NATURE 



[July 22, 1897 



to simply legalising the system for those who required it without 

 going further just now. After a few remarks by Lord Colchester, 

 the second reading of the Bill was agreed to. 



The French Societe d'Encouragement pour I'lndustrie Na- 

 tionale has awarded the following prizes : — The Gififard prize of 

 one thousand francs to M. Ducos du Hauron, for his works on 

 photography in colours ; the grand gold medal, with Lavoisier's 

 effigy, to M. F. Osmond, for his metallurgical researches ; a 

 prize of two thousand francs to M. Rousse for his production of 

 chenille web ; and five hundred francs to M. Livache, for his 

 work entitled " Vernis et Huiles siccatives." 



We regret to announce the deaths of the following men of 

 science : — Prof. D. Wilhelm Preyer, the well-known German 

 physiologist ; Dr. P. C. Plugge, professor of pharmacology and 

 toxicology in the University of Groningen, and author of a 

 number of papers on physiological chemistry ; Prof. Arminio 

 Nobile, professor of geodesy in the University of Rome, and 

 author of many valuable papers on astronomy ; and Prof. 

 Oertel, of Munich, distinguished for his researches on the 

 etiology of diphtheria. 



We notice with regret the announcement of the death of Sir 

 John Bucknill, F.R.S. For nine years he edited \\^q Journal of 

 Menial Science, and he was one of the original editors of 

 Brain. He was the author of numerous psychological works, 

 and wrote largely on insanity and allied subjects. In the 

 Royal College of Physicians he filled the posts of Censor, 

 Councillor, and Lumleian Lecturer. He was elected a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society in 1866, and was knighted in July 1894, in 

 recognition of his pioneer services in connection with the 

 Volunteer movement. 



The death of Dr. Steenstrup, formerly professor of zoology 

 at the University of Copenhagen, and director of the museum of 

 that city, has already been announced. Dr. Steenstrup (says 

 the Zoologist) was born in 1813, and had thus reached the 

 eighty-fifth year of his life. He published much on natural 

 history, but he will be principally remembered by his work on 

 the subject of " Alternation of Generations." He also studied 

 the prehistoric remains found in his own country, both as re- 

 gards fauna and flora, and in 1866, in conjunction with Sir 

 John Lubbock, contributed a memoir to the Ethnological 

 Society of London "On the Flint Implements recently dis- 

 covered at Persigny-le-Grand." He was a correspondant of 

 the Section d'Anatomie et Zoologie of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences. 



The annual meeting of the German Botanical Society for 

 1897 will be held at Brunswick, commencing on September 21. 

 The sixty-ninth meeting of the German Association of Naturalists 

 and Physicians will be held at the same time. A special feature 

 of the meeting will be an exhibition of scientific apparatus and 

 appliances. 



M. Gayon has been elected a member of the Section 

 d'Economie rurale of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in succes- 

 sion to the late Prof. Hellriegel. 



President Jordan, of the Leiand Stanford Junior Univer- 

 sity, has gone to Alaska, with the sanction of the United States 

 Government, for the purpose of branding female seals in order 

 to impair the value of their skins, and thus destroy the industry 

 of pelagic sealing. 



We learn from Malpighia that Prof. Penzig, of Genoa, has 

 returned from his botanical expedition to Java and Ceylon with 

 very rich materials, which have been deposited in the Botanical 

 Museum of the University of Genoa ; and that Sig. F. Karo 

 has undertaken a fresh exploration of Southern Siberia, as far as 

 the river Amur. His botanical collections will be examined 

 and distributed by Dr. J. Freyn, of Prague. 

 NO. 1447, VOL. 56] 



The detailed magnetic survey of the State of Maryland, 

 begun last year, has been resumed, and is again under the charge 

 of Dr. L. A. Bauer. Special stress will be laid this year upon 

 the investigation of the marked local or regional disturbances in 

 Central and North-eastern Maryland, revealed by last year's 

 work. According to Terrestrial Magnetism, there are prospects 

 that a neighbouring State will undertake a similar survey in the 

 near future. 



To find the relation between the small variations which 

 distinguish individuals of the same group, and the large dif.. 

 ferences which separate species and genera, Mr. E. T. Brewster 

 has examined the body measurements of eight races of men, and 

 has determined the coefficient of variability of each dimension 

 for each race {Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, vol. 

 xxxii. pp. 269-80, May). His conclusion is "that there is so 

 intimate a causal connection between the characters of indi- 

 viduals and those of the allied groups into which they are com- 

 bined, that, in proportion as any character is variable in the 

 individuals of one group, it is different in the allied groups." 



An exhibition of navigational instruments has been arranged 

 by the Shipmasters' Society, and will be open from 10 a.m. to 

 6 p.m. at the Fishmongers' Hall, London Bridge, on August 4, 

 5 and 6. The promoters have endeavoured to trace the pro- 

 gress made in navigational instruments during the last sixty 

 years. Admission will be free upon presentation of a visiting 

 card. Catalogues will be ready just before the opening. 



The Ceylon Observer of June 18 urges the advisability of the 

 appointment in Ceylon of a Government agricultural chemist, 

 and the institution of agricultural experiments under his guidance. 

 It is pointed out that Barbadoes and British Guiana, each with 

 populations and revenue and export trade much smaller than 

 those of Ceylon, have their Government chemists, and naturally 

 those interested in agriculture in Ceylon feel aggrieved at not 

 being placed on a footing similar to that of the people of the 

 two dependencies mentioned. 



The Russian bacteriological stations, or " Pasteur Institutes," 

 are displaying a considerable activity. We find, from the 

 annual report of the Kazan station, that over 82,400 vaccina- 

 tions against the "Siberian cattle plague " have been made during 

 the past year, and that not only educated agriculturists but also 

 the peasants begin to vaccinate their cattle. The Kazan bac- 

 teriologists make use exclusively of the bacterial vaccine of 

 Profs. Lange and Cienkowski, which is prepared in the field 

 laboratories, on the spot, the day before vaccination takes place. 

 Demands for it come from the surrounding provinces, even from 

 East Siberia. Researches into rabies and tuberculosis among 

 cattle were carried on at the same time. 



The researches lately published about the supposed new ele- 

 ment, " lucium," have induced Prof. Chroustchoflf to revise the 

 work he had made in 1887 upon what he then supposed to be a 

 new element, " russium," also obtained from the monazite 

 sands of North Carolina. He gives a short report about his 

 last investigations in the Journal of the Russian Chemical 

 Society (xxix. 3). Having obtained during the last eight years 

 about 25 kgr. of rare earths, he extracted from them 35 

 grammes of a substance which has all the properties of 

 " russium." Its equivalent is equal to 70'5, and its spectrum is 

 characterised by a group of green and violet lines. A detailed 

 description of all the experiments will soon follow. Prof. 

 Chroustchofif also mentions that cerium, after it has been freed 

 of all traces of thorium and other impurities, can be separated 

 into several fractions differing from each other by their physical 

 properties, and having, respectively, the atomic weights of 138, 

 140, 142, 146, and 156-5. It also seems that besides the two 

 components of didymium, described by Auer, there exists a third 

 component. The note contains a list of all the rare earths 

 hitherto obtained, or supposed to exist. 



