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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE. 



FOREIGN ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



The national scientific associations 

 of Great Britain, Germany and France 

 held their annual meetings during the 

 month of September. The British As- 

 sociation met at Glasgow, under the 

 presidency of Professor A. W. Riicker, 

 the eminent physicist. Professor 

 Riicker, who has recently been elected 

 president of the reorganized University 

 of London, gave an excellent address 

 on the present trend of opinion in re- 

 gard to the atomic theory; and the 

 addresses of the presidents of the sec- 

 tions were of the usual high order. 

 The section of education, organized for 

 the first time, attracted special atten- 

 tion; we are, therefore, fortunate in 

 being able to publish in this issue of 

 the Monthly the presidential address 

 of Sir John Gorst. The attendance at 

 Glasgow — 1,912 — was above the aver- 

 age, but not so large as at the previous 

 Glasgow meetings of 1855 and 1876, 

 the sesquicentennial of the University, 

 the Engineering Congress and other 

 events having anticipated local inter- 

 est in scientific matters. The sum of 

 £1,000 was appropriated for scientific 

 grants. The meeting of the Associa- 

 tion next year will be at Belfast un- 

 der the presidency of Professor James 

 Dewar, the well-known chemist. 



The seventy-third meeting of German 

 Men of Science and Physicians was 

 held at Hamburg, with Dr. R. Hertwig, 

 professor of zoology at Munich, as pres- 

 ident. Professor J. H. Van't Hoff, the 

 eminent chemist of Berlin, was presi- 

 dent of the scientific sections and 

 Professor B. Naunyn, professor of 

 medicine at Strassburg, of the medical 

 sections. There were in all twenty- 

 seven sections for the medical sciences 

 and eleven for the natural and exact 

 sciences. The attendance was large — 



some 5,000 members — and the pro- 

 grams important. Special lectures 

 were given by Dr. E. Lecher on 'Hertz- 

 ian Waves,' by Professor T. Boveri 

 on 'Fertilization' and by Professor W. 

 Nernst on 'Electro-chemistry.' 



The French Association met on the 

 Island of Corsica under the presidency 

 of M. Hamy, whose address reviewed 

 the beginnings of anthropology in 

 France. Owing doubtless to the cen- 

 tralization of scientific work at Paris, 

 the migratory meetings of the French 

 Association are less well attended than 

 those of Germany and Great Britain, 

 and the papers presented are less 

 numerous and important. The Asso- 

 ciation, however, performs a useful 

 work, and having a large endowment 

 (some $270,000) is able to make 

 liberal grants for scientific research. 



PROFESSOR PAWLOW'S RE- 

 SEARCHES ON NUTRITION. 



The award of the first Nobel prize 

 to Professor J. P. Pawlow, the widely 

 known physiologist of St. Petersburg, 

 is a well-deserved testimonial to his 

 valuable and extensive contributions to 

 experimental science. During the last 

 twelve years Professor Pawlow has 

 been engaged more particularly in the 

 study of certain aspects of nutrition, 

 and in this work he has enlisted the 

 services of a considerable number of 

 co-workers in his laboratory at the 

 Imperial Institute for Experimental 

 Medicine in St. Petersburg. The re- 

 searches which these years brought 

 forth have led physiologists to revise 

 ill many particulars the current teach- 

 ing in regard to digestion and secre- 

 tion. Most of the results obtained by 

 Pawlow and his pupils were originally 

 published in the 'Archives des Sciences 

 Biologiques de St. Petersbourg,' and 

 in inaccessible Russian journals and 



