352 



NATURE 



\ Aligns t 7, 1879 



NOTES 



The death is announced, at a venerable age.'of-^Sir Thomas 

 Maclear, F.R.S., formerly Astronomer-Royal at the Cape. We 

 hope to be able to give a brief notice of his life and work in our 

 next number. 



At a recent meeting of the Local Committee of the British 

 Association Mr. Harold Thomas and Mr. W. K. Marples, the 

 secretaries of the special committee for arranging the excursions, 

 gave explanations concerning the proposed visits to twenty dif- 

 ferent places of interest in the district, including Chatsworth, 

 Wentworth, Castleton, Cresswell Crags, Roche Abbey, Sand- 

 beck, Welbeck, Thoresby, Matlock, Arbelow, Stanton-in-the- 

 Peak, Conisborough, Haddon, Hardwick Hall, Bolsover, 

 Whamcliffe, Stainborough, Beauchieff Abbey and Beauchieff 

 Hall, Wingfield Manor, Bradfield, &c. At Arbelow, Sir John 

 Lubbock is to give a lecture on the Druidical remains, which 

 are a source of so much interest to antiquarians visiting that 

 quarter. It was stated that Prof . E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., had 

 been appointed by the Association to take the place of the Rev. 

 Mr. Dallinger, who is ill, as one of the lecturers for the meetings, 

 and will deliver his lecture at the Albert Hall at 8.30 on Mon- 

 day evening, August 25, his subject being "Degeneration.' 

 Among those who have already signified their intention of being 

 present are Major Serpa Pinto, M. Daubree, President of the 

 Academy of Sciences, Paris ; Prof. Zirkel, Professor of Geology, 

 &c., Leipzig. There have also accepted the invitation to the 

 Sheffield meeting the following, amongst others :— L'Abbe 

 Renard, Keeper of Minerals of Royal Museum, Brussels ; Prof. 

 H. A. Newton, Yale College, N.H. ; Dr. Wiillner and Madame 

 Wiillner; Dr. Janssen, M. Veth, Leyden, Holland (a traveller 

 in Sumatra) ; Lieut. Wyse, of the French Navy, and Madame 

 Wyse. 



If any of our readers are within hail of Baden-Baden about 

 the middle of September, they should not fail to pay it a visit 

 some time between the i8th and 24th. The German " Natur- 

 forscher," we are sure, will give them a genuine welcome, and 

 they will get a lesson worth learning of how an association of 

 many hundreds from the cream of German science can as a 

 united body combine the severest work with play so hearty as 

 almost to approach "high jinks." In sections and out of sec- 

 tions the German savants meet as a body, work as a body, and 

 enjoy themselves as a body. On the morning of September 18, 

 for example, you can listen to Prof. Hermann, of Zurich, lectur- 

 ing on the acquisitions of physiology in the last forty^years, or 

 to Prof. Hirschfeld, of Dresden, on mimic movements of the 

 countenance from a Darwinian point of view, and in the after- 

 noon listen to the military band at the foot of the old castle, 

 finishing ofl at the theatre in the evening. On Saturday Dr. 

 Nachtigal is to lecture, while the evening is to be devoted to 

 dancing. Sunday is the great day for excursions,;while Monday 

 and Tuesday are devoted to sectional work, with fireworks, 

 theatre, and concerts in the evenings. The session finishes on 

 September 24, with, among other things, a lecture on food 

 adulteration, by Dr. Skalweit, of Hanover. 



The biennial meeting of the International Astronomische 

 Gesellschaft will take place at Berlin on September 5-8 next. 

 Prof. Forster, director of the Royal Observatory, will, on appli- 

 cation, give more detailed information. 



Immediately after the meeting of the German Association 

 at Baden-Baden on September 14-24, the German Geological 

 Society will hold its general meeting at the same place, viz., on 

 September 25-28. 



The forty-seventh annual meeting of the British Medical 



Association was opened at Cork on Tuesday, Prof. O'Connor, of 

 Queen's College, Cork, being president. 



The Cameron Prize, recently founded in Edinburgh University 

 by the late Dr. A. R. Cameron, of New South Wales, " for the 

 most important addition to Practical Therapeutics in the past 

 year," has been awarded to Dr. Paul Bert, Professor in the 

 Faculty of Sciences, Paris, for his researches extending over a 

 series of years and summarised in his work entitled ' ' La Pression 

 Barometrique ; Recherches de Physiologic Experimentale " 

 (Paris, 1878). 



Me. Tegetmeier, we understand, lends his aid as regards 

 press-work of the reprints to be issued by the newly established 

 Willughby Society, which could not have a more efficient 

 director, as the fidelity of his reproduction of Moore's Colum- 

 harium and Boddaert's Table is enough to prove. 



On the morning of Sunday, August 3, a little before two 

 o'clock A.M., the Royal Gardens at Kew were devastated by a 

 hailstorm, which in the space of about ten minutes inflicted more 

 damage than the Gardens have sustained since their existence as 

 a national institution. After a rapid survey of the houses the 

 following day, it was found that the number of broken squares 

 of glass could not be estimated at less than 16,000. In the 

 great temperate house alone 3,000 squares were shattered. The 

 storm, which was accompanied by violent thunder and lightning, 

 drove over the gardens from the north-east, and expended its 

 greatest fury in the direction of Richmond. The temperate 

 house suffered the full effects, while the palm house being 

 apparently' a little to the west of its course, escaped with the 

 destruction of 700 panes. The hailstones were found to average 

 one and a half inches in diameter, and to weigh three-quarters of 

 an ounce. They came down with sufficient force to bury them- 

 selves in the bare earth of the flower borders, and even penetrate 

 the turf to the depth of an inch. In some cases perfectly 

 circular holes were cut out of the glass panes, while the hailstones 

 went through the succulent leaves of the Echeverias planted or.t 

 in the beds with as clean an outline as if it had been made with 

 a punch. On account of the confusion produced by the damage 

 and the danger from falling splinters of glass, it has been 

 necessary to close all the houses to the public. The present low 

 night-temperature, and the probability of heavy showers, are 

 grounds for the gravest anxiety as to the preservation of the 

 collections which, however speedy the repairs of the houses, 

 cannot fail to suffer considerable injury. The damage is esti- 

 mated at not less than 2,000/., as many of the houses being a 

 good deal dilapidated, cannot be put in order without entire 

 re-glazing, re-painting, and partial renewal, and application will 

 have to be made to Parliament for a supplementary vote to 

 defray the cost. 



While the Abbe Moigno will continue to edit Les Mondes, the 

 proprietorship has been converted, he informs us, in the last 

 number, into[a sort of joint-stock company, thereby relieving him 

 of all responsibility, and leaving him all his energy to carry on 

 his scientifico-religious propaganda. 



We learn that the late member of the St. Petersburg Academy, 

 Prof. Brandt, has left a mass of MSS. of great value. Among 

 this are two important works which he has left unfinished ; one 

 on the contributions made by the St. Petersburg Academy for 

 the advance of zoology, and a synopsis of the fauna of Russia. 

 The MSS. will be published by the numerous friends the late 

 Professor has left in the Academy, and by his son. 



The Royal Academy of Sciences at Munich has elected the 

 following gentle men as Corresponding Members of its physico- 

 mathematical class: — Prof. Edm. Hebert (Paris), Prof. J. F. 

 Pfaff (Erlangen), Prof. Theod. von Oppolzer (Vienna), Prof. 



