As this is the jubilee year of the telegraph in England, it is well to be reminded that Cooke and Wheatstone made their first practical and successful trial on July 25, 1837, between Euston and Camden, while Morse did not file his caveat (i.e. did not apply for his patent) until October 5 of the same year.

We wish the book every success, and shall be glad to see further instalments.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No notice is taken of anonymous communications. [The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even of communications containing interesting and novel facts.] Normal School of Science and Royal School of Mines

I AM directed to request that you will be so good as to allow me to state, through the medium of your columns, that the number of applications for admission to the Normal School of Science and Royal School of Mines at South Kensington, at the commencement of the present session, having been considerably in excess of the accommodation which the School can afford, it has become necessary to adopt some process of selection for the future. Hereafter, applications for admission should be sent to the Registrar of the School before the end of May, accompanied by a statement of the studies which the applicant has already pursued, the examinations he has passed, and the name of a teacher (or teachers) to whom reference may be made. Such applications will be considered by the Dean and Council of the School, who will decide on them according to their merits. A knowledge of elementary mathematics, such as is required of all Royal Exhibitioners and national scholars, will be held to be of the first importance for those who desire admission to the course for the Associateship of the School; while for occasional students, who propose only to take up certain specific branches of science, some preliminary knowledge of them will have weight. J. F. D. DONNELLY

Science and Art Department, January 14

The Cambridge Cholera Fungus

THE letter published by Dr. Klein in your issue of December 23 (p. 171) having incidentally referrel to my views as to the nature of the fungus present in choleraic tissue, I should be glad to be allowed to make some further remarks upon the subject.

At an early stage of his investigation Prof. Roy brought for my inspection one of his preparations of intestinal mucous membrane, which clearly demonstrated the presence of certain foreign organisms, and especially drew my attention to a form which he took to be the more usual and typical one. Such a structure might perhaps best be described as consisting of a thin and somewhat moniliform filament which at one end exhibited a distinct nodular swelling. Being struck with a certain (and, as I now fear, a somewhat superficial) morphological resemblance to a group of the Chytridiacea, I suggested that the organism might possibly be a Chytridium, and this view was perhaps too confidently adopted by Messrs. Roy and Sherrington in their paper. The appearance of Dr. Klein's letter has naturally led me to carefully reconsider the whole question, and on further consideration I en'irely abandon the idea of the organism being a Chytridium. I believe, on the contrary, that it is a Bacterium, and that the structure described by Prof. Roy and seen by myself is that particular phase in the life-history of the Bacterium which is known as an involution form. Such forms are described, for instance, in Zopf's article "Die Spaltpilze," in Schenk's "Ency

clopædie der Naturwissenschaften," as Bacterium aceti and Bacterium cyanogenum. Indeed, the involution form assumed by the latter Bacterium recalls very vividly to my mind the structure shown to me by Prof. Roy.

In conclusion, I may assure Dr. Klein that the fungus is certainly neither a Penicillum nor of the nature of a mould, and that I do not believe it is in any way associated with postmortem change. WALTER GARDINER

Royal Gardens, Kew, January 11

Snowstorm of January 7, 1887

A MOST extraordinary snowstorm occurred here to-day (January 7). In fifty years' experience I have seen nothing like it, nor has anyone else in this neighbourhood seen any similar phenomenor. It would be impossible to realise the gigantic size of the snowflakes without seeing them. I can only compare them to a fall of oranges, though the diameter of an orange would be small in comparison with thousands of these snowflakes; in this immediate neighbourhood (i.e. within sight of the place of observation) at 50 The wind was south, yards off it produced a dense snow-wall. and almost calm, and the largest snow came down nearly perpendicularly. The temperature was 32°6, and the air completely saturated with moisture. Before the storm the temperature was 34°1. Snow had been falling with a slight thaw from 10 a.m., the snowflakes being small. Suddenly, at 12h. 12m. p.m. they became 2 inches in length;1 at 12h. 14m. they had increased to 2 inches; and one flake that was caught measured 2 inches by 24 inches, and was of an inch thick. At 12h. 16m. the flakes had increased in size to 3 inches (and several measured were 4 inches across, and there were several larger ones not near enough to be caught); at 12h. 19m. they were somewhat less, and at 12h. 20m. though large, were not gigantic. tunately I was measuring and weighing snow at the time, with two assistants, and had a number of flat circular gla ses kept cold ready for the purpose of catching crystals, and for measuring the snow that fell upon these glasses. As is usual when very large flakes are falling, there were many of smaller size, though when the flakes were from 2 to 3 inches, the majority of the next size were about 2 inches, and the very large flakes would be within 12 inches of each other. A dozen of these large flakes were caught, each on a separate piece of glass, measured and removed under cover, my two assistants giving valuable aid. Of three of these flakes one yielded 14 drops of water, a second 15, and a third 16 drops; and these were not the largest flakes seen. The water from seven flakes weighed a quarter of an ounce within 2 or 3 grains. The weight of ten varied from 13 to 16 grains each; most of the flakes were about a third longer than broad, one flake that was 34 inches long by 2 broad was estimated (before it touched the glass) to be 1 inch thick, when flattened by the force of its descent it was of an inch thick.

