136 



NATURE 



[Dec. 12, 1889 



view on Monday, December 16, at 8 p.m., and on and after 

 Tuesday, December 17, it will be open to visitors on presentation 

 of card. The Exhibition will consist of pictures by the late Mr. 

 O. G. Rejlander, and a selection from over 200 of his famous 

 figure and genre studies will be shown. The pictures will be on 

 view for about six weeks. 



On November 21 the American Philosophical Society, Phila- 

 delphia, celebrated the hundredth anniversary of its first occu- 

 pation of its present hall. The banquet was a great success. 

 The following were the toasts: — -"The language of Science 

 and Philosophy is universal, but adopts various dialectic forms 

 to diffuse knowledge," proposed by Prof. John W. Mallet, 

 representative from the Royal Society of London ; " Our kindred 

 Societies in every clime," proposed by Prof. Joseph Lovering, 

 President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ; 

 " All research into the Book of Nature has not discovered an 

 erratum," proposed by Sir Daniel Wilson, President of the Uni- 

 versity of Toronto ; " The successful pursuit of Science expunges 

 error — it never antagonizes truth," proposed by the flon. Lyon 

 G. Tyler, President of William and Mary College; "Men- 

 tal Analysis is the efficient solvent of many difficulties in 

 Science and Philosophy," proposed by the Rev. Dr. Charles W. 

 Shields, Princeton College ; and " The labours and achieve- 

 ments of great teachers in Science and Philosophy live after 

 them — these are their monuments," proposed by the Right Rev. 

 Dr. John J. Keane, President of the Catholic University of 

 America. 



Dr. Pax, of Breslau, has been appointed Curator of the 

 Botanic Garden in Berlin ; Mr. D. G. Fairchild, Assistant in the 

 section of Vegetable Pathology in the United States Department 

 of Agriculture ; Dr. H. Dingier, Professor of Botany in the 

 Forest Academy of Aschaffenburg ; Dr. F, Noll, Professor of 

 Botany in the University of Bonn ; and Dr. N. Wille, of Stock- 

 holm, Lecturer on Botany at the Royal Agricultural Institution 

 at Aas, near Christiania. 



Prof. Bornmuller, Director of the Botanic Garden at 

 Belgrade, has started on a twelve months' botanical tour through 

 Asia Minor. Beginning at Amasia, he will travel through the 

 country between the courses of the Kisil-Irmak and Euphrates, 

 southward to the completely unexplored mountains of Ak-dagh. 

 The Botanical Gazette says that this country has only once been 

 explored, thirty-five years ago, by the Russian botanist Wiede- 

 mann. According to the same authority, Prof. Bornmuller is a 

 young and very successful explorer, with a great deal of ex- 

 perience, especially from his long journey in 1886, through 

 Dalmatia, Monte Negro, Greece, Turkey, East Bulgaria, and 

 Asia Minor. His original collection will be transferred to 

 Weimar, where it will be carefully gone through by Prof. 

 Hausknecht. 



The *' mountain laurel," or Kalmia, and the Indian corn, are 

 suggested in American papers as national flowers for the United 

 States. 



In the December number of the Keiv Bulletin Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer explains that for some years, when it has been necessary to 

 find space in the Palm House at Kew for the development of new 

 and interesting species of palms, he has not hesitated to transfer 

 to the Temperate House plants which he thought -.vould probably 

 endure a lower temperature. The experiment has been most 

 successful, many of the plants luxuriating in the change. Anxious 

 to obtain further information as to cool cultivation of tropical 

 and sub-tropical plants, Mr. Dyer lately applied for leave to 

 send Mr. Watson, assistant curator at Kew, to the south of 

 France to report on what he might be able to observe. Per- 

 mission v>as given ; and Mr. Dyer's statement is followed by a 

 series of valuable and interesting notes in which Mr. Watson 



sums up the results of his mission. His journey took place in 

 the latter part of October, He had a fortnight at his disposal, 

 and during that time he visited as many gardens as possible be- 

 tween Hyeres and Mentone. One of the most interesting of the 

 gardens visited was a branch establishment, at Hyeres, of the 

 Societe d'Acclimatation, Paris. Here a good deal of experi- 

 mental gardening is practised, plants of all kinds being planted 

 and tested as to their hardiness, &c. Mr. Watson says that 

 while he was inspecting these gardens the idea was suggested 

 " that a well-managed botanical station, devoted chiefly to ex- 

 perimental testing, proving, and breeding operations amongst 

 plants, would, if established in some such favoured locality as 

 Hyeres, be capable of much valuable work. " 



