494 



NATURE 



[March 21, 1889 



imported, but advantage is taken of the well-known 

 natural laws which regulate the increase of life to effect in 

 this instance a salutary decrease. 



P. L. SC LATER. 



Zoological Society of London, 



3, Hanover Square, W., March i8, 1889. 



NOTES. 

 The number of candidates for the Fellowship of the Royal 

 Society this year is seventy-one, being about a dozen above the 

 average number. 



The contributions hitherto paid or promised in this country 

 towards the intended statue of G. S. Ohm amount to ^95 14?. bd. 

 from ninety-four subscribers. It is proposed that the subscription- 

 list shall be closed at the end of the present month, and we are 

 desired by the Committee to ask intending subscribers to send 

 their contributions as early as convenient to the Treasurer, 

 Dr. Hugo Miiller, F.R.S., 13 Park Square, N.W. 



A Committee was formed some time ago at Limoges for the 

 purpose of securing the erection of a statue of the great French 

 physicist and chemist, Gay-Lussac. The preliminary arrange- 

 ments have now been made, and the task of preparing the 

 statue has been intrusted to M. Millet, who expects to be 

 able to exhibit it at the Salon next year. 



We have to congratulate the Fishery Board for Scotland upon 

 the acquirement of the services of Dr. J. Beard, who for some 

 years has been working on the Continent. Dr. Beard's re- 

 searches into the development of fishes take rank among the 

 leading recent contributions to the subject, and they augur well 

 for the future work of the Board. We are pleased to see that 

 the members of this body are now issuing their scientific Bulletins 

 independently of their official Reports. 



Mr. W. E. Hoyle, late of the Challenger Office, has been 

 appointed to the Curatorship of the Manchester Museum in the 

 Owens College. The Museum Committee is fortunate in having 

 secured the services of so competent a man. 



A VALUABLE Collection of photographs, representing Alpine 

 and Caucasian scenery, taken by the late Mr. W. F. Donkin, 

 is now being exhibited at the Gainsborough Gallery, 25 Old 

 Bond Street. 



We regret to have to record the death, at a very early age, of 

 Mr. J. Reynolds Vaizey, a promising member of the younger 

 school of botanists at Cambridge. His best-known contributions 

 to botanical science are his papers in the first volume of the 

 Annals of Botany, on " The Transpiration of the Sporophore of 

 the Musci," and on "The Absorption of Water, and its Relation 

 to the Constitution of the Cell- wall in Mosses." Mr. Vaizey 

 was subject to epileptic fits, and, during one of these, received 

 fatal injuries from falling into the fire. 



The oldest botanical journal of Germany, Flora, hitherto 

 published at Regensburg, under the auspices of the Bavarian 

 Botanical Society, appears now, in its seventy-second year, 

 under a new form, issued at Marburg, under the editorship of 

 Prof. K. Goebel. In addition to original papers, it will contain 

 a resume of botanical work during the year in different depart- 

 ments. The first part under the new regime, for March, con- 

 tains important papers by Goebel, Pfeffer, Ludwig, J. Miiller, 

 and others. 



In the March number of the Kew Biclletin there are papers on 

 fibre industry at the Bahamas, hardy species of Eucalyptus, yam 

 bean. West African rubbers. Phylloxera in Asia Minor, botanical 

 -station at Lagos, and Chiga bread. 



At the meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society on March 12, corroborative information 

 was received from Mr. Plowright, of Lynn, regarding the occur- 

 rence, described at the previous meeting, of boughs of various 

 trees being broken off by the extraordinary growth of crystals 

 of rime upon them. As no snow had fallen during the period, 

 it was impossible to attribute the results to such a cause. There 

 had been excessive fog before January 7 ; the rime forming 

 upon the telephone wires, was so great that they were broken 

 down. The ice was deposited unilaterally like flat sheets of 

 glass, 1 1 to 2 inches in width on the south side. On the 8th 

 was a thaw. The result of the frost was that a birch had a 

 branch amounting to one-third of the tree broken off; the 

 smaller branches particularly suffered. The elms were most 

 injured, branches of all sizes being broken off, even large 

 arms, one measuring 5 feet 6 inches in circumference and 

 I foot 10 inches in diameter. To such an extent was the road- 

 way covered with debris, that the market carts were greatly im- 

 peded. Oaks, willows, and poplars also suffered ; but ashes 

 and Scotch firs escaped. Mr. Plowright noticed that fracture 

 without falling was a distinct feature of rime-injuries to trees, 

 excepting to willows and poplars, the vast majority of whose 

 branches fell to the ground. 



The Society established some months ago under the name of the 

 Gesellschaft Ui"ania has already issued the sixth monthly number 

 of its excellent magazine, Himmel und Erde, which is edited by 

 Dr. W. M. Meyer. The main object of the Society is to popu- 

 larize the accurate knowledge of scientific matters, by practical 

 demonstrations at the head-quarters in Berlin, and through the 

 medium of its magazine. Astronomy, as it always did and 

 always must, leads the way in this attempt to interest the general 

 public in science. Since it is expounded by such authorities as 

 Prof. Schiaparelli, whose illustrated article on Mars runs through 

 the first three numbers, it is evident that the Society does not 

 mean to sacrifice genuineness for the sake of popularity. Dr. 

 Scheiner, of the Potsdam Observatory, contributed an admirable 

 article to the January number, on the principles of spectrum 

 analysis and their application to celestial physics. Astronomical 

 articles have also been contributed by Prof. Foerster, Prof. 

 Seeliger, F. K. Ginzel, and others. Other subjects, however, 

 have not been neglected. A clear exposition of the proofs of 

 subsidence and elevation afforded by the pillars of the Temple' 

 of Jupiter Serapis was given by Dr. Brauns in the November 

 number. The January number also contains an excellent article 

 on the aurora, by Dr. Weinstein. The magazine is got up in an 

 attractive style, and is admirably illustrated. The Society has 

 purchased a 13-inch refractor, several microscopes, and other 

 apparatus for the demonstrations ; and it is their intention 

 to have models constructed to illustrate eclipses and other 

 phenomena. 



The Educational Society of Japan has, says the Japan 

 Weekly Mail, published and circulated a little volume con- 

 taining its programme, organization, and a list of its members. 

 It is worthy of note that, in the artistic device on the cover, 

 women are conspicuous, and the fact that women are carrying on 

 their studies side by side with men would seem to indicate that 

 the Society is desirous of recognizing the equality of the sexes. 

 No fewer than 5000 members have joined the ranks of the 

 Association, and a kind of committee or parliament is elected 

 by these for purposes of discussion and deliberation, consisting 

 of 200 deliberative members, seven councillors, seven sectional 

 presidents, and one president. 



An interesting step has been taken in Japan by the organiza- 

 tion of a branch of the Anthropological Society of Tokio, to be 

 called the "Maine Club," after the late Sir Henry S. Maine, 

 having for its object the investigation of the ancient laws and 



