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NATURE 



[April 21, 1898 



origins the new methods of analysis which were the subject of a 

 recent communication to the Academy. The vacancy which his 

 death has caused enables us to estimate the high place which he 

 occupied in scientific societies and in the committees in which 

 he took part. 



We learn from the Electrician that a banquet to M. Z. 

 Gramme, to celebrate his receiving the decoration of Commander 

 of the Ordre Leopold, was lately held at the Hotel Metropole, 

 Brussels. The Senator, M. Montefiore-Levi, presided, and 

 among the guests, who numbered 130, were Prince Roland 

 Bonaparte, the Minister M. Nyssens, representing the Belgian 

 •Government, the Burgomaster and Aldermen of Brussels, M. 

 Mascart (president of the Organisation Committee), M. A. 

 d'Arsonval (president of the Societe Internationale des Elec- 

 triciens), and M. Hippolyte Fontaine, manager of the Gramme 

 Company. M. Mascart, in an eloquent speech, traced ,the 

 career of M. Gramme, from his commencement as a simple 

 workman in the tiny Belgian village of Jehay-Bodegnee down 

 to the present day, and presented the great Belgian electrician, 

 in the name of the electricians of the whole world, with a fine 

 gold medal engraved by Chaplain. After the banquet the guests 

 were received by the Town Council in the Hotel de Ville. 

 Profs. Ayrton and Silvanus Thompson, who had been appointed 

 delegates by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, were unable 

 to reach Brussels on account of a storm, and the illuminated 

 address of congratulation, of which they were to have been the 

 bearers, had to be sent by post. Numerous congratulatory 

 telegrams were received, including one from Lord Kelvin and 

 one from Mr. W. H. Preece. 



The ninth international Congress of hygiene and demography 

 was opened at Madrid on April 10. About two thousand 

 members attended the Congress, but less than fifty English 

 ■delegates were present. The opening ceremony took place in 

 the National Library, under the presidency of the Minister of 

 the Interior, who was supported on the right by the Governor 

 of Madrid, the acting President of the Congress, Dr. Julian 

 Calleja, and by the Secretary-General of the Congress, Dr. 

 Amalio Gimeno ; on the left by Prof. Brouardel (Dean of the 

 Paris Faculty of Medicine) and the Mayor of Madrid. Dr. 

 Calleja delivered the inaugural address, and in a few words of 

 greeting extended a warm welcome to the members of the 

 Congress, wisely reminding the audience that the science of 

 public health was confined to no nation in particular and to no 

 one science specially. Dr. Brouardel spoke on behalf of the 

 Permanent International Committee, and he was followed by 

 •delegates from the nations represented at the Congress, after 

 which the Minister of the Interior pronounced the Congress 

 open. In the evening a gala performance was given in honour 

 of the members of the Congress at the Spanish Theatre. A 

 reception was held at the Athenaeum Literary Club on the 

 evening of Monday, April 11, and on Friday, April 15, there 

 was a reception of the members of the Congress at the house of 

 the Prime Minister, while on Saturday certain delegates had the 

 honour of presentation at Court. The scientific work of the 

 Congress was carried on in the various sections during the whole 

 of last week, and a large number of papers of importance to 

 the science of public health were read. 



The fifth centenary of Paulo Toscanelli and Amerigo Vespucci 

 is being held with much gaiety at Florence. The festivities 

 will continue until the end of this month, and the programme 

 comprises a geographical congress and the inauguration of 

 several monuments. 



About io'I5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5, a meteor of excep- 

 tional size and brilliancy was observed at Ealing slowly travers- 

 ing the sky in an easterly direction. After a few seconds the 



NO. i486, VOL. 57] 



meteor burst, and then .shot forward with increasing velocity, 

 and disappeared after being visible about ten seconds. 



A LECTURE upon "The Progress of Optics during the 

 Present Century" will be delivered at the Mansion House this 

 evening, by Dr. G. Lindsay Johnson, under the auspices of the 

 Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. The Lord Mayor, 

 and subsequently the Astronomer Royal, will preside at the 

 lecture. 



The ninth annual meeting of the Museums Association will 

 be held at Sheffield in the first week of July. The Lord Mayor 

 and Corporation of Sheffield offer a cordial welcome to all 

 members of the Association, and are very desirous of making 

 the meeting in every respect successful. All the business will 

 be carried on in the Town Hall, the use of which has been 

 granted to the Association. The President-elect is Alderman 

 W. H. Brittain, and the Secretary is Mr. E. Howarth, Public 

 Museum, Sheffield, to which address communications from 

 members who propose to read papers should be sent. 



At the annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, to be 

 held on Thursday and Friday, May '5 and 6, under the pre- 

 sidency of Mr. Edward P. Martin, the Bessemer gold medal for 

 1898 will be presented to Mr. Richard Price-Williams in re- 

 cognition of the active part he took in the early days of the 

 use of steel on railways. Among the subjects of papers that 

 are expected to be read and discussed are : The iron industry of 

 the Urals, by Prof. H. Bauerman ; the solution theory of iron, 

 by the Baron Hanns Jiiptner von Jonstorff ; brittleness in soft 

 steel, by Mr. C. H. Ridsdale ; allotropic iron and carbon, by Mr. 

 E. H. Saniter ; the crystalline structure of iron, by Mr. J. E. Stead. 



The third annual Congress of the South-eastern Union of 

 Scientific Societies will be held in the Town Hall, Croydon, 

 on June 2-4. On Thursday evening, June 2, the President- 

 elect, Prof. G. S. Boulger, will deliver the annual address. 

 Among the papers to be read on the following day are — 

 entomology as a scientific pursuit, by Mr. J. W. Tutt ; the 

 place of geology in education, by Prof. Logan Lobley ; the 

 nature of the soil in connection with the distributions of plants 

 and animals, by Dr. H. Franklin Parsons ; natural gas in 

 Sussex, by Mr. C. Dawson. On Saturday, June 4, a discussion 

 will take place on ideals for natural history societies, and how 

 to attain them ; and Mr. E. M. Holmes will read a paper on 

 botanical work still wanting workers. A museum arranged 

 by the local committee, illustrating the natural history of 

 the neighbourhood and other subjects, will be open during 

 the Congress. 



The Times correspondent at Athens writes, under date 

 April 18 : — The French School of Archaeology was to-day the 

 scene of a brilliant assembly. The King, who was accompanied 

 by the Crown Prince and Princes George and Nicholas, arrived 

 at eleven o'clock, and tendered his congratulations to M. 

 Homolle, director of the School, on the occasion of its jubilee. 

 M. Zaimis (the Prime Minister), M. Romas (President of the 

 Chamber), M. Delyanni, M. Ralli, and all the principal 

 members of Athenian society were present, together with a 

 great concourse of foreign visitors. In the course of an in- 

 teresting address, M. Homolle made the announcement that 

 M. Syngros, the Greek millionaire, had decided to erect a 

 museum at Delphi. Speeches were then delivered by M. 

 Cavadias, in the name of the Greek Archasologieal Society, by 

 Dr. Dorpfeld, on behalf of the foreign schools in Athens, and 

 by M. Collignon, as representing various French scientific in- 

 stitutions. Count d'Ormesson, the French Minister in Athens, 

 also delivered an address. 



By establishing a National Zoological_Park, having for its chief 

 object the collection and preservation of American animals 

 likely to become extinct, the Smithsonian Institution has been 



