I7S 



NATURE 



YJune 20, 1 8S9 



attend and support the Lord Mayor. The following 

 resolutions will be moved: — 



1. "That this meeting desires to express the gratitude 

 of the people of Great Britain and Ireland to M. Pasteur 

 and the staff of the Institut Pasteur for the generous aid 

 afforded by them to over 200 of our fellow-countrymen 

 suffering from the bite of rabid dogs." 



2. " That this meeting, having heard the statement of 

 Sir James Paget and others, records its conviction that 

 the efficacy of the anti-rabic treatment discovered by M. 

 Pasteur is demonstrated, and requests the Lord Mayor to 

 establish a fund for the double purpose of making a suit- 

 able donation to the Institut Pasteur, and of providing for 

 the expenses of British subjects unable to pay the cost of 

 a journey to Paris when bitten by rabid animals." 



3. " That this meeting, whilst recognizing the value of 

 M. Pasteur's treatment, and taking steps to provide for its 

 accessibility to Englishmen who may hereafter be bitten 

 by rabid animals, is of opinion that rabies can easily be 

 stamped out in these islands, and calls upon the Govern- 

 ment to introduce at once a Bill for the simultaneous 

 muzzling of all dogs throughout the British Islands, as 

 provided in the measure drafted by the Society for the 

 Prevention of Hydrophobia." 



NOTES. 



The King of Sweden has invited Prof Max Midler, the repre- 

 sentative of Oxford, to be his guest at the Royal palace in Stock- 

 holm during the forthcoming Congress of Orientalists. Some 

 500 foreign members will attend the Congress. During the visit 

 to Christiania, King Oscar will give a banquet t(i the members 

 of the Congress at his villa at Bygdo, and the city has voted the 

 necessary funds for a civic entertainment. 



Prof. A. C. Haddon, whose movements in the Torres 

 Straits we have from time to time recorded, is now on his way 

 home. Contrary to the expectations of his friends and well- 

 wishers, illness has overtaken him ; but, as he writes from Bris- 

 bane, hope for the best would appear justifiable. He has worked 

 indefatigably during his sojourn in the tropics, and has accu- 

 mulated a vast collection, the greater part of which is now safely 

 delivered. 



Mr. Henry William Bristow, F.R.S., died on Friday last 

 at the age of seventy-two. In 1842 he was appointed a member 

 of the staff of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. 

 Mr. Bristow published various works on mineralogy and geology, 

 and was the author of the mineralogical articles in Brande's 

 " Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art," and of articles on 

 minerals and rocks in Ure's ' ' I )ictionary of Arts, Manufactures, 

 and Mines." He became a Fellow of the Geological Society 

 in 1843, and- of the Royal Society in 1862, and an honorary 

 Fellow of King's College, London, in 1863. He received the 

 diploma of the Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna, and 

 from the King of Italy the diploma and insignia of an officer of 

 the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus. 



Sir John Lawes entertained the members of the Lawes 

 Agricultural Trust Committee at Rothamsted on Friday last. 

 In the afternoon the Committee inspected the experimental 

 farm and the laboratories connected with it. 



The Geologists' Association propose to organize a geological 

 excursion to the volcanic regions of Italy— Naples, Sicily, 

 and the Lipari Islands, or to some of these places if not 

 to all of them — during the month of October next. This ex- 

 cursion, in which ladies may take part, is not confined to mem- 

 bers of the Association, and at the meeting of the Geological 

 .Society on June 5, Prof. Judd announced that the authorities of 

 the Geologists' Association particularly invite the attendance of 

 Fellows of the Geological Society. 



A Rose Conferen*ce will be held in connection with the 

 Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick on July 2 and 3. Ac- 

 cording to the official programme, the objects of the Conference 

 are " to get together as large and as representative a collection of 

 roses of all descriptions as possible ; to form an Exhibition of all 

 subjects pertaining to the rose, whether in its botanical, its horti- 

 cultural, its literary, or its artistic aspects ; and to bring together 

 for the purposes of reciprocal information and fellowship all 

 those interested in the rose and its culture." The Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society appeal to lovers of the rose to help them to 

 attain these ends. 



On Wednesday, July 10, the annual meeting of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry will take place in the theatre of the Royal 

 Institution at 11 a.m. In the evening the President will hold a 

 reception and convasazione in the Grosvenor Gallery. On the 

 two following days there will be various visits and excursions, 

 and on the evening of July 1 1 the annual dinner of the Society 

 will be held. 



In connection with the bequest of the late Dr. Swiney, Prof 

 W. R. McNab, of the Dublin College of Science, will begin 

 a course of twelve lectures on fossil plants at the Natural History 

 Museum, Cromwell Road, on Monday, the 24th inst. The subject 

 will be continued from the course of last year, and will include 

 the Ferns and Gymnosperms of the Palseozoic and Mesozoic 

 epochs, and the dawn of the x\ngiospermous flora. The lectures 

 will be given on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at half- 

 past four o'clock, and will be free to all visitors to the Museum. 



The Indian Government has purchased the coins collected 

 by the Afghan Boundary Commission. They are over 4600 in 

 number, and are to be catalogued by Mr. C. J. Rogers, of 

 Amritsar. 



The Russian Academy of Sciences offers a prize of 5000 

 roubles (^500) for the best inquiry into the nature and effects of 

 the poison which develops in cured fish. The objects of com- 

 petitors must be : " (i) To determine, by means of exact experi- 

 ments, the physical and chemical nature of the poison which 

 develops in fish ; (2) to study, by experiments on animals, its 

 action upon the heart, the circulation of the blood, the organs of 

 digestion, and the nervous system ; (3) to determine the rapidity 

 of its absorption by the digestive organs ; and (4) to study and 

 describe the characteristics which may serve to distinguish con- 

 taminated fish from such as are not contaminated." The fifth 

 and sixth questions, with which it may be impossible for any one to 

 deal satisfactorily, relate to the means of preserving fish from the 

 development of the poison, and to the question of counter-poisons 

 and the medical treatment of poisoned persons. The competition 

 is open to all. The memoirs must be sent in, either in manuscript 

 or printed, before January i, 1893, and may be written in any one 

 of the following languages : Russian, Latin, French, English, 

 German. If none of the papers is deemed worthy of the full 

 prize, the accumulated interest upon the above-named sum may 

 be handed over to the author who presents the best solution of 

 some part of the problem. 



A recent issue of the French Journal Officiel contains the 

 Report of the Consultative Committee for Sea Fisheries in 

 France on the subject of poisoning through the eating of mussels. 

 The Committee, in the first place, recognize that the oysters 

 which cause poisoning are those which have become stale, or 

 have been kept in water rendered foul by decomposed organic 

 matter, and question whether the same may not be the case with 

 regard to mussels. Various explanations of mussel poisoning were 

 made to the Committee. By some it was attributed to a parasite 

 crab {Pinnotheres pistim). This explanation, however, was uni 

 satisfactory, for in the United States this Pinnotheres is soughj 

 after as food. By othersc, the presence of the poison was attribuleq 



