July 28, 1898] 



NATURE 



299 



tions met, there would probably remain a balance of 

 250/. If, however, the Observatories were carried on 

 till October 1899, there would be a debt of probably 

 1 50/." 



" By the establishment of these Observatories, and the 

 unique observations made at them, a great experiment 

 has been carried out with signal success. In this work 

 the Council of the Society has been strengthened by 

 having on the Board of the Directors of the Observatories 

 representatives of the Royal Society of London, the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Philosophical 

 Society of Glasgow. The experiment has been, as 

 anticipated, a costly one. A sum of no less than 18,150/. 

 has been expended on the inquiry, and the sum has been 

 obtained by contributions partly from scientific bodies, 

 but mainly from the public." 



" The Scottish Meteorological Society cannot fail to ex- 

 perience great satisfaction from its having been found 

 possible to do so much ; indeed, when resolving on 

 making the experiment, and founding the Observatories, 

 the most sanguine expectation could not have predicted 

 the ready and liberal response made to the appeal for 

 the necessary funds." 



" With much pleasure the Directors are able to report 

 that in a large sense the objects aimed at have been 

 attained. A long series of hourly observations has been 

 obtained by night and by day without a break over a 

 period of fifteen years, though these included eye or other 

 observations outside in the severe climate of the top of 

 Ben Nevis, forming a set of observations quite unique, 

 nothing similar having as yet been done at any other 

 High-level Observatory in the world." 



" The Directors would have been extremely glad if the 

 period of simultaneous hourly observations at the High 

 and Low-level Observatories could have been prolonged 

 for other three years, in order to give ten annual instead 

 of seven annual averages running from January to 

 December, and to furnish a better basis for a minute and 

 careful discussion of the mass of observations now in the 

 possession of the Society, and available for the study of 

 meteorological phenomena." 



" In conclusion, the Directors cannot contemplate with- 

 out sadness the giving up of these two Observatories, 

 both well-equipped and in full working order, especially 

 as they are strongly of opinion that two such Observ- 

 atories should continue to be carried on as essentials in 

 the observing system of the country." 



NOTES. 



Several congresses and meetings of scientific interest are 

 being held as we go to press. The International Congress on 

 Navigation was opened at Brussels on Monday last ; there were 

 more than 1000 delegates present. The opening session of the 

 sixty-sixth annual meeting of the British Medical Associadon 

 was held, under the presidency of Sir T. Grainger Stewart, in 

 Edinburgh on Tuesday, and on the same day the summer meet- 

 ing of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers began at Derby, 

 under the chairmanship of Mr. S. W. Johnson. 



The Secretaries to the Reception Committee of the Inter- 

 national Congress of Zoology are preparing a list of the Cam- 

 bridge addresses of the members of the Congress who have 

 definitely announced their intention of attending the approaching 

 meeting. They will be glad to receive any information which will 

 help them to make this list as complete as possible. It would 

 be a convenience if those subscribers who are unable to attend 

 the meeting will inform the Secretaries of the fact. Com- 

 munications should be addressed to Mr, S. F. Harmer or Mr, 

 A. E. Shipley, The Museums, Cambridge. 



The following grants have recently been made by the 

 Physico-Mathematical Section of the Berlin Academy of 

 NO. 1500, VOL. 58] 



Sciences :— 2000 marks to Prof. Engler, of Berlin, for the con- 

 tinuation of his monograph on East African plants ; 1 500 marks 

 to Prof, Schultze, of Berlin, for the publication of a work on 

 American Hektinellidse ; 1000 marks to Prof. Brandt, of Kiel, 

 to enable him to accompany the Prince of Monaco in the 

 Prince's investigations in the Atlantic Ocean ; 1000 marks to 

 Prof. Burckhardt, of Basle, for investigations on the comparative 

 anatomy of the brain ; 1000 marks to Prof, Kohen, of Greifs- 

 wald, for the continuation of his investigations on meteoric 

 iron ; 600 marks to Prof. Graebner, of Berlin, for the continua- 

 tion of his investigations of the formation of the German heaths j 

 500 marks to Dr, Kruger, of Charlottenburg, for investigations 

 on urine ; 500 marks to Dr. Kiister, of Tubingen, for his in- 

 vestigations on the colouring matter of the blood and bile ; 500 

 marks to Dr, Loesner, of Berlin, for the completion of a mono- 

 graph on the Aquifoliaceoe ; 5000 marks to Dr. F, Ristenpart, 

 of Kiel, for preliminary studies for a "Thesaurus positionuna 

 stellarum fixarum " ; 1000 marks to Dr, Adolph Sauer, of 

 Heidelberg, for the geological investigation of the Aar region ; 

 1000 marks to Dr, Schellwien, of Konigsberg, for an investiga- 

 tion of the Palaeozoic Eastern Alps. 



Prof, von Leyden has been elected a corresponding 

 member of the Paris Academic des Sciences, in the place of 

 Prof. R. Virchow, who has been made an associate. 



Prof. Fouque, of the College de France, has been elected 

 a foreign member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. 



The death is announced of Prof. Suringar, who succeeded 

 Miquel as director of the Leyden Garden and Herbarium in 

 1857. 



We regret to learn that Mr. van Voorst, for many years a 

 publisher of scientific works, particularly relating to natural 

 history, died on Sunday last, at Clapham, at the ripe age of 

 ninety-four. He retired from business in 1886. 



The monument to Prof. Charcot is to be formally unveiled 

 at the Salpetiiere in Paris on October 23. 



A Reuter telegram from Valparaiso states that a violent 

 shock of earthquake, lasting a minute, was experienced on the 

 night of July 23 at Concepcion and Talcahuano, Chile. Many 

 houses fell in consequence, and others were damaged. Tele- 

 graphic communication was interrupted, and the electric light 

 wires were broken. A further shock is reported to have taken 

 place at 1.55 p.m. on July 24. 



It is announced in the July issue of the Johns Hopkins 

 University Circular, that during the coming year Prof. Simon 

 Newcomb, F.R.S., until lately director of the U.S. Nautical 

 Ahnanac, will resume his superintendence of the work in mathe- 

 matics and astronomy in the Johns Hopkins University. He 

 will, it is stated, be especially interested in promoting the work 

 of any student who desires to pursue an advanced course of study 

 in celestial mechanics. Near the beginning of the year. Prof. 

 Newcomb hopes to give a short course of lectures on the Ency- 

 cloptedia of Mathematical Sciences. The Circular also reports- 

 that the delivery of the second course of lectures, in connection 

 with the George Huntington Williams Memorial Lectureship, 

 upon the principles of geology may be exjjected during the 

 coming session. The first course of lectures was given, as will 

 be remembered, by Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., during the 

 session of 1896-97. 



The steps recently taken by the Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, for instituting a system of instruction for medical officers 

 of the Colonial Service in the treatment of tropical diseases, have 



