3i8 NATURAL SCIENCE. April, 1894. 



Medicine in Chelsea, as mentioned in our last number (p. 233). This action of what 

 we are pleased to think is only a small section of the enlightened British public 

 may, however, be instructively contrasted with that of certain foreign nations on 

 whom your average Britisher would probably look with scorn. Not to mention 

 New York and Calcutta, the Hungarian Government has established a similar insti- 

 tute at Buda-Pesth, while even "the unspeakable Turk" contemplates founding 

 in the chief town of every province what our contemporary Nature is pleased to 

 term an " antirabific laboratory." One such institution has for some time been 

 doing excellent work at Constantinople. 



The North Pole is certainly being boomed just at present. Nansen started for 

 it not so long ago, and Mr. F. G. Jackson has not been back two months from his 

 trial trip. Now we learn that the latter gentleman is soon to set off again, while 

 some Americans are going to have a look for Nansen. Mr. A. C. W. Harmsworth, 

 a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, has generously offered to pay all the 

 expenses of a fully-equipped expedition led by Mr. Jackson, which will proceed to 

 Franz Josef Land with a view to exploring it in a northerly direction, and advancing 

 as far as possible towards the Pole. The American expedition, the cost of which 

 will be defrayed by the Chicago Herald and other journals, will be commanded by 

 Mr. Walter Wellman. The whaler " Ragnvald Jarl " of Aalsund, has been chartered 

 and will be manned by Norwegians. The immediate object of this expedition will 

 be to discover the whereabouts of Nansen, but a return will be made to Europe for 

 the winter if possible, although stores will be taken which will enable the explorers 

 to winter in Spitzbergen. Both these expeditions will leave about May. We also 

 heard a short time ago of an elaborate expedition inaugurated by Mr. R. Stein, of 

 the United States Geological Survey, and patronised by the National Geographical 

 Society of America. The proposal is to establish a depot at Cape Tennyson, at the 

 northern entrance to Jones's Sound, and then to follow the coast of Ellesmere Land 

 westward, where an advanced depot will be established to form the base of opera- 

 tions in the following year, when an endeavour will be made to connect with the 

 discoveries of the Greely party on Greely Fjord. In this connection we may 

 mention that Dr. Erich von Drygalski gives an account in the Verhandliingcn der 

 ■Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin (vol. xx., nos. 8 and 9, 1893) of his journey along the 

 West Coast of Greenland in 1892-3. Starting from Christianshaab, the party 

 journeyed by boat and sledge round the fjords and islands to some miles north of 

 Upernik. The object of the expedition, the cost of which seems to have been 

 defrayed by the Society, was to settle certain points concerning the Ice-Age. In 

 the same journal, Dr. Vanhoffen gives an account of the fauna and flora observed 

 at spring-time in the northern part of the island. 



The British Association will hold its sixty-third meeting at Oxford, in the week 

 beginning Wednesday, August 8. This date is not very convenient for University 

 people, but was chosen to suit the president. Lord Salisbury, the attraction of whose 

 presence will doubtless counterbalance the inconvenience of date. The list of 

 presidents of the various sections has been announced as follows ; — [A) Mathematics 

 and Physics, Profes.sor A. W. Riicker ; [B) Chemistry, Professor H. B. Dixon; 

 (C) Geology, Mr. L. Fletcher ; [D) Biology, Professor Bayley Balfour; {E) Geography, 

 Captain Wharton ; (F) Economic Science and Statistics, Professor Bastable ; 

 (G) Mechanical Science, Professor Kennedy ; {H) Anthropology, Sir W. H. Flower ; 

 and (/) Physiology, Professor Schafer. On the Friday night Professor J. Shield 

 Nicholson of Edinburgh will give a lecture, and on Monday Mr. W. H. White is 

 expected to discourse on naval construction. 



The German Zoological Society will meet in the Zoological Institute, Munich, 

 from April 9 to 11, and on Thursday a visit will be paid to the fish-breeding 

 establishment on the Starnberger See. Foreign Zoologists are specially invited. 



