344 



NATURE 



[Feb. 15, 1877 



NOTES 

 According to arrangements made since the death of Prof. 

 J. C. Poggendorff, the Annalen dtr Physik unci Cheviie will in 

 future be edited by Prof. Dr. G. Wiedemann, of Leipzig, assisted 

 by Prof. Helmholtz and the Physical Society of Berlin. Prof. 

 Wiedemann possesses admirable qualities for the new position, 

 and under his supervision this well-known scientific journal will 

 at least lose none of its former valuable features. The first num- 

 ber of the Edbldtter, the newly-founded adjunct to the Annalen, 

 has already been issued. It will not only offer a review of con- 

 temporary physical research, but will seek to replace the supple- 

 mentary volumes of the Annalen. 



The Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh has awarded 

 the Macdougall-Brisbane Gold Medal to Mr. Buchan for his 

 paper on the diurnal oscillation of the barometer, as forming one 

 of an important series of contributions by him to the advance- 

 ment of meteorological science. 



The great Von Baer medal, worth over i,coo roubles, and 

 bestowed but once in three years, has been given by the St, 

 Petersburg Academy of Sciences, to Dr. A. Gotte, Professor of 

 Zoology at Strasburg, in recognition of his remarkable work 

 " Die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Unke." 



A MEDAL to commemorate the part taken by the Institute of 

 France in the observation of the transit of Venus has been struck 

 at the national mint. It bears the representation of a female 

 passing before the car of Apollo, with the motto in Latin, 

 " Quo distent spatio, sidera juncta docent." Each mem- 

 ber of the Institute has received a silver medal, as well as 

 the heads of the mission ; the assistants received a bronze one. 

 A medal has been cast in gold and presented to M. Dumas, the 

 President of the Transit Commission. The expenses were 

 defrayed by subscription among the members of the Institute. 



Dr. Straudberg, the president of the Swedish Academy of 

 Sciences, died suddenly in Stockholm on February 5. 



The Norwegian Government proposes to send out a vessel 

 during this year for the purpose of .deep-sea exploration in the 

 Atlantic. A credit of 103,000 kronen has been sought from the 

 national Parliament to cover the expense of the expedition. 



Baron Barth, whose sad end at Loanda we mentioned last 

 week, belonged to one of the oldest families of the Bavarian 

 nobility. Although but thirty-one at the time of his death, he 

 had already won a name by valuable researches on the nature of 

 the Swiss glaciers, and by geological investigations in various 

 parts of Europe. 



For a number of years the University of Jena has been unable 

 from lack of funds to meet the demands of modern university 

 education, by the increase of professorships, establishment of 

 scientific collections, &c. So severe has been the check upon 

 the growth of the institution, that its friends have finally set on 

 foot energetic measures to obtain a large increase in the annual 

 grants from the various grand ducal governments upon which it 

 depends for support. Saxe- Weimar has already promised an 

 addition of 40,000 marks, and it is piobable that this historic 

 univeisity will soon be relieved from its embarrassments. 



We regret to announce the death of the eminent surgeon, 

 Sir William Fergusson, Bart., on Saturday last, in his sixty- 

 ninth year. 



Work is about to be commenced on the new buildings for the 

 University of Strasburg. They will be situated to the north- 

 east of the City, with which they will be connected by a broad 

 promenade, and will provide accommodation for about 1,500 

 students. The Government grant for the purpose amounts to 

 4I millions of marks. 



The Hunterian Oration at the Royal College of Surgeons was 

 delivered on Tuesday by Sir James Paget, in presence of the 

 Prince of Wales, and a large and brilliant company. Sir James 

 sketched the career, and pointed out the quantity, the wide 

 range, and importance of the work done by Hunter. 



As Prof. Kirchoff refused the directorship of the Sun Observa- 

 tory at Berlin, a Committee of Direction has been appointed, 

 consisting of Professors Kirchhoff, Forster, and Awers. 



Among the Bills to be brought before Parliament this session 

 is one by Mr. Hardy "to make further provision respecting the 

 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the colleges therein." 



On Thursday last, Prof. Alexander Agassiz, who has been on 

 a visit to this country for the purpose of investigating the results 

 of the Challenger Expedition, embarked at Liverpool on board 

 the White Star steamer Britannic on his return home. On 

 the Wednesday evening he was entertained at dinner by the 

 members of the Liverpool Art Club, and on 'Thursday, after 

 visiting the Library and Museum of this town he was invited by 

 the Mayor to lunch with the members of the library and museum 

 committee at the town hall. 



Dr. N. v. Konkoly, the director of the O. Gyalla Obser- 

 vatory in Hungary, is at present engaged in an extensive series 

 of observations upon the spectra of the fixed stars. In the Feb- 

 ruary session of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences he gave 

 the results obtained wiih 160 stars. Vogel's division into three 

 typical classes, white, yellow, and red, is followed. An inte- 

 resting observation was made upon /8 Lyrte. The bright bands 

 in its spectrum detected by Vogel in 1871 have now entirely dis- 

 appeared, and were probably due to an astral protuberance. 

 The same astronomer laid also before the Academy a carefully 

 prepared record of all shooting stars observed in Hungary 

 during the past six years. Their number amounts to about 

 2,000. 



Lord Northbrook has presented to Oxford University a 

 valuable collection of skms of the game birds of India, collected 

 for him by Mr. A. O. Hume, C.B., a distinguished Indian orni- 

 thologist. Lord Northbrook, in a letter to Dr. Acland, assures 

 him that the collection is very perfect, if not unique. 



A SINGULAR case has been tried at Paris. A manufacturer of 

 gelatine complained that the water supplied by the new city 

 waterworks was too good for him, and that he could not con- 

 tinue the manufacture of his gelatine. He claimed about 3,000/. 

 damages, but his suit was dismissed with costs. 



At the next session of the French Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, in August, the Geological Society of 

 Normandy will organise an exhibition of all the geological and 

 palosontological products of the five departments which compose 

 that old province. 



We have received the first two numbers of a nesv monthly 

 Italian journal, Elleitricita. It is published at Florence. 



We regret that our space only admits of our acknowledging 

 the receipt of the Proceedings of the Liverpool Literary and 

 Philosophical Society for 1875-6. This volume, like many of its 

 predecessors, contains a considerable .number of papers of real 

 value in various departments of science. Messrs. Longmans and 

 Co., are the London publishers. 



The Report of the Committee of the East Kent Natural 

 History Society contains some forcible remarks on the condition 

 of provincial museums in the same direction as those of Prof. 

 Boyd Dawkins, which we reported some weeks ago. It is shown T;' 

 that the rates now squandered in support of those miscel- 

 laneous and motley gatherings, and incoherent medleys vaguely 

 called museums, would suffice for the formation and mainten^ 



m 



