FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I.] 



August, 1887. 



[No. 6. 



PAGE 



Current Events 121 



General Notes 1 24 



Domestic Sanitation. — No. 4 128 



The Red Colouring Matter of Blood 129 

 Driving Dynamos with Short Belts 



(illus.) 130 



The Telephone : Its Principles, Con- 

 struction, etc. — I. (li/i/s.) 131 



Bathymeter, or Sounding Apparatus 



(t7/!ts.) 133 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



The Herbertz Cupola (i/ltes.) 134 



The Spectrum. — III 135 



The Colour of Water 136 



Pasteur's Treatment of Hydrophobia 137 

 Evening Technical Instruction in 



England. — I 139 



Proceedings of Societies. 

 The Royal Institution : — 



"The Applications of Photo- 

 graphy in Astronomy." 141 



PAGE 



The Geological Society : — 



Papers read 142 



Scottish Meteorological Society ; — 



Report of Council 142 



Royal Meteorological Society : — 



Papers read 142 



Record of Scientific and Technical 



Societies 143 



Coming Scientific Exhibitions 143 



Applications for Patents 144 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



Banquet to Professor Tyndall. — This entertainment 

 was indeed a remarkable one, and, as Professor Tyndall 

 himself said, the assembly was in intellectual measure 

 as distinguished as any of the same size ever addressed by 

 man. Most of the speeches were appropriate and good, 

 especially that of Professor Tyndall himself, from which we 

 quote the following : " Thus early, you will see I was alive 

 to the importance of technical education ; and I am no less 

 alive to it now. You will not, therefore, misunderstand me 

 when I say that to keep technical education from withering, 

 and to preserve the applications of science from decay, the 

 roots of both of them must be well embedded in the soil of 

 original investigation. And here let it be emphatically 

 added, that in such investigation practical results may enter 

 as incidents, but must never usurp the place of aims. The 

 true son of science will pursue his inquiries irrespective of 

 practical considerations." In illustration of the fact that the 

 investigator often taps springs of practical power which 

 otherwise he would never have reached, he said : "I need 

 not go further than the fact that in this our day a noble and 

 powerful profession has been called into existence by his 

 discovery of magneto-electricity. The electric lamps which 

 mildly illuminate our rooms, the foci which flood with light 

 of solar brilliancy our railway stations and public halls, can 

 all be traced back to an ancestral spark so small as to be 

 barely visible. With impatient ardour Faraday refused to 

 pause in his quest of principles to intensify his spark. That 

 work he deliberately left to others, confidently predicting 

 that it would be accomplished. And prompted by motives 

 both natural and laudable, but which had never the slightest 

 influence on Faraday, others have developed his spark into 

 the splendours which now shine in our midst." 



Professor Tyndall then reminded his hearers that, passing 

 beyond the limitations of the individual, science as a whole 

 had indeed accomplished great things during the Victorian 

 epoch. The discovery of the principle of Gravitation, the 

 bit and bridle whereby the compelling intellect of Newton 

 brought the solar system under the yoke of physical laws, 

 could not be included, but he added : " Quite fit to take rank 

 with the principle of Gravitation — more momentous, if that 

 be possible — is that law of Conservation which combines the 

 energies of the material universe into an organic whole." 

 The second generalization, he said, was like unto the first 

 in point of importance, though very unlike as regards its 

 reception by the world. For whereas the principle of Con- 

 servation with all its far reaching, and, from some points of 

 view, tremendous implications, slid quietly into acceptance, 

 its successor evoked the thunder-peals, which, it is said, 

 always accompany the marriage of thought and fact. " For a 

 long time the scent of danger was in the air ; but the evil 

 odour passed away ; the air is fresher than before ; it fills 

 our lungs and purifies our blood, and science is able to add 

 to the law of Conservation the principle of Evolution." 



The Pasteur Treatment of Hydrophobia. — A com- 

 mittee of thoroughly competent men of science was appointed 

 by the Local Government Board in April last to inquire into 

 M. Pasteur's system of inoculation as a remedy for hydro- 

 phobia. The committee consisted of Sir James Paget 

 (chairman). Dr. Lauder Brunton, Dr. George Fleming, Sir 

 Joseph Lister, Dr. Quain, Sir Henry Roscoe, and Professor 

 Burden Sanderson, with Professor Victor Horsley as 

 secretary. The first steps taken by the committee were to 

 visit Paris, so as to obtain information direct from M. 

 Pasteur, to observe his method of treatment, and to investi- 



