Sep. lo, 1874] 



NATURE 



583 



In this connection we would refer to Sir Charles Reed's state- 

 ment, on Tuesday night, at the Radnor Street Schools, City Road. 

 "With respect to scientific education," he said, "this country 

 is far behind other countries ; and in that she has fallen 

 back, as she has also in manufactures and in trade, and is 

 letting such countries as America and Germany run far ahead of 

 her. More attention must be paid in all our schools to the 

 scientific education of children." 



The Duke of Bedford has just sent 100/. for aiding in the 

 establishment of the Artisans' Institute for Promoting General 

 and Technical Knowledge, to tlie Rev. H. Solly, who is to be 

 its first principal. Mr. Samuel MorU-y, M.P. (who is one of the 

 trustees in conjunction with Lord Lyttelton and Mr. Hodgson 

 Pratt), has also given 100/., besides guaranteeing 100/. a year for 

 three years. These, with smaller contributions from a number of 

 other friends, have enabled the trustees to take premises in Upper 

 St. Martin's Lane, which will be well adapted for the purpose 

 when considerable alterations have been made in them. The 

 object of the Institute appears lo be to exemplify. in a central 

 locality, and in a special instance, those plans for the general and 

 technical instruction of the working classes which so many of 

 them now desire to see carried into effect, and which Mr. Solly 

 aimed at promoting on a national scale by the formation of the 

 " Trades Guild of Learning." Pending the satisfactory establish- 

 ment and full development of the larger organisation, it is hoped 

 that the proposed Artisans' Institute will, both directly and in- 

 directly, give a considerable impulse to the higher as well as 

 technical education of the skilled workmen of the metropolis, as 

 many of their leading men have publicly signified their cordial 

 approval of the project ; and the desire for increased culture is 

 rapidly increasing among that important and intelligent class. 

 It is expected that the Institute will be ready to open early 

 in October. Donations in aid of it will be thankfully received, 

 and may be paid to the account of Mr. Hodgson Pratt, treasurer 

 pro tun., at the London and Westminster Bank, 217, Strand. 



An enthusiastic meeting was held in Bombay on the 1st of 

 August, at which a committee was appointed for the purpose of 

 raising a fund by public subscription for a memorial to the late Dr. 

 Bhau Dajee, of whom we gave some account in a recent number. 



The Government of India, says the Bombay Gaeelle, has de- 

 termined to jierpetuate the memory of Dr. Stoliczka, the distin- 

 guished naturalist, who met his death on the return journey from 

 Yarkand, by erecting, at the public expense, a tomb over his 

 remains at Leh, and a tablet in the new Indian Museum at 

 Calcutta. 



The death is annotrr.ced of Sir John Rennie, C.E., F.R.S., 

 the eminent civil engineer, under whose direction some of 

 the most important engineering works of the past half-century 

 have been carried out. Sir John, who died on Thursday last at 

 Bengeo, in Hertfordshire, was born in 1794, and was the son of 

 the late Mr. John Rennie, who designed new London Bridge, 

 and who also designed and execu;ed Southwark and Waterloo 

 Bridges. Mr. Rennie educated his son for his own profession, 

 and left to him the taskof executing his designs for London Bridge. 

 On its completion and opening in 1S31 Mr. Rennie received the 

 honour of knighthood. Several foreign distinctions had been 

 conferred upon him. 



Our readers will be glad to hear of the safety of the members 

 of the Austrian Payer and Weyprecht Arctic Expedition, who 

 have been out for two years, and who, it was feared, had come 

 to grief. A Times telegram, dated Christiania, Sept. 5, gives a 

 brief history of the expedition. They left Tromso in the Tcgethoff 

 on the 14th of July, 1S72. They encountered compact drift ice 

 in 48° K. long., and worked themselves through until, in 58° E. 

 long., they reached the coast of Novaya Zemlya, under the 

 Admiralty Peninsula. They sailed along the coast to Berch 



Islands, where they met Count Wiltczek's sloop Ishjurn. They 

 sailed together with him further to Barents Islands, near the 

 promontory of Cape Nassau, where they remained at anchor till 

 the 2ist of August, 1872, on account of south-westerly storms. 

 There a depot of provisions was established. They parted with 

 Count Wiltczek and steered north-east the same day, and were 

 completely frozen in. They drifted with the pack ice fourteen 

 months, first north-east to 73° E, long., and then north-west 

 until October 1S73. In August 1873 a new land was discovered, 

 They drifted with the ice along this land. They were frozen in. 

 and wintered in 79° 51' N. lat. and 59° E. long. In March and 

 April 1874 sledge expeditions were sent north and west ; $2° N. 

 lat. was passed, and land was seen to the 83rd degree. The 

 extent of the land northwards and westwards was, apparently, 

 considerable. The ship, now being untenable, was abandoned. 

 Starting on the 20th of May, 1S74, with four sledge boats, they 

 met the open water on the I5ih of August, and crossed to 

 Novaya Zemlya, and went along the coast in search of vessels. 

 They met a Russian schooner on the 24lh of August in Puchowa 

 Bay, and arrived at Vardoe, in Norway, on the 3rd of .September. 

 The health of'the crew was excellent. Engineer Krisch died in 

 March 1874 from tuberculous disease. Large mountain ridges 

 are said to have been observed in the newly discovered land, 

 but no signs of animal life ; and immense glaciers were met 

 with. 



The loss is announced of the whaler Airlic, of Dundee, at 

 Davis's Straits. The Arclii at the time she was lost was full. 

 She was commanded by Cnpt. Adams, with whom, it will be 

 remembered, Capt. Markham, R. N., of the Siillaii, made a 

 voyage of investigation a year ago. Capt. Adams had distin- 

 guished himself by the surveys which he made of several of the 

 Arctic coasts. All hands have been saved. 



The Berlin African Exploration Society is fitting out a second 

 expedition to the interior of Africa. Herr Alexander von Hor- 

 mayer, the well-known ornithologist, will be the leader of the 

 expedition, and will go from St. Paul de Loanda by way of 

 Kassimbe to Moatta Jambe. 



The British Bee-keepers' Association, founded in May last, 

 has been fortunate in securing Sir John Lubbock as its Presi- 

 dent, and though the members number but little over 120, they 

 have already shown a commendable earnestness. On Tuesday 

 they held, at the Crystal Palace, their first show of bees, hives, 

 honey, and accessory apparatus ; and during the day some of the 

 bee masters manipulated their hives, showing how to take honey, 

 introduce queens, and to do other necessary work usually sup- 

 posed to be accompanied with some danger. The primary ob- 

 ject of the Association is to promote the more extensive cultivation 

 of bees, especially by cottagers, and the study of the best way of 

 obtaining most honey with the least waste. The American 

 " Slinger " was shown in operation, and effectually drives out by 

 centrifugal force all honey from a comb without injuring the 

 By the application of this principle much of the time that woidd 

 be occupied in making cells is saved, and bees at once begin 

 refilling the comb. A secondary object of the Association is to 

 promote the study of the habits and powers of bees, and special 

 prizes were offered for observatory hives. Now that Sir John 

 Lubbock has led the way in showing how to observe individual 

 bees (see Nature, March 2(5), we may expect that many people 

 will be induced to take up such an interesting subject and add 

 to our stock of knowledge. Almost everything about the powers 

 of bees has yet to be learned. An observatory hive stocked with 

 bees costs, we believe, only about thirty shillings, and the British 

 Bee younialis always willing to give any information to inquirers 

 needing instruction. The last number that has been forwarded 

 to us, and besides giving a gi-eat deal of practical instruction, con- 

 tains an interesting article on the Philosophy of I live Shape. 



