June 9, 1898] 



NATURE 



3r 



an assistant, who has already been nominated, and an efficient 

 staff. The calves from which the vaccine lymph is taken will 

 he kept for the present at the Government calf establishment 

 near the Foundling Hospital, and the lymph will be taken 

 thence to the Thames Embankment in its pure state to be 

 prepared and stored in glycerine. 



We regret to announce that Mr. Henry Perigal, the treasurer 

 of the Ro)'al Meteorological Society, died on Monday at the 

 advanced age of ninety-seven years. Mr. Perigal was the 

 author of various works on astronomy, bicycloidal and other 

 curves, kinematics and the laws of motion, probable mode 

 if constructing the Pyramids, &c. He was a constant attendant 

 at the meetings of various London scientific societies until with- 

 in two years of his death. He was a Fellow of the Royal 

 Astronomical, Royal Microscopical, and Royal Meteorological 

 Societies, as well as a member of several other scientific 

 associations. 



The Times announces the death of the Rev. Percival Frost, 

 F.R.S., on Sunday last, in his eighty-first year. Born at Hull, 

 he was educated at Beverley, Oakham and Cambridge, where 

 he was second wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in 1839, 

 Fellow of St. John's College from that year until 1841, mathe- 

 matical lecturer at Jesus College from 1847 to 1859, mathe- 

 matical lecturer at King's College, Cambridge, from 1859 to 

 1889. He had been a Fellow of King's College since 1882, 

 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1883. Dr. 

 Frost was the author of treatises on " Curve Tracing," " Solid 

 Geometry," "The First Three Sections of 'Newton's Prin- 

 ciples,' " as also of numerous papers published in various 

 mathematical journals. 



Sir Robert Rawlinso.n, K.C.B., eminent by his works in 

 civil and sanitary engineering, died on Tuesday, May 31, at 

 the age of eighty-eight. He was a vice-president of the Society 

 of Arts, and from 1849 to 1888 was chief engineering inspector 

 of the Local Government Board. He took a foremost part in 

 the development of sanitary science, and as a member of the 

 Army Sanitary Commission in the Crimea was able to vindicate 

 the soundness of his sanitary teaching. The beneficial results 

 obtained by the Commission led to increased attention being 

 paid to sanitary requirements, and thus brought about a very 

 great reduction in the annual mortality of the British Army. 

 Sir Robert Rawlinson acted as chairman of the Royal Com- 

 mission on the Pollution of Rivers in 1866, and also served on 

 the Commission which inquired into the sanitary condition of 

 Dublin in 1879. He became a member of the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers in 1866, and president in 1894. At one period 

 he took a considerable part in the proceedings of that body, 

 discussing mostly questions connected with drainage and water 

 supply, of which his official position gave him a wide experience. 



It has already been announced that the autumn meeting of 

 the Iron and Steel Institute will take place at Stockholm on 

 Friday and Saturday, August 26 and 27 next. Particulars of the 

 special transport arrangements, which have been made for the 

 convenience of members attending the meeting, have now been 

 issued. A special steamer, of over 3000 tons, chartered by Dr. 

 H. S. Lunn and Mr. Woolrich Perowne, will leave Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne on Wednesday, August 17, and will proceed by way of 

 the Baltic Canal, Kiel and Wisby to Stockholm, where she will 

 lie, and serve as a floating hotel, from Thursday, August 25, to 

 Sunday, August 28. The return journey will be by way of 

 Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Christiania. Dr. Lunn and Mr. 

 J'erowne have also arranged for the S.S. St. Stinniva, a one- 

 thousand ton boat, to leave Leith on Saturday. August 20, pro- 

 ceeding by way of Christiania to Stockholm, where she will lie 

 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 26, 27 and 28, pro- 

 NO. 1493, VOL. 58] 



ceeding from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, and returning 

 by way of Copenhagen and the Baltic Canal. The Orient 

 Steam Navigation Company, Limited, have re-arranged the 

 itinerary of their pleasure cruise No. 3 to the Baltic, so 

 as to bring their S.S. Lusitania (3912 tons) to Stockholm- 

 on Thursday, August 25, and to keep her there until Sunday, 

 August 28. The itinerary includes visits to Copenhagen,. 

 Wisby, Stockholm, Kronstadt, St. Petersburg, Kiel, and the 

 Baltic Canal. The Great Eastern Railway Company has 

 promised to afford special facilities to members travelling by the 

 Continental route. The arrangements which are being made by 

 the Local Reception Committee for the instruction and pleasure 

 of the members, and the ladies accompanying them, are making 

 satisfactory progress, and the detailed programme will be issued 

 in due course. 



In view of the forthcoming conference of representatives of 

 Sea Fishery Committees convened by the Board of Trade, a 

 preliminary meeting of the representatives was held on Tuesday 

 at the Guildhall, Westminster, to obtain a consensus of opinioi> 

 on the subjects which are to be considered. It was resolved 

 that a deputation should urge on the Government the need of 

 legislation to protect immature sea fish and the enlargement of 

 the powers of Sea F,ishery Committees. A resolution was also 

 carried in favour of the formation of an association of Fishery 

 Committees. 



The Belgian Government having decided to offer a premium 

 of 50,000 francs to the inventor of a paste for matches which 

 will be free from white phosphorus and which will ignite on 

 cloth or any other surface, a Ministerial decree has been issued, 

 determining the conditions. The competition will be inter- 

 national in character, and will remain open until January l,^ 

 1899. Communications on the subject are to be addressed to 

 M. Woeste, the president of the Comfnission appointed tO' 

 adjudicate, at 2 Rue Laterale, Brussels. 



Herr N. a. Moller, in Eberswalde, has sent us a com- 

 munication in which he states that he has undertaken a labour 

 of love which will not be easy unless he is helped by n^any who 

 are in the position to assist him. Fritz Miiller, the naturalist, 

 an old friend of his, died in Brazil, and Herr Moller wishes to 

 raise a monument to his name by publishing a work which will 

 contain an account of his life, character, method of work, his 

 most important letters, and if po.ssible his most valuable scientific 

 writings. With this intention Herr Moller requests all those of 

 our readers who possess any manuscripts, letters, &c. , which 

 may be found useful in such a biography, to forward them to 

 him in Eberswalde, where they will be taken the greatest care 

 of and returned when finished with. 



A SYLLABUS prepared by Mr. R. De C. Ward, containing an 

 outline of requirements in meteorology, intended for use ia 

 preparing students for admission to Harvard College and the 

 Lawrence Scientific School, affords evidence that careful and 

 systematic work in meteorology is given more encouragement 

 in the United States than it receives here. The scheme of work 

 indicated in the syllabus will train the student to scientific 

 methods of investigation, and will make him to some extent a 

 thinker and investigator on his own account. 



In our issue of April 8, 1897 (vol. Iv. p. 542), we drew 

 attention to an important investigation by Dr. O. Pettersson, 

 with the object of showing that certain relations existed between 

 the behaviour of the Gulf Stream and the subsequent general 

 character of the weather over Europe, the results of which were 

 based upon observations made during about twenty years at 

 three stations on the Norwegian coast. In the Meteorologische 

 Zeitschrift for March last, Dr. W. Meinhardus, of Berlin, con- 

 tinues the investigation in an article entitled, "On some 



