228 



NA TURE 



[January 6, 1898 



Royal Laboratory at Woolwich. General Boxer was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society so long ago as 1858. 



The deaths are announced of Mr. Arthur Kammermann, 

 astronomer at the Geneva Observatory ; Dr. Eugen Zintgraff, 

 African explorer ; and Dr. Max Graf von Zeppelin, zoologist 

 at Stuttgart. 



A LIFE of Pasteur, written by Prof, and Mrs. Percy Frank- 

 land, will very shortly be published by Messrs. Cassell and Co. 

 The volume will form the latest addition to the Century Science 

 Series. 



Prince Roland Bonaparte has been elected a Corre- 

 ■spondant of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and of the 

 Bologna Academy of Sciences. 



The new number of the invaluable Minerva Jahrbtich der 

 gelehrten Welt has for the frontispiece a fine reproduction of a 

 portrait of Dr. Nansen. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times states that the statue 

 of Jules Simon, to be executed by M. Fremiet, will probably be 

 erected in the Place de la Madeleine, near which he lived, and 

 will supersede the fountain now standing there. 



We learn from Science that a resolution has been introduced 

 in the House of Representatives appropriating 20,000 dollars 

 for the representation of the United States at the International 

 Fisheries Exposition to be held at Bergen, Norway, from May 

 to September of next year. 



The British Institute of Public Health will be styled in 

 future the Royal Institute of Public Health, and Her Majesty 

 the Queen has accepted the office of patron. The Council of 

 the Institute has conferred the Harben Gold Medal for 1898 

 upon Lord Playfair, and has appointed Prof. W. R. Smith 

 the Harben Lecturer for the year 1899. 



Invitations are being sent out for the forthcoming Inter- 

 national Congress of Zoology. A Committee of Reception has 

 been formed in Cambridge, where the Congress will meet on 

 August 23, 1898. An International Congress of Physiologists 

 will be held at the same time in Cambridge. It is proposed at 

 a later date to distribute further information on the more im- 

 portant subjects which will be brought forward for the considera- 

 tion of the Congress. 



The personal estate of the late Mr. Alfred Nobel has been 

 valued at 434,093/., of which amount 216,901/. is in England. 

 After a number of personal bequests have been made, Mr. 

 Nobel's will stipulates that the capital of the whole of the 

 remaining realisable property is to form a fund, the interest from 

 which is to be annually divided in five prizes to those who 

 during the preceding year have done most for the benefit of 

 humanity. The interest is to be divided into five equal parts, 

 which are to be awarded in prizes as follows : (i) To him who 

 within the department of natural philosophy has made the most 

 important discovery or invention ; (2) to him who has made 

 the most important discovery or improvement in chemistry ; 

 (3) to him who has made the most important discovery 

 within the department of physiology or medicine ; (4) to him 

 who in literature has produced the most excellent work in an 

 idealistic direction ; and (5) to him who has worked most or 

 best for the fraternisation of the nations and for the abolition or 

 diminution of standing armies, as also for the promotion and 

 propagation of peace. The prizes in physics and chemistry are 

 to be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences, for physio- 

 logical or chemical work by the Carolinian Institution in Stock- 

 holm, for literature by the Academy in Stockholm, and for the 

 propagation of peace by a committee of five persons to be 

 elected by the Norwegian Parliament. The will continues : — 



NO. 147 1, VOL. 57] 



"It is my express will that at the distribution of prizes no 

 regard is to be paid to any kind of nationality, so that the most 

 worthy competitor may receive the prize whether he is a Scandi- 

 navian or not." 



The Russian Institute of Experimental Medicine, at St. 

 Petersburg, held its seventh annual meeting on December 20, 

 1897. The Institute consists of six scientific sections and one 

 practical section, and during the past year no less than 120 

 persons took part in its regular work, which is carried on in the 

 departments of biological chemistry, physiology, bacteriology, 

 pathological anatomy, general pathology, and epizootic 

 diseases. Sixty-five papers— some of them of high scientific 

 value — were published by the scientific staff of the Institute. 

 In addition to this, no less than 25,000 bottles of diphtheria 

 serum, 800 bottles of anti-streptococcus serum, and 300 bottles 

 of anti-staphylococcus serum were sent out from the Institute 

 during 1897 — making a total of 138,000 bottles of anti- 

 diphtheria serum, and 15,000 bottles of malleine and tuber- 

 culine that were distributed within the last three years. Of 

 persons bitten by rabid animals, 277 were under treatment, the 

 percentage of deaths having been only 07. The serum treat- 

 ment of the bubonic plague, the prophylactic measures against 

 it, and the preparation of anti-plague serum were the subject of 

 special work during the year, and its results were summed up in 

 a paper which was read at the annual meeting by Prof. A. A. 

 Vladimiroff. 



The following are the arrangements for lectures during 

 January at the Imperial Institute. These lectures will be open 

 free to the public, without tickets, seats being reserved for Fellows 

 of the Imperial Institute and persons introduced by them. 

 Monday, January 10, " Western Australia : its growth and pos- 

 sibilities," by Mr. H. C. Richards, M.P. ; Monday, January 17, 

 " South Africa, from the Cape to Ngamiland," by Mr. H. A. 

 Bryden ; Monday, January 24, " New Brunswick — Past and 

 Present," by Mr. C. A. Duff-Miller ; Monday, January 31, 

 " Through the Gold Fields of Alaska to Bering Straits," by 

 Mr. Harry de Windt. 



At the recent annual meeting of the Paris Academy of 

 Medicine (says the Lancet) a report was presented upon 

 the prizes awarded in 1897. The Fran9ois Joseph Audiffred 

 prize, which consists of 24,000 francs to be awarded to him who 

 shall have, in the opinion of the Academy, discovered a really 

 curative or preventive remedy against tuberculosis, has not 

 been awarded. The offer holds good for twenty-five years, 

 starting from April 2, 1896. Another prize not awarded was 

 the Chevillon prize of 1500 francs offered to the writer of the 

 best work upon cancerous affections — but a consolation prize of 

 500 francs was given to Dr. Livet for his work on the subject. 



Mr. John W. Barbour, writing from Bangor, Co. Down, 

 Ireland, informs us that an albino lark — believed to be a sky- 

 lark — was shot in that district on December 27, 1897. 



Mr. B. Woodd-Smith calls our attention to thei following 

 paragraph, which appeared in the Whitby Gazette of December 

 17 : — " A splendid meteoric display was witnessed in the eastern 

 heavens on Sunday night [December 12], shortly before eight 

 o'clock. The meteors, which appeared of various colours, were 

 of great brilliance, and illumined the sky with an effulgence 

 greatly surpassing that of the clear and almost full moon shining 

 at the time. About the time of the display, a sound like that of 

 thunder was heard." Further information with reference to these 

 observations would be of interest. 



Dr. R. F. Scharff records, in the Irish Natttralist, the 

 discovery of some remains of the wild horse {Equus cabalhts) 

 in Ireland. The remains consist of the occipital part of a skull 



