494 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 148. 



of Kew; the Eev. Dr. James Martineau; Dr. Drum- 

 mond ; Professor Upton ; Mr. R. Potter ; Mr. Tal- 

 f ord Ely, secretary of University college : and others 

 well known in scientific circles. In the mortuary 

 chapel, as well as at the grave, the service was 

 read by the Rev. Dr. Sadler, whose ministrations 

 at the Hampstead Unitarian chapel Dr. Carpenter 

 had attended more than forty years. A large 

 number of strangers were present. 



During the week frequent notices of Dr. Car- 

 penter's life and work have appeared in the 

 English journals. Born at Exeter in October, 

 1813, he was the son of Lant Carpenter, a Uni- 

 tarian minister, and brother of Philip Carpenter, 

 who died at Montreal in 1877, and of Mary 

 Carpenter, the philanthropist, who died at Bristol 

 in the same year. Though probably best known 

 to the world as a biologist, by his books on physi- 

 ology and on the microscope, his mind was pre- 

 eminently many-sided. As much a man of letters 

 as a man of science, there are proofs enough that, 

 if he were the deftest of compilers, he was also 

 the keenest of 'researchers.' The philosophical 

 character of his mind led him to bestow much 

 thought on higher speculations wliich might 

 appear insufficiently supported for scientific use ; 

 but on these subjects he cherished especially the 

 maxims of Schiller, that the scientific man loves 

 truth better than his system. His services to the 

 cause of scientific education were of the greatest 

 value. For many years one of the first of living 

 teachers, he apjjlied his great knowledge and 

 power of organization to the elaboration of the 

 scheme of degrees in science in the University of 

 London, of which he was registrar for tAventy-two 

 years. To the last he remained a member of its 

 senate, and exercised a powerful and most bene- 

 ficial influence on its deliberations. He leaves to 

 his five sons the heritage of a stainless life, and of 

 a name which, in every land where science is 

 cultivated, will never be mentioned otherwise 

 than with respect. 



The balloting list of the officers and council of 

 the Royal society has just been issued, and con- 

 tains the following nominations : president. Prof. 

 G. G. Stokes ; treasurer, Jolm Evans ; secretaries. 

 Prof. Michael Foster and the Lord Rayleigh ; 

 foreign secretary. Prof. A. W. Williamson ; other 

 members of council, R. B. Clifton, J. Dewar, 

 W. H. Flower, A. Geikie, Sir J. D. Hooker, T. H. 

 Huxley, Admiral Sir A. C. Key, J. N. Lockyer, 

 H. N. Moseley, B. Price, C. Pritchard, VS^. J. Rus- 

 sell, J. S. B. Sanderson, A. Schuster, Lieut. -Gen. 

 R. Sti-achey, and Gen. J. T. V^alker. It wiU be. 

 seen, therefore, that it is proposed to elect as presi- 

 dent Professor Stokes, who for many years has 

 been one of the secretaries, and to put in the post 



thus vacated Lord Rayleigh, who has recently 

 resigned his chair of physics at Cambridge. Ac- 

 cording to the statutes, of the twenty-one names 

 proposed on the balloting fist, eleven must be 

 those of members of the existing council, and ten 

 must be those of fellows not members of that 

 council. The annual meeting is always held on 

 Nov. 30. 



November is usually the month of greatest fog 

 in London, and the present year has seen no ex- 

 ception. Of the density of a London fog, few 

 Americans have any idea, except, perhaps, such 

 as live in Pittsburgh, the only place where the 

 present writer, who has travelled much in the 

 United States and Canada, has seen any thing 

 approaching to the smoke-cloud which hangs over 

 our English towns. An entire absence of wind, 

 an atmosphere almost super-saturated with moist- 

 ure, and the smoke from innumerable household 

 chimneys where bituminous coal is burnt, are the 

 three concurrent causes of town-fog. It was cal- 

 culated a year or two ago, by Professor Percy and 

 Prof. Chandler Roberts (chemist to the metallur- 

 gist of the mijit), that the amount of solid unburnt 

 fuel which hung in a pall over London (the popu- 

 lation of which is, roughly, 4,000,000) amounted 

 to no less than fifty tons. As the late Sir W^illiam 

 Siemens pointed out, the true remedy for this 

 state of things is the increased use of gas for fuel. 



The various societies are now on the point of 

 commencing their winter meetings. The pro- 

 gramme for the next or 132d session of the Society 

 of arts has just been issued. The chairman of its 

 council. Sir F. Abel, will deliver the opening 

 address on Nov. 18, and the following titles of 

 papers to be read give a fair idea of the scope of 

 the society's operations : Apparatus for the auto- 

 matic extinction of fires ; Load-lines of ships ; 

 Technical art teaching ; Treatment of sewage ; 

 Calculating machines ; Domestic electric lighting. 

 There are three sections : 1°. Foreign and colonial ; 

 2°. Applied chemistry and physics ; 3°. Indian, — 

 each of which holds a monthly meeting. Six 

 courses of lectures under the Cantor bequest will 

 also be given. 



The Institute of chemistry held its anniversary 

 meeting on Nov. 6, the eighth since its incorpo- 

 ration, but the first since it has obtained a royal 

 charter. The aim of the institute is to raise the 

 standard of knowledge possessed by professional 

 chemists by the examination of candidates for 

 the associateship (as a preliminary to fellowship) 

 of the institute, and also to raise the dignity of 

 the profession in the public estimation. The 

 president is Professor Odling, F.R.S., of the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford. VT. 



London, Nov. 14, 



