198 
Hitt of Illinois. It was decided in view of the 
proposed abolition of the English cemetery at 
Genoa which contains the remains of James 
Smithson, the founder of the Institution, that 
the Secretary be requested to arrange with the 
authorities of some other cemetery, at Genoa, for 
the re-interment of Mr. Smithson’s remains and 
the transfer of the original monument. It will 
be remembered that the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion placed a tablet on Smithson’s tomb and 
that it is properly cared for. 
AT a meeting held recently at Colchester it 
was decided to erect a marblestatue of William 
Gilbert, whose great work, De Magnete, pub- 
lished just three hundred years ago, laid the 
foundation of electrical science. The statue, 
towards which £130 has been subscribed, is to 
occupy a niche in the facade of the new town 
hall of Colchester. 
WE regret to learn of the death, at the age of 
sixty-six years, of Elisha Gray, which occurred 
on January 21st, from heart disease. Mr. Gray 
was the author of ‘ Experimental Researches in 
Electroharmonic Telegraphy and Telephony’ 
and of ‘Elementary Talks on Science,’ and is 
well-known for his important inventions in 
telegraphy, telephony and electrical appliances. 
CoLonEL F. F. HitpeEr, chief clerk of the 
Burefiu of American Ethnology, died of pneu- 
monia at his home in Washington on January 
21st, at the age of seventy-four years. 
THE death is announced, at the age of thirty- 
eight years, of Mr. John Henry Leech, the En- 
glish entomologist. He was the author of 
numerous works on this science including ‘ The 
Butterflies of China, Japan and Corea.’ The 
collections made by him for this work are now 
partly in the South Kensington Natural His- 
tory Museum. Mr. Leech was proprietor of 
The Entomologist. 
WE also regret to learn from Nature that Mr. 
S. W. Egan, since 1868 connected with the 
Geological Survey of Ireland, died in Dublin on 
January 6th; and that Dr. Giulio Pacher, do- 
cent in experimental physics in the University 
of Padua, has died at the age of thirty-three 
years. 
THE will of Oswald Ottendorfer sets aside 
about $200,000 for public bequests, including 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 318. 
$25,000 to the American Museum of Natural 
History, $20,000 to the Cooper Union for the 
advancement of science and art, and $20,000 
to the New York Free Circulating Library. 
THROUGH the liberality of T. M. Baird, Jr., 
Esq., of Victoria, B. C., a tract of land on the 
coast of Vancouver Island, opposite Cape Flat- 
tery, has been preseuted for a seaside botanical 
station of the University of Minnesota. The 
erection of a group of log buildings has been 
begun, and a party of thirty or more botanists 
has been organized to open the work of the 
station next June. 
HALF the educational staff of the Royal En- 
gineering College at Coopers Hill has been sum- 
marily dismissed, for the purpose, as it is some- 
what oddly stated, of ‘reducing the present 
excessive cost of the staff and increasing the 
efficiency of the teaching.’ The College at 
Coopers Hill is primarily for the training of 
students for the public works—telegraphs, rail- 
ways, ete.—of India, and appears to be under 
the direction of a military officer with no sci- 
entific or educational qualifications and a board 
of visitors. There is a general protest against 
this action, Lord Kelvin, for example, haying 
written to the London Times as follows : 
The correspondence which appeared in the Times of 
Januard 3d regarding Coopers Hill College has caused 
a painful shock to all who know of the good work 
which the college has done in giving to India the 
benefits of well-trained engineers in the service of its 
Government. No one can read that correspondence, 
I believe, without being convinced that the seven 
professors and teachers whose position is threatened 
are justified in asking for an inquiry. 
The proposed action—a sudden and arbitrary dis- 
missal of able and distinguished scientific teachers 
who have been doing duty for periods of from nine 
to thirty years in a satisfactory manner—is certainly 
not to be expected in institutions under the control 
of the British Government; and I sincerely hope 
that the Secretary of State for India in Council will 
see his way to granting the request for an inquiry. 
ANOTHER case, in which the appointment of 
a military officer without scientific attainments 
as head of a scientific institution has worked 
unfortunately, is brought to our attention in the 
case of M. Charles Lagrange, director of the 
Royal Observatory of Belgium. It appears 
from the Independence Belge, as quoted in Na- 
