Febbuabt 11, 1887.1 



SCIENCE. 



127 



The amount of solar shrinkage was probably 

 about 0.01 per cent of his diameter in 2,000 years. 

 Fifteen million years ago the sun was probably 

 four times its present diameter, and in another 

 twenty million, its density will equal that of lead, 

 and the activity of solar radiation will probably 

 greatly diminish. At present it was about 75,000 

 horse-power per square metre. Looking back, 

 although biology demanded more time, the study 

 of dead matter would give twenty million years 

 as a maximum past limit, and ten million years as 

 a maximum future limit, of the heat received at 

 present by the earth from the sun. The speaker 

 created some amusement, towards the end of his 

 discourse, by admitting that ' However, after all, 

 we know nothing whatever about it ! ' 



The Prince of Wales has just been elected an 

 honorary member (probably the first British one) 

 of the Linnaean society, which has hitherto been 

 somewhat chary of bestowing its ' parchments 

 sealed with wax.' This famous society was 

 founded in 1788, and is the owner and custodian 

 of the library, manuscripts, and herbarium of the 

 illustrious Linnaeus, who died in 1778. These 

 were originally bought from his family for about 

 $5,500, by Dr. James Edward Smith, who founded, 

 and was first president of, the Linnaean society, 

 which has comprised in its roll all the most dis- 

 tinguished naturalists of the day, and may be con- 

 sidered to be a select club of scientists. 



The ' Christian evidence society ' aims at counter- 

 acting the atheistic spirit which is alleged to be 

 spreading among the masses in London. Latterly, 

 its purely theological meetings and lectures have 

 been frequently supplemented by lectures on scien- 

 tific subjects delivered by men of well-known 

 scientific position. In the west end of London, 

 during the present month, the presidents of the 

 Royal and of the Linnaean societies (Dr. Stokes 

 and Mr. Carruthers) will take part in such a 

 course, the former taking for his subject, ' Is the 

 demand for demonstrative evidence in religion 

 reasonable ? ' Dr. J. H. Gladstone and Mr. W. 

 Lant Carpenter also take part in this course. 



On Jan. 17 a notice was issued by the post-office 

 cancelling all previous notices as to delay in the 

 telegraph service owing to the break-down oc- 

 casioned by the storm of Dec. 26. For the week 

 ending Jan. 15, the number of messages was 803,- 

 000, as against 736,000 for the corresponding week 

 of last year, notwithstanding the fact that senders 

 were warned as to probable delay. The depart- 

 ment has been able to have this good record while 

 the wires were down, mainly through the free use 

 of the Wheatstone automatic fast-speed transmit- 

 ter, which for a long time has been doing 700 

 words per minute (350 in each direction, the line 



being duplexed) over one wire between Newcastle 

 and London, about 300 miles. Every effort was 

 made to get messages through, no matter how 

 circuitous the route. Some messages reached 

 London from Paris via New York. In the angry 

 controversy which has been raging on overhead 

 versus underground lines, the following state- 

 ments have been put forward on authority : The 

 English post-office has 20,000 miles of underground 

 lines, as against 22,000 in Germany. The cost of 

 an underground wire is £350 per mile, and of 

 every additional wire, £15, as against £35 and £10 

 respectively for overhead wires. Underground 

 wires diminish the speed of signalling from 25 

 to 75 per cent over long distances. The cost of 

 renewal and maintenance is about the same in 

 both cases. 



The present year is the jubilee of the queen's 

 accession to the throne. There is considerable 

 fear that the proposal for an ' Imperial institute,' 

 as a commemoration thereof, will not be ade- 

 quately supported, and, in scientific circles, much 

 feeling exists at the scanty recognition of science 

 in the constitution of the committee (nominated by 

 the Prince of Wales) which framed the scheme, 

 and, a fortiori, in the scheme itself. 



An interesting history of the ' Science and art 

 department' has just been issued, showing its 

 growth during the last fifty years, and the encour- 

 agement given by the state in this way to instruc- 

 tion in science and art. Its headquarters are in 

 South Kensington, which is in connection with 

 about 1,500 scientific schools all over the United 

 Kingdom. Twenty-five distinct branches of sci- 

 ence are taught, and the annual grant for its 

 maintenance approaches half a million pounds 

 sterling. This is mainly distributed on the results 

 of the May examinations, held at the end of the 

 winter's teaching. In connection with this are 

 the scholarships due to Sir Joseph Whitworth's 

 contribution of £3,000 per year, given in 1868. 



W. 

 London, Jan. 23. 



HONOLULU LETTER. 

 Mr. E. D. Preston of the U. S. geodetic sur- 

 vey has just arrived and begun work under tem- 

 porary engagement with the Hawaiian govern- 

 ment survey. His task is to establish a normal or 

 standard latitude for this group. The latitude of 

 several points has already been carefully deter- 

 mined, — two such in 1883 by Mr. Preston in con- 

 nection with pendulum observations, and some 

 others by the British observers of the transit of 

 Venus. Since full geodetic results have been ob- 

 tained by inter-island triangulation, serious dis- 

 crepancies are found to exist between these and 



