June 3, 1875] 



NATURE 



95 



forwarded to the President of the Board, or such as it 

 may be determined to purchase in open market, imme- 

 diately upon the completion of the apparatus ordered, at 

 which time circulars will be published giving detailed 

 instructions relative to the preparation of specimens for 

 test, and stating minutely the information which will be 

 demanded previous to their acceptance. 



GUST AVE THURET 



ON the roth of May France lost one of her most dis- 

 tinguished naturalists, M. Thuret left his home at 

 Antibes in perfect health, and expired at Nice a few hours 

 afterwards from an attack of angina pectoris. 



Unlike many of his contemporaries, Thuret was not a 

 voluminous writer. But his papers, though not numerous, 

 are all extremely admirable, and his work has laid the 

 foundation of our modern knowledge of the biological 

 phenomena of the AlgJE. Probably his earliest paper was 

 an account of the antherozoids of Chara (1840). He was 

 the first to detect the cilia upon these structures in any 

 plant. In 1 844 he published an account of the peculiar 

 mode of asexual reproduction in Nostoc. In 1845, in 

 conjunction with Decaisne, he described for the first time 

 the antheridia and antherozoids of Fucus. In 1850 and 

 succeeding years he published his admirable papers upon 

 the zoospores of different groups of Algas. In 1853 he 

 established for the first time by actual observation, in the 

 case of Fucus, the existence amongst Algae of the pheno- 

 menon of fertilisation. In 1866, in conjunction with 

 Bornet, he described the extremely remarkable pheno- 

 mena of sexual reproduction amongst the Floridea. 

 They found not merely that the process of fertilisation 

 was accomplished in a very peculiar and remote way, but 

 also that, besides the effect produced on the germ-cell, a 

 series of developments were induced in the parent plant 

 as the result of it. In every group of Alga; the results 

 which he achieved were of the most fundamental kind. 



A man of independent wealth, he passed a great part 

 of the year on his property at Antibes, on the shore of 

 the Mediterranean. Bornet, his distinguished collabora- 

 teiir, lived with him. In the gardens which surrounded 

 his house he had assembled one of the most remarkable 

 collections of plants to be found growing in the open air 

 in any part of the world. W. T. T. D. 



NOTES 



Punctually at the time arranged, four o'clock in the after- 

 noon of last Saturday, the Alert and the Discovery, accom- 

 panied by the Valorous, left Portsmouth for their work in the 

 Arctic regions. No better equipped expedition, it may again 

 be said, has ever left any country, and no previous British 

 expedition has ever been so universally popular. Every 

 available point on land was occupied by spectators who had 

 come to see the departure of the expedition. The vessels in the 

 harbour and the yachts and boats along the beach were dressed 

 with flags, and as the two ships stood out to sea their course lay 

 through a. perfect flotilla of craft of all kinds, whose occupants 

 cheered Capt. Nares and his companions on their way. Among 

 the last messages received by Capt. Nares was a telegram from the 

 Queen "wishingyou and your gallant companions every success ;" 

 the telegram was accompanied by a packet, the contents of which 

 did not transpire. In the morning the Lords of the Admiralty 

 inspected the ships, and wished the expedition "God speed." 

 Mr. Clements R. Markham accompanies his cousin, Commander 

 Markham, as far as Disco. The ships arrived at Queenstovra on 

 Tuesday, the Alert and Discovery going on to Bantry Bay, The 

 Valorous joined them yesterday, when the three proceeded on 

 their way. 



Mr. George Bentham, F.R.S., has been elected a corre- 

 sponding member of the French Academy of Sciences. 



Mr. Charles Darwin has been appointed foreign honorary 

 member of the Imperial Academy of Science, Vienna. 



The Hebdomadal Council of Oxford University have agreed 

 to propose that in the Convocation to be held at the Encoenia, 

 or Commemoration, the honorary degree of D.C.L. be conferred 

 on the following persons :— Sir W. R. Grove, F.R.S., Sir J. 

 Lubbock, F.R.S,, Mr, E. B. Tylor, F.R.S., Captain Douglas 

 Galton, C.E., F.R.S,, and Mr. C, T. Newton, 



The reception at the Royal Society on Wednesday week was 

 a great success ; there was a very large attendance of Fellows. 

 There was plenty of opportunity for quiet talk, which was taken 

 ample, advantage of. Mr. Crookes repeated his interesting ex- 

 periments. 



Government have refused to send or pay the expenses of a 

 commissioner to the forthcoming International Geographical 

 Congress at Paris. One would have thought that, as much from 

 a practically commercial as from a scientific point of view, this 

 Congress, judging from its programme, is likely to be of the 

 highest importance ; and who more likely to reap benefit from 

 such a Conference than the greatest naval and commercial power 

 in the world? Government, however, have the excuse that 

 the French Government simply approve of the Congress, and 

 have refrained from stamping it with an official character. 



Invitation circulars have been issued for the Bristol Meet- 

 ing by the British Association, whose sittings commence on 

 August 25, under the presidency of Sir John Hawkshaw, C.E., 

 F,R.S, The local secretaries are Messrs, W. Lant Carpenter 

 and John H, Clarke, 



M, Edguard Collomb, who for many years has been the 

 Treasurer of the Geological Society of Paris, has just passed away 

 at the age of seventy-four years. M. Collomb accompanied 

 Agassiz in his Alpine travels. He also travelled during many 

 years in Spain with M. de Verneuil, studying the mineralogical 

 resources of the Iberian Peninsula. The result of these protracted 

 explorations was the pubUcation of the first geological map of 

 Spain. 



Mr. Henry Willett again appeals for funds to carry on 

 the work of the Sub-Wealden Exploration to a depth of 2,000 

 feet. A week ago the boring had reached 1,080 feet. It has 

 been decided to continue the boring to 1,500 feet, by which 

 time all the available funds will be exhausted; to do this, 

 1,200/. are wanted, and we cannot think that for the want of so 

 comparatively small a sum the first scientific boring in this 

 country will be brought to a premature conclusion. The latest 

 cones and fossils indicate that the boring is still m the Kim- 

 meridge Clay, to the fauna of which Ammonites Jason must now 

 be added. 



The acclimatisation of trout in Tasmania is certified by an 

 official report, which states that in 1873 a total distribution of 

 4050 trout ova was made from the rivers of that country to the 

 neighbouring colonies ; 800 of these^ova were sea trout, and the 

 rest brown trout. 



The motion for diminishing the size of the type used in 

 printing the Comptes Rendus was lost, because a number of 

 members declared in the private sitting of the Academy 

 that it was impossible for them to read the papers printed with 

 the characters which had been proposed. Consequently it has 

 been resolved that the number of pages given to each paper 

 shall be diminished by one-third part of the number origmally 

 allotted. 



The Municipal Council of Paris have voted a sum of 500/. to 

 pay the professors of a superior school of Anthropology, which 

 will be opened next November in a buildir,g lent gratuitously 



