 it contains also a smaU collection of books necessary for a pre- 

 liminary investigation and determination of the animals collected, 

 &c. Special arrangements of a very simple but practical kmd 

 serve to keep alive the collected animals. Smaller and larger 



