312 



NA TURE 



\Feb. 19, 1874 



A SHORT course of Lectures on the Growth of Physical 

 Science during the last twenty-five years, is to be given at the 

 request of a number of gentlemen in Edinburgh, in St. George's 

 Hall, by Prof. Tait, of the University of Edinburgh. The first 

 lecture is to be given to-day. 



At the Annual General Jleeting of the Glasgow Geological 

 Society, on Thursday last, Sir William Thomson gave an ad- 

 dress on " The Infiuence of (Geological Changes on the Earth's 

 Rotation." We hope to be able, veiy soon to give an abstract 

 of this address. 



The Times announces that the following arrangements have 

 been made in cojtsequence of Mr. Henry t'oU's retirement last 

 year from the post of Secretary of the Science and Art Depart- 

 ment and Director of the South Kensington Museum : —Sir 

 Francis Sandford, Secretary of the Education Department, will 

 also be Secretary of the Science and Art Department ; Major 

 Donnelly, R. E., Official Inspector for Science, will be Director 

 of Schools of Science and Art and affiliated institutions ; Mr. 

 Norman MacLeod will remain Assistant Secretary of the Science 

 and Art Department ; and Mr. Philip Cunliffe Owen, Assistant 

 Director of the South Kensington Museum, will be the Director 

 of that Museum. 



Prof. Helmholtz has communicated to the Academy of 

 Sciences of Berlin a paper on "The Direction of Balloons," in 

 which he enters into a number of elaborate calculations. In his 

 calculations he directs attention only to the relation between 

 the force and the weight, and supposes that the means at our dis- 

 posal will enaljle us to construct the envelope of the balloon and 

 its motive power. But, Prof. Helmholtz says, " it appears to me 

 that here there exists a great difficulty in the way of execution, for 

 the solid parts of the machine do not preserve the necessary 

 solidity when they are much enlarged, although they continue 

 to be geometrically similar ; they then must be made thicker, 

 and consequently heavier. To obtain the same effect Avith small 

 motors at great speed, there is a lo5s of work. We can only work 

 economically then with motors of, large surface urged by a 

 motion relatively slow. One of the great practical difficulties 

 will then be to obtain the necessary dimensions without overload- 

 ing the balloon." 



Prof. M. A. Newton thus criticises the Report of the British 

 Association Committee on Units in the March number of SUli- 

 man's Journal : — The dyne or unit of force which is proposed by 

 the committee is to be a new unit of the same nature as a gram- 

 weight, or the earth's attraction fjr a gram-mass, and having no 

 commensurable ratio with it. Now our simplest and most useful 

 ideas of force are derived at once from weight. It seems to us 

 that, of necessity, this will always be the case. Probably the 

 learned committee have no expectation that even among scien- 

 t'fic men the new units will entirely replace what they call the 

 vulgar ones. If, then, their recommendation is accepted, we 

 shall create for certain departments of mechanical science new 

 units of force and energy which are in no useful ratios to those 

 used in other departments of science, and by people at large. 

 Is there not some way of avoiding this great evil? Societies are 

 formed and sustained whose main and most worthy object is to 

 get rid of such confusions. We think the proposed units should 

 be stoutly challenged to sho'^r a necessity for their being. We 

 do ne'd, it may be added, anew name {or the earth's attraction 

 upon a gram of matter at some fixed place. The words gnim, 

 pound, ton, &c. , have had to do service in two different senses, 

 that is, as mass, and as force. If any good word could come 

 into use that shall express the earth's attractive force for a gram 

 of matter at some place that may be agreed upon, it would meet 

 a real want. 



The collection of Humming Birds of the late M. Jules 

 Bourcier is to be sold by auction at Paris on March 2. M. 



Bourcier's collection of these birds was, a few years ago, the 

 best and most complete in existence, embracing numerous tyjies 

 of the species described by the French naturalists, and speci- 

 mens collected by himself during his residence in Ecuador as 

 French Consul. 



Mr. a. S. Napier, of Owens College, Manchester, who has 

 been elected to a Natural Science Scholarship at Exeter College, 

 Oxford, received the first part of his science training at Rugby. 

 Mr. W. E. Hoyle, of Owens College, has been elected to a 

 Natural Science exhibition in the same College. 



The Japanese Government have, through their Legation in 

 London, appointed Mr. R. Routledge, B. Sc, F.C.S., to the 

 Professorship of Chemistry and Physics in the Imperial College 

 at Yeddo. Mr. Routledge was formerly of the Owens College, 

 Mancliester, where he studied Chemistry under Dr. Roscoe, and 

 afterwards took high honours at the University of London. 



We gladly call attention to the action taken by the British 

 Association, " Boulder Committee," under its secretary, the 

 Rev. H. W. Crosskey. A large printed form has been prepared, 

 with a set of well-drawn up questions, and spaces for the answers 

 of those who may be inclined to assist the Committee in their 

 praiseworthy work. Copies of this form may be obtained by 

 applying to Mr. Crosskey, 2S, George Koad, Birmingham. 



A TELEGRAM from Cairo announces that Dr. Beke has 

 succeeded in discovering the true Mount Sinai. It is said to be 

 situated one day's journey west of Akaba, is called by the Arabs 

 the Mountain of Light, and is 5,000 ft. high. On the summit 

 were some sacrificial remains of animals. 



Mis.s Frances Strickland, of Appleby-court, Tewkesbur}-, 

 has offered to found at the University of Cambridge a curatorship 

 of the Ornithological collection formerly belonging to her brother, 

 Mr. H. F. Strickland, F.R.S., and presented to the University 

 in 1867 by his widow. Miss .Strickland proposes to endow the 

 office with a permanent stipend of 150/. per annum. The prin- 

 cipal conditions attached to the gilt are that the curator be 

 appointed by the foundress during her lifetime, and afterwardsby 

 Mis. Catherine .Strickland, and, on the decease of these two 

 ladies, by the superintendent of the University Museums of 

 Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, but in each case with the 

 consent of the Vice-Chancellor. That the curator is to be 

 subject to the authority of the superintendent of the museums, 

 and that his first duty be the proper custody and efficient pre- 

 ^e^valion of the .Strickland collection, making an accurate cata- 

 logue of it, so that the collection be of the greatest service to 

 Science. He would be required to reside in ihe University ; and 

 in case of the abolition of the office of superintendent of the 

 museums the curator shall be appointed and removed by the 

 Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy w-ith the con- 

 sent of the Vice-Chancellor. The Council of the Senate re- 

 commend the acceptance of Miss Strickland's liberal offer. 



On this day week there passed from among U5 a coun'ryman 

 whose power has been but too little appreciated, and far too little 

 recompensed by ourselves or other European nations. Sir Francis 

 Pettit Smith was, to all intents and purposes, the discoverer of 

 the screw-propeller, a method of progression as practically advan- 

 tageous as it is theoreticallyjperfcct ; nevertheless, the benefits 

 which he has derived from' his indebted countrymen are but a 

 paltry annuity and an equally insignificant decoration. Con- 

 sidering the little encauragement given by our Government for 

 first-class work, it is really a matter of surprise that any should 

 be produced at all. 



