Nov. 21, 1872] NATURE if education did her work, we should learn in childhood from our mother and our nurse: it is their immense profusion, not their rarity, that calls for notice; and they represent but a small part of the hill flora. To exhaust this fairly we must visit four different regions-the hill tops, the bogs, the coppices, and the slopes toward the sea. Of the first it is difficult to speak without a rapturous digression as their familiar sights and sounds occur to us-the breeze that seems half conscious of the joy it brings, the musical hum of bees, the warble of invisible larks, the popping of the dry furze pods in the stillness, the quivering air above the heather, the startled spiders with their appended egg-bags, the grasshoppers, the green hair streaks, the gem-like tigerbeetles on the wing, in the distance the Mendips and the yellow sea, or the long rich valley, closed by Dunkery and Minehead. Heath, furze, bracken, and whortle berries, are the four tetrarchs of the hill tops, giving endless shades of red, and and yellow. The heaths are three, and only three green, -the heather, the cross-leaved heath, and the bottle heath, the last exhibiting rarely a white variety, which in the language of flowers tells the tenderest of tales. From beneath their shelter peep the eyebright, the spring potentil, the heath bedstraw, and the creeping St. John'swort; amidst them springs the uncommon bristly bent grass; everywhere the green paths which wind amongst them are carpeted with the moenchia and the little breakstone, and bordered by the red and yellow sheep's sorrel On many of the prickly and the pale yellow mouse-ear. furze beds grows the wiry leafless dodder; every ditch is filled with masses of lemon-scented oreopteris, and every patch of stones is hidden by the pink blossoms of the mountain stone crop. At 800 feet above the sea we meet with mat grass and the cross-leaved heath. Higher still we find the slender deers' hair, first cousin to the isolepis of our greenhouses; and highest of all grow, for those who know their haunt, two species of the stag's horn club moss. The bogs are very numerous. They form the summits of the combes; and some of them descend the hill until they join a deep cut stream. All are covered with the turquoise bloom of the forget-me-not and the glossy peltate leaves of the marsh pennywort, and choked with the little water blinks. They all include liverwort with its umbrella-shaped fructification, sphagnum, marshwort, and pearlwort; and on their margins grow the ivy-leaved hair bell, the lesser spearwort, the lousewort, and the bog pimpernel. In a few of them are found the oblong pondweed and the marsh St. John's-wort; in two combes only, as far as I know, grows, alone of its genus, the roundseaved sundew. Of the coppices Cockercombe and Seven Wells are the best known; but their large trees check the growth of flowers; and the botanist will find more to please to him in Butterfly Combe and Holford Glen, which are smaller and less frequented. Here in early spring masses of the white wild hyacinth rise amid last year's dead leaves; here grow the cowwheat, woodrush, golden rod, sheeps' scabious, wood pimpernel, wild raspberry, sanicle, and twayblade. The helleborine is found in Crowcombe; in Tetton woods the rare pink lily of the valley; in Cothelstone the adders' tongue and mountain speedwell; in Ashleigh Combe, thelypteris; in Aisholt wood the white foxglove, white herb Robert, and white prunella; while under the famous hollies of Alfoxden, sacred to the memory of " Peter Bell" and "We are Seven," grow the graceful millet grass and a rare variety of the bramble. On the St. Audries slope the changed soil and the influence of the sea give birth to several new plants. The autumn gentian, the tufted centaury, the round-headed garlic, and the sea starwort are abundant near the cliffs; the perfoliate yellow wort is common; fluellen grows in the stubbles, the lady's tresses near the lime-kiln, the sea pimpernell between the stones, the arrow-grass and hardgrass just above the sea, to which we descend between 33 banks covered, as no other banks are covered, by the mag- I venture to hope that there is no one present to whom INSECT METAMORPHOSIS* II. MANY naturalists of eminence have insisted so strongly upon the connection of the growth of wings and metamorphosis, that I shall now proceed to examine into this part of the subject. These beautiful organs of flight, so elegant in their outlines, so exquisite in the artistic blending of their colours, so marvellous in their minute construction, are popularly associated with the perfection of insect life. A suspicion of their existence arises when the curious swathings of a pupa are examined; but it requires the patience of a Landois to trace these future glories of a butterfly within the chest of the caterpillar but lately escaped from the egg. But in considering the relation of growth to metamorphosis, it must be remembered that some insects have no wings, and yet undergo metamorphosis, and that others possess organs of flight, and yet only submit to skin-shedding. In describing the general form of