November i, 1900] 



NATURE 



II 



difficult to imagine, and unless new accommodation be speedily 

 provided for its inmates, the winter's mortality amongst them 

 must be very great. We understand that plans for the erection of 

 new planthouses have for some time been under consideration, 

 and it is much to be hoped that they may be followed by tangible 

 results with as little delay as possible. Under the new regime, 

 the garden, with its increased resources, is proving of great use 

 to institutions in which botany forms part of the curriculum, and 

 it would be a great pity if, owing to avoidable damage, its grow- 

 ing utility should be impaired. 



It is stated in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical 

 Society that the Steiner prizes of six thousand marks, which 

 were not awarded, owing to no papers being presented, have 

 been divided into three parts which have been given to Prof. 

 Karl Friedrich Geiser, Zurich, for his researches in geometry 

 and his services in the publication of Steiner's lectures ; to Prof. 

 David Hilbert, Gottingen, for his researches on the axioms of 

 geometry and for the advancement which analytic geometry hag 

 experienced from his work on the theory of of invariants, and to 

 Prof. Ferdinand Lindemann, Munich, who has earned special 

 distinction in geometry by his celebrated discussion of the quad- 

 rature of the circle, as well as by editing Clebsch's " Vorlesungen 

 iiber Geometric." 



The Senate of New York University has (says Science) 

 received and confirmed the votes of its judges selecting thirty 

 eminent native-born Americans whose names are to be in- 

 scribed in the " Hall of Fame," now in course of construction 

 on University Heights, New York City. The Americans 

 selected as the most eminent are distributed as follows : Rulers 

 and statesmen, 7 ; authors, 4 ; inventors, 4 ; preachers and 

 theologians, 3 ; judges and lawyers, 3 ; soldiers and sailors, 3 ; 

 men of science, 2 ; philanthropists, 2 ; educators, i ; painters, 

 I. The inventors on this list are Fulton, Morse, Whitney and 

 Howe, and the men of science Audubon and Gray. Franklin 

 is of course also included. Of the hundred judges appointed, 

 ninety-seven voted and the votes cast for men of science were as 

 follows: John James Audubon, 67; Asa Gray, 51; Joseph 

 Henry, 44 ; Matthew Fontaine Maury, 20 ; Benjamin Thomp- 

 son, 19; Benjamin Silliman, 16; Benjamin Peirce, 14; 

 Nathaniel Bowditch, 10 ; Alexander B. Bache, 9 ; Spencer 

 Baird, 8 ; Henry Draper, 8 ; Maria Mitchell, 7 ; David Ritten- 

 house, 6. Twenty further names are to be selected in 1902 by 

 the same judges. 



Reference has already been made to the medal which the 

 Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of 

 Australasia has decided to award. From a circular that has 

 reached us, we learn that the medal has been instituted in 

 recognition of Mr. J. P. Thomson's services to the Society, and 

 is to be called " The Thomson Foundation Medal." It will be 

 awarded annually, or at such other times as the Council may 

 approve, to the author of the best original contribution to 

 • geographical literature. 



In memory of the late Dr. R. T. Manson, F.G.S., a well- 

 known naturalist and geologist, a large granite boulder has been 

 taken from the bed of the River Tees and placed on a pedestal 

 in the Public Park, Darlington. The stone weighs about twelve 

 tons, and it is admitted to have come originally from Shap, in 

 Westmorland, in the Great Ice Age. It had been deposited 300 

 yards above Winston Bridge on the shape and limestone bed of 

 the Tees, where the formation is of the carboniferous age. 



The Board of Education have received, through the Foreign 

 Office, copies of the official translation of the statutes and regula- 

 tions of the Nobel Bequest. It will be remembered that Dr. 

 Nobel left a large sum, the interest on which was to be devoted 

 to prizes to those who in the course of the previous year should 

 have rendered the greatest service to mankind. The amount 



NO. 1618, VOL. 63] 



thus available was to be divided into five equal parts, to be 

 assigned as follows." — (i) To the most important discovery or 

 invention in the domain of the physical sciences ; (2) To the 

 most important discovery or improvement in chemistry ; {3) To 

 the most important discovery in physiology or medicine ; (4) To 

 the most remarkable literary work (I'ouvrage litteraire le plus 

 remarquable dans le sens de I'idealisme) ; and (5) To the person 

 who should have rendered the greatest service in the cause of 

 international brotherhood, in the suppression or reduction of 

 standing armies or in the establishment or furtherance of Peace 

 Congresses. The competition was open to the whole world. It 

 has been found necessary to embody the testator's wishes in a 

 somewhat lengthy and complicated body of statutes. The 

 Board of Education are causing copies of the official translation 

 in French) of these statutes to be transmitted to a number of 

 the chief libraries in England and Wales, to the Universities and 

 University Colleges, to a number of learned societies and to the 

 Press. The regulations for the competition (which will, if 

 possible, be held for the first time in 19C1) can thus be consulted 

 by persons interested in the matter. 



It is proposed to publish in separate volumes the lectures 

 on the principles of geology, delivered at the Johns Hopkins 

 University, under the George Huntington Memorial Fund ; and 

 subscriptions for the volumes are invited by Prof. W. Bullock 

 Clark, Baltimore,' Maryland, U.S.A. The lectures have been 

 given by geologists of international reputation, a fund having 

 been provided for that purpose by the generosity of Mrs. 

 Williams, who thus commemorates the name and work of her 

 husband, formerly professor of inorganic geology in the 

 Johns Hopkins University. The lectureship was inaugu- 

 rated in April, 1897, by Sir Archibald Geikie, who delivered 

 six lectures on "The Founders of Geology," which have 

 already been published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. A 

 second course was given in April, 1900, by Prof. W. C. 

 Brogger, who delivered two lectures on the principles of a 

 genetic classification of the igneous rocks, followed by five 

 lectures on the late geological history of Scandinavia, as shown 

 by changes of level and climate since the close of the glacial 

 epoch. Other lectures will be delivered from time to time and 

 will be published in a uniform style. The volumes will thus 

 contain authoritative opinions regarding the fundamental facts 

 of geological science. 



The first place in the Quarterly Review is given to a de- 

 scriptive account of malaria and its relation to mosquitoes, in 

 which some of the facts in seven recent volumes and reports 

 dealing with the subject are considered. To any one who has 

 not had before him the statistics as to the number of deaths 

 from malaria, the mortality from the disease is astonishing. It 

 has been said that one half the mortality of the human race is 

 due to malaria, and though this may very well be an exaggera- 

 tion, the figures given in the review show the deadly character 

 of the disease and the vast extent of its field of activity. 

 Apart from the mortality, it is stated that the disease probably 

 levies a heavier tribute in the capacity of the officers and officials 

 who administer the British Empire than does any other single 

 agency. Laveran's discovery, in 1880, of the small organism 

 responsible for the disease is, therefore, worthy of greater glory 

 than the victories of any general or the triumph of any political 

 party, for it has greater influence upon human affairs. Lan- 

 kester had previously described a parasitic organism living in 

 the blood-cells of a frog, and these purely scientific observations 

 laid the foundation for the mosquito- malaric theory propounded 

 by Dr. Manson, and established by the brilliant researches of 

 Ross, Grassi, Bastianelli, Bignami and others. The whole 

 story is told in the review, and it affords another instance of the 

 far-reaching value of scientific work which at the commencement 

 appears to have no practical applications. 



