520 



Til E POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY 



it was formerly. It may be that in 

 its earlier history, there was more op- 

 portunity for striking discoveries. The 

 condition may also he explained by an 

 inversion of the proverb "The forest 

 can not be seen for the trees. ' ' 

 There are now so many scientific men 

 doing work of importance that it is im- 

 possible to remember even their names. 

 ' ' The trees can not be seen for the 

 forest.'' Still, if we write the names! 

 of the leading scientific men of the 

 last generation, beginning with Dar- 

 win in England, Pasteur in Frame 

 and llelmholtz in Germany, beside those ; 

 who have recently died or are still liv- 

 ing at an advanced age, there seems 'o 

 be a decline in distinction, and the 

 same holds if this group is compared ; 

 with scientific men who are now active. 

 It is not easy to decide whether this :s 

 appearance or reality. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 

 We record with regret the death of 

 Dr. Morris Longstreth, formerly pro- 

 fessor of pathological anatomy at Jef- 

 ferson Medical College; of Dr. James 

 Ellis Gow, professor of botany in Coe 

 College; of Overton Westfield Price, 

 at one time associate forester of the 

 U. S. Forest Service; of Dr. W. H. 

 Gaskell, university lecturer in physiol- 

 ogy at Cambridge University and of 

 Dr. Eugen von Biihm-Bawerk, pro- 

 fessor of economies in the University 

 of Vienna, formerly minister of fin- 

 ance, president of the Vienna Academy 

 of Sciences. 



An international committee has been 

 formed to establish a foundation in 

 memory of Henry Poineare. A medal 

 will be struck in his honor, and a fund 

 will be established under the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences to encourage or 



reward young scholars engaged in work 

 in the directions in which Poineare 

 led, namely, mathematical analysis, ce- 

 lestial mechanics, mathematical physics 

 and scientific philosophy. 



Dr. A. Pence, professor of geog- 

 raphy at Berlin; Dr. P. von Luschan, 

 professor of anthropology in the same 

 university, and Dr. J. Walther, pro- 

 fessor of geology and paleontology at 

 Halle, aie among the German men of 

 science who attended the Australasian 

 meeting of the British Association. It 

 is said that there is some anxiety as to 

 how they shall return home. If press 

 despatches are to be believed, several 

 German astronomers, including Pro- 

 fessors Kempff and Ludendorf, who 

 had gone to the Crimea to observe the 

 eclipse of the sun, have been taken 

 prisoners and their scientific instru- 

 ments confiscated. — Among the German 

 scientific men who have affixed the.r 

 names to a manifesto renouncing the 

 honors conferred upon them by Eng- 

 lish universities and other learned in- 

 stitutions are Professors Paid Ehrlieh, 

 Hmil von Behring, Ernst Haeckel, Au- 

 gust Weismann and Wilhelm Wundt. 



Sir Ernest Shackleton and the 

 members of his Transantarctic Expedi- 

 tion left London on September 18 for 

 the South Polar regions. The explorers 

 departed in two sections, the portion 

 for the Ross Sea or New Zealand side 

 of the Antarctic leaving in the morn- 

 ing via Tilbury for Tasmania, and the 

 Weddell Sea section, including Sir 

 Ernest Shackleton, leaving for South 

 America later in the day. The En- 

 durance . the ship of the Weddell Sea 

 party, left Plymouth on August 8. 

 The Ross Sea ship Aurora is to leave 

 some Australian port about the begin- 

 ning of December. 