the body of the larva, it was noticed that the openings for the passage inwards of the air tubes were visible on either side of each segment. The openings, or stigmata as they are called, of the second and fifth seg. ments of the larva, whose structures have been already described in part, are very distinct, and they lead to large air-tubes which branch off in all directions, and especially send a twig backwards and forwards along the inside of the third and fourth segments respectively. The openings, or stigmata, of the third and fourth segments, on the contrary, are blind ones, and do not lead to trachea or air-tubes; but the delicate offshoots of the second and fifth masses of air tubes pass inside close to them, and it is on these that the wings are developed as new organs, as new structures fashioned out of the protoplasm of the blood. The wings are pentagonal bag, which is very thin, and to contain a well-main layer of globular cells of nearly equal sizes. Moreover, ar base of the expansion, where it rests on the cellular layer of the air-tube, a crowded group of elongated cells is observed ro on this layer, and situated amongst the globular cells and with the structureless expansion. These elongated club-shaped cells are sometimes fusiform, contain a structureless liquid, and attached within their equal structureless walls is a nucleus and its contents. They d exist before the skin-shedding, but are readily observed m quently to it. The expansions of this tissue consist of the the histological elements just noticed, and out of them the fate wings are gradually developed. After the second skin-shedding of the caterpillar, the expe sions are found to have increased slightly in size; and a car microscopical examination detects an excessively delicate twisted cylindrical tube within each of the long cells which situated at the base of the expansion, and which would be in co tact with the air-tube, were it not for its investing cellular layer; The nucleus of the elongated cell has been absorbed, and s walls look thinner, and their tissues appear to have been observe to contribute to the twisted-looking thread which floats in the liquid contents. It is evident that this thread-like tube is ca nected through the cellular layer with the interior of the air-tube: but it is at present a simple tubular expansion of plain struc less membrane, and does not contain air. Alterations progress in the developing wings during the ine val between the third and fourth skin-sheddings, and they te FIG. 7.-Wing-Cells acquired, and are added to the bulk of the belongings of the larva. They continue to grow and to be perfected during the whole of the life of the insect, until their function is called into action. They originate after the escape from the egg; but the structures, upon the consideration of which so much time has been spent this evening, originated during the embryonic or egg condition, and clearly do not advance through long stages of inutility and imperfection to one of use and perfect adaptation. The first indication of the wing is observable in a caterpillar four millimetres in length, and one day after birth from the egg. The whole of the air-tubes are at that time as they are at all others covered by a very delicate layer of cells, which separates them, in fact, from the other tissues or blood, as the case may be, and with which they are in contact. Some flat and very small five-sided projections of delicate tissue are seen upon the fine air tubes running along the inside of the third and fourth segments. There are four of these, two on either side, and the hinder are smaller, but are close to the front pair. In this stage they are composed of simple cells placed side by side to form the expansion of the tissue, and they rest upon and cannot be separated artificially or microscopically from the fine layer of cells which intervenes between their bases and the air- tubes. The tissues and cells of the air tubes remain intact, but these additional structures are fixed upon them, and are destined for a very different series of developments. When the caterpillar has changed its skin for the first time, the expansions have increased in size and in complexity of structure. Each expansion is found to consist of a structureless, flat, A Lecture delivered before the British Association, 1872, by Prof. Duncan, F. R.S., continued from p. 34. FIG. 8.