Aiig. 6, 1 8 74 J 



NA rURE 



271 



These he carefully translated and annotated, and numbers 

 of the translations and remarks appeared in the scien- 

 tific journals of the day both in India and in Europe. 

 He was president of the Bombay branch of the East 

 India Association, and up to the time of his illness con- 

 stantly took part in the discussions of that body. His 

 exertions in the cause of native female education procured 

 for him the respect and gratitude of his more advanced 

 fellow-countrymen. He established the Literary and .Scien- 

 tific Society, Bombay, and became its first president. His 

 exertions to procure a recognised system of female educa- 

 tion amongst the Hindoos were rewarded by a collection 

 made by his admirers of some 12,000 rupees, which, at 

 his request, was expended in establishing a school which 

 has ever since been known by the name of" Bhau Dajee's 

 Girls' School." He was elected a member of the Bombay 

 Board of Education in 1852. He also filled the presi- 

 dential chair of the Grant Medical College Society. As 

 vice-president of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, he devoted a considerable portion of his spare 

 time to furthering the interests of the society, and to the 

 museum he presented many valuable contributions. With 

 all the leading public questions of his time Bhau Dajee 

 was familiar, and invariably took part in their discussion. 

 Although he was in possession of a large practice he never 

 accumulated a fortune, as he always willingly and readily 

 gave money for the relief of distress. One of his latest 

 and most important discoveries in medical science was 

 the cure for leprosy, which he was on the point of perfect- 

 ing when seized with paralysis. While ill he was most 

 anxious that his manuscripts should be collected and got 

 ready for publication. This duty will, we understand, be 

 performed by his brother. Dr. Narayen Dajee, himself an 

 accomplished scholar and well-known medical practi- 

 tioner. Dr. Bhau visited many parts of India, but never 

 went to England, though we believe he had a strong in- 

 clination to do so. Numberless instances of his public 

 spirit and generosity might be cited did our space permit. 

 The public services of Dr. Bhau Dajee have been so 

 numerous and important that it is but right that steps 

 should be taken to commemorate them by means of a 

 memorial, and we hope that but a short period will be 

 allowed to elapse before some definite proposal will be 

 laid before the public. 



The deceased doctor was a member of numerous scien- 

 tific societies both in India, in Europe, and in America. 



OUR SULPHUR SUPPLIES 



SIGNOR PARODI has addressed a report to the 

 Italian Government, in which he gives his esti- 

 mates that the sulphur of Sicily will be exhausted in fifty 

 or sixty years. At present it is on Sicily we depend 

 almost entirely for the supply of our sulphur— that " main- 

 stay of present industrial chemistry "—which is so largely 

 used in our arts and manufactures. Our demand, too, has 

 been a steadily increasing one. In 1842 we imported 

 16,686 tons, and in 1862 the demand had risen to 75,000 

 tons. In the production of nearly every textile fabric sul- 

 phuric acid is used ; it is more or less directly employed 

 in soap and glass-making, metal refining, and the pre- 

 paration of artificial manures requires large quantities. 

 Our consumption seems to be limited only by the supply. 



Recently a correspondent in the 'Journal of tlic Society 

 of Alts stated, from his own experience of Sicily, that 

 " with few exceptions, the ore is carried to the surface on 

 the backs of boys. . . . The produce of a mine in Sicily 

 is chiefly determined by the difficulty of getting boys . . . 

 and the mines soon reach a depth at which they cease to 

 be profitably worked. All the sulphur in the island, there- 

 fore, below 400 feet is untouched." He consequently 

 doubts the correctness of Signer Parodi's estimate. 



Still this report of Signer Parodi's is likely to cause 

 some uneasiness, and the prospects of our obtaining a large 



supply at a cheap rate from Iceland must not be forgotten. 

 The island is but two days' journey from Scotland, and 

 from recent reports on the harbours there seems no 

 reason why a continual intercourse might not be kept up. 

 Many travellers have borne testimony to the immense fields 

 of unworked sulphur there, and the fresh deposition in 

 worked districts is stated to take place at a wonderfully 

 rapid rate. In the celebrated solfatara of Puzzuoli, near 

 Naples, after the mixture of gravel and sulphur has been 

 submitted to the|distillation of the sulphur,* the gravel is 

 returned, and in thirty years is again so rich in sulphur 

 as to admit of the same process. In Iceland this re- 

 newal of sulphur in the gravel is said to occupy but three 

 years ; the supply is therefore practically inexhaustible. 

 Estimates show that while Sicilian sulphur is 5/. lys. 

 a ton in Britain, Icelandic would be about 2/. i8j-. a ton. 



According to a pamphlet by Dr. Carter Blake, recently 

 issued, we learn that a lease for working some of the 

 mines in the northern and eastern provinces of Iceland 

 has been granted to Mr. Lock, of London. 



A GREAT TELESCOPE 



A'ST'E have already referred to the scries of splendid 

 ' • giftsfrom Mr. James Lick, from San Francisco, to the 

 State of California, the whole amounting to 2,000,000 

 dols. The most remarkable of these donations is one of 

 700,000 dols. for the purpose of erecting and endowing an 

 astronomical observatory, and equipping it with " a 

 powerful telescope, superior to, and more powerful than, 

 any telescope ever yet made." The author of this mag- 

 nificent bequest (the New York Times states) is in every 

 sense of the word a self-made man, and has followed the 

 wise example of the founders of our Cooper Institute and 

 Lennox Library in securing the proper fulfilment of his 

 trust by providing for its organisation in his lifetime. The 

 Lfnited States already possess in the telescope of the 

 Naval Observatory at Washington an instrument of tho 

 same gigantic proportions as that erected by Mr. Newall 

 in this country ; (and we may add that this was the first 

 instrument constructed after Mr. Newall had shown by 

 his costly experiment that such dimensions were possible. 

 The glass for the lenses of both these instruments w;is 

 furnished by Chance and Co., of Birmingham, l^ngland. 

 Under Mr. Lick's gift, Messrs. Alvan Clark and Sons 

 are designated as the final judges of the most ap- 

 propriate site for the proposed great telescope of Cali- 

 fornia and of the world. How amply endowed will be 

 the Lick Observatory, on the summit of the Sierra, 

 may be conjectured from the fact that the great 

 Washington telescope cost but 44,000 dols. The trustees 

 who have the spending of the 700,000 dols. will be limited 

 simply by the ability of the glass-makers to turn out a 

 lens of sufficient size. We assume (continues the above 

 paper) that the proposed telescope will be a refractor, 

 since the great reflectors, of which the best known are 

 Herschel's and Rosse's, have been found comparatively 

 useless for accurate observations. The great speculum or 

 object-mirror of the former was 49^ in. diameter, and the 

 latter had two specula of 6 ft. diameter. Both were 

 among the marvels of the generations that saw them con- 

 structed ; but the latter, albeit only thirty years old, is 

 nearly as much out of date as the former, which was con- 

 structed eighty-five years ago. It is just possible that the 

 existence of a bequest large enough to yield six times the 

 price which has ever been paid for a telescope may be the 

 means of giving birth to lenses of what would now be 

 reckoned impossible size and perfection. The 26-in. 

 object lens of the Washington telescope has been dupli- 

 cated in the one ordered by Mr. M'Cormick, of Chicigo, 

 for the Washington and Lee University of Lexington ; 

 but, though larger lenses have been talked of, their suc- 

 cessful production is still problematical. Many costly 



♦ Ure's Diet of Ails &c., vol. iii., r- Sjc 



