294 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct.. 1895. 



The attendance at the Ipswich meeting of the British Association was 1,324, 

 and the subscriptions amounted to £1,2^6. The amount allotted to the grants is 

 £1,160. Among the new grants, the following will interest our readers : — Reprinting 

 Discussion on the Relation of Agriculture to Science, £^ ; Palxolithic Deposits at 

 Hoxne, £2^ ; Fauna of Singapore Caves, £^0 ; Age and Relation of Rocks near 

 Moreseat, Aberdeen, £10 ; African Lake Fauna, ;^ioo ; Oysters under normal and 

 abnormal environment, /40. 



The International Congress of Zoologists has appointed an international 

 committee of seven members (Professor S. J. Hickson being the English repre- 

 sentative) to ensure the permanence and proper working of the Central Bibliographic 

 Bureau for Zoology. The Congress has unanimously accepted the scheme ; but in 

 the Zoological Section of the British Association there was a lively debate on the 

 subject, and the section has appointed a committee to report to it on the value of the 

 proposals. 



The Proceedings of the Croydon Microscopical Club, 1894-95, have just reached us. 

 The strength of the club is 242, a slight diminution of numbers, which we hope will 

 be made up during the next year. There is also a small deficit in the balance sheet. 

 There is a pleasing reference to the former energetic secretary, Mr. W. Low 

 Sarjeant, who has gone to New Zealand for his health, and who hopes to employ 

 his leisure in photographing details of natural history life. The president. Dr. 

 Frankland Parsons, made a strong case for the establishment of a local museum in 

 the new municipal buildings. The chief paper in the Proceedings is the second part 

 of Mr. Whitaker's report on Surrey well-sections. 



The Borough of Nottingham Central Free Public Lending Library has issued a 

 " Class-List of Science ; with an Index of Subjects and Authors." This is divided 

 into general science, astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, ethnology, geology, 

 mathematics, metallurgy, microscopy, physics, physiology, and zoology. These 

 subject catalogues should prove of great service to readers. There are twenty of 

 them, and the price ranges from one penny to threepence. 



The last number of the Schriften des Naturivissenschaftlichen Vereins fitr Schleswig- 

 Holstein (vol. x., part 2) contains an interesting paper by R. von Fischer-Benzon on 

 Hildegard's " Physica." Hildegard was a Benedictine, was born at Bechelheim 

 about logS, and died in 1179 at St. Ruprechtsberg, near Bingen. " Physica" was 

 the first work on the Natural History of Germany. 



Dr. H. J. Johnston Lavis has a long and interesting paper on the Geology, 

 Agriculture, and Economics of Iceland in the September number of the Scottish 

 Geographical Magazine. This is the result of a journey made in company with Dr. 

 Tempest Anderson, of York, in the summer of 1890. The paper is well illustrated 

 by photographs taken by the author. 



Professor John Milne announces in Nature that he has established a small 

 station at Shide Hill House, Shide, Newport, Isle of Wight, for the recording of 

 earthquakes having an origin in distant localities. Communications for the 

 Transactions of the Seismological Society and the Seismological Journal should be 

 addressed to him there. 



Dr. E. Selenka has not yet returned to Erlangen from his natural history 

 expedition. Letters have been received stating that Dr. Forsyth Major and his com- 

 panion were alive and well in July last. News has been received of the Jackson- 

 Harmsworth Arctic Expedition ; the " Windward " is at Vard(">, the expedition started 

 northwards from Franz Josef Land in July. A Reuter's telegram from Norway of 

 September 17 states that the " Fram " has twice been sighted by Esquimaux in lat. 

 65° N., off the E. coast of Greenland, embedded in drift ice. 



