July 14, 1898] 



NA TURE 



253 



Science states that the New York City Board of Estimates and 

 Apportionment has authorised the reissue of 375,000 dollars in 

 bonds for the construction of buildings for the botanical garden 

 in Bronx Park. Work on the museum building is being carried 

 forward, the contract calling for its completion early next year. 



Prof, von Rontgkn has been awarded the Elliot-Cresson 

 medal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. 



Sir George Stokes, Bart., F.R.S., will deliver his presi- 

 dential address before the Victoria Institute at the annual 

 meeting on Monday, July 18. 



As we go to press the annual meeting of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry is being held at Nottingham, under the 

 presidency of Dr. F. Clowes. During the meeting the Society's 

 medal will be presented to Dr. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S. 



The French Botanical Association has elected M. G. Rouy 

 of Asnieres as its president for the year. The annual meeting 

 will be held from August 3 to 12, and will be devoted to an 

 exploration of the environs of Gap, Brianson, and du Lauteret. 



Sir Joseph Fayrer, Bart., K.C.S.I., F.R.S., &c., has been 

 elected a governor of Wellington College. 



The U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries has made 

 arrangements for a biological survey of Lake Erie. The work 

 will be under the direction of Prof. Jacob Reighard of the 

 University of Michigan, with whom will be associated Dr. H. 

 B. Ward, of the University of Nebraska, Dr. H. S. Jennings, 

 of the Montana College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, 

 Dr. J. Shaw, of Ann Arbor, Mr. A. J. Pieters, of the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture, and a number of other assistants. 

 Experimental work will be a prominent feature of the survey, 

 and among other problems to be considered are the rate of growth 

 of fishes ; the food of young fishes reared from the egg, and the 

 changes in their regimen during growth ; the source of food of 

 aquatic rooted plants ; the life-histories of food fishes reared in 

 aquaria or ponds, and of certain aquatic insects and other in- 

 vertebrates ; the rate of increase of the plankton as a whole, 

 and of its individual constituents. There will also be systematic 

 studies of the habits, migrations, distribution and food of the 

 fishes and other organisms of the lake. At the beginning of 

 the work Prof. Reighard and Dr. Ward will devote a consider- 

 able amount of time to plankton problems, especially the per- 

 fection of methods and apparatus ; Dr. Snow will carry on ex- 

 perimental work on the alg?e ; Dr. Jennings will undertake 

 experimental researches on the protozoa, and Mr. Pieters will 

 pursue studies of the aquatic flora. The summer headquarters 

 of the survey will be at the Government hatching station at Put- 

 in-Bay, South Bass Island, Ohio. Lake Erie affords an excel- 

 lent field for work of this character, on account of its varied 

 fauna, diversified physical features, extensive fishing interests, 

 and the recent serious depletion of the supply of certain valu- 

 able food fishes. The investigations, it is stated, may ultimately 

 be extended to some of the other Great Lakes. 



The fourth International Congress of Agriculture will be held 

 at Lausanne from September 12 to 17 next, under the patronage 

 of the Swiss Department of Agriculture. The work of the 

 Congress will be divided into the following sections :— Rural 

 economy, agricultural education, forestry, dairying, stock breed- 

 ing, agricultural industries, viticulture, protection of birds, 

 insect and other pests. Those who desire to join the Congress 

 as members (subscription 20 francs) are requested to send in 

 their names to M. S. Bieler, Director of the Agricultural 

 Institute, Champ de I'Air, Lausanne, before the isth instant. 

 NO. 1498, VOL. 58] 



Copies of the preliminary programme may be obtained in this 

 country on application to Sir Ernest Clarke, Secretary of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society, at 13 Hanover Square, W. 



As has already been announced, the autumn meeting of the • 

 Iron and Steel Institute will be held in Stockholm on Friday 

 and Saturday, August 26 and 27. An interesting and varied 

 programme has been prepared by the local committee, and 

 seven papers have been promised, two being by Swedish 

 metallurgists. Mr. Richard Ackerman, Director General of 

 the Swedish Board of Trade, an honorary member of the 

 Institute, and a Bessemer gold medallist, will read a paper on 

 the development of the Swedish iron industry, whilst Prof. G. 

 Nordenstrom, of the School of Mines, Stockholm, will submit a 

 communication on the most prominent and characteristic features 

 of Swedish iron ore mining. Mr. C. P. Sandberg will discuss 

 the danger of using rails of too hard a nature, whilst Prof. 

 W. C. Roberts- Austen, C.B., F.R.S., will describe the action 

 of explosives on the tubes of steel guns. The chemical side of 

 metallurgy will be represented by three papers. The first will 

 be by Mr. J. E. Stead, on brittleness in steel produced by 

 annealing ; the second by Prof. J. O. Arnold, of University 

 College, Sheffield, on the micro-chemistry of cementation ; 

 whilst the subject of the third paper will be the influence of 

 metalloids on cast iron, by Mr. Guy R. Johnson, of Tennessee, 

 U.S.A. An excursion of twenty days' duration will follow the 

 meeting. 



An exhibition of the manufacturing and mineral wealth of 

 the various States and Colonies of South Africa is to be opened 

 at Grahamstown on December 15. It will be divided into five 

 groups or sections dealing respectively with raw materials, 

 manufactures, mining and machinery, natural history and 

 science, and fine arts. The exhibition will remain open until 

 January 21. 



It will be remembered that a few weeks ago Dr. T. E. Thorpe, 

 F.R.S., and Dr. Oliver, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, were ap- 

 pointed by the Home Secretary to inquire, as experts, into the 

 causes and prevention of lead-poisoning in the Potteries. These 

 two gentlemen have now been invited by the same authority to 

 undertake a similar inquiry into the dangers incidental to lucifer 

 match-making, and have been commissioned to visit some of the 

 factories on the continent. 



The iff/ijf/r/Via;/ states that the International Submarine Tele- 

 graph Memorial Fund has now been closed, and the following 

 amounts have been applied to the objects named : University 

 College, Gower Street, London, to endow the Pender Electrical 

 Laboratory, 5000/. ; Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical 

 College, to continue annual John Pender Gold Medal, 210/. ; 

 Glasgow University, to provide annual bursary for student of 

 Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College who proceeds 

 to Glasgow University, 1650/. ; marble bust of Sir John Pender, 

 by Mr. E. Onslow Ford, R.A., to be placed temporarily in the 

 Board-room of the Eastern Telegraph Company, and for replica, 

 which has been placed in the reading-room of University 

 College, Gower Street, London, and pedestals for same, 461/. 



An electrically-worked underground tubular post for letters 

 and parcels has been designed by Dr. Alfred Brunn and Mr. 

 Viktor Takacs, of Budapest, and submitted by them to the 

 Hungarian postal authorities. It has been decided to lay down 

 a trial line from the eastern to the western stations of Budapest, 

 and, if a year's working proves successful, the postal authorities 

 will take over the line, and a scheme for connecting twenty-three 

 offices on both sides of the Danube will be carried out. 



