286 NATURAL SCIENCE [April 



The Ornitliologisclier Verein of Vienna has become a section of the Zoological 

 and Botanical Society of that city, and its quarterly journal, Die Schwalbe, has 

 been discontinued. The work, however, will be continued, and the results 

 published by the Society. 



A CAST of the skeleton of Iguanodon bernissartensis has recently been procured 

 for the Oxford Museum by means of donations from the friends of the Museum 

 and former students of the Department of Comparative Anatomy, and has been 

 set up in the court of the museum. 



Science announces that Dr Thomas Egleston, professor of mineralogy and 

 metallurgy at Columbia University, has presented the Government of France 

 with the sum of $5000, in aid of the mineralogical collection of the School of 

 Mines at Paris, from which he graduated in 1860. 



Among those who have received grants from the Elizabeth Thomson fund 

 are Prof. John Milne 250 dollars, to aid in a Seismic Survey of the world ; Prof. 

 Bovaceni 288 dollars, for researches in colour photography ; and Prof. Gustav 

 Hiifner for the investigation of haemin and haematine. 



The German Antarctic Expedition Committee wishes to send a ship towards 

 the South Pole, starting from or near the island of Kerguelen, under the direction 

 of Dr Erich Drygalski. The expedition will winter in the Antarctic and 

 make geological observations on the coast of Victoria Land. 



The Croonian Lecture of the Royal Society was delivered on March 17th by 

 Prof. Pfeffer, professor of botany at Leipzig, who took for his subject "The 

 Nature and Significance of Functional Metabolism in the Plant." Dr Pfeffer has 

 received the honorary degree of D.Sc. in Cambridge University. 



Science announces, in a particularly strongly-worded note, that " the person 

 named Bowers from West Virginia " has been appointed U.S. Fish Commissioner. 

 We sympathise with our contemporary, but dare not repeat its language for fear 

 of international complications. The President's appointment has been confirmed 

 by the Senate. 



The Annual Eeport of the Geologists' Association for 1897 shows a balance of 

 £42, 15s. lid. They stand possessed of £820, 16s, lOd. We are glad to note 

 that £14, 8s. 4d. has been spent on the library, 'which means that the bulk of that 

 amount has been paid for binding many of the loose serials and rendering them 

 available to the members. 



There has been founded at Cambridge University a Gedge Prize in Phy- 

 siology, which is to be given for an original memoir, and is to consist of two 

 years' interest on a capital of £1000. Candidates must have worked in the 

 University laboratories during six terms, and be at least five and at most seven 

 years' standing from matriculation. 



A Washington Academy of Sciences has been established. According to 

 Science its policy and functions have yet to be determined, but it appears intended 

 to co-ordinate the action of the various science societies already existing in 

 Washington, and especially to focus their energies when any question of public 

 policy is concerned. In this way it will act after the manner of our own Royal 

 Society. 



Prof. T. M'Kenny Hughes has completed his twenty-fifth year of office 

 as Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge, and on February 26th he 

 was presented with an illuminated address at a largely attended public dinner, 

 at which Sir Archibald Geikie took the Chair. Among the speakers were Sir 

 Henry Howorth, Prof. James Stuart, and Dr Hicks. On the following Monday, 

 Prof. Hughes was presented with a silver loving-cup by his past and present 

 students at Cambridge. 



