February 26, 1836 ] 



SCIEXCE. 



185 



marked, with some justice, that in the formation 

 of an English government, from political and 

 party considerations, the round men get put into 

 the square holes, and vice versa. In the present 

 appointment it is pre-eminently a case of the 

 round man being fitted into the round hole. Prob- 

 ably no man in the house, with the possible ex- 

 ception of Sir John Lubbock, M.P. for the Univer- 

 sity of London, is listened to with more respect on 

 educational questions than Sir Lyon Playfair. 



Mr. D. Morris has been appointed to the post of 

 assistant director of the Royal gardens, Kew, as 

 successor to Prof. W. T. Thistleton Dyer, who be- 

 came director on the resignation of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker. Mr. Morris has spent some years in 

 Jamaica as director of the public gardens and 

 plantations, and has brought both the gardens at 

 Kingston, and the cinchona plantations, to a very 

 high state of efficiency. 



Two new lectureships in biology have been 

 lately established at the University of Edinburgh. 

 The present occupant of the natural history chair 

 is Prof. J. Corsar Ewart, whose work in connec- 

 tion with the fishery board for Scotland is well 

 known : and Mr. George Brook, who has for 

 some time past been making investigations upon 

 fish ova for the same board, has been appointed 

 as lecturer upon comparative embryology. Still 

 •more recently another lectureship has been en- 

 dowed by Lord Rosebery. Mr. E. J. Romanes, 

 F.R.S., has accepted the post, and in the course of 

 the next five years will deliver thirty lectures on 

 the philosophy of natural history. The University 

 of Aberdeen is losing its professor of physiology, 

 Dr. William Sterling having been called to Owens 

 college, Manchester, as the successor of Dr. Gam- 

 gee, who is about to devote himself to professional 

 work in a more southern climate than that of 

 Manchester. Mr. Gilbert C. Bourne has just re- 

 turned from the Chagos Archipelago, where he 

 has been spending the last six months in zoologi- 

 cal work. He has made extensive collections or 

 the terrestrial fauna and flora, and also of the 

 corals, some of which are probably new, while he 

 has also devoted some time to embryological re- 

 search. 



At the last meeting of the Society of telegraph 

 engineers and electricians, a very remarkable pa- 

 per was read by the president, Prof. D. E. Hughes, 

 F.R.S., as his inaugural address, on "Self-induc- 

 tion of an electric current in relation to the nature 

 and form of its conductor." The researches were 

 made with a combination of the author's induc- 

 tion-balance, with a Wheatstone bridge, called an 

 •induction bridge.' Among the practical points 

 resulting from these researches may be mentioned 

 a very decided verdict in favor of the ribbon form 



of lightning conductor, a solid rod of iron being 

 regarded by the author as the worst possible form. 

 Another point hitherto little understood, but first 

 pointed out by Mr. W. H. Preece at the Aberdeen 

 (1885) meeting of the British association, was 

 cleared up ; viz., why, when an iron and a copper 

 wire of equal resistance and static capacity were 

 used for telegraphing between London and New- 

 castle. 278 miles, there was an increase of speed 

 in the copper line of 12.9 per cent as compared 

 with the iron. The discussion on this paper to- 

 morrow evening is looked forward to with great 

 interest. W. 

 London, Feb. 10. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



In order to give an opportunity for definite and 

 systematic effort by all those who believe that 

 our birds ought to be protected, the Forest and 

 stream has recently founded the Audubon society. 

 Membership in this society is to be free to every- 

 one who is willing to assist in forwarding any one 

 of the three objects for which it is established. 

 These objects are to prevent so far as possible 



(1) the killing of any wild bird not used for food,. 



(2) the destruction of the nests or eggs of any wild 

 bird, and (3) the wearing of feathers as ornaments. 

 The work to be done by the Audubon society is 

 auxiliary to that which is being done by the 

 American ornithologists' union committee, and 

 will consist largely of matters of detail, to which 

 this committee could not attend. The manage- 

 ment of the society for the present will be in the 

 hands of a member of this committee. Branche- 

 of this association will be established all over th 3 

 country. The work of the Forest and stream 

 is only preliminary. As soon as the society shall 

 have attained a respectable^member^hip, and bt 

 on a firm footing, it will be turned over to its 

 members for final organization. In order that this 

 may take place as speedily as possible, it is hoped 

 that all interested in bird-protection will send iu 

 for membership their own names, as well as those 

 of any others whom they think likely to assist. 

 To all such, free circulars containing information 

 will be sent for distribution. Names should be 

 sent without delay to Forest and stream, 40 Park 

 Row, New York, N.Y. 



— The commission appointed to consider the 

 question of consolidating several of the scientific 

 bureaus of the government are progressing slowly 

 with then work, and a report is not looked for 

 within several months. It is authoritatively 

 learned that the signal office is the chief obstacle 

 in the way of any proposed change, and of an 

 early settlement of this important question. A 