For

The flakes were not a mass of broken pieces, but were composed mainly of perfect crystals, and there must have been hundreds of these crystals in each flake; they were clinging together at every conceivable angle, though a much larger percentage were more horizontal than vertical. A terrestrial radiation thermometer, buried a fifth of an inch within this snow, marked a temperature of 32° 4.

The snow which fell during the last six minutes of this great storm was just under one-fifth of an inch in depth, and yielded 030 of an inch of water, falling at the rate of I inch of water in three hours and twenty minutes (yielding I inch of water from 6 inches of snow).

There was a great snowstorm here on December 27, 1886, which varied considerably in places near to each other, i.e.Amount of rain Depth of and snow

snow

Inches

Melted snow

alone

0'97

0'71

0'42

The drifts above here are very great, and a large number of men are still engaged in cutting through them.

The following measurements will show the number of inches The breadth was less than the length, and the thickness less than the breadth; more or less flattened, and curled over on the edges

2 Besides these drops, the wetted gla-s shall count for two more drops.

Shape and size of snowflake. (There were more of a somewhat similar form to this than the more circular ones, though there were very many more circular and less indented.)

This collection has been exhibited since 1857 in the iron building at South Kensington.

Your Committee are of opinion that the term Patent Museum (which is generally applied to this collection) tends to give an erroneous impression as to its character and object.

Various suggestions have been made by witnesses respecting the nature of a Museum connected with the mechanical arts, which may be summed up as follows:(a) That it should illustrate the history of those arts by a collection of original machines from an early period to the present time.

(b) That it should exhibit all known inventions respecting machinery and manufactures.

The title "Patent Museum" was never accurate; the collection might with greater propriety have been called the "Woodcroft Museum," from the name of the gentleman, formerly Clerk to the Commissioners of Patents, who originated the formation of it. It contains objects illustrating steps in the history of mechanical inventions, and contrivances of importance and interest, without regard to whether they have been patented or not. Among these, for example, are the earliest locomotive and stationary steam-engines; the first engine used in steam navigation; the first reaping-machine; Arkwright's original spinning-machinery; all Sir Charles Wheatstone's original apparatus, showing a complete history of the various steps by which he perfected electric telesome old clocks dating from 1325; and other objects of similar interest.

(c) That it should show the present state of all machin-graphy; many of Edison's original electrical inventions; ery and manufactures.

(d) Some of the witnesses suggested that the collection should be restricted to the machinery and manufactures of the United Kingdom; whilst others proposed that it should be extended to those of foreign countries.

(e) Some, again, proposed that the collection should contain all the objects of each class, whilst others proposed that a selection only of the most important objects should be exhibited.

(ƒ) There was no less diversity of opinion respecting the primary purpose for which any collection or exhibition should be made; some of the witnesses considered that it should be for the purpose of conveying instruction in the mechanical arts, either in a cursory way to people who might visit the Museum, or to students in mechanics, or to persons desirous of applying themselves to the discovery of improvements in machinery and manufactures. (g) Other witnesses deemed the Museum chiefly desirable for the information of persons intending to take out or purchase patents, in aid of the information afforded by books and specifications, to assist them in ascertaining whether the contemplated patent would be valid as a new invention.

(h) On the other hand, two witnesses, Mr. Carpmael and Mr. Johnson, gave it as their opinion that for all purposes of the patent law a museum of models would be practically valueless.

Your Committee are of opinion that any special collection of patented inventions made for the purpose of evidence, illustration, or record of patent rights is not so connected with a general museum of mechanical inventions as to render the neighbourhood of such a museum to a patent office and library, or law courts, necessary.

It appears to your Committee that the chief purpose of a general museum is to illustrate and explain the commencement, progress, and present position of the most important branches of mechanical invention; to show the chief steps by which the most remarkable machines have reached their present degree of excellence; to convey interesting and useful information, and to stimulate invention.

