156 



NA TURE 



[December i6, 1897 



the best arranged of continental observatories. While in 

 the position of Director, Winnecke's health finally broke 

 down, and for a great many years he has been unable to 

 take any part in the management of the establishment he 

 had so admirably fitted and equipped, W. E. P. 



NOTES. 



The Physico-Chemical Institute of the University of Leipzig, 

 of which Prof. W. Ostwald is director, will be formally opened 

 by a ceremony to be held in the large lecture theatre of the 

 Institute on January 3. 



Dr, Hugh Galt, acting Professor of Forensic Medicine 

 and Public Health at Glasgow University, has for some time 

 back been engaged in a research upon the starches, which is 

 likely to prove of value to the Department of Public Health. 



Mr. John Milne writes that arrangements have been made 

 for the establishment of horizontal pendulums, with photographic 

 apparatus to record unfelt movements, at Toronto, Harvard, 

 Philadelphia, Victoria, B.C., New Zealand (two), Batavia, 

 Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, Mauritius, the Cape, Argentina, San 

 Fernando, and Kew, whilst a number of other stations are under 

 consideration. Seismograms have already been received from 

 Toronto. At his station on the Isle of Wight, for purposes 

 of comparison, Mr. Milne has also two horizontal pendulums 

 writing on smoked paper, and very shortly a Darwin bifilar 

 pendulum is to be established. To this will be added later a 

 von Rebeur-Paschwitz apparatus, with which type of apparatus 

 Mr. Milne worked for many years in Japan. 



Dr. Charrin has been appointed to succeed Prof. d'Arsonval 

 in the chair of Medicine of the College de France. 



A NEW branch of the Russian Geographical Society has just 

 been opened at Tashkend, for Turkestan. 



On December 4 the friends and pupils of Dr. C. Cramer, the 

 professor of botany at Zurich, celebrated the fortieth anni- 

 versary of his connection as teacher with the Polytechnic in 

 that town. 



Prof. Dr. Willi Ule has just taken over the editorship of 

 the weekly scientific periodical Die Natur, which was founded 

 by Dr. Otto Ule and Dr. Karl Miiller, and is now in its forty- 

 sixth year of publication. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Mr. 

 Gardiner G. Hubbard, President of the National Geographic 

 Society, Washington, The death is also announced of Dr, 

 Campbell Morfit, formerly professor of applied chemistry in the 

 University of Maryland, and one of the scientific advisers of 

 the United States Government, 



At the close of a lecture delivered by Lieut, Peary in Edin- 

 burgh on Friday lq,st, under the auspices of the Royal Scottish 

 Geographical Society, Dr, J, N, Murray, on behalf of the 

 Council of the Society, presented him with the medal of the 

 Society in recognition of his work in the Arctic regions, 



A Brooklyn correspondent sends this item of news : — 

 ' Prof. Langley and Prof. Elfreth Watkins have constructed 

 a frying machine designed to draw a railroad car. This has 

 been tested for several days on the Medford branch of the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad, near Mount Holly, N,y., and has drawn 

 the car at the rate of six miles an hour. The machine is actuated 

 by a gasoline engine, the power being applied to two propellers, 

 about four feet long, which make 800 revolutions per minute. 

 It is expected that machines can be constructed on this principle, 

 which can draw cars at the usual railroad speed." 



NO. 1468, VOL. 57] 



We learn from Science that Dr. George H. Horn, the eminent 

 entomologist, died at Philadelphia on November 25. He was 

 one of the Secretaries of the Philosophical Society, and was 

 formerly Corresponding Secretary of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, He had been until recently professor in the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, though his connection with that institu- 

 tion was chiefly honorary. Dr. Horn was only fifty-eight years 

 of age, and his death, following those of Cope and Allen, is a 

 further sevelre loss to the city of Philadelphia and to science in 

 America, 



La Nature announces the death of Prof A. Joly, director 

 of the chemical laboratory of the Ecole normale Superieure, and 

 professor in the Paris Faculty of Sciences. Born at Fontenay- 

 sous-Bois in 1846, M. Joly entered the Normal School in 1866. 

 When he left this school he became attached to Saint-Claire 

 Deville's laboratory, and afterwards was professor of physics at 

 the lycee Henri IV., which post he occupied until he was 

 nominated sub-director of the laboratory of the Normal School. 

 The titular director of the laboratory at that time was M. Debray. 

 M. Joly next became instructor (maitre de conferences) in 

 chemistry at the Sorbonne, and then professor attached to the 

 Faculty of Sciences of Paris, His works refer principally to the 

 rare metals (niobium among others) and acids of phosphorus. 



The first ordinary meeting of the Rcintgen Society was held 

 on December 7, Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S., being in the chair, 

 Mr. A. A. Campbell Swinton read a paper on " Adjustable 

 X-ray Tubes," in which various methods were discussed for 

 regulating the penetrative and other qualities of X-rays, and for 

 compensating the unavoidable and troublesome variations in 

 vacuum that are found to occur in practice. The paper was 

 illustrated by numerous experiments, and several adjustable 

 tubes of Mr. Swinton's design, embodying the improvements 

 and principles enunciated, were shown in operation. 



The ninth Congress of Archaeological Societies was held at 

 Burlington House on December i, the Right Hon. Viscount 

 Dillon in the chair. The Hon, Secretary reported that the 

 Committee had authorised the completion of Mr. Gomme's 

 Index of Papers from 1682, with a view to immediate 

 publication. It was reported that a wish had been ex- 

 pressed to have an index of the archaeological articles in certain 

 journals and publications, other than the Transactions of 

 Societies, The Standing Committee had considered the subject, 

 and recommended that if anything were done it should be by 

 adding a supplement to the Index as now published. After 

 discussion the question was referred to the Committee with power 

 to act, if they found they could do so to advantage and at 

 reasonable expense. It was resolved, on the motion of Sir John 

 Evans, K,C,B. : "That a memorandum be sent to the various 

 local Archaeological Societies, suggesting the desirability of 

 placing themselves in communication with the Ordnance Survey 

 officers for their districts so as to promote the record on the 

 surveys of the earthworks within their districts, and where pos- 

 sible to determine their age by excavations," Mr, C. Hercules 

 Read, the Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, made a 

 statement as to the steps that had been taken by Government in 

 response to the request of the Society of Antiquaries for infor- 

 mation as to what is done in foreign countries for the protection 

 of ancient and historical monuments. Full information had 

 been obtained and would shortly be published in a Blue Book. 

 It appears that in no country in Europe is so little protection 

 given as in England. Mr, Hope read a draft report on the 

 best mode of indexing the Transactions of Societies ; this had 

 been prepared by the Committee consisting of himself and Mr. 

 J, H. Round and Mr. Gomme. As it appeared that several 

 Societies were anxiously waiting for the recommendations, it was 



