May 27, 1897] 



NATURE 



87 



familiar with his liberality, and quite recently he presented to 

 the Society some hundred volumes from his antiquarian library. 

 His principal discovery in archaeology was to separate the work 

 the age which produced what he called "Late Celtic" 

 antiquities from that of the age which preceded and followed 

 it. His persistency as a collector, moreover, managed to secure 

 for the nation the best collection that exists of the remains 

 <:if this period — a period which lies on the borderland between 

 ihe prehistoric and historic periods in Britain, and about which 

 antiquarian relics are our only means of knowledge. He was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1874. 



The fund established by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of Stam- 

 ford, Connecticut, " for the advancement and prosecution of 

 scientific research in its broadest sense," now amounts to 

 26,000 dols. (5200/.). We are informed that, as accumulated 

 income will be available in November next, the trustees desire 

 to receive applications for appropriations in aid of scientific 

 work. This endowment is not for the benefit of any one 

 •department of science, but the trustees give the preference to 

 those investigations, which cannot otherwise be provided for, 

 which have for their object the advancement of human know- 

 ledge or the benefit of mankind in general, rather than to 

 researches directed to the solution of questions of merely local 

 importance. Applications for assistance from this fund, in 

 order to receive consideration, must be accompanied by full 

 information, especially in regard to the amount required, nature 

 of the investigation proposed, conditions under which the 

 research is to be prosecuted, manner in which the appropriation 

 asked for is to be expended. All applications should reach, 

 before November i, 1897, the Secretary of the Board of 

 Trustees, Dr. C. S. Minot, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 

 Mass., U.S.A. Decided preference will be given to applications 

 for small amounts, and grants exceeding 300 dols. will be made 

 only under very exceptional circumstances. It appears from 

 the list we have received, that of the seventy-one grants hitherto 

 made, three have come to Great Britain, viz. : 150 dols. to Dr. 

 Samuel Rideal, for investigations on the absorption of heat by 

 odorous gases ; 125 dols. to Mr. Edw. E. Prince, of St. Andrews, 

 for researches on the development and morphology of the limbs 

 of teleosts; and 250 dols. to Mr. Herbert Tomlinson, F.R.S., 

 for researches on the effects of stress and strain on the physical 

 properties of matter. Twenty-four of the remaining grants were 

 given to men of science in America, twenty went to Germany, 

 five to Switzerland, four to France, three to Belgium, three to 

 Canada, and two to Italy. 



Dr. Charles W. Dabxey has been appointed "special 

 agent in charge of scientific and statistical investigations " of 

 the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 



The steamer Bear left Seattle on May 6 for the Arctic 

 regions, having on board surveying parties of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, who have gone to survey the 

 Pribyloff Islands. 



The Times correspondent at Copenhagen states that the 

 " Carlsberg Fund" for scientific purposes has offered 150,000 

 kroner (about 8300/.) to the Danish scientific expedition to the 

 east coast of Greenland, for the purpose of making a chart of 

 the coast northwards to Angmagsalik. 



An "at home" was held by the President and Council of 

 the Geological Society at the Society's Rooms in Burlington 

 House, on Wednesday, May 19, when Mr. E. J. Garwood, 

 who was a member of Sir Martin Conway's expedition to Spitz- 

 bergen, gave some account of the geology and glacial phenomena 

 of that region.. 



NO. 1439, VOL. 56] 



The annual report of the Brooklyn Institute shows steady 

 growth in membership. Sir Archibald Geikie delivered before 

 the Institute, on May 10, an illustrated lecture on the Hebrides. 

 In the course of the lecture he remarked that he had never 

 been able to understand the remarkable volcanic phenomena of 

 these islands till his visit to the volcanic region of the western 

 part of the United States eighteen years ago. 



W^E regret to have to include in this week's obituary the 

 names of Mr. Martin L. Linell, assistant in the Department of 

 Insects of the U.S. National Museum ; Dr. C. A. L. Robertson, 

 distinguished for his work in medico-psychology, and joint 

 editor of the Journal of Mental Science ; and Mr. John 

 Ramsbottom, president of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers in 1870-71. 



A SEVERE shock of earthquake, which lasted six or seven 

 seconds, was experienced at Guadeloupe. West Indies, at 10.30 

 a.m. on April 30. It was most strongly felt at Pointe a Pitre, 

 where the stone gable-end walls of over a hundred houses fell 

 and crushed adjoining buildings. Several minor shocks were 

 felt after the first disturbance. No premonitory sounds were 

 heard. 



The report of the medical superintendents to the Metro- 

 politan Asylums Board on the use of antitoxin in the treatment 

 of diphtheria during the year 1896, has just been presented to 

 the Board. The statistical results with regard to mortality are 

 compared with those for 1894, the year immediately preceding 

 the introduction of antitoxin, and the one in which the lowest 

 mortality had been recorded up to that time ; they show a 

 marked improvement in all classes of cases, and especially in 

 the severer ones. *' We have had, in fact," the report states, 

 "somewhat better results to record for 1896 than we had for 

 1895. . . . We have only to add that ;w'e still hold to the 

 opinion that in the antitoxic serum we possess a remedy of 

 distinctly — we would now say much — greater value in the treat- 

 ment of diphtheria than any other with which we are acquainted." 



The conference of the members of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers was opened on Tuesday, under the Presidency of Mr. 

 J. Wolfe Barry, C.B., F.R.S., President of the Institution. 

 The President, in an address to the combined Sections, congratu- 

 lated the members who had taken part in the designing and 

 construction of the Blackwall Tunnel upon the successful com- 

 pletion of that work. He then gave an outline of the birth, 

 parentage, and career of the Institution, which dates from 1818. 

 At the conclusion of the address the work of the various Sections 

 began. A conversazione was held on Tuesday evening, and was 

 attended by some 1500 guests. 



A general meeting of the members of the Federated In- 

 stitution of Mining Engineers will be held in London, on 

 Thursday (June 3) and Friday (June 4). The following are 

 among the papers to be read : — " Presidential Address," by 

 Mr. Lindsay Wood ; " Machine Coal-mining in Iowa, U.S.A.," 

 by Mr. H. Foster Bain ; "Occurrence of Cinnabar in British 

 Columbia, Canada," by Mr. W. Hamilton Merritt ; " Notes 

 on a Boring at Netherseal, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire," 

 by Mr. G. J. Binns, with stratigraphical remarks by Mr. C. 

 Fox-Strangways, and petrographical remarks by Mr. W. W. 

 Watts: "The South Wales Anthracite Coal-field," by Mr. 

 Morgan W. Davies ; " The Lake Superior Iron Ore Region, 

 with special reference to the Masabi Range," by Mr. Horace 

 V. Winchell ; "Gold in Nature," by Captain C. C. Longridge. 



An air-ship made a remarkable ascension from Nashville a 

 few days ago, under the management of Mr. A. W. Barnard. 

 The air-ship is a cylindrically-shaped silken bag, with rounding 

 ends, and is 42 feet long and 16 feet wide, enclosed in a netting 



