lb7 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 1 8, 1879 



NOTES 



Lord Rayleigh has been elected to the Chair of Experi- 

 mental Physics at Cambridge, in succession to the late Prof. 

 Clerk Maxwell. 



A committee has been appointed to receive subscriptions for 

 the purpose of commemorating the retirement of Dr. Andrews 

 from the vice-presidency of the Queen's College, Belfast, by a 

 bust or portrait to be placed in the College, and a prize or 

 scholarship to be founded in the same institution in connection 

 with chemical science. 



We hear with regret that the Epping Forest Committee have 

 rejected Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, whose candidature for the post 

 of Superintendent of the Forest was supported by so many 

 eminent men of science and also by a large number of the 

 local inhabitants. The successful candidate is Mr. Alexander 

 McKenzie, a landscape gardener, who may doubtless prove an 

 able superintendent ; but it is unfortunate that a man of Mr. 

 Wallace's ability and knowledge should have failed to obtain a 

 post which he could so well have filled for the benefit of the 

 nation. 



Dr. Percy has resigned the lectureship on metallurgy at the 

 Royal School of Mines. 



The Rev. John Brown Maclellan, Vicar of Bottisham, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, has been elected Principal of the Agricultural 

 College, Cirencester, in place of the Rev. John Constable, who 

 has resigned owing to ill-health. Mr. Maclellan is a distinguished 

 classical scholar, having taken high honours in that department 

 at Cambridge. He is the author of a work on "The Fourth 

 Nicene Canon and Election and Consecration of Bishops," and 

 of "A New Translation of the New Testament." We have 

 failed to discover the special qualifications of this scholarly vicar 

 for the position of head of an Agricultural College, which if 

 anything is scientific. Of course the institution is a proprietary 

 concern, and the Council has a right to do as it likes. By the by 

 although this College has a charter, it has no right to the title of 

 ' ' Royal " which it assumes. 



M. Janssen has been unable to see the sun for a number of 

 days, owing to the almost constant prevalence of cloudy weather ; 

 but he states that, according to the results of his latest observa- 

 tions, the number of spots on the sun is very small, as well as 

 the number of faculje. He supposes that this last circumstance 

 may be connected with the rigour of the present winter, although 

 he is not in a position to state whether these faculae are on the 

 surface of the sun or produced by some change in the intervening 

 medium. The construction of M. Janssen's observatory at 

 Meudon has been interrupted by the inclemency of the weather. 

 It will be resumed next spring. Meanwhile M. Janssen is com- 

 pleting his system of observation. An automatic instrument 

 worked by a weight will take six photographs of the sun every 

 twenty-four hours with a 9 inch refractor. The construction of 

 a large refractor for observing celestial bodies is also proceeding. 



Other three days' Thunderer gun experiments were made 

 during the past week ; the experiments will be resumed in a 

 fortnight. 



The Belgian State-prize of 5,000 francs (200/.) which is 

 awarded by the Royal Academy of Sciences every five years for 

 scientific work was this year awarded to the director of Brussels 

 Observatory, M. Houzeau, in recognition of his latest work, 

 " Uranometrie generale, avec une Etude sur la Distribution des 

 Etoiles visibles a l'CEil nu." There is another prize of 2,500 

 francs (100/) awarded annually by the king, which was to be 

 given away for the second time this year, and specially referred 

 to architecture, but no worthy recipient could be found, although 

 no less than ten different works had been submitted to the com- 

 mittee of judges. 



The University of Gbttingen has become the possessor of a 

 magnificent herbarium, containing over 40,000 specimens of 

 plants from all parts of the world. It was left to the University 

 by the late director of the Gottingen Botanical Gardens, Prof. 

 Grisebach. There is no doubt that it is by far the largest col- 

 lection of plants ever brought together by any single individual. 



The late Herr von Nathusius has left a very valuable library, 

 consisting almost exclusively of works on natural history and 

 agriculture, and numbering some 5,000 volumes. Besides this 

 there is an osteological collection of some 2,500 animal skulls, 

 300 skeletons and parts of skeletons, a collection of some 20,000 

 pictures illustrative of animal life, and finally, a collection of 

 about 8,000 samples of wool. Everything is in perfect condi- 

 tion, and arranged in the most scientific manner. The collections 

 being of great value for agricultural museums, the Prussian 

 government intends to purchase them for the Museum at Berlin . 

 Their value is estimated at 60,000 marts (3,000/.), and a 

 present they remain still at Hundisburg, near Magdeburg, the 

 seat of the deceased statesman. 



The death is announced of M. Claude Etienne Minie, the 

 inventor of the carbine of that name. He was born in Paris in 

 1S04. 



A fortnightly scientific contemporary makes the following 

 extraordinary announcement concerning the late award of medals 

 by the Royal Society : — " The Copley Medal to Prof. Rudolph 

 J. E. Clamins, of Rome, for his researches upon heat ; the 

 Davey {sic) Medal to M. P. E. Lecoq de Boisbaudran, for his 

 discovery of gallium ; a Royal Medal to Mr. William Henry 

 Perkins, F.R.S., for his long-continued and successful labours 

 in geology and physical geography" ! Was there ever such a 

 nice " derangement of epitaphs ? " The italics are ours. 



The frost having continued in Paris, the Seine was frozen on 

 December 9. The maximum of cold was observed about one 

 o'clock in the night from 8 to 9. - 24° C. has been observed 

 at Montsouris in the shade, - 25° at La Varenne St. Maur, 

 - 27° at Versailles. 



It has been suggested by the Temps meteorological editor, 

 that the whole of Europe and a large part of Asia and Northern 

 America being covered with snow, the appearance may be 

 analogous to the red spot discovered on Jupiter by astronomers, 

 and this may be considered as an indication that some unusual 

 cooling influence prevails on the whole solar system. 



Mrs. Chaplin Ayrton has received the degree of M.D. 

 from the Medical Faculty of Paris. She presented an elaborate 

 thesis " On the General Dimensions and the Development of 

 the Body among the Japanese." 



The Thames Embankment system of electric lighting has 

 been extended to the Victoria Station of the Metropolitan 

 District Railway. The station, we learn from the Times 

 report, is 350 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 40 feet high. 

 There are two platforms, each 15 feet wide, the railway space 

 between them being 20 feet wide. There are ten lights in 

 all, of which five are placed over the down-platform, dividing 

 the length into spaces which are unequal owing to the interfer- 

 ence of constru;tive details. Over the up- platform are four 

 lamps, which alternate with the five on the other side so as to 

 afford an equable distribution of light. The tenth lamp is 

 placed centrally over the foot-bridge which connects the up- and 

 down-platforms. The lights are produced and maintained by the 

 same steam-engine which is maintaining the forty lights on the 

 Embankment and the ten on the bridge. The engine is, therefore, 

 now maintaining a total of sixty lights— a point of considerable 

 importance. Of still greater importance, perhaps, from a scien- 

 tific point of view, as the Times remarks, is the distance to which 



