206 



NATURE 



[JUNE 30, 1898 



NOTES. 



The centenary of the Paris Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers 

 was celebrated on Friday last. The Priory of Saint-Martin- 

 des-Champs, where the collections of the Conservatoire are 

 installed, contains fourteen thousand exhibits. Seventeen pro- 

 fessors hold evening classes in the building, and there are eight 

 laboratories, one of photography and photometry being a recent 

 addition. The Academy of Sciences has on several occasions 

 presented objects of scientific interest to the museum of the 

 Conservatoire, among them being its collection of machines, 

 physical apparatus, and part of the contents of Lavoisier's 

 laboratory. 



The programme of the fourth International Congress of 

 Zoology, to be held at Cambridge in August, has been issued. 

 The meeting will open on Monday, August 22, with a reception 

 at the Guildhall by the Mayor of Cambridge. On the following 

 day, the formal opening of the Congress and election of officers 

 will take place in the morning, and the Sections will meet in 

 the afternoon. The Sections will be : (a) General Zoology ; 

 {b) Vertebrata ; {c) Invertebrata (except the Arthropoda) ; {d) 

 Arthropoda. On Wednesday, August 24, there will be a general 

 meeting of the Congress to discuss the position of sponges in the 

 animal kingdom. The discussion will be opened by Prof. Yves 

 Delage, of Paris, and Mr. Minchin, of Oxford. On Thursday 

 a general meeting will be held to discuss the origin of Mammals. 

 The discussion will be opened by Prof. H. F. Osborn, of New 

 York, and Prof. Seeley, of London. The Sections will meet on 

 Friday, August 26, and on Saturday a general meeting will be 

 held to settle the time and place of the fifth International 

 Congress. 



We notice with regret the announcements of the deaths of 

 wo distinguished botanists : Prof. Anton Kerner, Ritter von 

 Marilaun, professor of systematic botany in the University of 

 Vienna, and Prof. Ferdinand Cohn, professor of botany in the 

 University of Breslau. 



The tenth Congress of Russian Naturalists and Physicians 

 will be held at Kieff on August 21-30, under the presidency of 

 Prof. J. Rachmaninow. 



M. E. A. Martel, whose researches in underground caverns 

 have often been referred to in these columns, has been created a 

 Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, 



At the annual general meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, 

 held on Tuesday, it was announced that the subject of the essays 

 for the Howard medal, which will be awarded in 1899, with 20/. 

 as heretofore, is "The Sentences on, and Punishments of, 

 Juvenile Offenders in the Chief European Countries and the 

 United [States." The essays should be sent in on or before 

 June 30, 1899. 



A DESTRUCTIVE earthquake was experienced in some parts of 

 Italy on Monday night. The shock was felt all along the 

 Antrodoco valley, and several buildings were thrown down in 

 the commune of Santa Rufina. The disturbance was felt at 

 Rieti shortly after midnight. 



Captain Sverdrup's polar expedition on board the Frain 

 left Christiania on Friday morning. 



A Reuter telegram from Tromso reports that Mr. Walter 

 Wellman, the American explorer, left on Monday on board his 

 ice steamer Frithyof for the North Polar regions. Just before 

 his departure from England Mr. Wellman gave to Renter's 

 representative an account of his expedition, in which he said 

 that his aim was to reach the North Pole, and also to explore 

 the still unknown northern parts of Franz Josef Land. The 

 party consists of Prof. James H. Gore, Columbia University, 

 NO. 1496, VOL. 58] 



a geodesist ; Lieut. Evelyn B. Baldwin, who was on the 

 Greenland ice cap with Lieut. Peary ; Dr. Edward Hofma, 

 naturalist and medical officer ; and Mr. Quirof Plarlan, physicist, 

 from the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Nor- 

 wegians experienced in Arctic work make up the remainder of 

 the party of ten. Mr. Wellman proposes to reach the Pole by 

 a sledging expedition over the pack ^e. 



The Geologists' Association have arranged an excursion to 

 Birmingham from July 28 to August 3, under the direction of 

 Prof. C. Lapworth, F.R.S., Prof. W. W. Watts, Mr. W. J. 

 Harrison, and Mr. W. Wickham King. A sketch of the geology 

 of the Birmingham district, with special reference to thi& 

 excursion, will be given at the meeting of the Association to- 

 morrow, July I, 



Mr. Walter E. Archer, Inspector of Salmon Fisheries- 

 under the Fishery Board for Scotland, has been appointed Chief 

 Inspector of Fisheries to the Board of Trade, in succession to 

 Mr. A. D. Berrington, who has retired. On Mr. Berrington's 

 retirement, the Fisheries Department and the Harbour Depart- 

 ment of the Board of Trade have been combined into one 

 department, which will be called the Fisheries and Harbour 

 Department, and will be under the charge of the Hon. T. H. W. 

 Pelham, as Assistant Secretary. 



The death is announced of Dr. Charles E. Emery, the well- 

 known American engineer. Dr. Emery was a member of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, and received a Watt medal and 

 Telford premium for a paper in which he described the plant 

 constructed by him at New York for the house-to-house dis- 

 tribution of steam raised in a central boiler. He was a prominent 

 member of the principal American engineering societies, and 

 was president of the New York Electrical Society in 1896-97. 

 He also held the post of non-resident professor of the Cornell 

 University. 



The Committee appointed to consider the present state of 

 the law with regard to the storage, transport, and sale of petro- 

 leum have decided to recommend Parliament to raise the legal 

 flash-point of oil from 73° F. to 100° F. It is believed that com- 

 paratively few lamp accidents will occur when the use, as an 

 illuminant, of oil with a flash-point below 100° F. is forbidden ; 

 but unless the suggested legislation also provides against the 

 construction and sale of lamps with glass re.servoirs and of faulty 

 design, the raising of the flash-point of the oil burned in these 

 lamps will only partly prevent the accidents. 



The annual general meeting of the British Institute of Pre- 

 ventive Medicine was held on Friday, June 24, at Chelsea. The 

 meeting was attended by the Duke of Westminster, Earl of 

 Feversham, Lord Lister, Dr. Pye-Smith, Dr. Thomas Bridg- 

 water, and others. The Report states that during the year the 

 work of the Institute has been marked by progression and 

 expansion. The internal fittings of the new building are in an 

 advanced state, some departments are already in full operation, 

 and it is confidently anticipated that all will be fully equipped 

 in the early autumn. The demand for diphtheria and strepto- 

 coccus serum has increased, and there has also been an increased 

 demand for mallein and tuberculin. The Institute has rented 

 laboratory accommodation to the Local Government Board for 

 the purpose of preparing glycerinated calf lymph. The volume 

 of Transactions, published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. on 

 behalf of the Institute, contained nine original contributions by 

 members of the staff. A number of fresh investigations have 

 been conducted and completed during the year ; some of these 

 are published, and others are on the eve of publication. There 

 are also other investigations in progress, and the laboratories 

 continue to attract research workers. The Institute has 

 endeavoured to encourage the periodical examination of wate^ 



