,8^. NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 559 



The Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna has granted a subvention to Pro- 

 fessor L. von Graaff, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of an expedition next 

 Spring to the tropics, to collect material for the ccmpletion of the second volume of 

 iis Monograph of the Turbellaria. 



The Royal Scottish Geographical Society proceeds next month to the election 

 of a new Secretary. Geographers will regret to learn of the retirement of Mr. 

 Arthur Silva White on account of ill-health. 



The twenty-first anniversary of the Chester Society of Natural Science will be 

 celebrated early this month. His Grace the Duke of Westminster is expected to 

 preside, and several of the Society's honorary members will attend. 



The Annual Report of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1S91 records 

 progress in the work of the Museum, but contributes little to original research. 

 Except a brief record of two borings for water, the report contains only a statistical 

 account of meteorological observations. We understand that the late Mr. William 

 Reed bequeathed the sum of ;^6co to the Society, the interest to be devoted to 

 acquisitions for the Museum. 



The Manchester Geological Society has just completed vol. xxi. of its 

 Transactions. In the last part IMr. G. C. Greenwell discusses the possibility of 

 discovering coal to the south of the Mendip Hills, and Mr. C. Roeder publishes 

 some observations on marine shells in the Glacial Drift near Manchester. 



Mr. Edward F. Pittman, Chief Mining Surveyor, has been appointed Govern- 

 ment Geologist of New South Wales in succession to the late Mr. C. S. Wilkinson. 

 The annual report of the Geological Survey for 1S91, lately received, is devoted 

 aJmost exclusively to economic questions. 



Geologists will regret to learn of the death of Dr. Otomar Novak, Professor 

 of Geology in the Bohemian University of Prague, which took place en July 29, at 

 the early age of 42 years. The Professor was occupied with the continuation of 

 Barrande's great work on the Silurian fossils of Bohemia, specially investigating the 

 corals. 



