70 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 



publishes a list of the first flowerings for the year. In this Society the people 

 of importance appear to be the presidents of the sections, who are all masters, 

 but in the Rugby Society more is made of the secretaries of sections, who are, 

 as they should be, boys in the school. 



The S.E. Union of Scientific Societies met in Croydon on June 2, under the 

 presidency of Prof. G. S. Boulger, who, in his address, contrasted the state of 

 natural science sixty years ago with its present condition. A discussion on dene- 

 holes was started by Mr C. Dawson, who regarded them as mines of chalk for 

 agricultural purposes. Mr J. W. Tutt explained the difference between entomo- 

 logy as a scientific pursuit and the entomology of mere collectors. Mr C. 

 Dawson read a paper, which will appear in our pages, on natural gas in Sussex. 

 In our present number we publish the valuable and suggestive paf>er of Mr E. 

 M. Holmes. Other papers were : by J. Logan Lobley on the place of geology in 

 education ; H. Franklin Parsons on the soil in connection with the distribution 

 of plants and animals ; E. Lovett on amulets and charms ; J. H. Baldock on 

 photography in relation to science. More germane to the object of the Congress 

 were the papers by J. M. Hobson and E. A. Pankhurst on ideals for Natural 

 History Societies and how to attain them. Dr Rovve demonstrated the method 

 of preparing fossils described by him in Natural Science. 



The eighty-first annual meeting of the Societe helvetupae des sciences 

 naturelles is to be held at Berne on August 1-3. T. Studer is president of the 

 zoological and anthropological section ; A. Baltzer of the geological section ; 

 E. Bruckner of that of physical geography ; and Drs Strasser and Kronecker of 

 anatomy and physiology. 



Prof. Edward Suess, Vienna, Prof. H. de Lacaze Duthiers, Paris, and Prof. 

 K. A. von Zittel, Munich, have been elected Foreign Associates of the American 

 National Academy of Sciences. 



The Grand Honorary Walker Prize of $1,000, awarded for five years by the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, has just been awarded to S. H. Scudder, of 

 Cambridge, Mass., for his work in entomology. 



The coral-boring expedition to Funafuti will this summer resume work at 

 the old bore at a depth of 698 feet. Lining pipes, which were on the former 

 occasion lowered to a depth of 650 feet, Avill be reinserted and extended to the 

 full depth. Boring can then be begun on the unproved rock, which is expected 

 to be similar to that met with during the previous 30 feet of the old bore, 

 namely, a white calcareous rock of about the consistency of hard chalk. Prof. 

 David expects that the bed-rock will be reached within a depth of 200-300 feet 

 from the bottom of the old bore. Early in August it is hoped that H.M.S. 

 ' Porpoise ' will bring from Samoa apparatus for putting down a bore in the 

 bottom of the Funafuti lagoon. Commander F. C. D. Sturdee intends to moor 

 his ship taut at low tide at a spot in the lagoon, which will be about a mile and 

 a half westward from the main village. A boring platform will be fixed at the 

 bows, whence pipes will be let down to the bottom of the lagoon, which at the 

 spot selected is about 100 ft. deep. As soon as the pipes strike the bottom of the 

 lagoon a powerful stream of water will be forced down them by means of a 

 flexible hose connected with a large Worthington steam pump. It is hoped 

 that then, if the bottom of the lagoon consists, as is thought probable, of soft 

 and loose sedimentary material, a fair depth may be attained in the few days 

 available for the use of the warship for this purpose. Work will be carried on 

 at the lagoon day and night. It should be possible from time to time, by 

 shutting oil' the water jet, and lowering a sand pump inside the pipes, to obtain 

 small samples of the formation which is being penetrated. If this bore in the 



