608 
NATURE 
[Oct. 22, 1885 
ning and Prof. Agassiz is to us an assurance that science will not 
be retarded, and that scientific men will not be slighted by any 
act of President Cleveland.” 
Science comments in a recent issue on an extraordinary state- 
ment published in certain New York and Boston journals to the 
effect that a committee which had been appointed to investigate 
the geological survey of the United States had found that 
illegal practices prevailed in the work of that department. It 
appears that no such committee ever sat ; the whole was pure 
fiction. There was no report, no illegal proceedings, no exa- 
mination. The officer to whom it was said the committee made 
this report has no authority to appoint or superintend such a 
committee, and the whole story had its origin in the fertile brain 
of an imaginative newspaper correspondent. It is well that this 
should be understood in this country, in case the baseless state- 
ments referred to should have made their way here. 
THE Annual Meeting of the London Mathematical Society will 
be held on Thursday evening, November 12, and will be made 
special for the purpose of considering alterations in the rules, 
which will be proposed by the Council. At the same meeting 
it will be proposed to elect Mr. C. Leudesdorf and Capt. P. A. 
Macmahon, R. A., as new members of the Council in the place 
of Dr. Hirst, F.R.S., and Mr. R. F. Scott, who retire. 
THE following are the conclusions of the Scientific Commis- 
sion appointed by the Spanish Government to examine Dr. 
Ferran’s method of treating cholera patients. They are abbre- 
viated by the special correspondent of the Zémes in the cholera 
districts of Spain, writing from Valencia on October 12: (1) 
Dr. Ferran’s inoculations cannot be considered inoffensive. (2) 
The attenuation of the comma bacillus has not been demon- 
strated. (3) The prophylactic measures conceived by Dr. 
Ferran are empiric, for they are in no wise governed by 
scientific rules or laws. (4) By means of the vaccination the 
epidemic is propagated. (5) It is not demonstrated by the results 
ascertained that the inoculations secure immunity from cholera. 
(6) The individual during the first days following his inoculation 
is rendered more stsceptible to contract any other form of 
disease. (7) This is due to the fact that the inoculation disturbs 
more or less profoundly the physiological equilibrium which it is 
sO necessary to maintain during a period of epidemics. (8) The 
results as seen by the Commission do not prove immunity from 
cholera. Neither is it possible to obtain conclusions from 
statistics relating to inoculations, because general laws cannot 
be deduced from isolated facts. 
Dr. QuaIN delivered the Harveian oration on Monday after- 
noon before the Royal College of Physicians. He set himself 
to answer two questions: first, why it is that among a vast 
num ber of persons, alike in ancient and in modern times, medi- 
cine has not enjoyed that high estimate of its value, as an art 
and as a science, to which it is justly entitled ; and, secondly, 
whether we have any grounds for anticipating a more satisfac- 
tory future for medicine, either in the security of the foundations 
on which it is laid, or in the consequent appreciation of it by 
the public. In the course of the oration Dr. Quain spoke of 
the progress of medical science before the foundation of the 
College of Physicians ; the advances made in our knowledge of 
etiology, especially in the practice of arresting the diffusion of 
disease by limiting the spread of contagion, and of improvements 
in our knowledge of pathology. Haying pointed out the pro- 
gress which science and art have made in every direction, Dr. 
Quain produced statistical evidence that the improvement has 
been productive of substantial results. In answer to the 
second question he quoted the words of ‘‘one of the most emi- 
nent of our statesmen,” to the effect that ina generation or two 
the medical profession would be far in advance of the other 
ycamned professions.” 
WE lately quoted in NaTuRE, with acomment on the exceed- 
ingly unusual character of such an announcement from America, 
a statement to the effect that the Astronomical Observatory of 
Beloit College was being closed on account of want of funds. 
We are very pleased to learn from Sczence that this statement is 
quite erroneous. On the contrary, Prof. Bacon, the Director of 
the Observatory, states that new arrangements have been made 
for carrying on additional observations in meteorolozy, and that 
especial attention will be paid to solar and spectroscopic work 
with greater facilities than before. This, we may observe, is 
happily by no means a surprising or novel announcement from 
across the Atlantic. 
THE new School of Metallurgy which has recently been added 
to the Birmingham and Midland Institute, was formally opened 
on September 24, when Prof. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., de- 
livered a lecture on the Development of Technical Instruction in 
Metallurgy. Prof. Roberts pointed out how very recent has 
been the introduction into this country of systematic instruction in 
metallurgy. After referring to the important share which Dr, 
Percy has had in the development of metallurgical work in 
England, and to the steps taken by the Committee of Council on 
Education for its practical working, Prof. Roberts insisted on the 
importance of combining theory and practice, and referred at 
length to the methods adopted in the School of Mines. A full 
report of Prof. Roberts’ lecture will be found in the Chemzcal 
News of October 9. 
THE increasing efficiency with which electric lighting can be 
applied has recently been shown by Messrs. Woodhouse and 
Rawson, who, at a so/7ée at Guy’s Hospital, lit up the building 
with their incandescent lamps, worked off Faure Sellon accumu- 
lators, which were only delivered on the morning of the soirée. 
Equally efficient was the lighting supplied by the same firm at 
the Leicester Exhibition of the Sanitary Institute of Great 
Britain. It is certainly a great convenience that such temporary 
illuminations can be effected under almost any conditions. 
IN an article on the use of the French Academy, Science 
says :—‘‘ But, aside from all personal considerations, there re- 
mains a question whether an organisation like the French 
Academy may not perform an important service to the country 
by giving its collective authority to the encouragement of ex- 
cellence in the use of language. May not its criticism of its 
own members, its judgment of works presented to it, its be- 
stowal of academic honours, its election of associates, its public 
discourses, and its serious scrutiny of the vocabulary and phrase- 
ology of the language in their combined influence, be a very 
powerful agency in the promotion of literary excellence? May 
it not become a sort of schoolmaster to the nation, incapable of 
making good writers out of bad, but helpful in discipline ? 
Who can tell what has been the net gain to France from such a 
society? Is the clearnes:, the precision, the symmetry, the 
finish of a good French style worth having? What would the 
German language be to the world if there had been a German 
academy at work for 250 years smoothing its roughness and 
insisting upon clear, unencumbered, and pleasing forms of 
expression ? ” 
THE Calendar of the University College of North Wales, at 
Bangor, has just been published. Besides the usual information, . 
examination papers and lists, it contains a brief sketch of the 
establishment of this college, which now enters its second year, 
and which promises to have a success worthy of the effoits by 
which it was founded. The thirst of the Welsh people for 
knowledge and for the education of their children is well known, 
and the introduction to the ‘‘Calendar” states that neve 
before in so short a period have so many persons, either in 
England or in Wales, subscribed towards a m»vement for the 
promotion of higher education. In twelve months the list rose 
