Feb. 14, 1878] 



NATURE 



309 



any notice of the Linnean centenary, the celebration of which in 

 Sweden, Holland, and Germany, were recently noticed in our 

 columns. Of course the excuse may be urged with some force 

 that such formalities are foreign to English habits, but perhaps 

 an exception might have been allowed in the case of a Society 

 wliich bears the name and jealously guards the collections, books, 

 and manuscripts of the great naturalist. Perhap?, however, 

 another reason may be found in the fact that the constitution of 

 the Society places the initiative in [every case in the hands of the 

 cifficers whose tenure of office is practically indefinite, and who 

 arc not very accessible to any impulses of enthusiasm from the 

 general body of the Society even if there were any permissible 

 way by which expression could be given to them. Some dis- 

 quieting rumours as to the present condition of the Society's 

 business affairs, coupled with its rather troubled history during 

 llie past few years, seem to point to the desirability of some 

 changes in its mode of government which would bring the 

 executive into closer relation with the general body of Fellows. 



We gave last week a list of the grants just made from the 

 research fund of the Chemical Society; we are glad to state that 

 since making these grants the fund has been increased by the 

 following donations and subscriptions from the " Alkali Manu- 

 facturers' Association." The donations, amounting to 229/., are 

 from Messrs. Charles Tennant and Co., 45/. ; Messrs. J. and L. 

 Pattinson and Co., 35/.; Messrs. R. Bealey and Co., 15/.; 

 IMessrs. Roberts, Dale and Co., 5/. ; Messrs. James Muspratt 

 and Sons, 35/. ; Mr. A. G. Kurtz, 50/. ; Mr. Henry Baxter, 

 25/. ; Mr. C. J. Schofield, 5/. ; Mr. Thomas Walker, 9/. ; Mr. 

 I). McKechnie, 5/. The following are the annual subscriptions 

 to be continued for five years : — Messrs. Gaskell, Deacon, and 

 Co., 11/. I4J-. ; Messrs. Chance Brothers and Co., 4/. ; The 

 Netham Chemical Company, 4/. ; W. Pilkington and Son, 7/. . 

 Mr. James McBryde and Co., 3/. ; W. Gossage and Son, 

 4/. los. ; Watson, Kipling, and Co., 2/. iSs. ; amounting alto- 

 gether to 37/. 2S. 



The President of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain 

 and Ireland offers two prizes of 50/. each, to be awarded by the 

 Council of the Institute on February i, 1879, for the two best 

 original investigations involving gas analysis, and conducted by 

 an associate of the Institute. The investigations must have been 

 made within two years of the date of the award, and must not 

 have been published, if at all, more than six months previous to 

 the award. The prizes will not be awarded unless, in the opinion 

 of the Council, the work is of sufficient merit to qualify the can- 

 didate for Fellowship of the Institute. 



In his interesting communication on the analogy between 

 chemistry and algebra in our last number. Prof. Sylvester^'attri- 

 butes the conception of valence or atof>iici(y to Kekule. No 

 doubt the theory in its present developed form owes much both 

 to Kekule and Cannizaro ; indeed, until the latter chemist had 

 placed the atomic weights of the metallic elements upon a 

 consistent basis, the satisfactory development of the doctrine was 

 impossible. The first conception of the theory, however, 

 belongs to Frankland, who first announced it in his paper on 

 Organo-metallic Bodies, read before the Royal Society on June 

 17, 1852. After referring to the habits of combination of 

 nitrogen, phosphorus, antimony, and arsenic, he says, "It is 

 sufficiently evident, from the examples just given, that such a 

 tendency or law prevails, and that, no matter what the cha- 

 racter of the uniting atoms may be, the combining pcnver of the 

 attracting element, if I may be allowed the term, is ahvays 

 satisfied by the same number 0/ these atoms."" He then proceeds 

 to illusti-ate this law by the organo-compounds of arsenic, 

 zinc, antimony, tin, and mercury. In conjunction with Kolbe, 

 Frankland was also the first to apply this law to the organic 

 compounds of carbon ; their paper on this subject, bearing 



date December, 1856, having appeared in Liebig's Annalen in 

 March, 1857, whilst Kekule's first memoir, in which he mentions 

 the tetrad functions of carbon, is dated August 15, 1857, and 

 was not published until November 30 in the same year. Kekule's 

 celebrated paper, however, in which this application of the 

 theory of atomicity to carbon was developed, is dated March 

 16, 1858, and was published on May 19, 1858. On the other 

 hand, the " chemicographs," or graphic formulro, which Prof. 

 Sylvester has so successfully applied to algebra, were the inven- 

 tion of Crum Brown, although Frankland has used them to a 

 much greater extent than any other chemist. 



At the General Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, 

 on February 8th, the Gold Medal was awarded to Baron Dem- 

 bowski for his double-star measurements. 



We learn from the Diario de Campinas of the death in that 

 town, on December 20, 1877, of Joaquim Corrca de Mello, a 

 Brazilian botanist, who was well known as a correspondent to 

 many scientific men in the Old World. 



The Rev. Andrew Bloxam, M.A., rector of Harborough 

 Magna, Rugby, formerly incumbent of Twycross, Ivcicestershire, 

 died on February 2, aged 76. He was well known to British 

 botanists, especially as a diligent student of brambles and roses. 



A SUBSCRIPTION has been opened at Paris with" the view to 

 erect a monument to the late M. Raspail. 



Among the exports of Corsica it is said that there are annually 

 between 350,000 and 400,000 blackbirds {merles) which are sent 

 to this continent. They visit Corsica in vast numbers each 

 winter to feed on the berries of the myrtle and arbutus, with 

 which the mountains are covered. In the month of December 

 they become very fat, and the flavour and perfume given to their 

 flesh by their food cause them to be much esteemed by the 

 gourmets of Paris. A pati defoie de merle is a great delicacy. 



Mr. Francis Day writes that in our notice of Dr. Bleeker 

 last week, seven volumes of his " Atlas " are said to have ap- 

 peared, whereas the first part of volume 9 has been issued to 

 subscribers, and the second part will be shortly. The number 

 of volumes which the work was intended to fill was twelve, the 

 whole of the MSS. for which has been left complete, as well as 

 most of the figures, and we may hope that they may yet be 

 published. 



We are glad to learn that Prof. Abich is preparing a complete 

 edition of his numerous and well-known works on the Caucasus, 

 under the title of '* Forschungen in Kaukasus-Landern," The 

 first fascicule will contain a new paper on the coal-measures of 

 the middle parts of the Araxus valley, with numerous plates ; 

 and the second, a description of the Trialet mountain-range and 

 of its volcanic rocks and mineral waters, with a geological map 

 on a large scale. 



Prof. Leuckart has just issued, in Berlin, the first part of 

 his "Bericht iiber die wissenschaftlichen Leistungen in der 

 Naturgeschichte der niederen Thiere" for 1872-75, the continu- 

 ation of the reviews which he has hitherto been accustomed to 

 compile at intervals in this department of zoology. 



The Societe Centrale d' Apiculture et d'insectologie has had 

 constructed a pavilion in the Champ de Mars for the purpose of 

 exhibiting in 1878, in the most complete manner, everything 

 relating to the education of useful insects, especially bees, and 

 the means of preservation of all kinds against noxious insects. 



Quite recently we had a band of Nubians in London ; a 

 small band of Eskimo are at present encamped in Paris, and 

 now, we hear, that shortly Europe will have an opportunity of 

 viewing;a group of Aborigines from the opposite side of America, 

 A number of Tierra del Fuegans are to b brought to Brussels, 



