236 



NATURE 



\_7une 27, 1878 



NOTES 



The follo\\ing is a list of the officers of tlie Forty-eighth 

 Annual Meeting of the British Association, which will, as we 

 have intinaated, commence at Dublin on Wednesday, August 14, 

 1878. President Elect— William Spottiswoode, LL.D., F.R.S. 

 Vice-presidents Elect — The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of 

 Dublin, the Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, His Grace the 

 Duke of Abercorn, K.G., the Right Hon. the Earl of Ennis 

 killen, D.C.L., F.R.S., the Right Hon. the Earl of Rosse, 

 D.C.L., F.R.S., the Right Hon. Lord O'Hagan, M.R.I.A 

 Prof. G. G. Stokes, D.C.L,, LL.D., Sec.R.S. General 

 Secretaries— Capt. Douglas Gallon, C.B., D.C.L,, F.R.S 

 Philip Lutley Sclater, Ph.D., F.R.S. Assistant General Secre 

 tary — G. Griffith, M.A., Harrow. General Treasurer — Prof. 

 A. W. Williamson, Ph.D., F.R.S. Local Secretaries— Prof 

 R. S. Ball, LL.D., F.R.S., James Gofif, John Norwood 

 LL.D., Prof. G. Sigerson, M.D. Local Treasurer — T. Maxwell 

 Hutton. The following are the presidents of sections : — A. — 

 Mathematical and Physical Science. — President : The Rev, 

 Prof. Salmon, D.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. B.— Chemical Science. 

 —President: Prof. Maxwell Simpson, M.D,, F,R,S, C— 

 Geology.— President : John Evans, D.C.L., F.R.S. D,— 

 Biology.— President : Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S. Depart- 

 ment of Zoology and Botany: Prof. W. W. Flower, F.R.S. 

 (president), will preside. Department of Anthropology : Prof, 

 Huxley, Sec.R.S. (vice-president), will preside. Department 

 of Anatomy and Physiology: R. M'=Donuell, M.D., F.R.S. 

 (vice-president), will preside. E. — Geography.— President : 

 Prof. Sir Wyville Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S, L, & E. F.— 

 Economic Science and Statistics, — President : Prof. J. K, 

 Ingram, LL.D. G, — Mechanical Science. — President : Edward 

 Easton, C.E, The first general meeting will be held on 

 Wednesday, August 14, at 8 P.M., when Prof. Allen Thomson, 

 M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.L. & E., will resign the chair, and 

 William Spottiswoode, M,A., LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., 

 F.R.G.S., president elect, will assume the presidency, and 

 deliver an address. On Thursday evening, August 15, at 

 8 P.M., a soiree ; on Friday evening, August 16, at 8.30 p.m., a 

 discourse by G, J, Romanes, F.L.S., on Animal Intelligence; 

 on Monday evening, August 19, at 8.30 P.M., a discourse by 

 Prof. Dewar, F.R.S., on Dissociation, or Modern Ideas of 

 Chemical Action; on Tuesday evening, August 20, at 8 p.m., a 

 soiree; on Wednesday, August 21, the concluding general 

 meeting will be held at 2.30 P.M. Excursions to places of 

 interest in the neighbourhood of Dublin will be made on 

 Thiu:?day, August 22. 



The folloM'ing are the presidents of the numerous sections of 

 the French Association which meets at Paris August 22-29 • — 

 Sections i and 2. Mathematics, Astronomy, Geodesy, and 

 Mechanics, M. Collignon ; 3 and 4. Navigation, Civil and 

 Military Engineering, M. L. Reynaud ; 5. Physics, Prof. A, 

 Cornu ; 6, Chemistry, Prof. Wurtz ; 7. Meteorology and Ter- 

 restrial Physics, M. Herve-Mangon ; 8. Geology, Comte de 

 Saporta; 9. Botany, Prof, H. Baillon ; 10. Zoology and Zoo- 

 techny. Prof, de Quatref ages ; II, Anthropology, Prof, Bertil- 

 lon; 12, Medical Sciences, Prof, Teissier; 13, Agriculture, 

 Baron Thenard ; 14, Geography, M. Maunoir ; 15, Political 

 and Statistical Economy, M, Frederic Passy. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences has at last succeeded in 

 sending a list of candidates to the Ministry of Public Instruction 

 to fill the place vacated by the death of M, Leverrier, The 

 Academy suggests, by a large majority, the appointment, in the 

 first place, of M, Faye, but M, Faye persists in declining any 

 appointment. In the second place the Academy places the name 

 of M, Loewy, one of the astronomers of the Observatory. M. 



