58o 



NATURE 



[October 13, 1898 



NOTES. 



We understand that the vacancy in the Assistant- Directorship 

 of Kew Gardens, caused by the appointment of Mr. D. Morris 

 as Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies, will not 

 be filled up. Mr. S. T. Dunn has been appointed Secretary to 

 the Director. 



The Botanisches Ceniralblatt states that Prof. P. Knuth, of 

 Kiel, is starting this month on a scientific expedition round the 

 world, extending over from eight to ten months. He proposes 

 a considerable stay in Buitenzorg, Java, visiting India on his 

 way, and afterwards China and Japan, Honolulu and North 

 America. Prof. K. Goebel, of Munich, is also starting, this 

 autumn, on a botanical journey to Australia and New Zealand. 



The banquet of the Chemical Society to those of its past- 

 Presidents who have completed fifty years' fellowship of the 

 Society, which was postponed last June owing to the lamented 

 death of the senior past- President, Lord Playfair, is now ar-. 

 ranged to take place on Friday, November ii, at the Hotel 

 Metropole. The past- Presidents who will then be entertained 

 are:— Sir J. H. Gilbert, F.R.S., Sir Edward Frankland, 

 F.R.S., Prof. Odling, F.R.S., Sir F. A. Abel, Bart., F.R.S., 

 Dr. A. W. Williamson, F.R.S., and Dr. J. H. Gladstone, 

 F.R.S. 



Prof. S. Schwendener, of the University of Berlin, has 

 been made a Knight of the Order pour le niirite in the class of 

 science and art. We learn, from the Botanical Gazette, that 

 the Order was founded by Frederick the Great, as a mark of 

 distinction for military service ; but the statute was revised in 

 1842 by Frederick William the Fourth, to include scientific 

 men and artists of distinction. The latter class is limited to 

 thirty Germans and thirty foreigners. The order is practically 

 conferred by vote of the members. Prof. Schwendener is the 

 only botanist who has been elected. 



Upon the nomination of the Director of Kew Gardens, Mr. 

 C. A. Barber has been appointed Government Botanist at 

 Madras, in succession to the late Mr. M. A. Lawson. 



The Welby Prize of 50/., offered for the best essay on "The 

 causes of the present obscurity and confusion in psychological 

 and philosophical terminology, and the directions in which we 

 may hope for efficient practical remedy," has been awarded to 

 Dr. Ferdinand Tonnies, of Hamburg. 



At the national observatory upon the Pic du Midi, a few 

 days ago, two busts of General Champion de Nansouty and the 

 engineer, M. Vaussenat, the founders of this useful meteoro- 

 logical establishment, were unveiled. M. Mascart, to whose 

 suggestion the erection of the busts is due, and M. Baillaud, 

 director of the Toulouse Observatory, delivered addresses to an 

 audience of about five hundred persons who had assembled in 

 the observatory. 



The handsome amphitheatre at the new Sorbonne has in- 

 scribed on the ceiling (says the Chemist and Druggist) the 

 names of forty-five illustrious chemists. England is well re- 

 presented by Cavendish, Priestley, Wollaston, Dalton, Davy, 

 Faraday, Graham, and Griess — eight in all. The twenty-six 

 French names are Lavoisier, Berthollet, Leblanc, Proust, Vau- 

 quelin, Thenard, Gay Lussac, Dulong, Chevreul, J. B. Dumas, 

 Dessaignes, Balard, Boussingault, Pelouze, Laurent, Gerhardt, 

 Regnault, Peligot, Cahours, Ebelmen, Fremy, Wurtz, Henri 

 St. Clair Deville, Debray, and Pasteur. Sweden is represented 

 by Scheele and Berzelius, Russia by Zinin and Butlerow, 

 Belgium by Stas, Switzerland by De Marignac, and Germany 

 by Mitscherlich, Wohler, Liebig, Kolbe, and Kekule. 



