Julys, 1897] 



NATURE 



229 



Bhamo, Sawuddy, and at Mahdalay he carried on mag- 

 netic investigations and determined the variation. His 

 longitudes are generally derived both by the method of 

 lunar distances and by occultations. His skill as an 

 observer is shown by the small differences that separate 

 the results obtained by either method. At Mandalay, 

 for example, the two values are separated by only a 

 little more than a minute of arc. At Leh, actinometric 

 observations engaged his attention ; and if the series are 

 not so long as those of Lieut. Hennessey and Mr. Cole, 

 made at a station further south, they still possess great 

 interest owing to the fact that the observations refer to 

 a station so difficult of access. He rendered yeoman's 

 service in the work of demarcating the frontier line 

 between Burmah and the Shan States, and after a 

 life of great adventure and of much service to science, 

 he settled down as Consul-General at Meshed. For 

 this most important post, and the management of 

 the tangled web of diplomatic service, arising from 

 its close connection with the Persian, the Russian, 

 and the Afghan Governments, to say nothing of the 

 restless Kirghiz tribes, he had admirably prepared 

 himself. In 1885 he traversed the difficult Pamir country, 

 and visited those districts on the banks of the Oxus, 

 where may be met tribes of the most diverse races, and 

 whose interests are as varied as the climates under which 

 they dwell. 



NOTES. 



Prof. Virchow, of Berlin, has been elected a Foreign As- 

 sociate of the French Academy, in the place of the late M. 

 Tchebicheff. 



A CONFERENCE on the subject of the renewal of Antarctic 

 exploration was held in the rooms of the Royal Geographical 

 Society on Monday last, under the presidency of Sir Clements 

 Markham. Themain object of the conference was to induce the 

 Australasian Premiers to bring the matter before their Govern- 

 ments, with a view to inducing them to contribute towards a 

 British expedition under the au.spices of the Royal Geographical 

 Society. The conference was attended by, among others, the 

 Duke of Argyll, the Marquis of Lothian, Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 Admiral Sir George Nares, Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney, 

 Admiral Sir W. J. L. Wharton, Sir John Kirk, Sir George 

 Taubman Goldie, Prof. Riicker, and the Agents-General of 

 Victoria, New Zealand and New South Wales. The Austral- 

 asian Premiers were unable to be present. Speeches in favour 

 of the object before the meeting were delivered by the chair- 

 man, the Duke of Argyll, Sir Joseph Hooker, Prof. Riicker, 

 and the Agents-General. The chairman announced that the 

 Council of the Royal Geographical Society were prepared to 

 contribute any sum up to 5000/. to the amount which the 

 colonial Governments might subscribe to the undertaking, and 

 he expressed the hope that the matter might be pushed to a 

 successful issue next year. 



The Institution of Naval Architects has, in honour of the 

 Queen's Diamond Jubilee, organised an International Congress 

 of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, which was 

 inaugurated by a conversazione on Monday evening. The 

 congress itself was formally opened at the Imperial Institute on 

 Tuesday by the Prince of Wales, who gave a short speech. 

 On his departure, the chair was taken by the Earl of Hope- 

 toun, the President of the Institution. After the President had 

 delivered his address, papers were read by M. L. E. Bertin, 

 on " Hardened Armour-plates and Broken Projectiles" ; by Mr. 

 C. E. Ellis, on "Non-inflammable Wood"; by Sir A. J. 

 Durston and Mr. J. T. Milton, on '* The History and Progress 

 of Marine Engineering"; by M. P. Sigaudy, on "Water 

 Tube Boilers." The session will conclude at Newcastle on 

 July 15- 



NO. 1445, VOL. 56] 



We regret to announce the death, at the age of eighty-four, of 

 Prof. J. J . Smith Steenstrup, of Copenhagen. After having acted 

 as Lecturer on Mineralogy at Soroe, he was appointed, in 1845, 

 Professor of Zoology and Director of the Zoological Museum at 

 Copenhagen, retiring from his professorial activity in 1885. 

 Prof. Steenstrup was the author of a number of scientific publi- 

 cations, several of which have been translated from the Danish 

 into foreign languages. 



Among other deaths we notice those of Dr. Alfred Stocquart, 

 Chief Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University of Brussels, 

 and Secretary of the Anatomo- Pathological Society, aged forty- 

 one, of septic poisoning, contracted in making a post-mortem 

 examination ; and Dr. B. E. Cotting, for fifty-five years 

 Curator of the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass. 



According to a Reuter telegram of July i from Madrid, a 

 dispatch from Manila gives some details of the eruption of the 

 volcano Mayon. . The village of Libong was completely de- 

 stroyed, and 120 of the inhabitants were killed. The eruption 

 was accompanied by a violent shock of earthquake. 



The Board of Regents of the University of the State of 

 California have accepted the offer of Mr. C. F. Crocker, to 

 defray all the expenses of an expedition to India to view the 

 approaching eclipse of the sun. The expedition will remain in 

 India from October next till June 1898. 



Intense heat has prevailed for several days in Kansas and 

 Arkansas, followed, on June 24, by destructive cyclones in 

 Kansas and Missouri, and heavy storms in other States. During 

 the storm at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on the morning of the 

 date mentioned, two earthquake shocks were felt. The vibra- 

 tions were from west to east. 



The silver medal of the Zoological Society of London has 

 been conferred by the Council on Mr. Alexander Whyte, 

 who has lately retired from the post of Naturalist to 

 the Administration of British Central Africa. Mr. Whyte 

 accompanied Sir Harry Johnston when he first went out to 

 Nyasaland in 189 1, and has had the charge of the botanic 

 garden at Zomba since that date, and performed other duties 

 entrusted to him with zeal and fidelity. Under Sir Harry 

 Johnston's instructions Mr. Whyte has made and sent to Eng- 

 land from time to time large and most valuable collections in 

 every branch of natural history. These have been transmitted 

 to the British Museum through the Zoological Society of 

 London, and have formed the subject of numerous com- 

 munications by various experts to the scientific meetings of that 

 Society. The fauna of Nyasaland, previously quite unknown, 

 has thus become better understood than that of almost any other 

 part of tropical Africa. 



Sir Martin Conway and Mr. E. J. Garwood left London 

 last week for Spitzbergen, their object being to continue the 

 exploration of the interior of the main island begun by them last 

 year. They are to be landed at King's Bay, whence they hope 

 to make sledge expeditions over the northern ice sheet. They 

 intend afterwards to revisit Horn Sound, and complete the 

 scientific exploration of the southern peninsula. 



Dr. N. a. Busch, assistant-director of the Botanic Garden 

 at Dorpat, has been commissioned by the Russian Geographical 

 Society to undertake a botanical investigation of the Province of 

 Kuban in the Caucasus, an almost unexplored territory. An 

 assistant at the same Botanic Garden is also investigating the 

 flora of the Government of Ssaratow. 



A keeper in the service of the Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don left London by the Arundel Castle on Saturday last, under 

 arrangements sanctioned by the Colonial Office, to bring home 



