Nov. 20, 1873] 



NATURE 



2. That the curators of the University chest be autho- 

 rised to pay annually to the Savilian Professor of Astro- 

 nomy during five years, or until provision is made from 

 some other source, the sum of 200/. for providing an 

 assistant and defraying the expenses incurred in the 

 maintenance and use of the instruments in the observa- 

 tory, an account of the expenditure of such sum to be 

 annually submitted to the auditors of accounts. 



We cannot doubt that Convocation will sanction a 

 decree which promises to make Oxford first in the field 

 in this country in the power of aiding the new astronomy 

 which is dawning upon us — thanks to the spectroscope 

 and the application of photography. 



Such a position may not be thought much of now, but 

 in the coming time Oxford men will refer to it as one of the 

 things of which Oxford has the greatest reason to be 

 proud. 



NOTES 



The Copley Medal and the two Royal Medals in the gift 01 

 the Royal Sociely, have this year been awarded as follows : — 

 The Copley Medal to Trof. Ilelmholtz, the distinguished physio- 

 logist, physicist and mathematician, of Berlin ; a Royal Jledal to 

 H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in Owens 

 College, Manchester; and a Royal Medal to Dr. AUman, Pro. 

 fessor of Biology in the University of Edinburgh. 



The Annual Meeting of the Royal Society will be held on 

 December I, when, after dining together, the Fellows will ad- 

 journ to their new apartments, 



A DEPUTATION from the Council of the Society of Arts had 

 an interview on Friday last with the Royal Commissioners of 

 Scientific Instruction with reference to museums and galleries of 

 science and art. The deputation consisted of Major-General F. 

 Eardley-Wilmot, R.A., F.R.S. (Chairman of the Council), Mr. 

 E. Chadwick, C.B., Colonel Croll, Mr. Hyde Clarke, the Rev. 

 Septimus Hansard, Admiral Ommanney, C.B., F.R.S. , Colonel 

 Strange, F.R, S., Mr. Seymour Tewlon, with Mr. Le Neve 

 Foster, Secretary. The Chairman of the Council stated that the 

 object the Council had in view was to bring before, and ask the 



support of, the Commissioners to the action the society was now 

 taking in reference to museums, and pointed out that this had 

 special regard to the State giving increasing aid to existing 

 museums, to aid in the multiplication of such museums^ 

 and rendering them available for educational purposes. He 

 further pointed out the necessity for all such museums being 

 placed under the control of a Cabinet Minister responsible to 

 Parliament. He handed to the Commissioners a copy of resolu- 

 tions embodying the views of the Council, stating at the same 

 time that a large and influential committee was in the course of 

 formation, and that a considerable number of members of both 



Houses of Parliament had already given in their names. 



The first award of the Grand Walker prize of 1,000 dols. was 

 voted by the Council of the ]3oston Society of Natural History 

 on October i, to Alexander Agassiz, of Cambridge, U.S.A., for 

 investigations on the embryology, structure, and geographical 

 distribution of the Radiata, and especially of the Echinoderms, 

 and the publication of the results as embodied in his recent work. 

 The Annual Walker Prize of 60 dols. for 1873 was at the same 

 meeting awarded to A. S. Packard for his essay on the develop- 

 ment of the common house-fly. For the Annual Prize of 1874, 

 the subject is "The Comparative Structure of the Limbs 

 of Birds and Reptiles." Memoirs offered for competition must 

 be forwarded on or before April I, addressed to the Boston 

 Society of Natural History, for the Committee of the Walker 

 prizes, Boston, Mass., U.S.A., and each memoir must be accom- 



panied by a sealed envelope enclosing the author's name, and 

 superscribed by a motto corresponding to one home on the 

 M.S. 



In the examination for Foundation Scholarships at Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, to be held at Easter, 1874, one or more 

 .Scholarships will be obtainable by proficiency in the Natural 

 Sciences. The Examination in Natural Science will commence 

 on Friday, April 10, and will include the subjects set foith in 

 the regulations for the Natural Sciences Tripos. It will be 

 open to all undergraduates of Cambridge or Oxford, and to 

 persons not members of the Universities, provided that these 

 last are under twenty years of age. Candidates who are not 

 members of Tr inity College muttsrnd their names to the Master, 

 together with a certificate of age and good character, on or 

 before Saturday, March 21. 



We congratulate the University of Edinburgh on being the first 

 in the United Kingdom to recognise the duly of universities 

 so to frame their regulations for degrees in science as to encou- 

 rage original work in opposition to mere book-knowledge. The 

 University of Edinburgh has just issued a regulation that every 

 candidate for the degree of Doctor of Science shall in future be 

 required to submit a Thesis containing some original research on 

 the subject of his intended examination, and that such thesis 

 shall be approved before the candidate is allowed to proceed to 

 examination. 



Prof. Chevallier, for many years Professor of Mathematics 

 and Astronomy in the University of Durham, died on the 4th 

 inst., at the age of 80 years. 



We learn from Ocean Highways that Prof Mohn, of the 

 Meteorological Institute at Christiania, and Mr. O. Sars are 

 preparing a plan for the investigation of the sea between Norway, 

 the Faro Islands, Iceland, 'and Spitzbergen, the expense of which 

 will, it is expected, be defrayed by a grant of the Norwegian 

 Storthing. 



Dr. Rudolphe Wolf has recently published in the Vicrte'jahr- 

 sckrift of the Zurich Society of Natural Science, the thirty-third 

 number of his Astronotnischc Ulittheilioigeti. The paper is im- 

 portant in reference to sun-spots chiefly, and as bringing out with 

 great clearness the connection of these with variations in declina- 

 tion of the magnetic needle. The author gives a series of daily ob- 

 servations of sun-spots, during'1872, made at Zurich, Peckeloh, 

 MUnstcr, Palermo, and Athens. The mean relative number 

 obtained ; is 1017; and for the years 1 866- 72 inclusive, the 

 series runs thus :— 16'3,!7-3 (min. 1S67), 37-3, 73-9, 139-1 (max. 

 1S70), ili'2, 1017. Dr. Wolf has constructed a formula by 

 which the average yearly variations of magnetic declination, in a 

 particular place, may be calculated from the relative sun-spot 

 number (two constants for the place being given). In this way, 

 for example, he obtains for Munich the quantity 10' -80 as repre- 

 senting the magnetic variation for 1S72 ; the number got from 

 observation is 10' 75, showing a close agreement. In the second 

 portion of] his paper Dr. Wolf discusses several points con- 

 nected with the history of the telescope, the vernier, the pendu- 

 lum clock, &c. ; among other things, attributing to Biugi (who 

 lived in the early part of the sixteenth century), a share in the 

 discovery of the isochronism of the pendulum. The last portion 

 of the paper reproduces some of the earlier sun-spot literature. 

 The same number of Astronomische Nachrkhteii contains a note 

 by M. von Asten, furnishing evidence against the supposed 

 identity of a cometary object observed by Goldschmidt on May 

 16, 1855, with Tempel's comet. (1867, H.) 



The recent meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science held at Portland, Maine, was considered 

 on the whole a successful one. 157 papers were entered, and 