In forming an illustrative collection of inventions it would be necessary to adopt the principle of selection. This, however, does not appear to your Committee to be an insuperable objection, especially as no one proposed to substitute models for specifications, which for all the purposes of administering the patent law would still have to be consulted, and bear the stamp of authority.

Such a collection should contain a selection of models of moderate size, which should illustrate different departments of inventions, and also a selection of models of current patented inventions.

The Patent Collection, although it was placed in premises belonging to the South Kensington Museum, remained in the hands of the Commissioners of Patents until January 1, 1884, when, by the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act, 1883," 46 and 47 Vict. c. 57, it was transferred to the Science and Art Department.

Inventions embodied in future patents may be added to this Museum, pursuant to Sections 41 and 42 of the Patent Act above mentioned. These sections enact as follows:

(41) The control and management of the existing Patent Museum and its contents shall, from and after the commencement of this Act, be transferred to, and vested in, the Department of Science and Art, subject to such directions as Her Majesty in Council may see fit to give.

(42) The Department of Science and Art may at any time require a patentee to furnish them with a model of his invention, on payment to the patentee of the cost of the manufacture of the model; the amount to be settled in case of dispute by the Board of Trade.

plete museum of patented inventions with a methodical We do not consider it to be feasible to combine a comcollection of objects illustrating practical science, and we infer from the language of Parliament in the provisions just quoted that this is the view taken in the recent Patent Act, which enables, but does not oblige, the Department of Science and Art to acquire specimens of patented inventions.

26. We conceive that it will be useful for the curators and indispensable scope is to provide apparatus and of all the collections to bear in mind that their primary specimens for the instruction given in the Normal College of Science, and for the teaching of science generally throughout the United Kingdom.

Cases may doubtless arise where the acquisition or reception of other objects may be expedient, in the interest of science or of the arts; but in these cases, in order to prevent the unnecessary occupation of space, we recommend that due regard be had to existing public collections elsewhere, so as not unnecessarily to duplicate the provision for illustrating science.

27. Referring now to the space required, we adopt the following figures given by the Reports of the different Committees, adding some estimates for the future where they have not been stated :

Various science collections
Naval models
Building construction
Fish culture

Educational collection and library
Mechanical collections...

Estimated Space
increas of required
space re-
quired in
ten years
Sq. ft.

3,000

10,500 10,00)

end of ten years Sq. ft.

40,000

20,500

In framing their estimates, the Committees generally took, as the basis of their computation, top-lighted galleries 30 feet wide, which afford a large amount of well

lighted wall-space in proportion to floor-area. But with galleries side-lighted, in which some part of the collections must necessarily be housed, an increase of floorarea will be required.

28. In adopting these estimates, we think an indefinite series of demands for accommodation, involving an indefinite extension of space, ought not to be contemplated. The pleas commonly put forward for such extension at the close of every Exhibition are the number of articles which are either offered as gifts or are said to merit acquisition. We think that merit alone should be the ground of admission, and that even this ground must be subject, in the first place, to the consideration of space, and next, to that of scientific arrangement. If space is to be in any degree limited, and scientific arrangement to be maintained, it is evident that exclusion and depletion, as well as completion, must be kept in view; and that while the Department of Science and Art is left all possible freedom in determining what the contents of its collections shall be, it should be strictly confined to the area which is represented to be sufficient for the future.

In the due appropriation of this area we do not consider that, as a rule, and except in cases of historic interest, engines and machines of the original size should be acquired, or even accepted on terms implying that they will continue to be exhibited otherwise than in models.

29. Comparing now the estimates of space required with the area at present available, we find as follows:

The total available floor-space in the present buildings, assuming the Western Gallery, D, to be given up, and the building E to be abolished, is 51,500 square feet.

This is 17,480 feet less than the collections at present occupy, and less than half what the Committees estimate for them when fairly completed.

It is clear, therefore, that new buildings are absolutely required.

PROVISIONS FOR HOUSING THE COLLECTIONS 30. The second duty confided to us is :

To suggest plans for housing the collections in the existing galleries to the south of the Horticultural Gardens, or in new galleries to be built upon their site, and the adjacent ground now the property of the Government.

31. In considering this matter, we have had the valuable assistance of Mr. Taylor, the Surveyor to Her Majesty's Office of Works, who has, in accordance with our sug gestions, carefully examined the existing buildings, and prepared sketch-plans and estimates to meet the circumstances of the case.

32. We have already referred to the land available. It is shown on the Drawing No. I., marked G, and coloured red, and it consists of a plot of ground to the south of the South Galleries A, B, C, containing 4 acres and 23 square yards.

