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NATURE 



[June 2, 1898 



and the interest taken in its meetings. From its foundation up 

 to the date referred to (fifty-four years) eighteen volumes of the 

 Transactions in quarto had been published. During the succeed- 

 ing fifty-four years about double that amount have been produced 

 in the same form, besides fifty-eight volumes of the lournal in 

 octavo, which latter was not commenced till 1857. 



Then as regards attendance at the meetings during the first 

 years of my fellowship, it was miserably small. If my memory 

 does not deceive me, I recall a night in Soho Square when only 

 five Fellows supported the President and Secretary. There was 

 a dearth of papers too, and the discussion of such as were 

 brought forward was discountenanced by the chair. All this is 

 now happily a thing of the past, and I should not have alluded 

 to those bad times had not the Society given proof of that in- 

 herent vitality which supported it under a temporary depression, 

 and subsequently raised it to its present position. 



It remains, sir, to thank you cordially for coupling my father's 

 name with my own in this award, but for which, indeed, I could 

 not have accepted it without a protest. I inherited from him 

 my love of knowledge for its own sake, but this would have 

 availed me little were it not for the guiding hand of one who 

 had himself attained scientific eminence ; who by example, 

 precept and encouragement kept me to the paths which I should 

 follow ; launched me in the fields of exploration and research, 

 liberally aided me during his lifetime, and paved for me the way 

 to the position he so long held at Kew with so great credit to 

 himself, and benefit especially to our Indian and Colonial 

 possessions. 



The gold medal of the Linnean Society was received 

 on behalf of Surgeon- Major Wallich by his son, and, in 

 presenting it, Dr. Gunther spoke as follows :— 



The gold medal of the Society is awarded this year to a 

 zoologist, to Dr. George Charles Wallich. Although Dr. 

 Wallich's scientific work commenced some years before, it was 

 the year i860 in which he entered upon the line of inquiry 

 with which his name will be ever associated. On the recom- 

 mendation of Sir Roderick Murchison and Prof. Huxley he was 

 attached in that year as naturalist to H.M.S. Bulldog, on her 

 voyage across the Atlantic to survey the sea bottom for the 

 laying of the proposed Atlantic cable. The materials obtained 

 by the sounding operations were slender ; but in working them 

 out, Dr. Wallich showed that he had already grasped all the 

 principal problems of deep-sea research. To the solution of 

 these problems he applied his wide range of knowledge, the 

 soundness and power of his reasoning, his originality and in- 

 dependence of thought. His work, " The North Atlantic Sea- 

 Bed," incomplete as it is, stands as a lasting record of the pro- 

 gress made by him in our knowledge of deep-sea life, and of the 

 impetus which he gave to subsequent deep-sea exploration. 



For more than twenty years he continued to work in the same 

 line of inquiry, and in investigating collateral subjects, notably 

 the life-history, structure and relationships ot those unicellular 

 organisms which play so important a part in pelagic and 

 bathybial life, the lithological identity of the ancient chalk 

 formation, and of the calcareous deposits in the oceans of the 

 present time. 



The remarkable results which he obtained in his investiga- 

 tions were due not only to his accuracy and keenness as an 

 observer, but also to the ingenuity of the methods applied by 

 him. Thus at a time when our modern micro-chemical 

 methods were unknown, he employed the electric discharge as a 

 means of differentiating the nucleus, and he determined the 

 excretory function of the contractile vacuole. 



Your Council were of opinion that work of such originality, 

 advancing so many branches of biology, was peculiarly fit to be 

 honoured by the award of the Linnean medal. 



NOTES. 



We notice with deep regret the announcement that Lord 

 Playfair died on Sunday. The funeral will take place on 

 Saturday at St. Andrews, Fifeshire. 



We are requested to state that the Chemical Society's banquet 

 to the past presidents on June 9, and also Dr. Mond's garden 

 party on June 10, are postponed in consequence of the death 

 of Lord Playfair, the senior past president and the last surviving 

 founder of the Society. 



NO. 1492, VOL. 58] 



The Ladies Soiree of the Royal Society will take place next 

 Wednesday, June 8. 



Sir William H. Flower, K.C.B., has received, from the 

 German Emperor, the Royal Prussian order "Pour le Merite" 

 for Science and Art, 



The death is announced of Prof F. Miiller, distinguished for 

 his works on ethnology and philology. 



Prof. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., has been elected a foreign 

 honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, in succession to the late Prof. J. J. Sylvester. 



An exhibition of specimens of practical work of candidates at 

 the technological examinations of the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute will be opened at the Imperial Institute next Thursday, 

 June 9, by the Right Hon. Lord Herschell. 



The Albert Medal of the Society of Arts for the present year 

 has been awarded, with the approval of the Prince of Wales, 

 the President of the Society, to Prof. Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, 

 Foreign Member of the Royal Society, "in recognition of his 

 numerous and most valuable applications of chemistry and 

 physics to the arts and to manufactures." 



Information of the death of Mr, W, M. Maskell, Registrar 

 of the University of New Zealand, has been received by the 

 Entomologisf s Monthly Magazine. Mr. Maskell was well 

 known for his researches in Coccida ; he also published papers 

 on Aleicrodidce and Psyllida amongst insects, and on Desmids in 

 microscopic botany. The majority of his papers have appeared 

 in the Transactions of the. New Zealand Institute, the first 

 having been published in 1879. At first he restricted himself 

 to the species found in New Zealand, but later on those of 

 Australia (especially the curious gall-making Brachyscelidic), 

 Asia, &c., came under his notice, he having become a recognised 

 authority on the subject of Coccida. He usually published at 

 least one paper a year in New Zealand, the later ones being 

 lengthy, and all copiously illustrated by his own drawings. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times announces that the 

 German steamship Helgoland has just started on an expedition 

 to the North Pole. The ship is built entirely of steel. She 

 carries on board provisions for thirteen months and four boats, 

 two of which she picks up at Tromso. Special care has. been 

 taken in the selection of her crew, some eleven in all. The 

 leader of the expedition, Herr Theodor Lerner, is accompanied 

 by Dr. Briihl, Dr. Romer, and Dr. Schaudien, who are all 

 experienced travellers and men of science. Two other expedi- 

 tions — both of American origin — are about to set out with the 

 object of reaching the North Pole. Lieut. Peary will attempt 

 the Pole from North Greenland, while Mr. Walter Wellman 

 will make the effort from Franz Josef Land. Mr. Wellman is 

 now in London, and will leave in a few days for Tromso, Nor- 

 way, where his ice steamer, the Frithyof, is ready for him, and 

 whence she will sail in about three weeks for the Far North. 

 In his party are Prof. James H. Gore, of Columbia University, 

 who will make gravity determinations in Franz Josef Land ; 

 Lieut. Evelyn B. Baldwin, of the United States Weather 

 Bureau, who was on the Greenland ice cap with Lieut. Peary, 

 and who is an accomplished meteorologist and geologist ; Dr. 

 Edward Hofma, of the University of Michigan, naturalist and 

 medical officer ; and Mr. Quirof Harlan, physicist from the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, a Norwegian 

 experienced in Arctic work. 



The Home Secretary has appointed Dr. Oliver, of Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne, and Dr. T. E. Thorpe, F. R.S , Government Analyst, 

 as experts to proceed to the Potteries for the purpose of inquiring 



