COERESPONDENCE. 23 



successfully. For fan, commend me to Dr. M. C. Cooke. We who had 

 the pri\dlege of attending the Quokett Club Dinner on the 1st will not 

 easily forget his description, " a la Hood," of the Chinese Ambassador's 

 visit to the soiree. The Dr. said "He brought his own China mug to 

 tea," and he admirably described his surprise when he saw a flea under 

 the microscope. — The Aquarium, at Westminster, is now well worth 

 seeing, the tanks being fully stocked and the water bright. The latest 

 addition — the Sharks, in the largest tank, are vigorous, and give us a 

 good idea of the Squalidse. Mr. Camngton, the naturalist, who .has 

 now the manage.nent of the fish department, has reduced the fonuer 

 terrible mortality of his pvoiefien to an ahuost nominal rate, and may 

 make the people of 13irmingham hopeful of the future of theii' 

 Aquarium when they see what difficulties have been overcome. Mr. 

 Carrington is on a tour in Italy, and, as he purposes dredging on the 

 Sicilian coast, and visiting Dr. Dohrn's most admirable of all Aquaria, at 

 Naples, there will doubtless be something to see at Westminster, on his 

 return, notwithstanding the loss of Pongo and the Whale. — W. J. S. 



©IcaniiKis. 



Mr. Charles D.\rwin, the great Naturalist, has had the degree of 

 Doctor of Laws conferred upon him by the University of Cambridge. 



The Scotch Naturalist. — From a letter we have received from 

 Banff, we learn that Thomas Edward is busily occupied in preparing 

 for publication further reminiscences of his life and labours as a 

 naturalist. We are sorry to leanr from our correspondent that he is 

 suffering from bad health. 



The Bakeriax Lecture was delivered before the Royal Society, (Sir 

 J. D. Hooker, President, in the chair,) on the 1.5th November, by Prof. 

 W. C. Williamson, the subject being " On the Latest Researches into 

 the Organisation of the Fossil Plants of the British Coal Measures, 

 especially of the Calamites and Lepidodendra." 



The BEf4iNNiNr,s of Life is the title of the first of the Manchester 

 Science, Lectures of the current Session. The lecturer is Professor P. 

 Martin Duncan, F.R.S. 



The Royal Society's Medals for the j-ear 1877 have been awarded 

 thus : — The Copley Medal to Professor James Dwight Dana, for his 

 biological, geological, and mineralogical investigations, and for the 

 valuable works in which his conclusions and discoveries have been pub- 

 lished ; to Mr. Frederick Augustus Abel, F.R.S. , a Royal Medal, for his 

 physico-chemical researches on gun cotton and explosive agents ; a Royal 

 Medal to Professor Oswald Heer, of Zurich, for his researches and 

 writings on the Tertiary Plants of Europe, of the North Atlantic, North 

 Asia, and North America ; and the Davy Medal (first time of its award) 

 to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchotf, for their 

 researches and discoveries in spectrum analysis. 



Chara Fragifera.— The discovery of Chara fragifem, (Durieu,) as a 

 British plant, by Mr. John Ralfs, in a peaty pool, at Chy-an-hal, near 

 Penzance, Cornwall, is recorded in the last number of the Journal of 

 Botany. 



