1896. NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 403 



botanical collections, fossil tree-trunks, and a case of Ellenville quartz crystals, 

 which the curator describes as a "gem." In the museum, which is open free daily, 

 a collector and student of forty years' experience is constantly in attendance to 

 answer any questions pertaining to the collections. 



The Berlin Botanical Museum will be enlarged by leasing seven rooms in a 

 neighbouring building ; these are required for research work, and for the rapidly- 

 increasing collections. 



The Royal Society has awarded its medals this year as follows : — The Copley 

 Medal to Professor C. Gegenbaur, for his researches in comparative anatomy, 

 especially on the history of the vertebrate skeleton ; the Rumford Medal to Pro- 

 fessors P. Lenard and W. C. Riintgen, for their investigation of the phenomena pro- 

 duced outside a highly exhausted vacuum tube through which electrical discharge is 

 taking place ; a Royal Medal to Sir A. Geikie, on account of his many original con- 

 tributions to geology ; a Royal Medal to Professor C. V. Boys, for his invention of 

 quartz fibres and investigation of their properties, his improvement of the radio- 

 micrometer and investigations with it, for developments in instantaneous photo- 

 graphy, and for his determination of the value of the constant of attraction ; the 

 Davy Medal to Professor H. Moissan, for the isolation of fluorine and the use of the 

 electric furnace in the preparation of refractory metals ; the Darwin Medal to 

 Professor G. Grassi, for his important discoveries, especially on matters related to 

 Darwinism. 



The Geological Photographs Committee of the British Association calls 

 attention to the fact that no less than 1,408 photographs were received up to August, 

 1896. These represent an extremely valuable series of records of sections, both 

 temporary and permanent, of the rocks of this country, and can be referred to at the 

 Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street. Circular No. 7, issued by the 

 committee gives further instructions and suggestions as to the kind of photographs 

 desired, and we would urge upon all our geological and photographical readers the 

 importance of preserving such valuable records of sections exposed from time to 

 time in their own districts. Mr. W. W. Watts (28 Jermyn Street, S.W.) will furnish 

 the circular to anyone interested. 



At the opening meeting of the session of the Geological Society of London, the 

 President announced that Lady Prestwich, in fulfilment of the terms of a bequest of 

 her late husband, had offered to the society 260 bound volumes of geological tracts 

 from his library ; also that /^Soo had been bequeathed to the society by Sir Joseph 

 Prestwich, the interest to be applied to the triennial award of a medal and fund : 

 this bequest to take effect subsequent to the decease of Lady Prestwich. 



The electric light has been installed in the apartments of this society at 

 Burlington House, and this was formally inaugurated on November 25, when the 

 President and Council were at home to Fellows from 8.30 to ii.o p.m. Many 

 specimens of geological interest were exhibited, and smoking was permitted. Lumina 

 mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis. 



The Soiree of the Geologists' Association, London, was held on Nov. 6. The chief 

 objects of interest were a large series of flint implements shown by Messrs. E. T. 

 Newton, Benjamin Harrison, Dr. Alex. Mitchell, Dr. F. Corner, and Robert Elliott. 

 Considerable interest was aroused by specimens of Uintaciinus, newly discovered by 

 Dr. Rowe and others in the English Chalk, and exhibited and explained by Mr. 

 F. A. Bather. 



The meeting-room of the Zoological Society, on November 17, contained a large 

 assemblage of live-stock. Mr. Chalmers Mitchell introduced a fox-terrier puppy as 

 a probable case of telegony, the sire of a previous litter having been a dachshund ; 

 but Sir Everett Millais maintained that the puppy was merely a throw-back to the 

 beagle ancestors of the fox-terrier stock. Both Sir Everett and Mr. Tegetmeier 



