call here on his far more than princely munificence, to be the cry of the poor to heaven for bread and fresh air, in his own country, he finds the progress of Science alone needing his fostering aid. We have before us the first annual report of the Trustees of the Peabody Academy of Science, giving a full account of the manner in which the gift of 140,000 dollars is to be expended or invested, and of the progress already made in the buildings, natural history collections, musuems, and published proceedings, which we trust will worthily carry down the nameof Peabody to posterity.
M. Louis Lacaze has bequeathed to the French Academy of Sciences the funds necessary for the foundation of three prizes of 10,000 francs each, to be awarded every second year. The sciences for which these prizes are to be given are Physiology, Physics, and Chemistry.
We understand that Mr. James Young intends founding in Glasgow an institution for the study of Technology, to be opened in the course of the ensuing year.
A French translation of Professor Huxley's Elementary Physiology is announced.
We understand that the appointment of Master of the Mint has not yet been filled up.
Earthquakes seem approaching inconveniently near us. On Sunday night and Monday morning severe shocks were felt at Frankfort, Dannstadt, Wiesbaden, and Mayence; while a succession of shocks on the night of October 2, seems to have been unpleasantly violent, as the following extract from a letter from Coblentz, with which we have been favoured, will show:—"The greatest event we have had lately was an earthquake! It was on the night of Saturday, October 2, a little before 12, when most people were in bed, and were startled out of their sleep. I was wide awake, luckily, so came in for the whole; the noise was most alarming, and when my bed shook under me I guessed what it was. People in the town ran into the streets, and there was general alarm, as the shocks were so severe. The worst was about ten miles off, where chimneys fell and some walls cracked, but everywhere the accompanying noise seems to have been very great, like a train running under the house in bumps and jerks. The whole extent of the earthquake was very considerable, and many said they had never felt so bad a one before."
Here are some notes from Oxford:—
On the 28th ult., the Warden and Fellows of Merton College elected Professor Clifton, F.R.S. (as Professor of Experimental Philosophy) to a Fellowship in the College. This is, we believe, only the second time that a college has availed itself of the power given by its new statutes of electing a professor to a fellowship, the person so elected being unconnected with the college in question, either by past or present membership, or by his professorship. Instances have occurred of the election of Professors to Fellowships in the colleges to which their Professorships were attached, but in this case the authorities of Merton College, without the least pressure or solicitation from without, have acted up to their increased powers given them by the last statutes, although the professorship is attached to Wadham College. We hail this piece of news with the greatest pleasure, as it indicates the desire which is now beginning to show itself, to devote the funds represented by fellowships to the purposes of University work, rather than to treat fellowships as simple prizes. The triennial elections of members of Council of the University is an important event at Oxford, as that body has sole power of initiation in University matters. The following were elected as the result of the poll on Thursday last:—The Dean of Christ Church; the Presidents of Trinity and Magdalen; Professors Price, H. Smith, and Scott; Mr. Ince, of Exeter; Mr. Liddon, of Christ Church, and Mr. Fowler, of Lincoln. The deputy appointed by Sir Benjamin Brodie to deliver lectures for him this term is Mr. A. Vernon Harcourt, of Christ Church. There are nineteen "unattached students" among the Freshmen, unattached students being persons who have availed themselves of the recently granted privilege of becoming members of the University, without becoming members of any College. Mr. Lawson, the Professor of Botany and Rural Economy, will give a course of Lectures during the ensuing term on the minute anatomy of plants. They are to be delivered in the Herbarium at the Botanic Gardens every Tuesday and Friday at 8 P.M. Is this hour fixed as the one at which it is most likely that members of the University, interested in Botany, will attend? We well remember when Prof. Lindley lectured at University College, London, to audiences of from eighty to a hundred students at 8 A.M. An election to the Lee's Readership in Anatomy will be holden at Christ Church on Saturday, December 18. Candidates for the office are requested to apply for information to the Dean on or before Saturday, the 13th of November.
And here is a note from Cambridge:—The Rev. T. G. Bonney, B. D., Tutor of St. John's, has been appointed Lecturer in Natural Science at Cambridge; and Mr. Trotter, of Trinity, will lecture on Electricity, Magnetism, and Botany. We understand that these arrangements have been made because the staff of university professors is not large enough to do all the teaching in Natural Science that is required. We congratulate the University on the increased desire for instruction in these subjects; but is the number of men in the University competent to teach them so small that it has been found necessary to entrust Electricity and Botany to the same lecturer?
ASTRONOMY
The Astronomical Congress at Vienna
The German Astronomical Society, although it dates from only one or two years back, is already in earnest work, and this year a Congress, extending over several days, was held at Vienna, at which not only were the president and council elected for the next year, but many papers of astronomical importance were read. Count Marshall has been good enough to send us the following account of the meeting:—The Society numbers actually 209 members, most of them superintendents of German and Extra-German Observatories; about 50 met at Vienna, among whom MM. Struve, of Pulkowa (President), Moller (Sweden), Forster (Berhn), Scheibner (Leipzig), Hersch (Neufchâtel), Lieut.-Gen. Bager (Berlin), Prof. Schaub (Trieste), Prof. Julius Schmidt (Athens), Mr. Schonfeld (Mannheim), were perhaps the most eminent. On Sept. 13, the first day of meeting, M. Struve opened the session with an exposition of the purpose of the Society and the recent progress of astronomy, especially of the knowledge of the physical nature of celestial bodies. Since the last meeting at Bonn, the number of members, the pecuniary resources, and the library have notably increased, and the following publications have been issued: Two years of the Quarterly Periodical, Dr. Auwers's paper on Variable Proper Movements, Dr. Lesser's Tables of Pomona, and Dr. von Asten's new Tables of Reduction for the "Histoire céleste Française." The study of the Asteroids, new Tables of Jupiter and of Comets, especially of the periodical ones, are in active preparation. Prof Auwers distributed copies of tables for the reduction of positions of fixed stars from 1750up to 1840, prepared at the Observatory of Pulkowa; and gave an account of his own new reduction of Bradley's observations, undertaken by order of the same Observatory, and of his tour to England for this purpose, during which he found, at Oxford, a number of old and very complete observations of fixed stars. The President referred to his connection with the German North Polar expedition. Prof. Julius Schmidt exhibited and explained a map of the Moon 6 feet in diameter, made at the Observatory of Athens. Prof. Zöllner (of Leipzig) detailed his recent observations of the Sun on the Janssen-Lockyer method.
September 15.—Prof. Bruhns (Leipzig) commemorated the hundredth birthday of A. von Humboldt, and distributed the
