334 



SCIUWCU. 



[Vol. VI., No. 141. 



exercised any authority over it, the island was not 

 included in the revolution of 1776. Has the juris- 

 diction of Great Britain lapsed in course of years ? 

 and if it has not, what are the dozen acres of rock 

 worth? At present it is occupied by a few fisher- 

 men, and also contains the summer residence of a 

 Boston attorney, who evidently knows the value 

 of peace and quietness as well as that of nine 

 points of the law. 



LONDON LETTER. 



The health of the president of the Royal society. 

 Professor Huxley, is a matter of grave anxiety to 

 his numerous personal and scientific friends. The 

 prolonged absence from work in the winter and 

 early spring of this year failed to restore him to 

 anything like his usual vigor, and last summer he 

 judged it prudent to resign altogether most of his 

 public appointments, especially those in connec- 

 tion with the teaching at the science schools. 

 South Kensington. Whether he will retain the 

 presidency of the Royal society is as yet unde- 

 cided. As the official representative of the 

 society, and indeed of science generally on all 

 public occasions, the social claims upon Mm at 

 these public appearances are very considerable. 

 The amount of personal attention that has to be 

 given by the president to work which makes no 

 show is also very large, and more than one past 

 president has had to resign the office on tliis ac- 

 count. At this crisis, therefore, a grave respon- 

 sibility is cast upon the council and officers. It 

 has been suggested that Professor Huxley should 

 return with Professor Marsh, of New Haven (who 

 is now on his way to Berlin, having attended the 

 British association meeting), and should remain 

 with him for a year, quietly working through his 

 wonderful collection of dinosaurians. The in- 

 terest of this to Professor Huxley could not fail to 

 be great, as his forecast about twenty years ago 

 of the probable course of geological discovery with 

 regard to this great group has always been re- 

 garded as one of the most sagacious divinations of 

 modern times. 



Next to the president of the Royal society, the 

 president of the British association for the ad- 

 vancement of science occupies the representative 

 position above referred to. In this case, however, 

 the personnel is changed every year. The ap- 

 pointment of Sir William Dawson, principal of 

 McGill college, Montreal, to this distinguished 

 position for the year 1886-87 (September to Sep- 

 tember) is a graceful recognition of the part which 

 he took in promoting the most successful visit of 

 the association to that city last- year. He wiU 

 succeed Sir Lyon Playfair, whose hfe-long labors 



on behalf of the higher scientific education found 

 a natural expression in his recent presidential ad- 

 dress at the Aberdeen meeting. One of the most 

 remarkable features of this was the evidence it 

 gave of the extent and variety of its author's 

 reading, no less than sixty references being made 

 in it to various books. Advocating as he did a. 

 greatly-increased expenditure on education in 

 pure science, his address has been sharply criti- 

 cised by those organs of the so-called ' practical 

 men,' to whom everything that savors of the ' en- 

 dowment of research ' is as a red rag to a bull. 



Next month will be a time of great political ex- 

 citement in the United Kingdom, in consequence 

 of the first elections of members of parliament by 

 the new constituencies, created by the recent 

 Reform act, the total number of votes having 

 been increased by two millions. Signs are not 

 wanting that science will be much more largely 

 represented in the new parhament than it ever has 

 been before. Sir J. Lubbock and Sir Lyon Play- 

 fair have hitherto been the two chief men to whom 

 the house has looked for counsel and advice in 

 scientific matters. It is expected that the distin- 

 guished chemist. Sir Henry Roscoe, will be re- 

 turned for one division of Manchester, and that 

 Professor A. W. Rucker, late professor of physics 

 in the Yorkslure coUege, will be returned for one 

 division of Leeds. Several other men of more or 

 less scientific reputation are mentioned as pos- 

 sible candidates in connection with various consti- 

 tuencies. 



The condition in which the river Lea has beeiL 

 during the last few months is one which illustrates 

 the need of more scientific knowledge on the part, 

 of the legislature. This is a comparatively small 

 river in the north-east of London, from the upper 

 part of which one^ of the eight water companies 

 which supply the metropolis with water is per- 

 mitted by acts of parhament to pump daily large 

 volumes of water. By other acts of parhament 

 the suburbs of London (Tottenham, etc.), which 

 in course of time grew up upon its banks, were 

 permitted to pour their sewage into it at a point 

 considerably below the intake of the water com- 

 pany. Of late years the enormous growth of Lon- 

 don has practicaUy rendered these suburbs a part 

 of the metropolis itself. The neighborhood is a 

 comparatively poor one, and the river and its 

 banks used to be one of the most important recrea- 

 tion grounds in that district, boating, angling, etc., 

 being freely indulged in. In consequence, how- 

 ever, of the diminution of the flow of water below 

 the company's intake and the increase in the sew- 

 age, both of which are authorized by act of parlia- 

 ment, the condition of this part of the river during 

 the past summer can only be likened, with justice. 