Sir William MacCormac, Bart., and Sir Francis Laking 

 have been appointed Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian 

 Order, and Mr. A. D. Fripp and Fleet-Surgeon A. G. Delmege 

 NO. I 511, VOL. 58] 



have been appointed Members of the Fourth Class of the same 

 Order, in recognition of their services in connection with the 

 recent accident met with by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. The 

 Royal Victorian Order is bestowed upon "such persons, being 

 subjects of the British Crown, as may have rendered extra- 

 ordinary, important, or personal service to Her Majesty, her 

 heirs and successors, and who have merited Her Majesty's 

 royal favour." 



The Harveian Oration will be delivered by Sir Dyce Duck- 

 worth on Tuesday next, at the Royal College of Physicians. 

 The Bradshaw Lecture will be delivered by Dr. W. M. Ord on 

 Thursday, November 10. The Goulstonian Lectures will be 

 given next year by Dr. G. R. Murray, who has taken for his 

 subject the Pathology of the Thyroid Gland. The Lumleian 

 Lectures for next year will be given by Dr. Samuel Gee. The 

 Croonian Lecturer for 1899 is Prof. Bradbury, and for 1900 Dr.. 

 F. W. Mott, F.R.S. 



A MEETING of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will 

 be held on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, October 26 and 

 27, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, 

 Westminster. The chair will be taken by the president, Mr. 

 Samuel W. Johnson, at half-past seven p.m. on each evening. 

 The following papers will be read and discussed, as far as time 

 permits : — "Electric installations for lighting and power on the 

 Midland Railway, with notes on power absorbed by shafting 

 and belting," by W. E. Langdon ; " Results of recent practical 

 experience with express locomotive engines," by Mr. Walter 

 M. Smith ; " Mechanical testing of materials at the locomotive 

 works of the Midland Railway, Derby," by Mr. W. Gadsby 

 Peet. 



A circular informs us of a proposal to place in Corsoch 

 Parish Church, by half-guinea subscriptions, a suitable memorial 

 to the memory of Prof James Clerk Maxwell. There is already 

 in the church a memorial to the memory of his father, Joho 

 Clerk Maxwell, by whose influence and exertions the church was 

 originally built. " This church," we read, "is chosen for the 

 memorial, as the Professor's connection with it through life was 

 very close. He was led to it as a child by his father ; taught 

 in its Sabbath School ; was ordained an elder within its walls, 

 and acted as such up to the time of his death ; gave liberally 

 towards its endowment, and the first and largest subscription 

 towards the manse ; was a trustee of the church and properties ; 

 and otherwise interested himself in its behalf." Subscriptions 

 for the memorial may be sent to the Rev. George Sturrock, The 

 Manse, Corsock, by Dalbeattie, N.B. 



The fifth International Congress of Hydrology, Climatology 

 and Medical Geology, was held during last and part of the 

 present week at Liege, Belgium, under the patronage of H.R.H. 

 the Crown Prince of Belgium, and the Presidency of the 

 Minister of Agriculture. The Congress was well attended by 

 representatives of various nationalities. Many important com- 

 munications were read and discussed in the various Sections, 

 but the most interesting was an address given before the whole 

 Congress by Prof. Walthere Spring, Professor of Chemistry at the 

 University of Liege, on the colours of natural waters. Prof. 

 Spring showed experimentally that the true colour of pure 

 water is blue as in the Lake of Geneva, and that this colour is 

 the colour proper to the water, and is not due to a mere reflection 

 from the surface, nor from suspended particles in the water. 

 When pure water has a very slight cloudiness, due to the 

 presence of finely divided nearly white or colourless particles in 

 suspension, even if these are absolutely colourless, as in the case 

 of very finely divided rock crystal, a yellow tint is given to the 

 water, which, together with the natural blue proper to the 

 water itself produces a green colour, as in the cases of the Lakes 

 of Neuchatel and of Constance. He remarked that it had 



