August 25, 1898] 



NA TURE 



397 



the establishment of some permanent memorial which shall 

 worthily perpetuate Baron von Mueller's name ; and whilst it 

 is not possible as yet to state definitely the form which the 

 memorial will take, it is hoped that sufficient funds will be 

 forthcoming to provide for (i) the erection of some form of 

 statue, and (2) the endowment of a medal, prize or scholar- 

 ship, to be associated with Baron von Mueller's name, and to 

 be awarded from time to time in recognition of distinguished 

 work in the special branches in which he was most deeply 

 interested, and which shall be open to workers throughout the 

 Australasian Colonies. Subscriptions to the fund may be sent 

 to the Hon. Treasurer, addressed to the College of Pharmacy, 

 Swanston Street, Melbourne, or to the Hon. Secretaries (Mr. 

 W. Wiesbaden and Prof. Baldwin Spencer}, addressed to the 

 University of Melbourne, and will be duly acknowledged. 



Science states that Prof. Simon Newcomb will next year 

 resume the active superintendence of the work in mathematics 

 and astronomy in Johns Hopkins University. He expects to 

 give a course of lectures on the Encyclopaedia of the Mathe- 

 matical Sciences, and will especially direct students pursuing 

 advanced work in celestial mechanics. 



The Antarctic expedition, equipped and sent out by Sir 

 George Newnes, sailed from London in the Southern Cross on 

 Monday. Mr. Borchgrevink is in charge of the expedition, and 

 with him are Lieut. Colbeck, Mr. Bernacchi, Mr. Hanson 

 Nicolai, Dr. Sharp and Mr. H. B. Evans, all of whom will 

 carry on scientific studies in the Antarctic regions. There are 

 thirty-three men on board, all told. The ship, which has been 

 built with the special object of Antarctic exploration, is barque- 

 rigged, and is a modified form of the Fram. If all goes well, 

 she may be expected to return in the year 1900. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times states that the 

 German Polar expedition which in the spring of this year 

 started, under the direction of Herr Theodor Lerner, with the 

 object of defining more closely the topography of the Polar 

 regions and, if possible, of discovering some traces of the 

 Andree expedition, has just returned to Hammerfest, where a 

 short stay will be made in order to allow the ship Helgoland to 

 be refitted and the crew to take a temporary rest. The follow- 

 ing particulars of observations made during the voyage have 

 been published :— King Charles Islands were reached towards 

 the end of July, and a halt of a few days was made. Observ- 

 ations there made show that the group consists of three big 

 islands — namely, Swedish Foreland, Jena Island, and a third 

 lying between these two, which has been christened August 

 Scherl Island in honour of the promoter of the expedition. 

 There the explorers came upon the breeding grounds of the 

 ivory gull, very few specimens of whose eggs have hitherto 

 been discovered. Two small islands in the southern bay of 

 Jena Island received the names of Tirpitz and Helgoland 

 respectively. Captain Riidiger took special observations of the 

 exact position of King Charles Islands. An attempt to push 

 on to Franz Josef Land failed owing to bad weather. The 

 Helgoland then was able to coast round the island on the north- 

 east and from the south, in spite of the difficulties caused by 

 fog and ice, thereby proving that it is possible to go northwards 

 notwithstanding the contrary Polar currents. The exact posi- 

 tion of the island of Storci is given as being 10' further north 

 than it is at present indicated in maps. The most northerly 

 point reached was latitude 81° 32', where the boundary of pack 

 ice was determined. Much hitherto unknown ground was 

 fished with drag nets, especially round the east point of King 

 Charles Islands, and at the extreme end of Spitsbergen in water 

 of over 1000 metres deep. A good deal of interesting material 

 for future study was obtained. No signs of the Andree 

 NO. 1504, VOL. 58] 



expedition were discovered. The expedition will start on 

 another voyage of exploration as soon as the ship has been 

 refitted and the necessary stock of victuals been taken on 

 board. 



The journey to Tomsk, in Siberia, promises to become quite 

 a pleasant one under the new organisation of the direct trains. 

 The train, which left St. Petersburg on July 31, offered even 

 more comforts to the travellers than the best American trains. 

 It consisted of one first class and two second class sleeping 

 cars, one dining car, and one kitchen and electrical machinery 

 car. It had also, in addition to the usual luxurious fittings of 

 the best Pulman saloon cars, a piano in the first class saloon, a 

 free library provided with a good selection of works on Siberia, 

 as well as with all the papers which appear in the towns passed 

 by the train during the journey ; a pretty outlook-saloon at the 

 back of the train, with meteorological instruments in it ; and 

 even a dark room for amateur photographers, arranged in the 

 second class lavatory. All the furniture is covered with a special 

 material which can be washed with a disinfecting fluid without 

 being injured. 



The annual Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health 

 was opened on Thursday last in Dublin. There was a very 

 large and representative gathering of delegates, including the 

 Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Mayors of many towns in 

 England and Ireland. The President, Sir C. Cameron, 

 Medical Officer of Health for Dublin, delivered an inaugural 

 address, in which he dealt chiefly with the improvements 

 effected within the past thirty years in urban sanitation, the 

 most important of which he described, pointing out the extent 

 to which they had affected the death-rate in London, Dublin, 

 and other urban centres of the United Kingdom. The members 

 of the Congress were subsequently present at the formal open- 

 ing, by the Lord Lieutenant, of the usual Health Exhibition in 

 connection with the Congress. The sectional sittings began on 

 Friday, and a large number of papers, covering a wide range of 

 subjects concerning public health, were read and discussed. 

 On Saturday afternoon a special meeting of the Fellows of the 

 Royal College of Physicians of Ireland was held for the purpose 

 of conferring the honorary Fellowships in connection with the 

 Congress, and the occasion was also taken advantage of to confer 

 honorary diplomas in State Medicine conjointly with the Royal 

 College of Surgeons in Ireland. The following are the names of 

 those on whom the honours were conferred : — Honorary Fellow- 

 ships: Dr. Alexander Crum Brown, F.R.S. ; Sir Charles 

 Cameron ; Dr. Mathew Hay ; and Sir Richard ThorneThorne, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S. Honorary Diploma in State Medicine: Dr. 

 T. W. Grimshaw, C.B. ; Sir Henry Littlejohn ; Dr. John W. 

 Moore ; Dr. W. R. Smith ; Dr. T. J. Stafford ; and Dr. J. 

 C. Thresh. 



The spell of hot weather which set in over the southern 

 portion of our islands about a fortnight ago has continued 

 without interruption, and at the beginning of the present week 

 the heat was even greater than previously. The London 

 reporting station of the Meteorological Office gave 89° as the 

 shade temperature on Monday, and in parts of the southern 

 suburbs the thermometer touched 90°. There have already 

 been at least ten days in the neighbourhood of London with a 

 temperature of 80° and above, and on nine nights already the 

 thermometer has not registered a lower reading than 60°. The 

 warm nights are quite phenomenal, and the Greenwich orbserv- 

 ations for the previous twenty Augusts only ^show, in all, 

 eleven such warm nights. The weather has for the most part 

 been much cooler over the northern portion of our islands than 

 in the south. Fog or mist has been very prevalent on ou 

 coasts, and this has occasioned much delay and inconvenience 