-Advanced Wing Development. come sufficiently large as to be seen with the naked eye, for they" have attained nearly one-tenth of the length of the whole cater pillar. The globular cells within the structureless membrane are found to have increased in size, and the delicate tubes of the elongated cells to have increased in length and numbers. The cell wall and nucleus are lost to sight in some instances, and the twisted tubular connection of the undermining air-tube may be observed to have passed here and there amongst the globular cells. At this time these tubes take on the appearance of airtubes, and the delicate circular fibre which is seen in the other air tubes of the caterpillar is to be recognised. The next stage appears to bring about an increase in the num ber, length, and size of these coils of air-tubes within the bag like wing, and in the dimensions of the bag, but not of its contained globular cells. By the time that the caterpillar leaves off taking food and begins to attach itself by its tail end, preparatory to skin. shedding for the last time, considerable progress has been made in the development of the wings. The cord-like air-tubes have grown sufficiently to reach nearly to the top of the wing, and they branch off in several directions. They contain air, and are surrounded by the layer of globular cells, but they are closer to the under side of the wing bag than to the upper. Moreover, the wing bag, so structureless hitherto, has acquired on its outside a glistening surface of extremely delicate cells, which is called epidermis. Beneath this coating is the main thickness the bag, and it is now found to be composed of large cells placed presents its back on the top of the water, and not its tail, as the The nymph of the dragon-fly greatly resembles the larva, and it seizes prey in the water and devours it. When the time is come for the change into the fly the nymph crawls out of its element on to a leaf, its skin splits on the back, and the sangui. The beautiful microscopic scales of the wing begin to be formed as soon as the glutinous case of the pupa is hardened, for air soon passes between it and the delicate skin and members beneath. By the fifth day all the wings are covered with recognisable scales and hair, and then for a certain time, depending upon temperature and the habit of the species, growth is arrested, and things remain in statu quo. When the time comes for emergence from the pupa case, the imago within awakens, as it were, from a long hybernation, and after splitting its case it comes forth a moist, weakly thing, with its wings crumpled upon its sides, wet and unable to move. The sunshine, the dry air, and the forcing in of air on the part of the insect into the large air-tubes of the wing, enable those organs to unfold, to increase in area, to decome dry, and at last to be of use. It has, I trust, been made evident that the wings are progressively developed, and that they grow from simple protoplasms into all their beauty and complexity of form during the stages after the escape from the egg. They are acquired organs; they are given to the insect during its progress of change. Like the metamorphoses, they are superadded to the original condition of the embryo or the young within the egg. They are characteristic, to a great extent, of metamorphosis, and thus the notion that the organs and these states of change were both acquired and superadded is worthy consideration. It now becomes necessay to inquire into the kinds of changes which insects submit to during their evolution after birth. There are perfect or complete, incomplete and retrograde metamorphoses, and some insects do not change their structures and habits at all The cabbage butterfly and the false wasp afford examples of perfect or complete metamorphosis, the completeness consisting in the succession of an active larva, an immobile pupa, and an active imago with different habits to the larva. There is a variety of this kind which is of some importance, and it may be termed imperfect-complete metamorphosis. The silkworm is a good example of this variety, and the organs of its mouth are irnperfectly developed. Such is also the case in many moths and insects which do not take food of any kind. Incomplete metamorphoses are observed in those insects which have three stages of activity-active larvæ, pupa which move and are then called nymphs, and active imagos. The common gnat undergoes incomplete metamorphosis, and the dragon fly, which belongs to a different class, also. The gnats skim over the surface of stagnant water and collect their eggs together as they are laid one by one in a little boat-shaped mass, the whole being covered with a gummy coating. This floats, and the larva are hatched very soon from the under side. They commence a life of predacious activity, and undergo skinsheddings. After one of these the insect comes forth, differing in shape from the larvae. It swims with the aid of two large lamellae, something like a fish-tail, and when it requires air it In these instances there is not that distinction in habit and instinct which prevail amongst the insects gifted with perfect and complete metamorphosis. Retrograde metamorphosis is a doubtful expression of some interesting facts. Sometimes a larva leads an active life, and is elaborately and perfectly formed; it changes into an immobile chrysalis, and then the imago comes forth not only with defective organs of mastication and motion, but also with indifferent legs and scarcely a vestige of wings. Or both wings and legs may be wanting, and there is not much resemblance to an insect left. Thus the pretty caterpillar, which may still be found about geraniums, and which looks like a harlequin from its curious tufts of different-coloured hair, belongs to the vapourer moth. It is a perfect larva, and very active. The chrysalis, or pupa, is, like those of