56o 



NATURE 



{April 26, 1877 



NOTES 



Fifty-seven candidates for the Fellowship of the Royal 

 Society have offered themselves during the present session. 

 From these the Council have selected the following fifteen to be 

 recommended to the Society for election at the annual meeting 

 on June 7 next :— Prof. James Dewar, M. A. ; Sir Joseph Fayrer, 

 M.D., K. C.S.I. ; Rev. Norman Macleod Feirers, M.A. ; 

 Thomas Richard Fraser, M.D. ; Brian Haughton Hodgson, 

 F.L.S, ; John W. Judd, F.G.S. ; William Carmichael M'Intosh, 

 M.D. ; Robert M'Lachlan, F.L.S. ; Prof. John William Mallet, 

 Ph.D. J Henry B. Medlicott, M.A. ; Henry Nottidge Moseley, 

 M.A. ; Prof. Osborne Reynolds, M.A. ; William Roberts, 

 M.D. ; Prof. James Thomson, LL.D. ; Prof. William Turner, 

 M.B. 



The scientific men selected this year by the Universities of 

 Edinburgh and Glasgow for the degree of LL.D. are well 

 deserving of the honour. Among those on whom Edinburgh 

 has conferred it are Mr. George Gore, F.R.S,, Mr. J. B. Lawes, 

 the well-known scientific agriculturist, Dr. Reinhold Rost, prin- 

 cipal librarian to the India Office, and Mr. John Westlake, 

 Q.C. Glasgow has given her degree to Prof. Andrews, F.R.S. , 

 president, and Prof. Allan Thomson, president-elect of the 

 British Association. 



The Council of the Royal Microscopical Society have resolved 

 to institute a lecture in memory of the late Prof. John Quekett, 

 to be delivered from time to time by eminent microscopists, to 

 whom will be presented the Quekett Medal provided out 

 of the Medal Fund collected some years since. The first of 

 these lectures will be delivered in the theatre of King's College 

 on May 2, at 8 p.m., by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., 

 the subject being " On Some Points in the Anatomy of Ants." 



Mr. Ward Hunt stated in the House of Commons last week 

 that the deductions of the Astronomer-Royal with respect to 

 the late transit of Venus will be ready in about six weeks, but 

 ' that some months must elapse before the photographic records 

 will be completed, without which the report would be im- 

 perfect. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences held its anniversary on the 23rd 

 inst., Vice-Admiral Paris being in the chair. Only one national 

 prize was awarded this year to M. Darboux for a memoir on 

 "Singular Integrals," obtained in the solution of the differential 

 equations of the first order. This work, of exceptional excellence, 

 will \>^ published in " Recueil des Savants Etrangers " at the 

 expense of the Academy. A number of minor prizes were 

 awarded for memoirs in botany, chemistry, medicine, &c. 

 But the largest number of rewards were distributed amongst 

 authors of works already published and not specially written 

 for competition ; this is a laudable innovation. The fol- 

 lowing are some of the awards : — The prize for the pro- 

 gress of the application of steam to the military navy 

 to M. Ledieu, as author of an elementary treatise on 

 "Marine Engines." The Poncelet Prize to M. Kretz, an 

 engineer in the French Civil Service, for his publication of 

 Poncelet's works on "Mechanics." The Delmont Prize to M. 

 Ribaucourt, engineer of Ponts et Chaussees, for his geometrical 

 disquisitions on the tri-orthogonal system. M. Violle was re- 

 warded by a donation of 80/. for his researches on the heat 

 generated by the sun ; MM. Vicaire by a donation of 40/. each 

 for similar researches. The Monthyon Medal to M. Melsens for 

 his method of working mercury ores, as practised at Ydria, where 

 working men have been effectually protected against toxical ema- 

 nations. M. Andre took one prize for his experiments on the causes 

 of the "black drop" seen by some observers of the transit of 

 Venus last century. M. Gaugain obtained a similar reward 

 for his long continued observations on tourmaline and other 

 electrical disquisitions. The Cuvier prize was awarded to M. 



Fouque, the celebrated Santorin and Etna explorer. MM, 

 Filhol and Velaine obtained one prize each for the ex- 

 cellent zoological preparations collected at St. Paul and at 

 Campbell Islands on the occasion of the last transit of Venus. 

 M. Palisa, director of the Pola Observatory, obtained the 

 Lalande Medal for the discovery of nine small planets and 

 the rediscovery of Ma'i'a, lost from 1861 to 1876. The 

 usual number of prizes have been proposed for 1877 and fol- 

 lowing years, A programme stating the conditions will be sent 

 to any person writing to the secretary of the Academy of 

 Sciences. No limitation of nati onality is imposed, and the 

 necessity of writing in French or Latin is practically abolished^ 

 at least for several of the prizes. A sum of about 4,000/. is to be 

 distributed amongst thirty-eight different competitors, exclusive 

 of the Breant prize. M. Dumas read the eloge of MM. Brog- 

 niard, two naturalists who were influential members of the 

 Academy of Sciences, and whose lives were long associated 

 in kindred work. The eminent perpetual secretary obtained 

 one of the greatest successes of his whole academical career. 

 The address was a masterpiece, most carefully written and 

 admirably delivered. 



A lecture deUvered in Washington in the beginning of 

 April, at the opening of the summer course of the National 

 Medical College, by Dr. Elliott Coues, the well-known orni- 

 thologist, has attracted some attention in America not only by 

 contrast with similar addresses, but for its mode of treatment and 

 advanced views in discussing the bearings of anatomical science 

 on the question of the origin of species and man's place in 

 nature. 



A very extensive Etruscan necropolis has been discovered 

 at Montelparo, near Ascoli-Piceno (Umbria). An enormous 

 quantity of bronze, iron, and terra-cotta objects have been and 

 are being found in the grounds, chiefly consisting of helmets, 

 armillas, collars, buckles, nails, spurs, bows, rings, lances, 

 spears, swords, and thousands of perforated bronze grains or 

 beads, besides numerous objects of amber, glass, shells, and 

 pottery, all of which are likely ta be secured by the Italian 

 Government for the Florentine Museums. 



The Bradford Scientific Association conversazione, we are 

 glad to hear, has been a great success, over 1,600 persons having 

 visited it. It was held for two days— Wednesday and Thurs- 

 day, April II and 12 — and the members were so encouraged by 

 the support received, that they continued the exhibition until 

 the Saturday. Over 100 microscopes were shown nightly, and 

 the collective display of physical and chemical apparatus has, 

 we believe, not been equalled in the north. The society in- 

 troduced a novel feature in the management of the affair — ad- 

 mitting those engaged in teaching at a reduced charge, while 

 demonstrations on various subjects took place each evening, 

 according to a printed time table, given to each person on 

 entrance. They endeavoured to take as their model the Loan 

 Collection at South Kensington. This enterprising society have 

 demonstrated the immense educational value which a collection 

 of scientific instruments must have, if accompanied by proper 

 explanation. They are so satisfied with the success, that they 

 will attempt things on a much larger scale in the future. 



It was announced at the last meeting of the Paris Geo- 

 graphical Society that the expedition organised to investigate 

 the possibility of cutting a channel through the Isthmus of. 

 Darien has proved a failure. 



Two Prussian officers have arrived in Paris for the purpose 

 of determining telegraphically the longitude of Berlin. Two 

 French ofiicers have been despatched to Berlin in order to carry 

 out similar operations. The apparatus to be used in Paris have 

 been located at Montsouris, under the superintendence of M.: 

 Mouchez and the Bureau des Longitudes. The ultimate aim o\\ 



