1899] NEWS 235 



On August 9 Professor V. Pritchard opened the International Otological 

 Congress with an inaugural address on the history and recent advances of 

 otology, and the retiring president, Prof. Grazzi of Florence, also gave an 

 address. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Botanic Society on the 10th, the Duke 

 of Teck was reTelected president. The number of new fellows and members 

 joining during 1898 was 108, and since the beginning of this year 165 have 

 been elected. The total number of fellows is 2102, but the society is reported 

 to be still struggling against the common malady of too small an annual income. 



The second annual " Summary of Progress " of the Geological Survey records 

 the revision and extension of the maps of various districts. With regard to 

 results, special attention is directed to the researches among the younger 

 granites of the Highlands, the numerous Cambrian fossils found in Skye, the 

 discovery of more new fishes in the Upper Silurian rocks of Lanark and Ayr- 

 shire, the evidence of the existence of volcanoes in Somerset belonging to the 

 time of the Carboniferous Limestone, the new light thrown on the structure and 

 probable extension of the North Staffordshire coalfield, fresh information as to 

 the volcanic history of the western mainland of Scotland and the Inner Hebrides, 

 and further data as to the successive stages of the Ice Age. 



On Saturday, September 9, the Geologists' Association makes an excur- 

 sion to Charlton, Erith, and Crayford, and on September 11 to the British 

 Museum, Jermyn Street Museum, and Natural History Museum. 



Dr. L. L. Hubbard has resigned his position as state geologist of Michigan. 



We learn from Science that the excursions of advanced students of natural 

 science, e.g., at present of geological students, to Arizona and New Mexico, are 

 reckoned as a regular part of the University work in Chicago. 



We learn from Science that the State Zoologist of Minnesota, Prof. H. F. 

 Nachtrieb, has equipped a house-boat for the study of the fauna of the Minnesota 

 and Mississippi rivers. 



The Russo-Swedish Scientific Expedition to Spitzbergen has established 

 winter quarters at Horn Sound. Later on they will proceed by land to the 

 western side of the Stor Fiord where they will engage in geodetic work. 



The Belgica, with the members of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition on board, 

 left Buenos Ayres for Europe on August 14. 



Henry G. Bryant of Philadelphia, who led a search party for Lieut. Peary a 

 few years ago, is about to attempt an ascent of Mount Assiniboine. 



Prince Johann Lichtenstein has given the Vienna Academy of Sciences 

 25,000 florins for explorations in Asia Minor. 



The Arctic Club of America, we are told by The Scientific American, was 

 organised in New York in 1894, with Prof. W. H. Brewer as president, to pro- 

 mote a live interest in Arctic matters and to disseminate accounts of the results 

 of expeditions. "The club has a banner of its own, which is now being borne 

 toward the North Pole by Lieut. Peary, Walter Wellman, and others." 



The slightly cracked specimen of the egg of the Great Auk sold by auction 

 in July at Stevens's Rooms in London realised 300 guineas ; a carefully made 

 model should cost under three shillings. 



At a meeting of the Royal College of Physicians on July 27 the president 

 awarded the Bisset Hawkins Gold Medal to Dr. James Burn Russell, M.D., 

 LL.D. Glasg., medical adviser of the Local Government Board of Scotland, 

 and late medical officer of health for the city of Glasgow. This is the first 

 award which has been made of this medal, which was founded in 1896 in 

 memory of the late Dr. Francis Bisset Hawkins, to be given triennially to a 

 medical practitioner, being a British subject, who has during the preceding ten 