The following are the lecture arrangements at the Royal 

 Institution, so far as they relate to science, befjre Easter : — • 

 Prof. A. W. Riicker, six Christmas lectures to juveniles on 

 electricity ; Prof. G. J. Romanes, ten lectures on the post- 

 Darwinian period ; Mr. Frederick Niecks, four lectures on the 

 early developments of the forms of instrumental music (with 

 musical illustrations) ; Prof. Flower, three lectures on the 

 natural history of the horse and of its extinct and existing allies ; 

 the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, seven lectures on electricity and 

 magnetism. The Friday evening meetings will begin on January 

 24, when a discourse will be given by Prof. Dewar on the 

 scientific work of Joule. Succeeding discourses will probably 

 be given by Sir Frederick Abel, Mr. Henry B. Wheatley, Prof. 

 J. A. Fleming, Mr. Shelford Bidwell, Prof. C. Hubert H. 

 Parry, Mr. Francis Gotch, Prof T. E. Thorpe, Prof. G. F. 

 Fitzgerald, the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, and other gentlemen. 



Messrs. Macmillan and Co. will shortly publish the first 

 part of Prof. Elmer's work on "Organic Evolution as the Re- 

 sult of the Inheritance of Acquired Characters according to the 

 Laws of Organic Growth," translate! by J. T. Cunningham, 

 M.A., F.R.S.E., late Fellow of University College, Oxford. 



MESSRS. Blackwood and Sons have just published " The 

 Construction of the Wonderful Canon of Logarithms," a trans- 

 lation of " Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Constructio," by 

 John Napier, of Merchiston. The work was published in 1619, 

 but is so rare as to be very little known, being only once re- 

 printed in 1620, and never translated. The present translation 

 is by William Rae Macdonald, who also contributes notes and 

 a catalogue of Napier's works. 



Slight shocks of earthquake, lasting from five to ten seconds, 

 were felt on Sunday, at Taranto, Poggia, Chieti, Monte- 

 saraceno, Agnone, Ancona, and Urbino. At Torremileto, in 

 the province of Foggia, a strong shock is said to have been felt ; 

 and a slight shock, followed by a somewhat stronger one, oc- 

 curred at Naples soon after 6 a.m. On Monday there were 

 seismic disturbances in Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, 

 According to a telegram, through Reuter's Agency, from Vienna, 

 a somewhat severe shock was felt on Monday, at 6.30 a.m., at 

 Knin, Dernis, Sebenico, Trau, Scardona, and Spalato, the 

 direction of the movement being from north-east to south-west. 

 A violent shock, lasting five seconds, occurred at 6.40 at Serajevo, 

 being felt three minutes later at Novi and Krupa also. 



At the ordinary meeti'ig of the Council of the Sanitary Assur- 

 ance Association, on Monday last, arrangements were completed 

 for a series of lectures during January and February 1890, in 

 the theatre of the College of State Medicine, Great Russell 

 Street. The series will include the following : — Mr. H. Ruther- 

 furd, barrister-at-law, on " House Sanitation from a House- 

 holder's Point of View," Sir Joseph Fayrer, F. R.S., in the 

 chair; Prof. T. Roger Smith, on "Household Warming and 

 Ventilation," Sir Douglas Galton, F.R.S., in the chair ; Mr. 

 Mark H. Judge, on " The Sanitary Registration of Buildings 

 Bill," Lord Henry Bruce, M.P., in the chair. The object of 



