January 8, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



31 



sider what should be their attitude towards the 

 new body. Accordingly, at a very full meeting 

 of convocation (as the general body of graduates 

 above a certain standing is termed) last summer, 

 the whole subject was referred to a special com- 

 mittee of forty (of which the present writer was a 

 member), to consider and report. This committee 

 appointed Lord Justice Fry its chairman, and a 

 scheme was by it prepared for the re-organization 

 of the existing university from the points of view 

 of the new association, — a task the more easy, as 

 several gentlemen were members of both bodies. 

 At an adjourned meeting of 'convocation' held on 

 Dec. 8, this scheme was rejected, and, as the 

 former committee refused to act, another com- 

 mittee of twenty-five was appointed to modify it 

 in the sense indicated by convocation. 



The year which is now drawing to a close has 

 been marked by greater losses to English biology 

 than any since 1882, which witnessed the deaths 

 of Mr. Darwin, Prof. Francis Balfour, and Sir 

 Wyville Thomson. Prof. Morrison Watson was a 

 well-known anatomist of hardly more than mid- 

 dle age ; while Drs. W. B. Carpenter, J. Gwyn 

 J effreys, and T. Davidson were almost the last of 

 that older school of zoologists who are too often 

 looked down upon by the younger generation 

 which has been trained to minute histological 

 work. Dr. Davidson had the happiness of com- 

 pleting the work to which he had devoted the 

 labors of a long life ; but his two old friends have 

 left much material behind them, the working-out 

 of which must be completed by other hands. Dr. 

 Carpenter's loss will be severely felt by those who 

 believe in the organic nature of eozoon. He had 

 accumulated a very great amount of material, 

 which was regarded by all to whom he had shown 

 it as proving his case in the most satisfactory 

 manner possible. 



An important reform has just been carried out 

 at Oxford. Honor candidates in law, history, and 

 science, will henceforth be excused from the clas- 

 sical examination at the end of their first, or the 

 beginning of their second, year, which is known 

 as 'moderations.' The preliminary examination 

 ' responsions ' can be passed before residence be- 

 gins, either in the leaving examination of a public 

 school or at the university itself ; and men can 

 therefore specialize during the whole of their uni- 

 versity course, instead of having their attention 

 distracted from physics, chemistry, or biology by 

 the necessity of getting through ' mods.' This has 

 long been the case at Cambridge, and is one of the 

 reasons for the overflowing state of its medical 

 school. 



The old public schools are also beginning for- 

 mally to recognize that there are other branches 



of education besides the classics. Rugby is about 

 to institute a modern side ; and changes in the 

 same direction are being gradually introduced at 

 Eton, her great rival, Harrow having long had 

 something of the kind. The committee of the 

 city and guilds of London institute for the ad- 

 vancement of technical education have offered 

 free studentships of the annual value of thirty 

 pounds, tenable for three years at the central in- 

 stitution, to be awarded by the head master of 

 each of the principal public schools. It will be a 

 matter of some interest to see what proportion of 

 boys will avail themselves of these opportunities 

 for obtaining the higher technical education. 



W. 



London, Dec. 17. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



**+ Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The moon's atmosphere. 



My friend, Professor Langley of Allegheny, has 

 recommended to me to give you an account of a phe- 

 nomenon twice observed by me on the occasion of 

 two occultations of Jupiter. At the moment of con- 

 tact, the planet, instead of passing behind the moon, 

 appeared to be projected upon the moon's edge, until 

 nearly or quite one-half of the disk of the planet 

 was visible on the moon's surface. Then suddenly 

 the whole planet disappeared behind the moon, As 

 this phenomenon must be due to refraction, it would 

 indicate a lunar atmosphere. The instrument with 

 which I observed the occultation was a telescope 

 made for me by Alvan Clark, with a four-and-a-half 

 inch aperture. James Freeman Clarke. 



Jamaica Plain, Mass., Dec. 31. 



Demand for good maps. 



Your comments in the number for Dec. 18, on the 

 character of our small maps, are to me very welcome, 

 and I hope you will follow the subject up till some 

 decided impression is made on the minds of the pub- 

 lishers. The maps in our school geographies are, to 

 me as a teacher, a constant source of vexation. In- 

 distinct, incomplete, inaccurate, they baffle attempts 

 at close work, and so compel, if solely depended upon, 

 a very elementary grade of ( work. The small schul- 

 atlas that a German boy buys for twenty-five cents 

 is worth ten times as much as our best geography 

 maps. 



You spoke of old plates. I have seen within two 

 years a wall-map of North America in which the 

 Yukon Eiver had not been drawn. Said map was 

 shown as a sample in the office of one of our largest 

 publishing-houses. 



When the German publishers bring out their work 

 so perfect, it seems as if the material was provided 

 for American geography-makers. Is the reason they 

 do not use it because, with German lettering, the 

 maps cannot be reproduced by the photographic pro- 

 cess and be available ? Or are they afraid of repeat- 

 ing the mistake of one of our atlas-makers, who pro- 

 duced a town in Africa called Elfenbein ? 



However it maybe, we do need better school-maps. 



