HA R D WICKE ' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



43 



was obtained from the oxide in ten minutes at 

 3000 C. 



It is with much pleasure we have to announce 

 that the Eastern Counties Coal-Boring Syndicate 

 have received contributions to the amount of ^2000, 

 and that a first " Trial Boring " is not far distant. 



No Hebrew prophet, not even Moses from the top 

 of Pisgah, surveying and reporting upon the Promised 

 Land he never entered himself, uttered a more 

 trumpet-like sound of electrical prophecy than did 

 Professor Preece, when he announced a few days 

 ago that he had succeeded in sending, not a tele- 

 graphic message, but a telephonic message, from the 

 shores of the Bristol Channel, where he experimented 

 before, to the well-known island of Flatholm, three 

 miles away from Cardiff, without the intervention of 

 a connecting wire ! Does this not suggest to our 

 readers that Professor Preece may be playing with 

 the ultra-microscopic pebbles of molecular physics 

 after Sir Isaac Newton's plan? 



There is some good work turned out at times, 

 even j from Cambridge University. Seldom is there 

 any better than that produced in the Sedgwick Prize 

 Essay. This was founded many years ago in honour 

 of the grand old geologist whose name is still so 

 familiarly reverenced amongst us. We would strongly 

 recommend those of our young scientific readers who 

 have been infected with a love for geology, to procure 

 Mr. A. C. Seward's Prize Essay for the year just 

 passed on " Fossil Plants as Tests of Climate." 



The Cambridge Local Lectures Syndicate have 

 just issued an announcement of their next summer 

 meeting of University Extension Students, to be held 

 at Cambridge in August, 1S93. The programme is 

 a large and varied one, and a number of well-known 

 lecturers have already promised their services. 

 Among the scientific lecturers we notice the names of 

 Sir] Robert Ball, Sir H. E. Roscoe, Mr. Pattison 

 Muir, and several of the best known of the Cam- 

 bridge Extension Lecturers. Cambridge has always 

 laid great stress on the importance of providing, as 

 far as possible, practical work in science as well as 

 theoretical teaching. It has seldom been found 

 possible to arrange much practical work in connection 

 with the lectures given in the provinces, chiefly on 

 account of the difficulty of finding laboratory accom- 

 modation. But students who can spare a fortnight, 

 or better still a month, have now the opportunity of 

 coming to Cambridge, and seeing, at any rate, 

 something of the resources of the University labora- 

 tories. The laboratory work has always formed an 

 important and highly appreciated part of the 

 Cambridge Summer Meetings. Next summer, five 

 practical courses are promised, viz. :— in Physics, 

 Chemistry, Botany, Physiology, and Palaeontology. 

 It is also proposed to give a series of short courses 

 of lectures on the growth of various sciences : — 



Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, and Geology ; to 

 illustrate from different points of view the methods 

 by which discoveries are actually made and science 

 makes progress. The programme includes also 

 lectures on History, Literature, Art, and other 

 subjects ; but we have dwelt only on the science, as 

 being of special interest to our readers. 



Late in November (the 23rd) Prof. Ed. Hull, 

 F.R.S., etc., read a most interesting paper before 

 the Geological Society, giving an outline of the 

 geological features of Arabia Petrtea and Palestine, 

 which, as the President remarked, is mainly in- 

 teresting as dealing with the geology of the Bible. 

 We cordially recommend Bible students to read Prof. 

 .Hull's paper. 



The (second edition of) " North Yorkshire," pub- 

 lished in the Transactions of the Yorkshire Union, 

 is devoted to "Studies of its Botany, Geology, 

 Climate, and Physical Geography," contributed by 

 the eminent naturalist Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., 

 F.L.S., etc. This part (the fifth instalment) deals 

 with the flora of North Yorkshire from Pyrola to 

 Gesleria. 



The last number of the evergreen "Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History" (Taylor & Francis), 

 publishes a paper by the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, on 

 a " New Spider from Calcutta." 



We have received another prospectus of Mr. 

 Saville Kent's forthcoming new work 011 " The 

 Great Barrier Reef of Australia," enclosing an 

 exquisitely beautiful coloured plate of the Great 

 Barrier Reef Alcyonaria. The work will be issued 

 in parts, the first to appear early in 1893. 



At a recent meeting of the Perthshire Society of 

 Natural Science, a letter was read from Dr. F. 

 Buchanan White, F.L.S., F.E.S., (late President of 

 the Society), offering to present to the Perthshire 

 Natural History Museum the whole of his collection 

 of Lepidoptera. The collection is a valuable one, 

 containing about twelve thousand specimens of 

 Perthshire, British, and European moths and butter- 

 flies, all named and localised. Many are type 

 specimens, described by Dr. White in various 

 scientific publications, and some belong to species 

 now extinct. The collection must be worth several 

 hundred pounds. A very cordial vote of thanks was 

 accorded to Dr. Buchanan White, for his generous 

 gift. It is particularly opportune, as the Society was 

 about to make an extensive addition to their Museum 

 buildings. 



In the last number of the " Kew Bulletin," 

 (devoted to.practical and ecomomic botany) we have 

 a remarkable illustration of the influence of mankind 

 upon local climates. In Africa, the country between 

 the Nile and the Red Sea is notable for its general 

 barrenness. It is a desert, and the effects of 

 wandering in this region upon the minds of English- 



