H 



NATURE 



[May 6, 1897 



imparted new life to that branch of the Antiquity Department 

 which is under his immediate control. Still, however, it is 

 manifest that the Director cannot be both excavating and 

 managing the Museum in Cairo at the same time, and that 

 while the excavations have flourished the Museum has 

 languished. All that could be done in the Museum by a 

 subordinate official has been done by Brugsch Bey, whose 

 archteological knowledge is first-rate ; and what has been done 

 is well done. But very much more needs doing, and when the 

 new Museum is built, if it is to be a successful and useful 

 institution, it must have an adequate staff, led by a permanent 

 resident official, whose duty shall be to arrange, classify, label, 

 and describe the various objects, and make them accessible to 

 visitors under proper supervision. No Museum can flourish 

 under the rule of a chief, who not only is non resident, but is 

 for several months of the year away excavating sites which are 

 remote from centres of postal and telegraphic communication. 

 It is much to be hoped that the English authorities in Egypt 

 will insist on the appointment of a director or keeper of the 

 Museum, and of an official inspector and excavator ; each 

 official should have a " free hand " in his own (Jepartment, and 

 each should be answerable to some Minister of the Government 

 only. The system hitherto followed has disheartened the staff, 

 and has retarded the proper arrangement of the antiquities in 

 the Ghizeh Museum. 



Sir Archibai,d Geikie arrived in America a few days ago, 

 intending to remain about one month, and to deliver the 

 Williams course of lectures on geology at the Johns Hopkins 

 University, Baltimore. A reception was given to him by the 

 section of geology and mineralogy of the New York Academy 

 of Sciences, and addresses were delivered by Prof. J. J. 

 Stevenson, president of the Academy ; Prof. Kemp, president 

 of the section ; by the secretary of the section, and by Mr. 

 Heilprin, of Philadelphia. Sir Archibald Geikie responded, 

 after which the members of the Academy and invited guests 

 were presented to him individually. 



A VERY important meeting of the Council of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science was held at 

 Washington a few days ago. Prof. Theodore Gill, vice-president 

 of the section of zoology, succeeded to the office of president 

 in succession to the late Prof. Cope, by virtue of his seniority, 

 under the constitutional clause which devolves the duties of 

 president upon the senior vice-president in such contingencies. 

 As Prof. Cope had not prepared his annual address. Prof. Gill 

 was requested by vote of the Council to deliver the presidential 

 address in the form of an obituary of the late president, which 

 he consented to do. Secretary Putnam read correspondence with 

 Mr. Vernon Harcourt, conveying the invitation to all members of 

 the American Association to attend the Toronto meeting on the 

 same terms as to payment of dues as the members of the British 

 Association ; and to the officers of the Association to attend as 

 honorary members. The Council authorised Secretary Putnam 

 to return the thanks of the Association, and to invite foreign 

 visitors to attend the meeting at Detroit, calling attention 

 to the clause which admits them to honorary membership 

 without payment of dues. It was also voted to invite such 

 guests to register as honorary members of the several sections 

 in which they are specially interested. Dr. L. O. Howard, of 

 Washington, was nominated by the Council as vice-president 

 for the section of zoology for the apprbaching meeting, in 

 the place of the late Dr. G. Brown Goode. Secretary Pumam 

 reported, as the result of a recent visit to Detroit, that the 

 accommodations, both as to hotel headquarters and to place of 

 meeting, were much superior to any before available. The new 

 and spacious Hotel Cardillac will be the headquarters, and the 

 immense new High School the place of all the meetings and 

 NO. 1436, VOL. 56J 



'gatherings. The school building has a hall capable of seating 

 2500 persons, and ample rooms for the sections. 



The annual visitation of Greenwich Observatory will take 

 place on Saturday, June 5. 



Mr. J. Wolfe Barry, C.B., F.R.S., and the Council of 

 the Institution of Civil P'ngineers, have sent out invitations for a 

 conversazione to be held at the Institution on Tuesday, May 25, 



It is stated in Die Natur that the valuable library of the late 

 Prof. Du Bois Reymond has been purchased by the Prussian 

 Government, and will be presented to the Berlin Physiological 

 Society. 



Dr. Koli.e, of the Berlin Institute for Infectious Diseases, 

 has (says the British Medical Journal) received a year's leave 

 in order to proceed to Cape Colony, where he has been com- 

 missioned by the Cape Government to carry on the work of 

 Prof. Koch. He will continue the investigation into rinderpest 

 and leprosy, and organise stations for the study of those diseases. 



We regret to see the announcements of the death of the fol- 

 lowing men of science i^— Prof. Leon du Pasquier, of N^teuchatel,. 

 author of a number of papers on the glacial geology of northern 

 Switzerland ; Mr. Hugh Nevill, of the Ceylon Civil Service, 

 known by his zoological observations and collections ; Dr. 

 Magitot, member of the Paris Academy of Medicine, and one 

 of the founders of the Societe d'anthropologie ; Edmund 

 Neminar, formerly professor of mineralogy and petrography 

 at Innsbruck ; Dr. L. Martin, professor of mathematics at 

 Klausenberg. 



The question whether the public has a right-of-way over the 

 Giant's Causeway has just been decided in the negative by the 

 Vice- Chancellor in the Dublin Courts. We have already noted 

 that a syndicate had purchased the Causeway, and that their 

 action in closing it against the public, who had had free access 

 to it from time immemorial, caused great irritation. A Com- 

 mittee was formed to support the public rights, and some 

 members of it asserted them by walking over the Causeway, 

 with the result that an injunction was asked for to restrain 

 further trespass. A right-of-way was pleaded ; but the Vice- 

 Chancellor held that as the Causeway did not lead to any public 

 place, this plea could not be upheld. It is stated that an appeal 

 will be lodged against this judgment. 



At the sixty-fifth annual meeting of the British Medical 

 Association, to be held at Montreal from August 31 ta 

 September 3, inclusive, an address in Medicine will be given 

 by Prof. W. Osier, an address in Surgery by Mr. W. M. 

 Banks, and an address in Public Medicine by Dr. Herman 

 M. Biggs. The president-elect is Dr. T. G. Roddick, professor 

 of surgery in the Gill University, Montreal, and the sections, 

 with their presidents, are as follows : — Medicine, Dr. Stephen 

 Mackenzie. Surgery, Mr. Christopher Heath. Public Medicine, 

 Dr. E. P. LaChapelle. Obstetrics and Gynafcology, Dr. W. 

 J. Sinclair. Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Dr. D. J. Leech. 

 Pathology and Bacteriology, Mr. Watson Cheyne, F.R.S. 

 Psychology, Dr. R. M. Bucke. Ophthalmology, Mr, Edward 

 Nettleship. Laryngology and Otology, Dr. Greville Macdonald. 

 Anatomy and Physiology, Dr. Augustus D. Waller, F.R.S. 

 Dermatology, Mr. Malcolm Morris. 



It has been arranged shortly to hold a Conference of the 

 members of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, under 

 conditions which, it is hoped, may be convenient to many who 

 are precluded from attending the weekly meetings during the 

 Session, and may prove serviceable to all by the discussion of a 

 wider range of subjects than can be dealt with on ordinary 