LoQwy being an Austrian by birth, it cannot be said that the 

 Academy has been influenced by any prejudice of nationality. 

 The other candidates presented by the Council of the Obser- 

 vatory are, in the first line, Capt, Mouchez, and in the second 

 MM, Loewy and Tisserand ex cEquo. It is not yet known 

 what the minister will do. He is at liberty to appoint any other 

 astronomer who has shown himself qualified for the exalted 

 position, as we have announced, M.Mascart has already taken 

 possession of his post at the Observatory as being at the head of 

 the meteorological bureau, but although the principle of sepa- 

 rating astronomy and meteorology has been decreed, they are 

 making at the observatory active preparation to fit up new 

 offices for the meteorological bureau. Both services are to be 

 separated, officially and financially, but are to be lodged in the 

 same building as they were during Leverrier's rule. The formal 

 opening of the Meteorological Pavilion at the Exhibition took 

 place on Monday. 



The Anniversary Meeting of the Sanitary Institute will be 

 held at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, on Wednesday, 

 July 3, at 4 P,M., when an address will be delivered by Mr. 

 Frank T. Buckland, on "The Pollution of Rivers and its Effects 

 upon the Fisheries and the Water Supply of Towns and 

 Villages." The Annual Conversazione of the Members and 

 Friends of the Institute will be held on the same evening at 8 

 o'clock, at the Gros\'enoT Gallery, New Bond Street. The 

 Autumn Congress and Exhibition of the Instittite will be opened 

 at Stafford on Wednesday, October 2, 1878. The members of 

 the Institute have been invited to the International Congress of 

 Hygiene, under the patronage of the French Government, \\'hich 

 will be Ijeld at Paris during the first ten days in August, 1878. 



We commend to our readers a movement which has been set 

 on foot for the presentation of a testimonial to Mr. P. Le Neve 

 Foster, the secretary of the Society of Arts, upon the occasion 

 of his completing his twenty- fifth year of service as chief 

 executive officer. When Mr, Foster became its secretary the 

 society numbered only about I, coo members. At the present 

 time it now numbers about 4,000. During the period of Mr. 

 Foster's administration the Society has successfully dealt with 

 many important public questions, including those of elementary 

 and technical education, patent and copyright law reform, inter- 

 national exhibitions, public health, Indian and colonial and 

 many other topics. Upon these, grounds an appeal is made to 

 the members of the Society and the public for their co-operation. 

 An influential committee has been formed, with Lord Hatherley 

 as president. 



We notice tke death, in Niirnberg, on June 5, of Baron Ern-j. 

 von Bibra, in his seventy-second year. Baron von Bibra pre- 

 sented an interesting instance of a cultured nobleman devoting 

 himself entirely to science and letters, and attaining distinction 

 in both branches — a type of character not altogether uncommon 

 in England, but much more rarely encountered in Germany. 

 After the completion of his university studies at Wiirzburg, he 

 carried out at his castle in Franconia a series of chemical 

 researches which, especially from a physiological point of view, 

 attracted considerable attention. Among these were " Chemical 

 Investigation of Various Purulent Matters " (1842) ; " Chemical 

 Investigations on the Banes and Teeth of Mankind and the Ver- 

 tebrates (1844); "Physiological Action of Phosphorus on the 

 Workmen in Match Factories," "Action of Ether" (1847); 

 " Chemistry of the Liver and Gall " (1849) ; and " Composition 

 of the Blood of the Lower Animals" (1849). In 1850 he 

 undertook an extensive tour through South America. On his 

 return he published analyses of sea-water collected from a 

 variety of points in the Atlantic and Pacific. These were 

 followed in 1853 and 1854, by valuable monographs on the 

 "Composition of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, and Nerves;" 



