1878.] 
( 545 ) 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Conferences held in Connection with the Special Loan Collection 
of Scientific Apparatus at South Kensington in 1876. 
London : Chapman and Hall. 
These Conferences originated in a letter addressed by Lord 
Sandon to the Presidents of the various Learned Societies, in 
which it was suggested that the value of the Loan Collection of 
Scientific Apparatus then gathered together at South Kensington 
would be greatly enhanced by demonstrations of the mode of 
working various instruments, and by papers on different subjects 
connected therewith. The Conferences commenced on May 16th 
and were continued until the 2nd of June. Five Sections were 
formed, each possessing a President and several Vice-Presidents. 
The Sections were respectively devoted to — 1. Physics. 2. Me- 
chanics. 3. Chemistry. 4. Biology. 5. Physical Geography, 
Geology, Mining, and Meteorology. The volume now before us 
relates to the two first in the list. 
The Physical Section was presided over by Mr. W. Spottis- 
woode, and it numbered among its Vice-Presidents eminent 
Professors from Germany, Italy, France, and Holland. In the 
opening address the President enumerated some of the greater 
curiosities of the Collection : — A quadrant of Tycho Brahe, 
telescopes of Galileo, lenses constructed by Huyghens, a telescope 
of Newton, Sir W. Herschel’s grinding-machines for specula, 
and a telescope which he constructed in his earlier days ; also 
the original siderostat of Foucault, a compound speculum by the 
late Lord Rosse, the Kew photoheliograph, and the “ compound 
microscope ” of Zacharias Gaussen constructed in 1590. The 
original air-pump and Magdeburgh hemispheres of Otto von 
Guericke were shown ; also an air-pump of Boyle, the com- 
pressor of Papin, Regnault’s apparatus for determining the 
specific heat of gases, Fizeau’s and Foucault’s original revolving 
mirrors, Daguerre’s first photograph on glass, and original elec- 
trical apparatus of Faraday, and Ampere. 
The first address was delivered by Mr. William Huggins, 
“ On Spectroscopy applied to the Heavenly Bodies other than 
the Sun.” The spectrum of the nebula in Orion was compared 
with those of hydrogen and nitrogen ; the spectrum of Sirius 
with that of hydrogen in a vacuum tube ; and the spectrum of 
Arcturus with those of hydrogen, magnesium, and sodium. 
Mr. Lockyer afterwards gave an account of the present state 
of spectroscopic research, specially in reference to the mapping 
VOL. VIII. (N.S.) 2 N 
