272 



NATURE 



[Feb. 5, 1874 



manufacturing supremacy which has heretofore distinguished 

 her, and that it is high time that the Government of this country 

 should talie steps to retain that supremacy, and that means 

 towards that desirable end is the appointment of a rcsponsU'lc 

 Minister of Education who^e duty it will be to see that our educa- 

 tion machinery in all departments, both in extent and in efficiency, 

 is kept up to the wants of the age, and that a thorough general 

 education in the scientific principles on which the arts are founded 

 (and witliout which training mere technical schools are of no 

 use), is put within the reach of all, this society resolves that the 

 candidates for the representation in Parliament of the County and 

 City of Perth be respectfully requested to state, whether, in the 

 event of their being elected they will use their influence to urge 

 upon the Government ; (i) the appointment of such responsible 

 Minister of Education ; (2) the promotion of scientific explora- 

 tion expeditions, such as that of an Arctic expedition which the 

 late Government was in vain requested to promote ; (3) the 

 providing of means for carrying on unremunerative scientific re- 

 search." The secretary was accordingly directed to communicate 

 with the candidates. 



The post of Hydrographer to the Navy has been bestovi'ed 

 by Mr. Goschen on Capt. J. O. Evans, R.N., C.B., F.R.S., in 

 succession to Rear- Admiral Richards, C.B., F. R. S., who has 

 retired. 



The first four wranglers on this year's Cambridge Mathe- 

 maticil Tripos, are, George C. Calliphronas, of Gonville and 

 Caius College ; Walter W. R. Ball, of Trinity College ; James 

 R. Harris, of Clare College ; and Andrew Craik, of Emmanuel 

 College. 



The following lectures in Nat ural Science will be given at 

 Trinity, St. John's, and Sidney Sussex Colleges, during Lent 

 Term, 1874 : — On Sound and Light (for the Natural Sciences 

 Tripos), by Mr. Trotter, Trinity College, in Lecture-room No. 

 II (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, at 11, commencing Wed- 

 nesday, Feb. 4) ; On Electricity and Magnetism (for the first 

 part of the Natural Sciences Tripos and the special exami- 

 nation for the Ordinary Degree), by Mr. Trotter, Trinity Col- 

 lege, in Lecture Room No. 1 1 (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, at 

 11, commencing Thursday, Feb. 5); On Inorganic Chemistry, 

 by Mr. Main, St. John's College (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, 

 at 12, in St. John's College Laboratory, commencing Thursday, 

 January 29). Attendance on these lectures is recognised by the 

 University for the certificate required by medical students pre. 

 vious to admissi m for the first examination for the degree of 

 M.B. Instruction in practical chemistry will also be given. On 

 Palaeontology (the Annuloida, &c.), by Mr. Bonney, St. John's 

 College (Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 9, commencing Tuesday, 

 February 3). On Geology (for the Natural Sciences Tripos, 

 Physical Geology), by iVIr. Bonney, St. John's College (Mon- 

 days, Wedne-days, and Fridays, at 10, commencing Wednesday, 

 February 4). Lithology : demonstrations with the microscope 

 every Saturday at 11, commencing February 7. The class will 

 be limited to six, and preference gived to members of the above 

 colleges. Elementary Geology (for the First Part of the Tripos 

 and the special e.xamination) (Tuesdays and Thursdays, at II. 

 commencing Thursday, February 5). On Botany, for tlie Natural 

 Sciences Tripos, by Mr. Hicks, Sidney College (Tuesday, 

 Thursdiy, .Saturday, at II, in Lecture-room No. i, beginning 

 on Tuesday, February 3). The lectures during this term will 

 be on Vegetable Histology and Physiology. A Course of Practi- 

 cal Physiol gy, by the Trinity Prcelector in Physiology (Dr. 

 Michael Foster) at the new museums. Lectures on Tuesday, 

 Thursday, Saturday, at 12, commencing Tuesday, J.inuary, 27. 

 This course is a continuation of that given last term. 



Dr. Schmidt, Professor of Astronomy in the University of 

 Athens, has just complete! his gre.it map of the Moon. It is 



tvio metres in diameter, and is a marvel of accurate mapping and 

 minute draughtmanship. The shading is so exquisite that any part 

 of the map may be examined by a lens without the appearance 

 of coarse or rough work. The map represents the labour of 

 thirty-four years, and is without doulit one of the greatest astro- 

 nomical reiults of the century. 



The discourse at the Royal Institution on Friday next, Feb. 

 6, at 9 P.M., will be by Mr. A. H. Garrod, Fel'ow of St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, " On the Heirt and the Sphygmograph." 



A Marine and Fresh-water Aquarium is to be established in 

 the Central Park, New York, in connection with the Free 

 Museum and Menagerie already erected there ; it will be placed 

 under the superintendence of Mr. W. Saville Kent, F.Z.S., 

 who was, until a short time ago. Curator of the Brighton 

 Aquarium. It is intended to raise the requisite funds by public 

 subscription, and we are very pleased to be able to add that it is 

 proposed to endow the Institution, so that it may be made avail- 

 able for the purposes of scientific research. 



A PROJECT is on foot for the erection of a public aquarium at 

 Liverpool, and a Company has been formed for this purpose ; 

 a suitable site has been secured close to the Philharmonic 

 Hall, and operations will, we believe, be commenced at once. 

 It is estimated the building will cost about 45,000/. 



The exhibition of appliances for the economic consumption 

 of coal, which has been formed in the Peel Park, Salford, by the 

 Society for Promoting Scientific Industry, was formally opened 

 on Friday. Mr. J. Lowthian Bell, who had been announced to 

 open the E.xhibition, was prevented from being present, but 

 forwarded the copy of an address which he had intended 

 to deliver. This was read by the secretary, Mr. Larkins. 

 The Exhibition will remain open for some weeks, and wil 

 doubtless receive its share of public notice when the elections 

 are occupying less attention than they are at present. 



We learn from the Athm.i:um that the Trustees of the Britisl' 

 Museum have agreed to resign their patronage into the hands of 

 the Government. 



An interesting peculiarity in the habits of some Indian 

 Siluroid fishes has been noticed at a recent meeting of the 

 Zoological Society by Surgeon F. Day, which will be described 

 in full in the forthcoming Part of the Proceedings of that 

 Society. Mr. Day, when fisliing at Cassegode, found that, after 

 having caught a large number of specimens of various species of 

 Arius and Osleogcniosus, there were several silur jii eggs at the 

 bottom of the boats, and in the fish-baskets. These eggs were, 

 on an average, half-an-inch in diameter ; and on looking 

 into the moutlis of several of the males of both genera, from 

 fifteen to twenty eggs were seen in each ; those in the boats and 

 baskets having evidently dropped out from a similar situation. 

 The eggs were in different stages of de\ elopment, some advanced 

 so far as to be just hatched. They filled the mouth, extending 

 as far back as the branchiae. No food was found in the ali- 

 mentary canal, though in the females it was full of nutriment. 



In a paper on the Meleors of January 2, read before the 

 American Philosophical Society, by Prof. Daniel Kirkwood, the 

 author states, founding on data extending from a.d. S49 to 1S64, 

 that the meteors 01 this group have probably a period of thirteen 

 years ; that the mean dist.ince is 5 53, aphelion 10.06 ; and that 

 the source of the meteors may be the fourth comet of i860, 

 which in its ascending node approaches very near the point 

 passed by the earth about January 3. If the period be thirteen 

 years, the comet should have returned in the i.atter part of 1873, 

 and the maximum fall of the associated meteors should occur 

 about 1877. 



