314 NATURAL SCIENCE. April, 



phyll in its relation to the vigour of cultivated plants ; capillarity and the preparation 

 of the soil ; and means for hastening the nitrification of nitrogenous substances and 

 rendering them more easy of assimilation. Under the direction of Professor P. 

 Lachmann a botanical garden has been established in the mountains near Grenoble, 

 at a height of 1,875 metres. Nor should we forget the Royal Botanic Society of 

 London, on whose pecuniary difficulties we commented in our last number (p. 233). 

 We then suggested that they were in part due to the Society's exclusiveness as 

 regarded its Gardens in Regent's Park ; but an important step has since been taken 

 by the Council. A regulation has been made which will doubtless increase the 

 popularity of the Gardens. Permission is now given to smoke therein. 



Among Zoologists the following appointments are to be chronicled : — Dr. F. 

 Zschokke to the Professorship of Zoology at Basle University, in place of Dr. 

 L. Riitimeyer, who has long been in failing health ; Dr. K. Zelinka to be Professor- 

 extraordinarius of Zoology at the University of Vienna ; Mr. S. H. Reynolds 

 to be Demonstrator of Biology in University College, Bristol ; and Dr. Harrison 

 Allen to be Director of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy at the University 

 at Pennsylvania. Professor W. Krause of Gottingen has moved to Berlin 

 (Briickenallee, 31), where he has been placed in charge of the Anatomical Institute 

 of the University. Mr. J. Willis Clark succeeds Professor M. Foster as Rede 

 Lecturer at Cambridge University. We also note that Mr. C. R. Beazley, Fellow 

 of Merton College, has been elected to the Geographical Studentship at Oxford 

 University for the present year ; and finally that Dr. Hans Bruno Geinitz, the 

 veteran geologist and palaeontologist of Dresden, now in his eightieth year, retires 

 this month from his professorship in the Technical High School, where he will be 

 succeeded by Professor E. Kalkowsky, of Jena. 



Several scientific men have of late received honours from various universities. 

 Cambridge University has conferred the degree of Doctor of Science on Dr. 

 Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Professor of Histology and Pathological Anatomy in the 

 University of Madrid, who, on March 8, delivered the Croonian lecture before the 

 Royal Society, his subject being the minute structure of the nervous system, of which 

 he has done so much to advance our knowledge. On the same day the degree of 

 LL.D. honoris causa was conferred by Cambridge University on the Right Hon. the 

 Earl of Kintore, Governor of South Australia, who, it will be remembered, recently 

 travelled from Port Darwin to Adelaide in company with Dr. E. C. Stirling. The 

 Senate of Aberdeen University has conferred the honorary degree of LL.D. on 

 Mr. Henry Ogg Forbes, the well-known explorer, now Director of Museums in 

 Liverpool. 



The following prizes and scholarships are open to competition. The Italian 

 Geological Society offer a prize of 1,800 francs for the best memoir on the present 

 knowledge of the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic rocks in Italy. The memoir must be 

 presented by the end of March, 1896. The Royal Society of New South Wales 

 offers its medal and £2^ for the best original communication (provided it be of 

 sufficient merit) upon each of the following subjects, to be sent in not later than 

 May I, 1S95, — on the silver ore deposits of New South Wales; on the physiological 

 action of the poison of any Australian snake, spider or tick ; on the chemistry of the 

 Australian gums and resins. And the following to be sent in not later than May i, 

 1896, — on the origin of multiple hydatids in man; on the occurrence of precious 

 stones in New South Wales, with a description of the deposits in which they are 

 found ; on the effect of the Australian climate on the physical development of the 

 Australian-born population. Competitors are requested to write upon foolscap 

 paper, on one side only. A motto must be used instead of the writer'= name, 

 which latter must be enclosed in a sealed envelope ; all communications to be 

 addressed to the Hon. Secretaries, T. W. E. David and J. H. Maiden, at the 

 Society's House, Sydney. Cambridge University announce that the Arnold. 



