70 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 
publishes a list of the first flowerings for the year. In this Society the people 
of importance appear to be the presidents of the sections, who are all masters, 
but in the Rugby Society more is made of the secretaries of sections, who are, 
as they should be, boys in the school. 
Tue S.E. Union of Scientific Societies met in Croydon on June 2, under the 
presidency of Prof. G. 8. Boulger, who, in his address, contrasted the state of 
natural science sixty years ago with its present condition. A discussion on dene- 
holes was started by Mr C. Dawson, who regarded them as mines of chalk for 
agricultural purposes. Mr J. W. Tutt explained the difference between entomo- 
logy as a scientific pursuit and the entomology of mere collectors, Mr C. 
Dawson read a paper, which will appear in our pages, on natural gas in Sussex. 
In our present number we publish the valuable and suggestive paper of Mr E. 
M. Holmes. Other papers were: by J. Logan Lobley on the place of geology in 
education ; H. Franklin Parsons on the soil in connection with the distribution 
of plants and animals; E. Lovett on amulets and charms; J. H. Baldock on 
photography in relation to science. More germane to the object of the Congress 
were the papers by J. M. Hobson and E. A. Pankhurst on ideals for Natural 
History Societies and how to attain them. Dr Rowe demonstrated the method 
of preparing fossils described by him in Natural Science. 
THE eighty-first annual meeting of the Société helvétique des sciences 
naturelles is to be held at Berne on August 1-3. T. Studer is president of the 
zoological and anthropological section; A. Baltzer of the geological section ; 
E, Briickner of that of physical geography ; and Drs Strasser and Kronecker of 
anatomy and physiology, 
Pror. Epwarp Suzss, Vienna, Prof. H. de Lacaze Duthiers,, Paris, and Prof. 
K. A. von Zittel, Munich, have been elected Foreign Associates of the American 
National Academy of Sciences. 
Tue Grand Honorary Walker Prize of $1,000, awarded for five years by the 
Boston Society of Natural History, has just been awarded to 8. H. Scudder, of 
Cambridge, Mass., for his work in entomology. 
Tue coral-boring expedition to Funafuti will this summer resume work at 
the old bore at a depth of 698 feet. Lining pipes, which were on the former 
occasion lowered to a depth of 650 feet, will be reinserted and extended to the 
full depth. Boring can then be begun on the unproved rock, which is expected 
to be similar to that met with during the previous 30 feet of the old bore, 
namely, a white calcareous rock of about the consistency of hard chalk. Prof. 
David expects that the bed-rock will be reached within a depth of 200-300 feet 
from the bottom of the old bore. Early in August it is hoped that H.M.S. 
‘Porpoise’ will bring from Samoa apparatus for putting down a bore in the 
bottom of the Funafuti lagoon. Commander F. C. D. Sturdee intends to moor 
his ship taut at low tide at a spot in the lagoon, which will be about a mile and 
a half westward from the main village. A boring platform will be fixed at the 
bows, whence pipes will be let down to the bottom of the lagoon, which at the 
spot selected is about 100 ft. deep. As soon as the pipes strike the bottom of the 
lagoon a powerful stream of water will be forced down them by means of a 
flexible hose connected with a large Worthington steam pump. It is hoped 
that then, if the bottom of the lagoon consists, as is thought probable, of soft 
and loose sedimentary material, a fair depth may be attained in the few days 
available for the use of the warship for this purpose. Work will be carried on 
at the lagoon day and night. It should be possible from time to time, by 
shutting off the water jet, and lowering a sand pump inside the pipes, to obtain 
small samples of the formation which is being penetrated. If this -bore in the 
