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Aug. II, i870]
NA TURE
the Institute, and reaching back to Great Charles Street. The
purchase money, we believe, is more than 20,0001., a magnifi-
cent earnest of the ultimate scheme which Mr. Mason has in
contemplation.  We make this announcement with the greatest
pleasure, and ask-Why are citizens who thus consecrate their
wealth to such noble and enlightened purposes so rare when
their reward is so great ?
  THE following are the arrangements for the approaching
fortieth annual meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, to be held in Liverpool, commencing
on Wednesday, Sept. 14.   President-elect-Professor Huxley,
LL.D., F.R.S.    Vice-Presidents-elect-The Right IHon. the
Earl of Derby; Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., D).C.L.;
Sir Philip G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. ; Sir Joseph Whit-
worth, Bart., LL. D., F. R. S. ; S. R. Graves, Esq., M. P.;
J. P. Joule, Esq., LL. D., F. R. S.; Joseph Mayer, Esq., F. S.A.
Chairman of Local Executive Committee-The Mayor of Liver-
pool (Joseph Hubback, Esq.)  Local Treasurer-Henry Duck-
worth, Esq., F.G.S. The sections are-(A) Mathematics anI
Physics; (B) Chemical Science; (C) Geology; (D) Biology;
(E) Geography and Ethnology; (F) Economic Science and
Statistics ; (G) Mechanical Science. These wsill meet each clay
from eleven to three o'clock, in St. George's Hall, the Town
Hall, Free Public Library, and other places to be duly
announced.   General and Evening Meetings-Wednesday,
Sept. I4: The first general meeting will be held in the Philhar-
monic Hall, at 8 P.?s., when Professor Stokes, M.A., D.C.L.,
,will resign the chair, and Professor Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S.,
will assume the Presidency and deliver an address. Thursday,
Sept. 15: The Mayor's First Reception at the Town Hall.
Friday, Sept. i6: Lecture in Philharmonic Hall, at 8.30 P.M.,
by Professor Tyndall, LL. D. ; the Mayor's Second Reception at
the Town Hall. Saturday, Sept. 17: Address to Working
Men, in Concert Hall, Lord Nelson-street, at 8 P.al., by Sir
John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. Monday, Sept. 19: Lec-
ture in Philharmonic Hall, at 8.30 P. M., by Professor Rankine,
LL.D., F.R.S. Tuesday, Sept. 20: Soiree in St. George's
Hall, at S P. NM. Wednesday, Sept. 21: Concert in St. George's
Hall, at 8 P. NS. Thursday, Sept. 22: Excursions to several
places. Members requiring further information should apply to
any of the following Hon. Local Secretaries-Wim. Banister,
B.A. ; Reg. Harrison, F.R.C.S. ; H. H. Higgins, M.A.; A.
Hume, D. C. L., LL. D., Municipal-buildings, Dale-street, Liver-
pool.
  PROFESSOR WINLOCK is now engaged in photographing the
sun on a plan which, so far as we know, has not before been
put into practice. He uses a single lens object-glass, 41 inches
diameter, 40 feet focal length, of crown glass, made by Clark,
and corrected for spherical aberration by means of an artificial
star of homogeneous (sodium) light in the focus of a 5-inch
collimator. The image of the sun is 4- inches in diameter.
The tube of the telescope points to the North, and the image
of the sun is thrown in by means of a reflector of plate glass.
This glass is not roughened or blackened on one side, because
when that was done the heat of the sun distorted the plane
surface. The slit is at the object-glass end of the telescope,
and that position has the advantage that when it is thrown
across no rust is shaken down on to the plate, as is apt to
happen in the usual way of working. It is Mr. Winlock's in-
tention to photograph the sun every fair day now. It seems
also probable that this mode of photographing might be of
advantage for the partial phases of an eclipse.
  MR. HI. POWER, M.B. (Lond.), and Mr. B. J. Vernon have
be-en appointed ophthalmic surgeons to St. Bartholomew's
Hospital.
  DR. LAPEYRERE insists in the France nMedicale, on the desira-
bility of disposing of the bodies of the slain during the Franco-
German war by incremation rather than sepulture. Although
there is a feeling against this mode of obsequy during present
times, he points out that it was practised by the most civilised
nations of antiquity. The burial of the dead after a battle is
always a difficult task; it is probably never done so completely
as to destroy the probability of the tainted air giving rise to all
kinds of infectious diseases; and when we recollect the enor-
mous masses of men concentrated in a small space in the present
conflict, and the season of the year, the matter becomes one of
very serious moment.
  THE fearful destructiveness of so-called " natural " causes of
death, as compared with even the most sanguinary battles, is
shown by the fact that during the siege of Sebastopol, the French
army lost 20,240 men by death in the field or as the result of
their wounds, 75,0o0 from epidemic and other diseases. During
the Italian campaign of two months, the French losses were
3,664 killed or mortally wounded, 5,000 from disease.
  THERE was a shock of earthquake on the 12th July at
Smyrna. It was not very strong, but lasted a considerable time.
The previous shock was on the 24th June, and was felt at different
parts of Asia \Iinor and in Cyprus, Crete, and Egypt. Of the
July shock there were only particulars at the last advices of its
having been felt at Aivali and some other inland points of Asia
Minor. We learn further that the earthquake of the 24th June
was felt at Damascus at 6h 15m P.W.  It -was felt also in the town
of Zebedani in the Anti-Lebanon, N. W
  THE Geological Survey of Italy will begin its regular definitive
work next August. Commencing with Florence, it will first of
all complete the study of a portion of that province. is the
Ordnance map on the scale of I to 50,ooO is not yet completed,
the Geological Survey will make use of the map made by the
Austrian Ordnance surveyors on the scale of i to 86,400, enlarged
by photography to the scale of I to 50,oCO.
  WHATEVER claims Sir Christopher Wren may possess to be
considered the originator of the Thames Embankment, it is
hardly fair to leave out of sight those which belong to Sir John
Kiviet. The latter gentleman was a refugee from Rotterdam who
came to England in 1666, and possessed some of the ingenuity
of his brother-in-law Admiral Van Tromp.  It does not appear
how soon after the Fire of London it occurred to SirJohn to propose
a river embankment, but as early as 2nd December, x666, we find
him examining the soil of the foreshores with a view to discover-
ing whether it was suitable for making clinker-bricks.  On the
6th of March following Evelyn definitely proposed to the Lord
Chancellor " Monsieur Kiviet's undertaking to warfe the whole
river of Thames, or Key, from the Temple to the Tower, as far
as the fire destroied, with brick, without piles, both lasting and
ornamental." We may presume it ,'as favourably received by
Lord Clarendon, as upon the 22nd of the same month Evelyn had
audience of the King with reference to building the Quay, and a
fewv days later Sir John Kiviet and the Diarist " went in search
for brick earth in order to a greate undertaking." No further
mention is made of the -zheme, and we may perhaps conclude
that it was abandoned ei  'on account of the unpopularity of
the inventor (vhose Dutch extraction would at that time have
been a natural bar to success), or of the fall of Clarendon at the
ignominious close of the war with Holland. At any rate, Kiviet
has some right to divide the honours with 'Wren, though, in view
of the work just completed, we cannot regret that its execution
was reserved for our own times.
  THE Food 7ournal for August, which contains some excellent
articles, thus sums up the possible influence of War on our
food supplies :-" Free trade in lizve-stock is by no means synony.
mous with free trade in meat. France will now get meat whence
she cannot get live-stock. Her soldiers and sailors will eat the
salt beef and pork of Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis.
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