other moths, immobile and swathed. Two kinds of moths escape the males, which are pretty and perfect moths, with elegant wings and great powers of fidgetty flight; and the females, which are ugly brown bags with small legs, scarcely a vestige of wing, and incomplete mouths. They are very unlike the male, and really have not the same activity, energy, power of locomotion, or complexity of structure as their larva. Another species belonging to the genus Psyche has very pretty male moths, but the female has no wings, legs, or feelers, and looks like a helpless egg-bag. She never quits a curious case made up of parts of flowers, in which the caterpillar and the pupa lived. It is quite clear that in these insects there is no progressive development from first to last in their metamorphosis. Insects which do not undergo any metamorphosis are by no means uncommon, but they all submit to the skin shedding. Such insects are hatched from the egg, in shape and habit much resembling the adult or full-grown individual. A considerable number of the Orthoptera-insects which fold up their wings longwise, of which the earwig, the cricket, and the grasshopper may be considered as representatives do not undergo the change in form and habit which is so characteristic of most of the Insecta. What alterations do occur are the progressive development of wings and of the reproductive organs and skin shedding. Most of the Orthoptera moult or change their skins repeatedly, some as many as three times, and still they do not alter in form; a fourth skin shedding finds others with rudimentary wings, which are small, crumpled, and visible. The fifth moult exhibits the insects with perfect wings and full-grown. There is no period of inactivity, and the insect pursues the same habits throughout its lifetime. Its tissues are not subjected to such changes as in those described. Some few but very important and interesting kinds moult only three times, and never have wings; and others, which only moult four times, never have these organs in perfection. To conclude this short review of the kinds of and exceptions to metamorphoses, it must be brought before your recollection that the unpleasant louse, the curious fish scale, and the podura, or skiptail, do not undergo metamorphoses, and that their skin sheddings are not attended by the development of wings. Not only are there these varieties of change of structure and habits, but there are modifications of each of them which relate to the time and season at which metamorphosis takes place, and the duration of its stages. The next step in the inquiry as to the meaning of all these changes in the philosophy of insect life, is to determine whether insects which resemble each other have the same kind of metamorphosis-in other words, whether identity of metamorphosis accompanies similarity of construction, Are the great groups into which the vast class of Insecta is divided by a natural classification, capable of being equally well and meaningly classified by the similarity or dissimilarity of their particular methods of change of structure and habit. The answer must be that, generally speaking, some of the groups which are widely separated by dissimilarity of structure, possess the same kind of metamor. phosis, and that some groups which resemble each other more than others have not the same kind of changes. It is impossible to classify the groups by their kinds of changes of structure and habit without outraging the first principles of a natural classification. The next step in this inquiry is to decide whether all the members of any of the great groups are metamorphosed in the same manner, and whether there are any genera or species belonging to one group which are exceptional in their method of change, and which possess that common to the bulk of the insects of another group. The answers are as follow: All the members of any great group are not subject to the same kind of change, but those of some very small families are ; and some genera undergo a metamorphosis totally unlike their closest allies in a group. There is a very good example of the difference in the mode of metamorphosis in some of the great groups, and of its evident independence of structural affinity or likeness to be gleaned by comparing the Orthoptera, the Coleoptera, and the Lepidoptera -the grasshopper, beetle, and butterfly tribes respectively. There is a greater resemblance in structure and general arrangement of parts between the Orthoptera and the Coleoptera than between the Coleoptera and the Lepidoptera; yet the Coleoptera resemble the Lepidoptera in possessing complete metamorphoses, whilst those of the Orthoptera are incomplete or absent altogether. Again, many families of the great groups have genera whose species are influenced by very wide modifications of the same kind of change. Thus amongst a family of the Lepidoptera one kind passes through a perfect change like that already described. A closely-allied moth will pass through the change twice in the year; and in one the egg will remain unhatched through the winter; in another the pupa will last through the autumn, winter, and