i6 



NATURE 



{^Nov. 6, 1873 



consisting of Hornblende with interspersed crystals of 

 quartz, found in lat. 5 1° 56' N., long. 35°45' W., at a depth 

 of about 1,760 fathoms. 



Fred. P. Johnson . 



NOTES 

 Prof. Sylvester has recently made a discovery which is 

 likely to create some interest, not only amongst mathematicians, 

 but also amongst mechanicians and instrument-makers. By 

 means of a sort of lazy tongs he has succeeded in converting 

 spherical motion into plane motion, a result, we believe, hitherto 

 looked upon as unattainable. This discovery will form the sub- 

 ject of a communication which Mr. Sylvester is announced to 

 lay before the London Mathematical Society at its Annual 

 General Meeting on Thursday ne.xt (November 13). 



The two gentlemen recently elected to Science-Fellowships 

 at Oxford, are remarkable instances of success attending most 

 irregular and unasual undergraduate careers. Mr. Yule was at 

 one time a boy at Magdalen College School, he obtained the 

 Brackenbury Scholarship for Physical Science at Balliol College, 

 but was obliged to throw it up after a short time, on account of 

 his failure to pass the classical examinations of the University. 

 He bethought him of the more merciful ordinances of the sister 

 University, and having obtained a Scholarship at St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, proceeded on his undergraduate course un- 

 checked by the lessened barrier of the previous examination. 

 After being placed senior in the Natural Sciences Tripos, he 

 returns to Oxford, we may hope bringing treasures from the 

 East — and at any rate ready to use his vote for the improvement 

 of the Oxford Examination Statutes. Mr. Macdonald is an 

 individual who has come as near as is possible to achieving the 

 feat of being in two places at one time. In fact, theoretically, 

 he has been m two places at one time. He had the great 

 courage and energy whilst holding a position in the Education 

 Office, to enter as an Undergraduate at Merton College, and by 

 consent of the College authorities he kept his term by sleeping in 

 Oxford, which place he left every morning during term, so as 

 to be at his official po^t, returning in the evening in time 

 for hall dinner. His office-holidays he employed in practical 

 work in the Oxford laboratories, whilst analytical chemistry had 

 to be studied in his own sitting-room, converted for the time into 

 a workshop. Such a history makes it very certain that the 

 examination system has not failed at Merton College to secure 

 at any rate a most worthy recipient of the fellowship. 



The election to the two vacant Fellowships at Merton College, 

 took place on Oct. 30, when the choice of the electors fell upon 

 Mr. John Wes'ey RusssU, Lecturer of Balliol College, as Mathe- 

 matical Fellow ; and Mr. Archibald Simon Lang Macdonald, 

 Commoner of Merton College, as Natural Science Fellow. Mr. 

 Russell was placed in the first class in Mathematics under Mode- 

 rators, in Trinity Term, 1871 ; and Mr. Macdonald in the first 

 class in Natural Science at the final examination, in Michaelmas 

 Term, 1871. 



We are glad to be able to add St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 to the list of tliose which have opened their Fellowships to 

 Students of Natural Science. Since 186S, the College has given 

 Exhibitions yearly, and Found.ation Scholarships since 1870, for 

 the encouragement of a knowledge of Physics, Chemistry, and 

 Biology. On Monday last the Master and Seniors, in proof of 

 their desire to place the Natural Sciences on the same footing as 

 Classics and Mathematics, elected one of their scholars, Mr. A. 

 H. Garrod, B.A., who was a Senior in the Natural Science 

 Tripos of 1871, to a Fellowship. 



About the end of January 1S74, there will be an election to 

 a scholarship in Natural Science at Exeter College, Oxford, can- 



didates for which will be examined in biology, chemistry, and 

 physics. Candidates are not expected to exhibit special know- 

 ledge of more than one of the above subjects, and preference 

 will be given to a candidate who excels in biology, or one of its 

 branches. The candidate selected will have to satisfy the col- 

 lege that he has sufficient classical and mathematical knowledge 

 to pass responsions. There is no limit of age disqualifying can- 

 didates for this scholarship. The scholarship is of the annual 

 value of So/., tenable for five years from matriculation. The 

 scholar elected will have the use, during term, of a place in the 

 histological laboratory of the college. For further information 

 application should be made to Mr. E. Ray Lankester, Natural 

 Science Lecturer, Exeter College. 



Mr. Charles J. F. Yule, of St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 wishes us to state that he is not "the Cambridge B. A." whose 

 letter appeared in last week's number. 



At the Commitia, held on Thursday, October 30, at the 

 Royal College of Physicians, Dr. Robert Druitt was elected a 

 Fellow of the College. The president announced that the 

 Harveian Oration in the ensuing year would be delivered by Dr- 

 Charles West. The Gulstonian Lectures will be delivered by 

 Dr. J. F. Payne ; the Croonian Lectures by Dr. Murchison ; the 

 Lumleian by Dr. Sibson. 



We regret to record the death, on Oct. 24, of Dr. Crace 

 Calvert, F.R.S., F.CS. The illness which caused it was con- 

 tracted at Vienna, whither he had gone to act as juror in the 

 International Exhibition. The yournal of the Society of Arts 

 furnishes some particulars concerning the work of Dr. Calvert. 

 As an analytical chemist his renown was European. He left 

 England as a youth to pursue his education in France, and in 

 the schools of that country secured many honours by the awards 

 which he obtained. He subsequently pursued the study of che- 

 mistry, and was appointed assistant chemist at the Gobelin 

 works, under his learned master, Chevreul. Soon after his re- 

 turn to England, he commenced reading a series of papers before 

 the Society of Arts on chemistry applied to industry. At a later 

 date, when the .Society of Arts proposed to establish Cantor 

 lectures, he gave the proposition his hearty support, and de- 

 livered two courses of lectures on " Chemistry applied to the 

 Arts." He also delivered courses on ".Synthesis and the Pro- 

 duction of Organic Substances," on "Aniline and Coal Tar 

 Colours," and on "Dyes and Dye-stuffs other than Aniline." In 

 1846 he settled in Manchester, and was soo» after appointed 

 Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution there. He was 

 also for some time a lecturer at the Manchester School of Medi- 

 cine. His connection with the Manchester Sanitary Association 

 led him to hygienic investigations — one of the principal results 

 of which was a patent for the application and preparation of car- 

 bolic acid. In scientific circles great interest attached to Dr. 

 Calvert's protoplasmic investigation;, some of the results of 

 which were communicated in a paper read at the meeting of the 

 British Association in Edinburgh some years ago, and afterwards 

 published in the Transactions of the Royal .Society. Dr. Calvert 

 was a Fellow of the Royal Society of England, a Fellow of the 

 Chemical Society, and an honorary Fellow of the Chemical 

 Society of Paris. He was also a member of the Royal Academy 

 of Turin, and of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. 



The death is announced of Prof J. A. F. Breithaupt, of 

 Freiberg, the well-known Mineralogist, on October 22, at the 

 age of 82 years. 



Ocean Higlnoays announces the death from scurvy on the 

 Novaya Zemlya Coast, of the distinguished Norwegian Arctic 

 Explorer, Captain Sivert Tobieson. 



At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society last 

 Monday, Sir Bartle Frere, the President, said that, though there 



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