VI NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



H. D. Rogers, of Boston, Mass., and Sir E. I. Murchison, the latter 

 claiming and upholding the priority of certain English geological 

 nomenclature, a point that was manfully and stoutly opposed by 

 Prof. K. 



The Institute of France held its Annual Meeting on the 14th of 

 August, at Pari^ under the presidency of M. Berenger, President of 

 the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. What is called the 

 Institute, consists of five great Academies of France Francaise, Fine 

 Arts, Sciences, Inscriptions et Belles Lett-res, and Moral and Political 

 Sciences which during the year meet apart, and pursue their respec- 

 tive walks with little or no communication with another. The annual 

 meeting of these learned bodies united is generally an affair of great 

 interest, and this year it was not less so than usual. M. Berenger, as 

 President, delivered a long harangue, in which he touched on a multi- 

 plicity of subjects, literary, scientific, economic, governmental, &c. 

 Amongst other things, he stated that the different academies are in 

 possession of a capital producing 6,000 sterling a year, for distribu- 

 tion in prizes, without counting 1,200 which the government gives 

 them to disburse in the same way. He said that the Academy of 

 Sciences, in the course of last year, received not fewer than 165 manu- 

 script treatises on scientific problems proposed by it for public com- 

 petition; the Academie Franaise a far greater number on literary 

 subjects which it proposed ; and the Academy of Moral and Political 

 Sciences thirty-four, most of them of great length, for a Manual of 

 Political Economy, which it demanded. The great prize of 1,200, 

 offered by the Emperor for the new work or discovery best calculated 

 to do honor to the country, was awarded to M. Fizeau, for his import- 

 ant and interesting experiments on the rapidity with which light 

 travels. 



The German Association for the Promotion of Science held their 

 Annual Meeting at Vienna, September 15th, Prof. Haidinger, Director- 

 General of the Geological Survey of Austria, acting as the general 

 presiding officer. The attendance was quite large. 



At the opening of the Congress the following sections were formed : 



Mineralogy, Geology and Palaeontology, Botany and Vegetable 

 Physiology, Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, Natural Philosophy, 

 Chemistry, Geography and Meteorology, Mathematics and Astronomy, 

 Anatomy and Physiology, Medicine, Surgery. 



In the course of the meeting several sections subdivided themselves 

 into sub-sections ex. gr. for Entomology, Vegetable Geography, Peri 

 odical Phenomena in Organic Life, &c. ; others occasionally combined, 

 according to the nature of the communications and discussions. 



The Anniversary Meeting of the Eay Society was held during the 

 meeting of the British Association at Cheltenham. It appears from 