spring; in a third a perfect insect will hybernate through the water; in a fourth a caterpillar will be born, will feed and increase in size, but will not turn to a pupa at once. It will hide up and hybernate for months, and will be metamorphosed in the early spring. In a fifth a caterpillar will crawl from the egg in August, and will not eat; but it hides up and hybernates until the early summer, when it crawls forth and eats and passes through a perfect metamorphosis. All these modifications, so irrespective of seasons, may be noticed in closelyallied genera. The lace-wing family, or the Neuroptera, are a very natural group, and their separation from other forms, on account of the general dissimilarity of construction, is as perfect as any classification will permit. In this family all the kinds of metamorphosis are to be noticed. Some genera, like the dragonflies, undergo incomplete metamorphoses, and have active nymphs, which do not differ much from the larva ; whilst others, like the scorpion-flies and the caddis-flies, are subjected to changes as perfect as those of a butterfly or moth, although their structures are very diverse. Seeing, then, that insects which so closely resemble each other as to be placed as allies in every classification that follows the order and system of Nature have to undergo different kinds of change of structure and habit, it becomes necessary to admit that the original structures of a species assumed their form according to a law which did not regulate the metamorphoses. These have no relation with the origin of the species, and are independent of the anatomy of the individual. Like the structures of the wings, the stages of the metamorphosis are acquired and superadded. It is credible enough that these wonderful and various changes are for the benefit of the creatures undergoing them; and doubtless there has been in every instance a mysterious relation between these and external physical conditions at some period or other. The metamorphoses are for the protection and preservation of the species, and may be esteemed extraordinary aids in the struggle for existence. The fact of there being Insecta which do not undergo metamorphoses, but only the skin sheddings which are common to certain Arachnida, Myriopoda, and Crustacea,-all the Articulata, is very important in studying the philosophy of this knotty subject; so also is the fact that the orders of Insecta which contain both these non-changing forms, and others which have a very incomplete metamorphosis, are of vast geological age. Probably these Neuroptera and Orthoptera were the first insects-certainly they were amongst the oldest. These considerations must be associated with the method of development of wingsacquired organs which are, nevertheless, not present a non-metamorphosing Insecta. The most convenient hypothesis by which the orig of morphosis may be explained, and that which appears to be consonant with facts, is to be comprehended under the ing heads:-1. The insecta have a great geological age earliest did not undergo metamorphoses, but simply shed skins. 3. The first forms were wingless Neuroptera or Other tera. 4. That in order to meet the influence of changes in e nal physical conditions during the evolution of varieties i original forms, the metamorphoses were acquired 5 l plete metamorphoses preceded the complete. 6. Organs of were acquired independently of metamorphosis. 7. The b of metamorphosis depended upon peculiarities in the exte conditions, and its determination was defined by law. If the phenomena of metamorphosis and the growth of have been acquired, and were not implanted in the g species to follow at once and inevitably, there should b and there ought to happen-according to the analogy of -instances where the part or the whole of the acquis absent. The degraded and almost wingless vapourer moth, the w less Psyche, the wingless condition of the female of the w moth, and the useless wings of Climatobid, must have not by disuse, but by reversion to the ancestral condition. Win should the gall-flies that affect the roots of the oak have no wa and those which make galls on the branches have them only : " the male, whilst the makers of the corresponding structura the leaf are perfect in their wings and metamorphosis? The s of disuse will not apply; and certainly the wingless would e wings and make them useful. They are reversions to the tral type. There is a little false wasp called Metilla: it le to a tribe eminently characterised by advanced instincts rapidity and power of variation of flight; yet the female is v less, and low in its instincts. The wings would be useful to insect, and the males of an Australian species certainly (hirk -for they carry their wingless ladies about with them underes difficulties. It is, like the others, an instance of reversion. the other hand, the acquirement of the gift of imperfed at morphosis may have been followed by that of the complete L and then to that of the elaborate and apparently enig changes undergone by some parasites, may have been re added. Habits and instinct which change contemporaneously with structural metamorphoses