This land, as well as the site and ground of the Natural History Museum to the south of it, was purchased by the Government, in 1864, from the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851, and the particulars of the transaction are fully set forth in the Fifth Report of the Commissioners, dated August 15, 1867.

33. In this Report (p. 31) the Commissioners say: "We have set forth in detail all the circumstances connected with the sale by us to Her Majesty's Government of the site of the Exhibition of 1862, with the sanction of Parliament, and under the special condition that the site in question shall be permanently devoted to purposes connected with Science or the Arts."

This condition is fully and strongly carried into effect in the deed of conveyance, which is published as an Appendix to the same Report; so that the appropriation of this land for the erection of a Science Museum is in strict compliance with the conditions of its acquisition.

34. The buildings forming the southern range A, A, C. B, B', although not of first-rate character, will yet last in good order for many years to come, as will also the Western Gallery D.

We are, however, of opinion that a plan should be prepared to include the eventual reconstruction of the whole southern range.

But it should be a plan capable of being carried out by degrees, as and when necessity demands.

35. Drawing No. II. shows a ground plan of a design which fulfils these conditions.

It provides for two three-storied buildings of ornamental elevation, forming frontages (with returns to Exhibition Road on the east, and to Queen's Gate on the west; and for plain two-storied buildings adjacent to these east and west frontages. These buildings, together with the existing southern buildings (A, B, C) will afford the required space until the latter become unserviceable, and permanent structures have to be erected on their

site.

These buildings would give room for the collections. with the necessary offices, for the Portrait Gallery, and, if desirable, for examination-rooms.

MEASURES RECOMMENDED

36. The measures we recommend are as follows:SECTION I.-Alteration of Arrangements in the existing Galleries

(a) Remove the collection from the upper floor of the Western Gallery, D, and place it temporarily on the lower floor of the same building, and in A, B, or C.

(b) Remove the Portrait Gallery into the upper floor of the Western Gallery, D; this floor has been used during former Exhibitions as a Picture Gallery, and has given great satisfaction to the artists. This gallery, as it exists, is more secure against accidents by fire than the building in which the pictures are now placed, and can be rendered, at a moderate outlay, practically incom bustible.

(c) Clear out the ground floor of the Western Gallery, D

(d) Then use this ground floor for examination-rooms When this is done, the entire Western Gallery, D, will be occupied, and none of it will be further available for the collections.

(e) Make an opening through the wall which now shutoff the centre building, C, so as to give an approach from Exhibition Road to the western parts of the galleries, and thus do away with the unsightly gallery K.

(f) Proceed to arrange the rooms as they are set free. (g) In addition to the access from Queen's Gate to the portrait gallery in D, afford access to it from Exhibition Road through the Science collections.

SECTION II.-New Works to be undertaken 37. The proposed new building is so designed that it may be carried out in separate portions progressively.

The portion to be first undertaken should be on the parts marked L and L, with the temporary entrances, al coloured yellow on the drawing No. II. These buildings may be completed in about eighteen months, and are estimated to cost about 43,520, which may be distributed over the financial years 1886-87, and 1887-88.

Before the end of 1887, also, the option must be exer. cised of purchasing the central building, C.

When the above-mentioned first portions of the new building are completed, they will add an available area of 28,700 square feet, which, with the areas already existing in the southern galleries, will make a total of 80,200 square feet.

This will provide, for the Science collections, about 11,000 feet more than they at present occupy, and it will admit of the Patent Museum being removed to the western side of Exhibition Road, and of the building

being abandoned. At the same time the temporary appropriation of the Western Gallery, D, to the Portrait Gallery and the examination-rooms, will give them an advantageous increase of accommodation, Hence, by this first instalment of the new works, a considerable improvement on the present state of things will be effected; but the space will still be much below what has been estimated as necessary by the Committees who have investigated the matter.

38. The next portion to be undertaken may be the building with façades at the eastern end, marked ' on the drawing, and coloured red. This is estimated to cost 54,1837, and it will furnish 33,750 square feet of additional floor-space.

When this is built there will be, in all, 113,750 square feet available, i.e. enough not only to accommodate the present collections, with some increase, but also to receive the Portrait Gallery, and to provide examinationrooms, if required.

At this time, therefore, there will no longer be any need to hire from the Commissioners of 1851 the Western Gallery, D, and thus an expenditure of 2000/. per annum will be saved.

39. The accommodation can afterwards be extended from time to time, as and when means may be voted for the purpose, by the erection of the other portions shown on Drawing No. II., as follows: