1899] NEWS 339 



Mr. G. Abbott, honorary general secretary of the S.E. Union of Scientific 

 Societies, asks us to notify that the date of the next congress, which will be 

 held at Rochester, has been altered to May 25-27. 



On February 18, Prof. L. C. Miall lectured at the Royal Institution on "A 

 Yorkshire Moor," and his lecture — a charming study in natural history — is now 

 printed. 



At the Congres des Societes Savantes to be held at Toulouse, April I to 8, 

 there will be an exhibition of timekeepers, instruments, etc., divided according 

 to the decimal system. The Geographical Society of Toulouse invites those 

 interested in this reform to send instruments, diagrams, and published papers. 



Among the prizes offered by the Reale Istituto Lombardo are the Fossati 

 prizes for 1899 on the macroscopic or microscopic structure of the nervous 

 system, for 1900 on the regeneration of peripheral nerve-fibres in vertebrates, 

 for 1901 on the structure of the brain in higher animals. 



A prize of 500 francs is offered by the Societe de physique et d'histoire 

 naturelle de Geneve for the best monograph on a genus or family of plants. 

 The memoirs, which may be in English, must be sent to Mr. Pictet, the 

 president of the society, before January 15, 1900. 



The Belgian Royal Academy has awarded prizes to Georges Clautriau, of 

 Brussels, for his work on digestion in carnivorous plants, and to L. Cuenot, of 

 Nancy, for his work on the excretory organs of molluscs. 



At a meeting of the Edinburgh Geological Society, on March 16, com- 

 munications were read on "Contact metamorphism round the granite of the 

 Cheviots," by Mr. Herbert Kynaston ; " The granite intrusions and allied rocks 

 in the neighbourhood of Braemar," by Mr. E. H. Cunningham-Craig. Dr. 

 Hepburn and Mr. Simpson described antlers of red deer and other remains from 

 the superficial deposits of Hailes. 



The Joint Committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical 

 Society, appointed to promote a National Antarctic Expedition, made applica- 

 tion some time ago to the Council of the Royal Society and the Council of the 

 British Association for grants of money in aid of the proposed expedition. The 

 treasurer of the Royal Society has applied on behalf of the Council to the 

 Government Grant Committee for a grant of £1000, and the Council of the 

 British Association will recommend to the next meeting of the general committee 

 that a like sum be contributed by the Association. There is every reason to 

 believe that these grants will be made. 



The president of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Clements Markham, 

 has received a letter from Baron von Richthofen, president of the Berlin 

 Geographical Society, in which he refers to a meeting recently held in Berlin 

 in connection with the German Antarctic Expedition. Addresses were delivered 

 by Baron von Richthofen, Dr. Drygalski, who will be leader of the expedition, 

 Count DArenberg, president of the Colonial Society, and others, and the 

 greatest enthusiasm was displayed by the audience of some 1500 people. As 

 did the speakers at the meeting, so Baron von Richthofen in his letter refers in 

 very explicit terms to the expected co-operation of England in the great work of 

 a thorough exploration of the unknown Antarctic area. The German Committee 

 have laid down the different routes which the two expeditions might follow, in 

 order that the joint work may be as effective as possible, while each expedition 

 would be entirely independent of the other so far as internal organization and 

 command are concerned. " There cannot be any doubt," says the Times, "that 

 if the two expeditions, adecpiately equipped, carried out their work on a common 

 plan, the gains to science would be immense, much greater than if the expedi- 

 tions carried on their work entirely independently of each other. Moreover, 

 from other points of view, it is desirable that two great and friendly nations like 

 Germany and England should co-operate in promoting common interests when- 

 ever it is possible. It would therefore be in the highest degree humiliating if 