were doubtless acquired and ar handed down, generation after generation, in obedience to the ar of the descent and inheritance of useful gifts. Wonderful as t acquisition is of certain mental powers at certain perio such humble things as insects, still it must be remembered b man inherits mental peculiarities, which become evident different successive times of his life. A boy inherits me peculiarities which characterised the youth of his parents, ani others become evident in his adult age, which peculiarised b father or mother at the same period. How, is beyond question and the fact is enough. Sometimes, by examining the instincts of a group of closely allied species of insects, and by noticing and comparing suge differences in their habits and metamorphoses, a hint may be obtained how some very recondite peculiarity may have bee acquired and been transmitted, provided it were beneficial to the creature. The most interesting instincts of the Odynerus which were mentioned at the commencement of this lecture, were the forming a tubular antechamber and provisioning the chambers with stung grubs for an offspring which it never saw. Acce siderable group of mining false wasps make or chambers to lay their eggs in, and they, one and all, are in con stant terror lest some interloper or parasite should enter their underground workings, during their absence in search of food s the future offspring. On arriving with the stung larva at the mouth of their hole, which is closed up carefully by some before flying off, they enter and run into the chambers in a great state of excitement to see that the nursery is not taken possession of by an intruder who intends to stop. So impressed is this instinct upon them that, if the prey which is left outside during the rapi inspection be removed a little way off, when it is replaced by the insect the process of examination is repeated, and the insect will do this over and over again, senselessly it is true, but in obedience to an inherited and almost automatic impulse. There is no doubt that a great number of futile egg layings and Its ovisionings occur amongst those tribes on account of the entry parasitic insects who devour everything. So that an additional stinctive act which could produce any alteration in the shape or rangement of the tunnel and chamber-making, which would enefit and tend to preserve the future larva, would assuredly be rpetuated by descending to subsequent generations. The anteLamber of Odynerus meets every difficulty and want. agile nature will not permit the intruder to pass along without eaking it down and covering the hole in the tunnel, and when is broken down by the dying insect it effectually closes up the ene of its labour and hides the offspring from harm. The only tisfactory hint which can be gleaned respecting the origin of the ovisioning of chambers in which an egg is left, is obtained by abre's study of the habits of Bembix vidua. This mining wasp ys an egg which hatches very shortly, and the little mother isits its living offspring every day and brings it small larvæ, ung to keep them quiet at first, and then larger larvæ as the - ttle cannibal increases in size. All this time the Bembix is a egetarian, but she is known to sip the honey which may be on me of her victims. The instinct of a Bembix may have been altered by its eggs ot hatching, and a series of victims may have been placed in the aamber automatically, instinctively, and without what is called eason. There is of course the possibility of memory existing -uring the quiescent stage. Does the butterfly remember its xistence as a gormandising caterpillar, and therefore retain some otion of the propriety of laying eggs over cabbages? Does he Odynerus fly remember its underground life, and obey some mpulse to provide the unseen offspring with food different to hat which she loves? It is possible; and as nothing is too wonerful for psychologists, there may be something in the suggestion. It is evident that the influence of external conditions which tre antagonistic to the comfort and well-being of many insects is often neutralised by a happy and protective contemporaneous change of form and habit. On the contrary, as in the instance of larvæ which hybernate and do not turn into pupa before severe weather sets in, or in the case of hybernating butterflies, ill connection between existing external conditions and the time and nature of the metamorphosis is often indistinguishable. But this apparent anomaly may be explained when it is remembered how long-lived many species and genera of insects are, how persistent some forms have been through considerable geological periods, and to what numerous changes of climate they may have been exposed during forced emigration, or even whilst being on the same area. The commingling of several insect faunas which must have occurred over and over again during the later geological period of the world's history, will quite account for closely allied forms presenting modifications of the general kind of change of structure and habit. All the relations of the metamorphoses to changes in the inorganic kingdom of nature, i.e., to