January 13, 1898] 



NATURE 



253 



Prof. P. Francotte, assistant professor of embryology in 

 the Universite libre de Bruxelles, has been elected corresponding 

 member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. 



A PROMISING career has been cut short by the death of Dr. 

 Hugh Calderwood, demonstrator of anatomy in the University 

 of Glasgow. 



We notice with regret the announcement of the death of 

 Herr Dr. Freiherr R. v. Erlanger, assistant professor of zoology 

 at Heidelberg. 



At the Passmore Edwards Settlement, Tavistock Place, on 

 Monday evening, January 17, Sir George Baden- Powell will 

 lecture on the discoveries made by his expedition to Novaya 

 Zemlya in 1896 to observe the total eclipse of the sun. He will 

 also indicate the main points that are to be observed in India at 

 the total eclipse of the sun on January 22. 



The death is announced of Sir Charles Hutton Gregory, 

 K.C.M.G. He was the son of the late Dr. Olinthus Gilbert 

 Gregory, professor of mathematics at the Royal Military 

 Academy, Woolwich, and was born in 1817. He was a con- 

 sulting engineer to the Governments of several Colonies, and a 

 past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 



We are glad to learn that the new Psychological Laboratory 

 at University College, the opening of which has been unavoid- 

 ably delayed, gets to work this term. Any students who think 

 of joining the classes should communicate at once with Dr. W. 

 H. R. Rivers, who has charge of the laboratory during this 

 term. 



By the death of Mr. H. Stacy Marks, R.A., the world has 

 not only lost an eminent artist, but also an enthusiastic observer 

 of living nature. Mr. Marks was an ornithologist who gained 

 his knowledge of bird-life by the contemplation of his feathered 

 friends in their natural haunts. Communion with nature gave 

 him an insight into organic life denied to many students of com- 

 parative anatomy, and he was able to convey the knowledge to 

 others by means of his paintings. Our readers may remember 

 two books — "Letters to Marco" and " Riverside Letters " — 

 consisting of collections of letters on natural history topics, sent 

 by Mr. George Leslie, R.A., to his late friend Mr. Marks. These 

 letters have found many sympathetic readers among outdoor 

 naturalists. Mr. Marks was one of those who " love nature for 

 her own sake, untrammelled by the prepossessions that not in- 

 frequently accompany that love among the votaries of science or 

 sport." His death will be regretted by men of science as well as 

 by artists. 



The annual general meeting of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society will be held on Wednesday next, January 19, at 

 7.45 p.m., whenjthe report of the council will be read, the 

 election of officers and council for the ensuing year will take 

 place, and the president (Mr. E. Mawley) will deliver an 

 address on " Weather Influences on Farm and Garden Crops," 

 which will be illustrated by lantern slides. 



On Tuesday next (January 18) Prof. E. Ray Lankester, 

 F.R.S., will begin a course of eleven lectures at the Royal 

 Institution on "The Simplest Living Things"; on Thursday 

 (January 20) Prof. Dewar, F.R.S., will deliver the first of a 

 course of three lectures on " The Halogen Group of Elements" ; 

 and on Saturday (January 22) Prof. Patrick Geddes will begin 

 a course of three lectures on " Cyprus." The Friday evening 

 meetings of the members of the Royal Institution will be re- 

 sumed on January 21, when Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., 

 will deliver a discourse on " Buds and Stipules." 



NO. 1472, \OL. 57] 



Dr. E. Symes Thompson will lecture on "Tropical 



Diseases," at Gresham College, Basinghall Street, on January 



18, 19, 20 and 21, at 6 p.m. The lectures are free to the 

 public. 



Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., has kindly forwarded to us a 

 note, received at the Meteorological Office, from Mr. W. T. 

 Balmer, on a remarkable lunar corona observed at Tenby on 

 Friday, January 7. In addition to the ordinary yellow corona, 

 two well-defined concentric circles showing spectrum colours 

 were seen outside it. The phenomenon was most intense at 

 5.35, and faded away at 5.55 ; the golden corona, however, 

 was visible until about 9 p.m. The sky was cloudless, but 

 there was a large proportion of moisture in the air ; Mr. Balmer's 

 readings for the wet and dry bulb thermometer on the morning 

 of Friday being 37° '5 and 39° respectively. 



The German scientific weekly. Die Natur, commences its 

 forty-seventh annual volume with an article on the aims of the 

 journal by Dr. Willi Ule, who has just assumed the editor- 

 ship. Dr. Ule is well known as one of the rising geographers 

 of Germany ; he has done a good deal of practical work in 

 physical geography and in the improvement of mathematical 

 instruments. He desires to carry out the purpose of Die Natm- 

 — the diffiision of a knowledge of natural science— mainly by 

 the direct description of natural scenes and phenomena, appealing 

 to the educated but unscientific public. The paper under its 

 new editor promises to become an important element in the 

 scientific culture of the German people. 



Reuter's correspondent at Paris reports that the will of the 

 late Dr. Thomas W. Evans leaves only an insignificant sum to 

 the direct heirs, but that, on the other hand, a sum of nearly 

 20,000,000 francs is bequeathed to the deceased's native city 

 Philadelphia, contingent on the fulfilment of certain conditions 

 of a somewhat original character. For instance, the city of Phila- 

 delphia must construct a museum- which will bear the name of 

 the Evans Museum, and in which the medals, decorations, and 

 other insignia of the deceased, as well as his clothes, will be 

 carefully arranged and catalogued. The city must also erect on 

 a public square a statue of Dr. Evans, the price of which must not 

 be less than 1,000,000 francs nor more than 2,000,000 francs. 



The next annual meeting of the British Medical Association 

 will be held at Edinburgh on July 26-29, under the presidency 

 of Sir Thomas Grainger Stewart, K.C.B. An address in 

 medicine will be delivered by Dr. T. R. Eraser, F.R.S. ; one 

 in surgery by Prof. T. Annandale ; and one in psychological 

 medicine, by Sir John Batty Tuke. The following are the 

 sections and their presidents : — Medicine, Dr. G. W. Balfour ; 

 Surgery, Dr. John Duncan ; Obstetrics and Diseases of Women, 

 Dr. A. R. Simpson ; State Medicine, Sir Henry D. Littlejohn ; 

 Psychology, Dr. T. S. Clouston ; Neurology, Dr. Byrom 

 Bramwell ; Pathology, Dr. W. S. Greenfield ; Pharmacology 

 and Therapeutics, Dr. J. O. Affleck ; Ophthalmology, Dr. D. 

 Argyll Robertson ; Laryngology and Otology, Dr. P. Mac- 

 Bride ; Diseases of Children, Dr. Joseph Bell ; Dermatolog}-, 

 Dr. W. A. Jamieson ; Medicine in relation to Life Insurance, 

 Dr. C. Muirhead ; Tropical Diseases, Dr. P. Manson ; Anatomy, 

 Sir John Struthers ; Physiology, Dr. W. Rutherford, F.R.S. 



The ninth International Congress of Hygiene and Demo- 

 graphy will (says the British Medical Journal) be held at 

 Madrid on April 10 to April 17. The Congress is under the 

 patronage of His Majesty Alfonso XIII. and Her Majesty the 

 Queen Regent, and the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Seilor 

 Sagasta, is President of the Organising Committee. The 

 Secretary-General of the Congress' is Dr. Amalio Gimeno y 

 Cabanas, Professor of Hygiene in the University of Madrid . 



