630 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 23. 



Carlyle); the establishment of graduates' 

 courses and arrangements made to facilitate 

 the prosecution of research work, so as to 

 take advantage of the splendid equipment 

 for that end now possessed by the Univer- 

 sity. This consists of laboratories of mathe- 

 matics and dynamics, fully provided with 

 instruments of measurement, gravity bal- 

 ances, machines for experimenting on the 

 laws of motion, etc.; three chemical labora- 

 tories for qualitative and quantitative work 

 and for original investigation, and suppUed 

 with Becker & Son (4) and Bunge (1) bal- 

 ances ; a Troemner bullion-balance ; a Lau- 

 rent polariscope, Dubosq spectroscope, etc. ; 

 the McDonald physical laboratory of five 

 stories, each 8000 square feet area, includ- 

 ing elementary and special laboratories for 

 heat and electricity; rooms for optical work 

 and photography; two large laboratories 

 arranged for research, with solid piers and 

 the visual standard instruments, etc.; the 

 electric laboratory, with Kelvin electric 

 balances, a Thomson galvanometer, two 

 dynamo-meters (Siemens), voltmeters, am- 

 meters, etc.; the magnetic laboratory, the 

 dynamo room, the lighting station, the ac- 

 cumulator room, geodetic, hydraulic test- 

 ing, thermo-dynamic and mechanical labor- 

 atories. The McDonald Engineering Build- 

 ing and its equipment were the gift of the 

 same generous friend of scientific education 

 whom McGill University has just thanked 

 for its botanic garden. Mr. McDonald also 

 contributed liberally towards the erection 

 of the workshops built on the endowment 

 of the late Thomas Workman, merchant, of 

 Montreal. These consist of machine shop, 

 foundry, smith shop and carpenter, wood- 

 turning and pattern-making departments, 

 and are intended, under the direction of 

 the professor of mechanical engineering, to 

 familiarize the student with the materials 

 and implements of construction. 



Although Prof Milne (whose recent loss 

 every friend of science deplores) and other 



seismologists are wont to class the earth 

 movements of the United States and Canada 

 under a common head, Canada has had a ~ 

 fair proportion of such distiirbances all to 

 herself. Every student of Canada's annals 

 has had his attention drawn to the series of 

 earthquakes which caused such consterna- 

 tion in the year 1663, and its extraordinaiy 

 moral effects. On the 17th ult. a shock 

 varying fi'om severe to slight or barely per- 

 ceptible was felt on both sides of the St. 

 Lawrence, though mainly on the south side 

 in what are called the Eastern Townships. 

 Nearly two years ago a somewhat similar 

 shock was felt, and nearly at the same hour, 

 between eleven and noon. This earthquake 

 was distinctly felt in Montreal. The most 

 formidable visitation of the kind in recent 

 times occurred twenty-five years ago. It 

 cleared even the court rooms and filled the 

 streets with frightened groups. 



The Koyal Society of Canada met at Ot- 

 tawa on the 15th inst. A programme of 

 considerable scientific interest was gone 

 through. 



The death of Mr. Walter H. Smith, well 

 known in Montreal for more than twenty 

 years as an astronomer and publisher of 

 Smith's Planetary Almanac, is sincerely 

 regretted by all who knew him. He was 

 for many years connected with the Montreal 

 Witness, in which paper his contributions 

 on astronomical subjects were always read 

 with interest, and were widely reproduced. 

 He died on the 3d inst., in his forty -third 

 year. He was a native of Wiltshire, Eng- 

 land, but had lived more than half his Ufe 

 in Canada. J. T. C. 



CABL LVD WIG. 



Within a few months Germany and the 

 world have lost three great men, Helm- 

 holtz, Freytag and Ludwig. Of these three 

 Carl Ludwig, the physiologist, and the inti- 

 mate friend of the other two, died in Leip- 

 sic on April 27th, 1895, at the age of 