alterations in the external physical conditions surrounding insect forms, is doubtless within the scope of law. The insect host is innumerable, and the variations in external physical conditions must have been repeated during vast ages; yet the kinds of metamorphoses and their modifications are few in number and are singularly pronounced. NOTES A VERY large number of noblemen and gentlemen, members of the Society of Arts, have signed a memorial to Her Majesty's Government, in which, after referring to the great benefit conferred by the opening of the Bethnal Green Museum, and the immense number of people (upwards of 700,000) who have visited it in three months, they "submit that this museum could never have come into useful existence, and have been instrumental in conferring these benefits on the people, without the aid of Parliament; and they desire to press this fact upon the consideration of Her Majesty's Government, with the hope that they will submit to Parliament the policy so essentially national of voting increased means to facilitate the establishment of museums, libraries, and galleries of Science and Art in large centres of population, wherever such localities are willing to bear their share Of these, 14 are candidates in honours. In the Natural Science School there are eight candidates for the Final Examination, all in honours. AT a meeting of the Arts School at Cambridge this week, a discussion arose on the report of the Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate, recommending the erection of additional accommodation for students in physiology and comparative anatomy. Mr. J. W. Clark and Prof. Humphry warmly advocated the adoption of the report, the latter remarking that the sum was small, compared with that expended at Leipsic, Amsterdam, and other parts of Europe. No decision appears to have been arrived at. AN anonymous friend has just given to the Council of the Midland Institute the large (sum of 2,500/., to be expended in scholarships for encouragement of the study of practical physiology, more especially that branch of it which is concerned in the amelioration of the sanitary condition of the poor. This noble gift is prompted by remarks which were made by Canon Kingsley in his opening address to the Midland Institute. THE Academy announces the recent death, at Göttingen, of the great mathematician Klebsch, at the age of forty. A LARGE number of eminent physicians, chemists, and others belonging to various countries in Europe, have formed themselves into a union for the laudable purpose of constructing a general European Pharmacopoeia. At the meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society, on November 6, Dr. Thudichum gave an interesting address on the subject, in which he showed that during the last 200 years many men had tried to realise the idea of a general pharmacopoeia; but as these attempts were mostly made by single individuals, each of whom endeavoured to carry out his own idea in his own way, failure was necessarily the result. It is likely that the present co-operative attempt will be more successful. M. BABINET, of the French Academy, whose death we recently chronicled, was born at Lusignan in 1794, educated at Metz, and entered the Artillery, which he quitted in 1815. After having been Professor of Physics in the College of Fontenay-le-Comte, and afterwards at Poictiers, he went to Paris in 1820, to occupy a chair of Physics in the College St. Louis. Until 1864 he was also Examiner to l'École Polytechnique in Physics, Descriptive Geometry, Applied Analysis, and Geodesy. His lectures at the Athenæum on Meteorology did much to foster a taste for the study of atmospheric phenomena. He was elected to the Academy in 1840 in the section of Physics. Previous to this he had distinguished himself in various ways, having done much to perfect the pneumatic machine, for which the Academy awarded him a prize. Besides this, he invented a goniometer, which bears his name, and in many memoirs recorded his optical experiments and researches, besides doing much to popularise scientific studies. The best of what he has written is collected in his "Études et Lectures sur les Sciences d'Observation." Two very interesting letters on Arctic Exploration appear in the Times of Tuesday last. Capt. J. C. Wells writes that he met Prof. Nordenskiöld's expedition when returning in Mr. Smith's schooner yacht Samson from a cruise to the north of Spitzbergen. The arrangements appeared very perfect, but the vessels were in no way fitted to contend with the ice. Captain Wells is of opinion that the North Pole may be reached during the summer her to arrive at the edge of the pack beyond Spitzbergen early months. The vessel should leave England in April, to enable enough to take advantage of the breaking of the ice from the edge of the main pack. Her return might be looked for in October of the same year. "At the present time," he adds, “ Austria, Germany, Sweden, France, Russia, and even Italy, are in the field, striving, either by actual exploration or by tentative efforts, to form expeditions to reach the North Pole, simply for the ad |