JVov. 13, 1879] 



NATURE 



47 



not refer here to the purely governmental improvements which 

 .have been made, by the substitution of a good government for a 

 bad, or for no government at all. The peace and security 

 which the poorest native now enjoys was unknown before. 

 Much of the improvement which has taken place has been due to 

 the introduction of science and its results into India. As 

 the Times puts it in a leader on Dr. Hunter's address : — 

 ■"A country which, in the natural course of things, seemed fated to 

 be long shut out from the light of civilisation, or to receive tardily 

 a few rays, -was admitted at once into the full blaze of noonday. 

 Other nations have been doomed to work out their civilisation 

 with painful striving. But, thanks to her association with the 

 West, India has had no such novitiate to undergo. All that 

 Europe could teach or give has been made free to her without 

 trouble or price. She has had no centuries of painful waiting, 

 but has stepped at once into possession of all the accumulated 

 intellectual wealth of the West. This has already borne fruits, 

 and more must follow. Our Indian fellow-subjects are being 

 rapidly familiarised with our language and books, and they 

 eagerly drink in modern ideas. They study our philosophers, 

 and talk with more or less intelligence of Mr. Darwin or Mr 

 Herbert Spencer. The names of our chief scientific men are 

 as well known at Agra or Poona as in London. Our schools 

 and colleges are the little leaven which w ill not fail to leaven 

 the whole mass. The old intellectual idols and prejudices are 

 already prostrate or tottering ; and even were there no traces of 

 a bridge or a road to tell of our sway, its history would be im- 

 perishably written in the intellectual revolution which we have 

 swiftly effected." 



During the last four years, Science News states, very little has 

 teen heard of the observatory to be built in California from the 

 gift of Mr. James Lick, and the public has very generally supposed 

 that nothing would come of the project. But there are now 

 signs of a renewed activity on the part of the trustees, and 

 evidence of an intention to carry the project through without 

 further delay. In August last, Mr. S. W. Burnham, of Chicago, 

 the well-known observer of double stars, was invited to spend a 

 month or two on Mount Hamilton, with his telescope, in order 

 to test the suitability of the mountain as a site for the proposed 

 observatory. His reports were so favourable that Prof. New- 

 cjmb, on whose recommendation he was chosen for the work, 

 visited the place himself in September. Both these gentlemen 

 speak in the highest terms of the excellence of the astronomical 

 conditions. Not only is almost every night perfectly clear, but, 

 according to Mr. Burnham, bad seeing is almost unknown. 

 Every night is such a one as he would consider superb at 

 Chicago, and would only meet with two or three times a year. 

 He discovered during his stay a number of new double stars, in 

 portions of the sky which are further south than can be thoroughly 

 examined in the comparatively bad atmosphere of stations this 

 side of the Mississippi. The result of this exploration will give 

 both the trustees and the public a new interest in the project, and 

 it is supposed will lead the former to push the work on as rapidly 

 as possible. If, as both the astronomers who have examined 

 the site seem to suppose, its atmosphere is finer than that of any 

 existing observatory, the result will be that the most powerful 

 telescope in the world will be under the finest sky for employing 

 its utmost capacity. 



M. Feil, the Paris glass-founder, has just received an 

 unusual number of orders for large discs for the following 

 observatories : — Pulkowa Observatory, 80 cm. diameter ; Nice 

 Observatory (Bischofsheim's gift), 76 cm. ; Paris National Ob. 

 servatory, 73 cm. ; Vienna Observatory, to be worked by Grubb, 

 70 cm. ; Mr. Hilger for England, 52 cm. ; and M. Salmocro°hi, 

 of Milan, 52 cm. The Nice Observatory object-glass w ill be 

 worked by MM. Henry Brothers. 



On Thursday, November 4, took place at the French Ministry 

 of PuUic Instruction, the first general meeting of the delegates 

 of the Meteorological Commission. M. Jules Ferry was in the 

 chair, and he prefaced the discussion by some remarks on the 

 zeal exhibited by delegates and expressed the confidence felt by 

 the Government in the ultimate success of so many efforts. M. 

 Herve Mangon, the president of the Council of the Central 

 Bureau, read a report on the work accomplished since the insti- 

 tution was created, and directed attention to a number of useful 

 questions which up to that moment had been too much neglected. 

 All the resolutions proposed which had been discussed in pre- 

 liminary meetings were accepted. A number of delegates 

 delivered addresses asking for the erection of new stations and 

 the improvement of certain departments. 



The French Minister of Tublic Instruction has appointed 

 a commission for arranging all the collections now located in 

 the Trocadero, and creating out of these valuable elements 

 an ethnographical museum. 



Under, date Rome, Sunday night, the Daily News corre- 

 spondent telegrpphs : — " Galvani in the act of touching with two 

 different metals the lumbar nerves of a vivisected frog ; such is 

 the monument, admirably executed in marble, which his native 

 city, Bologna, has this day dedicated in her busiest street to the 

 great discoverer of animal electricity." 



It is stated that the Bell Telephone Company have taker, the 

 first steps to bring an action against the Edison Telephone 

 Company for infringement of patent in respect of the microphonic 

 transmitter of hard carbon employed in the latest form of instru- 

 ment. This transmitter, which is almost identical with the 

 Blake microphone used by the Bell Company, is claimed by 

 Edison, under the name of the Inertia Telephone, as one of the 

 earliest forms of his carbon telephone. 



The programme of the Society of Arts for its 126th session 

 has just been issued. It gives a list of the papers and lectures 

 for the session, so far as they have been arranged. The follow- 

 ing are the papers to be read at the evening meetings previous to 

 Christmas: — November 26, " Suggestions for Dealing with the 

 Sewage of London," by Major-General H. Y. D. Scott, C.B. 

 F.R.S. December 3, "Apprenticeship: Scientific and Un- 

 scientific," by Silvanus P. Thompson, D.Sc, Professor of Applied 

 Physics at University College, Bristol. December 10, "Art 

 Vestiges in Afghanistan ; the Results of some Recent Explora- 

 tions in the Jellalabad Valley," by William Simpson. December 

 17, "The Panama Canal," by Capt. Bedford Pirn, R.N., M.P. 

 The dates of the papers after Christmas are not announced, but 

 the following are among the subjects to be treated: — "Domestic 

 Poisons," by Henry Carr ; " Gas Furnaces and Kilns for Burn- 

 ing Pottery," by Herbert Guthrie, C.E. ; "The Utilisation of 

 Slag," by Charles Wood ; "Art in Japan," by C. Pfoundes ; 

 "The Trade and Commerce of the Yenisei," by Henry See- 

 bohm ; "Modern Autographic Printing Processes," by Thomas 

 Bolas, F.C.S. ; " The History of the Art of Bookbinding," by 

 Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A. ; "Art Ironwork," by J. W. 

 Singer; "The History of Musical Pitch," by A. J. Ellis, 

 F.R.S. ; " The Recent History of Explosive Agents," by Prof. 

 Abel, C.B., F.R.S. ; " Ireland and its Resources," by C. G. W. 

 Lock: "The Future of Epping Forest," by William Paul, 

 F.L.S. Three courses of "Cantor Lectures " are to be given. 

 The first course is by Dr. Charles Graham, F.C.S. , F.I.C., 

 Professor of Chemical Technology at University College, London, 

 on "The Chemistry of Bread and Bread-making;" the second 

 on the " Manufacture of India-rubber and Gutta-percha," by 

 Thomas Bolas, F.C.S. ; the third by R. W. Edis, F.S.A., on 

 "Art Decoration and Furniture." The first meeting of the 

 session will be held on the 19th inst., when the opening address 



