512 



NATURE 



{April %Ot 1874 



It is stated that Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., has been 

 nominated to succeed Dr. Odling at the Royal Institution. 



The funei'al of the late Professor Phillips will be solem- 

 nised at York to-day at 11 A.M. It is understood that this 

 locality was fixed on by himself, other members of his family 

 being buried there. 



A DEPUTATION, Consisting of .Sir Bartle Frere, president of 

 the Royal Geographical .Society, .Sir James Watson, Lord 

 Provost of Glasgow, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, M.P., and 

 several other members of Parliament, waited on Lord Derby 

 last Friday, to lay before him the claims which exist for an 

 official recognition of the late Dr. Livingstone's arduous services 

 in the cause of humanity and of Science during his long tenure 

 of office as one of Her Majesty's Consuls. The memorial, 

 which was handed to Lord Derby, was signed by many eminent 

 and well-known names, and his lordship said lie agreed with 

 the deputation that something ought to be done for the members 

 of Livingstone's family. There seems no doubt that Govern- 

 ment will meet the wishes of the country in this matter. 



On Monday night, at the usual meeting of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, the principal business of the evening consisted 

 of reading extracts from the letters of Dr. Livingstone to Sir H. 

 Rawhnson, toSir R.I. Murchison, to Sir Bartle Frere, and to some 

 private friends. This correspondence extended over six or seven 

 years. Very voluminous materials have been preserved, but the 

 work of editing them has yet to be performed. Sir Bartle Frere 

 was happy to say that the son of the illustrious traveller 

 accepted the duty of editing the materials left by his father, 

 and had resigned a promising career in Egypt for that purpose. 



The Spectator proposes that as an appropriate memorial to 

 the late Dr. Livingstone, some Exploration Scholarships should 

 be founded, to be called by the explorer's name. 



Mr. F. J. Schuster has made a donation of 225/. to the 

 Physical Laboratory of Owens College, Manchester, for the pur- 

 pose of buying apparatus. 



The Royal Irish Academy has sanctioned the following 

 grants from the fand at its disposal for aiding scientific re- 

 searches by providing suitable instruments and materials ; — 30/. 

 to Messrs. Studdert and Caldwell for the chemical analysis of 

 the mineral waters at Lisdoonvarna, in the county of Clare ; 

 30/. to Prof. Macalister, to be expended in the purchase of rare 

 insectivora and other mammals for di-.section, in order to enable 

 him to report on the myology ot mammals ; 40/. to Mr. W. H. 

 Bailey, to investigate the fossils of the coal districts in Ireland, 

 with a view to their comparison with those of British and other 

 coal-fields ; 50/. to Prof. Ilaughton, to complete an investigation 

 into the chemical and mineral composition of the successive 

 lava-flows of Vesuvius ; 39/. 17^. wd. (being the remainder of 

 the fund) to Dr. David iNIoore, for the investigation and cata- 

 loguing of the Irish Hepatica;. Gentlemen purposing to under- 

 take scientific researches during the coming year, and desirous to 

 obtain grants from this fund, are invited to send in their appli- 

 cations to the secretary of the Academy without delay. 



The Ogham inscribed stones, ten in number, purchased by the 

 Royal Irish Academy from the representatives of the late Mr. 

 Windele, have been arranged in the crypt of their Museum with 

 the other Ogham stones belonging to the Academy, one being set 

 vertically in the floor, and the others placed either oii iron stands 

 in the bays at the south side, or on the dn-arf «alls forming the 

 bays. These stones are now all easy of access, and, in the 

 daytime, have the advantage of a light well adapted to the exa- 

 mination of their respective inscriptions. The Academy is in 

 possession of 134 photographic negatives of Ogham inscriptions, 

 representing about eighty diff'erent texts. It is intended to print 



these in autotype, and thus to afford to inquirers in this curious 

 branch of study authentic copies of considerably more than half 

 the whole number of such inscriptions known to exist. They 

 will be accompanied by short notices, strictly limited to a state- 

 ment respecting the localities where the inscriptions were found, 

 and other matters of fact respecting them ; the philological dis- 

 cussion and interpretation of them being left to the free compe- 

 tition of scholar;. 



Rear-Admiral Charles H. D.avis was ordered, on Feb. 

 23, to the duty of superintendent of the Naval Observatory at 

 Washington, U.S., in place of Rear-Admiral Sands, who has 

 been detached and placed on the retired list, in accordance with 

 the niles of the service. Admiral Sands, during his tenure of 

 office, has merited the respect and goodwill of British Astro- 

 nomers, who will view with regret the necessary termination of 

 his functions. 



Amongst the estimates passed by the House of Commons 

 on Friday last was So,ooo/. to continue the works on the New 

 Natuial History Museum at .South Kensington, with which 

 rapid progress is now being made. 



Ix answer to a question in the House of Commons on Tuesday 

 Viscount Sandon stated that arrangements consequent on the 

 retirement of Mr. Cole were now the subject of consideration by 

 the Science and Art Department, but had not yet been com- 

 pleted. 



The Council of the Paris Observatory is said to have protested 

 against a ministerial decision which allowed the Bureau des 

 Longitudes to take the half of the astronomical library, which has 

 been forming during centuries, and which is one of the richest in 

 the world. It is almost certain that the decision will be cancelled^ 

 M. Leverrier having given the alternative of leaving the whole 

 of the books in the hands of the Bureau, and refusing to be a 

 party to such a mutilation. When the library shall be saved, it 

 will be open to the public luider certain regulations. 



We recently announced the oppressive treatment to which M. 

 Alglave, editor of La Keime Scieniifiqiie and Professor of Law at 

 Douai, had been subjected ; there is no doubt now that his sus- 

 pension by the Minister of Public Instruction has been caused 

 by his refusal to resign the editorship of the journal just men- 

 tioned and of the Rci'ue politique et littiraire, of which he is also 

 editor. On Monday week, on his going to open his class for the 

 term, he received a letter from the Under-Secretary of the Edu- 

 cation Department informing him that his course would be sus- 

 pended until further notice. Science has many difficulties to 

 contend with in this country, but happily vexatious interference 

 on the part of the State is not one of them. 



A TAPER on the grasses and fodder plants which maybe bene- 

 ficial to the squatter and agriculturist in South Australia, by 

 Dr. Richard Schomburgk, director of the Adelaide Botanic 

 Gardens, has been officially published by order of the GDvernor. 



It is stated in the Scicnlifii: American that the well-known 

 and much admired Japan lacquer-work, the secrets of which 

 were supposed to be known only to the Easterns, has been suc- 

 cessfully reproduced, or rather imitated, in Holland. The 

 lacquer is prepared from Zanzibar copal, coloured black with 

 Indian ink. The articles are painted with several coa's of this 

 lacquer, in which the pieces of mother- o'-pearl or other sub- 

 stances used for ornamentation are placed before it becomes 

 hard. The lacquer is then dried by placing the articles in a 

 heated oven or furnace, after which another coat of lacquer is 

 applied, and when dry smoothed with pumice, which is repeated 

 until all cracks are filled up and the surface has become perfectly 

 smooth, when the whole is polished, or rather burnished, with 

 tripoli. 



