March 28, 1889] 



NATURE 



517 



botanists to attend a Botanical Congress to be held in Paris dur- 

 ing the second half of August in the present year, and to present 

 treatises on botanical subjects, pure or applied, that may be 

 most familiar to them, with the view of promoting discussion on 

 them. The following subjects are especially proposed for con- 

 sideration : — ( I ) The usefulness of establishing joint action between 

 the different Botanical Societies and Museums for the purpose of 

 preparing accurate maps of the distribution of species and genera 

 of plants over the globe, a work similar to that undertaken by In- 

 ternational Geological Congresses. An Exhibition of maps, books, 

 <5rw^?/r«, photographs, &c. , relating to botanical geography will be 

 held, during the Congress, at its place of meeting. (2) Characters 

 for classification furnished by anatomy. Botanists intending to be 

 present at the Congress should send in their names, before June I, 

 to M. P. Maury, the Secretary of the Organizing Committee, 

 84 Rue de Crenelle, Paris, when they will receive special invita- 

 tions, and info rmation as to the day and place of meeting. The 

 titles of papers proposed to be read, or of verbal communications, 

 should be fo rwarded as early as possible. 



We reprint from the Times of March 26 the following obituary 

 notice : — *' We have to record the death, at a ripe age, of a man 

 whose name is well known and honoured wherever the science 

 of naval architecture is studied. Joseph Woolley, M. A., LL.D., 

 F.R.A.S., formerly Principal of the School of Mathematics and 

 Naval Construction at Portsmouth, and subsequently, for many 

 years, the Admiralty Director of Education, died at Sevenoaks 

 -on Sunday, after a few days' illness. Trained at Cambridge, 

 where he was a Fellow of St. John's College, he was selected in 

 1848 as the head of the Technical School founded in that year by 

 the Admiralty. He continued to hold that office until the school 

 was discontinued in 1853. When a School of Naval Architecture 

 was again founded, on other lines, at South Kensington, in 1864, 

 Dr. Woolley was appointed Inspector-General by the Com- 

 mittee of Council on Education, and he continued to super- 

 intend the school until his retirement from active Ijfe. In 

 1850 he published a "Treatise on Descriptive Geometry," 

 which is widely known as a text-book. In i860, when the 

 Institution of Naval Architects was founded, very largely 

 by his own personal influence, Dr. Woolley opened its pro- 

 ceedings by an address on "The present state of the mathe- 

 matical theory of naval architecture." He enriched the Trans- 

 actions of the Institution with frequent contributions on all 

 current questions presenting any peculiar difficulty. He was a 

 member of the Committee on Designs in 1871, and of other im- 

 portant Naval Committees. He was for many years in holy 

 orders, but he relinquished them later in life, although he con- 

 tinued to be to the last a devout worshipper in the Church of 

 England. He was a man who was much loved by all who were 

 privileged to work with him. " 



We regret to learn that Prof. Donders died at Utrecht on 

 Sunday. 



Two physiologists of note have recently died : Prof. Kruken- 

 berg, of Jena, well known for his researches in invertebrate 

 physiology, and R. Gscheideln, of Breslau, the author of a 

 " Physiologische Methodik," which unfortunately remains un- 

 fmished. 



We learn from Science that Captain John Ericsson, whose 

 death, at New York, we lately recorded, continued to labour at 

 his sun-motor until within two weeks of his death. "Ashe saw 

 his end approaching, he expressed regret only because he could 

 not live to give this invention to the world in completed form. 

 It occupied his thoughts up to his last hour. While he could 

 hardly speak above a whisper, he drew his chief engineer's face 

 close to his own, gave him final instructions for continuing the 

 work on the machine, and exacted a promise that the work 



should go on. " Science says that the respect shown at Captain 

 Ericsson's funeral was such as is seldom seen at that of a private 

 citizen. " The streets in the neighbourhood of his late residence 

 were crowded from the early morning hours with thousands, who 

 for four hours passed through the house to pay homage to the 

 departed genius. New York is a place full of human beings, — so 

 full that each pays little or no heed to his neighbour ; yet the 

 great respect for this man of science and of action was shown in 

 the number and character of those who followed his remains to 

 their resting-place, in the uncovered heads as they were borne 

 along the busy streets, and in the impossibility of admitting to 

 Trinity all that wished. Ericsson was a man who could have 

 endeared many to him, but he had a strong sense of duty to his 

 work, which induced him to make few friends. This final 

 homage of the unmindful crowds of the great city was to his 

 genius well applied." 



A GIFT of some scientific as well as artistic interest has just 

 been made to the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, by Miss 

 Mary Anne Nicholl. She has presented to the Academy fifty- 

 six studies in water-colours of the palms and foilage plants and 

 fruits of Ceylon, painted by her late father, Andrew Nicholl, 

 R.H. A., who held the first appointment of Master of Landscape 

 Painting, Engineering, Drawing, and Design, in the Colombo 

 Academy. The studies are accompanied with a list of the names 

 of the flora. 



At the distribution of prizes to students of the Polytechnic 

 Institute, Regent Street, on Monday, Mr. W. T. Paton was 

 able to give a good account of the past year's work. The num- 

 ber over and above the usual attendance had been, he said 

 considerably more than 1000, and they now had 7000 members, 

 who were attending classes there. The Lord Mayor, who gave 

 away the prizes, spoke of the advance which had lately been 

 made in technical education, and of the good influence exerted 

 by the Polytechnic Institute. The Committee wished him to 

 say that they had now annexed the West End School of Art to 

 the Institute. Further funds would be required to carry on 

 the work. The Charity Commissioners would provide ;^3 1,000 

 for endowment if another ;^4000 were forthcoming. 



The Geographical Society of Bremen has commissioned Dr. 

 Kiickenthal, of Jena, to undertake another journey to the Arctic 

 regions, in order to make zoological researches. He will start 

 for Spitzbergen at the end of April, and is expected to return in 

 October next. 



Prof. Franz Exner, of Vienna, who has spent some months 

 in Ceylon studying atmospheric electricity there, is now on his 

 way back to Europe. A grant was made by the Vienna 

 Academy of Sciences in aid of his scientific work. 



The new Natural History Museum at Vienna will be opened 

 to the public in the summer, and it is expected that the rich 

 collections will attract large numbers of visitors. 



Dr. J. Hann, Director of the Austrian Meteorological 

 Service, has laid before the Vienna Academy of Sciences an 

 exhaustive investigation of the diurnal range of the barometer 

 over the globe. He has calculated the harmonic coefficients for 

 each month, and for the year, for a large number of places, and 

 has investigated the variation both of the phases and of the 

 amplitudes of the single and double daily oscillations. The latter 

 show a remarkable independence of geographical and seasonal in- 

 fluence (as before pointed out byLamont and others), and appear 

 to be connected with a cosmical origin. The investigation also 

 shows that the amplitudes of the semi-diurnal oscillation decrease 

 with height in exact proportion to the pressure, and have a 

 marked dependence upon latitude. The yearly range exhibits 

 two maxima at the periods of the equinoxes, and also a third 

 maximum which falls in January in both hemispheres, while 



