lx 



derful." He had before drawn up instructions to lighthouse keepers and 

 pilot cutters ; and on the 29th of April he reports the sufficiency of the 

 light as established. 



He reported this year on Way's mercurial electric light ; the one advan- 

 tage it had was that the place of the light was unchangeable. 



He was one of a Commission appointed to consider the subject of light- 

 ing public galleries by gas ; and he reported favourably on the experimental 

 attempt at the Sheepshanks Gallery. 



To Mr. Barlow he writes from Hampton Court : — " As I have been 

 out here with only runs into town, I really know very little of what 

 is going on there, and what I learn I forget. The Senate of the Uni- 

 versity accepted and approved of the report of the Committee for Scien- 

 tific Degrees ; so that that will go forward (if the Government ap- 

 prove), and will come into work next year. It seems to give much satis- 

 faction to all who have seen it, though the subject is beset with difficul- 

 ties ; for when the depth and breadth of science came to be considered, 

 and an estimate was made of how much a man ought to know to obtain 

 a right to a degree in it, the amount in words seemed to be so enormous 

 as to make me hesitate in demanding it from the student ; and though 

 in the D.S. one could divide the matter and claim eminence in one branch 

 of science rather than good general knowledge in all, still in the B.S., which 

 is a progressive degree, a more extended, though a more superficial ac- 

 quaintance seemed to be required. In fact the matter is so new, and 

 there is so little that can serve as previous experience in the founding and 

 arranging these degrees, that one must leave the whole endeavour to shape 

 itself as the practice and experience accumulates." 



J3t. 68 (1860). 



He gave two Friday discourses on Lighthouse Illumination by the Elec- 

 tric Light ; and on the Electric Silk-loom. 



He gave eleven reports to the Trinity House, and he examined three 

 Red- Sea lighthouses for the Board of Trade. On the 13th of February he 

 went to Dover, but was prevented by snow from reaching the lighthouse ; 

 on the 17th he tried again, and on the 28th he gave his final report 

 on the practicability and utility of the magneto-electric light. He says, 

 "Hope it will be applied." On the 14th of March the magneto-electric 

 light was proposed for Dungeness. On the 21st he gives his reply, and 

 says there is no difficulty. 



He was appointed with Sir Boderick Murchison to report upon the 

 means of preserving the stonework of the new Palace at Westminster. 



At Christmas he gave his last course of juvenile lectures on the chemical 

 history of a candle. 



He was made Foreign Associate of the Academy of Sciences, Pesth, and 

 Honorary Member of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow. 



