n6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lish Sydenham Society. He was a man 

 of large wealth, which he liberally de- 

 voted to the work of science by main- 

 taining his physiological school ; and, 

 besides being a skillful and able inves- 

 tigator, he was a man of enlarged cult- 

 ure and earnestly sympathetic with all 

 measures and movements for the diffu- 

 sion of valuable knowledge among the 

 people. He was warmly interested in 

 carrying out the project of the " Inter- 

 national Scientific Series," being a 

 member of the German committee to 

 decide upon the contributions from that 

 country ; and, had he lived, he would 

 have prepared a volume for the series 

 himself. He wrote and spoke the Eng- 

 lish language with ease and elegance, 

 and his wife conversed in it so fluently 

 and perfectly that the writer felt sure 

 she must be an American, lady, if not 

 English, until he learned that she had 

 never been out of Germany. Prof. 

 Ozermak died of a lingering disease 

 from which he had long suffered. 



MR. PROCTORS LECTURES. 



Me. Richaed A. Peootoe, the emi- 

 nent English astronomer, is to lecture 

 in this country during the ensuing sea- 

 son. "We need hardly say that he is a 

 first-class man, and stands among the 

 ablest in his chosen department of sci- 

 ence. Nor is he a mere recipient and 

 reporter of other men's ideas ; he has 

 views of his own, and has made his in- 

 dependent contributions to the exten- 

 sion of astronomical science. But it is 

 as a lucid and attractive writer on as- 

 tronomical themes that Mr. Proctor is 

 chiefly known. He has written an 

 elaborate work on " The Sun," and has 

 just published a corresponding volume 

 on "The Moon; " these, with "Other 

 "Worlds than Ours," and his numerous 

 and excellent papers in the reviews on 

 stellar astronomy, show his thorough 

 familiarity with the whole field of celes- 

 tial phenomena. Mr. Proctor is said 

 to be a clear, rapid, and forcible speak- 



er, which, with his illustrations, will 

 make his lectures the leading scientific 

 entertainment of the season. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Philosophy op Evolution. (An Ac- 

 tonian Prize Essay.) By B. Thompson 

 Lowne, M. R. C. S., F. L. S. London, 

 John Van Voorst. 



Hannah Acton, relict of Samuel, had 

 opinions. In this there was certainly nothing 

 remarkable, but she had also that which 

 gives dignity and power to opinion, that is, 

 money to back it. Ideas amount to very 

 little until incarnated, and then they acquire 

 an immense and lasting influence. A nar- 

 row-minded blockhead may cherish views 

 that nobody regards as worth listening to, 

 but if he puts a few hundred thousand dol- 

 lars behind them, and founds a college for 

 carrying them out, they suddenly rise into 

 respectability, and are made potential for 

 generations. Our friend Hannah had a no- 

 tion that there prevails a very low estimate 

 of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator 

 of the universe, and she was willing to spend 

 money to raise the standard, so she placed 

 a thousand pounds of good solid investments 

 in the hands of a committee of the Royal 

 Institution of Great Britain, to appropri- 

 ate the interest, every seven years, in the 

 shape of a prize of one hundred guineas, 

 for the best essay, " illustrative of the wis- 

 dom and beneficence of the Almighty, in 

 such department of science as the committee 

 should select," leaving it to their discretion 

 to withhold the reward if none of the essays 

 produced were thought worthy of it. Seven 

 years ago, the solar radiations — certainly a 

 magnificent subject — was proposed for a 

 prize ; but, as nothing appeared upon that 

 theme which would to any extent promote 

 the donor's intention, the money was not 

 granted. So the funds accumulated, and this 

 year two prizes were offered, one of them 

 for the best essay on the " Law of Evolution, 

 as illustrating the Wisdom and Beneficence 

 of the Almighty," and B. Thompson Lowne 

 got the golden prize for writing the little 

 book before us. The fact is notable as 

 showing the advance of thought, for no 

 transformation suggested by the evolution- 

 ists as taking place among the lower animals 



