February 9, 191 1] 



NATURE 



481 





KOIES. 

 For the meeting of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, which is to be held this year at 

 Portsmouth on August 30 and following days, under the 

 presidency of Sir William Ramsar, K.C.B., F.R.S., the 

 following presidents have been appointed to the various 

 sections : — Mathematical and Physical Science, Prof. H. H. 

 Turner, F.R.S. ; Chemistry. Prof. J. Walker. F.R.S. ; 

 Oeology, A. Marker, F.R.S. ; Zook>gy, Prof. D'Arcy 

 W. Thompson, C.B. ; Geography, Colonel C. F. Close, 

 R.E., C.M.G. ; Economic Science and Statistics, Hon. W. 

 Pember Reeves ; Engineering, Prof. J. H. Biles : Anthro- 

 pology. Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, F.R.S. ; Physiology, Prof. 

 J. S. Macdonald ; Botany, Prof. F. E. Weiss, with W. 

 Bateson, F.R.S., as chairman of the Sub-section of .Agri- 

 culture ; Educational Science, Rt. Rev. J. E. C. Welldon, 

 formerly headmaster of Harrow School. 



In December, 1910, a circular, signed by Profs. R. 

 Meldola and W. J. Pope, was sent to a certain number 

 of the Fellows of the Royal Society inviting subscriptions 

 to a fund for the purchase of a portrait of Sir William 

 Crookes, by Mr. E. A. W'alton, of the Royal Scottish 

 Academy. We learn that the necessary fund, of which 

 Lord Avebury is treasurer, has now been raised, and that 

 the portrait will be presented to the Royal Society at a 

 meeting of the subscribers to be held at Burlington House 

 on February 16. 



.\t the annual general meeting of the Royal .Astro- 

 nomical Society, to be held to-morrow, February- 10, the 

 gold medal of the society.- will be presented to Dr. P. H. 

 Cowell, for his contributions to the lunar theory and 

 gravitational astronomy. 



.As Prof. Karl Pearson is unable to lecture at the Royal 

 Institution on March 3, the Friday evening discourse on 

 that date will be delivered by Dr. F. A. Dixey, his subject 

 being " Scents of Butterflies." 



The Reale Accademia dei Lincei has unanimously elected 

 King Victor Emmanuel honorary president, in recognition 

 of his work on Italian coins, the ** Corpus Nummorum 

 Italicorum." 



To the list of names of honorary foreign members of 

 the French Chemical Society, published in our last week's 

 issue (p. 448), should be added Profs. S'vante Arrhenius, 

 of Stockholm, and G. Ciamician, of Bologna. In the 

 same paragraph, for " Cannizaro " read " Cannizzaro." 



The death is announced from Paris, in his seventy-first 

 year, of Dr. Achille Kelsch, member of the French 

 Academy of Medicine, and known by his work in epidemio- 

 logy and diseases peculiar to warm climates. 



The Association of Economic Biolc^ists will hold its 

 tenth general meeting at Birmingham, in the University 

 buildings, Edmund Street, under the presidency of Prof. 

 Geo. H. Carpenter, on April 6 and 7. Non-members wish- 

 ing to attend may obtain particulars from the joint 

 honorary secretary, Mr. Walter E. Collinge, 59 Newhall 

 Street, Birmingham. 



Mr. Hugh Chisholm, editor of the new edition of the 

 *' Encyclopaedia Britannica " ; Mr. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S., 

 Astronomer Royal ; and Surgeon-General Sir .Alfred Kec^h, 

 K.C.B., Rector of the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology, have been elected members of the Athenaeum 

 Club under the provisions of the rule which empowers the 

 annual election by the committee of a certain number of 

 persons " of distinguished eminence in science, literature, 

 the arts, or for public services." 

 NO. 2154, VOL. 85] 



The systematic study of the megalithic and other re- 

 mains in a district is a promising field of work for 

 members of local scientific societies. We are glad, there- 

 fore, to see that in one of the papers to be read before 

 the Cotteswold Field Naturalists' Club on February 14 at 

 the Technical Schools, Gloucester, Dr. .A. M. McAldowie 

 will deal with " .An AstroncMtiical Study of the Long 

 Barrows on the Cotteswolds, with Special Reference to 

 the Meridian." 



At a general monthly meeting of the members of the 

 Royal Institution on January 6, the treasurer reported that 

 he had received 1200/., part of the legacy to the Royal 

 Institution of the late Miss Wolfe, and 62Z. 10s., a portion 

 of the legacy of the late Mr. C. E. Layton. The special 

 thanks of the members were returned to Dr. J. Y. 

 Buchanan for his donation of 100/. to the fund for the 

 promotion of experimental research at low temperatures. 

 The institution has recently received a gift of 1000/. from 

 Dr. Hugo Miiller. 



The services rendered to forestry in the State of Ver- 

 mont by Dr. Lewis Ralph Jones have been recognised in 

 an exceptional way by the decision that the new forest 

 reserve shall be called the " L. R. Jones State Forest." 

 Dr. Jones was professor of botany at the University of 

 Vermont from 1889 until he resigned the post last year 

 to accept the chair of plant patholc^- at the University 

 of Wisconsin. During this period he secured the establish- 

 ment of the State forest nursery and the creation of the 

 position of State forester, besides promoting in other ways 

 the movement for better forest management. 



The Manchester Museum has recently received, through 

 '\ the generosity of Mrs. Leo Grindon, the important and 

 i extensive private herbarium formed by the late Mr. Leo 

 Grindon, who was well known in Manchester as an 

 enthusiastic botanist and teacher, as president of the Field 

 Naturalists and Archaeological Society, and as lecturer in 

 botany in the Medical School until its incorporation with 

 the Owens College. The herbarium is arranged on some- 

 what unique lines, for each plant is acc<Mnpanied by- 

 numerous coloured and other illustrations, together with 

 much valuable printed matter in the fcwro of cuttings from 

 various botanical books and periodicals. The herbarium 

 is rich in specimens of garden plants, and affords valuable 

 evidence of the effects of cultivation on various species. 

 The gift is greatly valued by the committee and the 

 University authorities, not only as a specially valuable 

 instrument in botanical teaching, but also as a memorial 

 of a Manchester citizen who was a distinguished teacher, 

 and inspired much affection in the wide circle of his 

 acquaintance. 



Gre.at interest attaches to an account, by Dr. E. 

 Trouessart, in L.a Nature of January 14, of the reported 

 discover}- in the Congo of a new mammal, which appears 

 to be known to the natives as the " water-elephant." A 

 herd of five of these animals was seen by Mr. Le Petit, 

 one of two explorers sent by the Paris Museum of Natural 

 History, on the nwthern shore of Lake Le<^x>ld 11. 

 Before the animals plunged into the lake, Mr. Le Petit 

 had the opportunity of seeing that they were smaller than 

 elephants — their height being estimated at 6 feet — with 

 much shorter trunks, smaller ears, relatively longer necks, 

 and apparently no tusks. Their footprints are also 

 different from those of elephants. In an interview 

 accorded to a reporter of The Daily Express, recorded in 

 that journal of February 6, Dr. Chalmers Mitchell ex- 

 pressed his belief in the authenticity of the discovery, and 

 suggested that the apparently new animal might represent 



