July 29, 1897] 



NATURE 



297 



NOTES. 

 Prof. Schafer asks us to state that members of the British 

 Vssociation who have arranged to go to Toronto must take this 

 year's membership ticket with them in order to secure the 

 railway privileges available. 



Grants amounting to ninety-five thousand marks (4750/.) 

 were awarded for scientific purposes at the last meeting of the 

 Berlin Academy of Sciences. Among these awards were the 

 following :— 2000 marks to Prof. Engler, Berlin, for the publi- 

 cation of monographs on African plants ; 900 marks to Dr. G. 

 I.indau, for his studies of lichens; 1500 marks to Prof. Freeh, 

 ir his geological investigations ; 850 marks to Prof. Hiirthle, 

 :-)r his studies of muscle; 800 marks to Prof. R. Bonnet, for 

 investigations of blood-vessels ; 2000 marks to Dr. Liihe, for 

 investigations of the fauna of salt lakes in French North Africa ; 

 300 marks to Dr. G. Brandes, for the study of parasitic Nemer- 

 tines in Messina ; 500 marks to Dr. R. Hesse, for the investi- 

 gation of eyes of lower marine animals, especially molluscs, at 

 the Naples Zoological Station ; 1500 marks to Prof. E. Cohen, 

 for his researches on meteorites; 1500 marks to Dr. Ludwig 

 Wulff, to continue his investigations on artificial crystals ; 

 35,000 marks to Prof. F. E. Schulze, in support of the publica- 

 tion of " Das Tierreich," by the German Zoological Society. 



Upon the outer wall of the Pasteur laboratory at the Ecole 

 normale, Paris, a bronze medallion, reproducing with great 

 truth the features of the great investigator, has just been placed. 

 The medallion is the work of M. A. Patey, and it surmounts a 

 slab of black marble bearing in letters of gold the following 

 inscription : — 



Ici fut le laboratoire de Pasteur. 



1 857. — Fermentations . 



i860. — Generations spontanees. 



1865. — Maladies des vins et des bieres. 



1868. — Maladies des vers a soie. 



1 88 1. — Virus et vaccins. 



1885. — Prophylaxie de la rage. 



This memorial was voted by the Municipal Council of Paris in 

 December 1894 to commemorate the work done by Pasteur in 

 the laboratory in the rue d'Ulm, now occupied by the Ecole 

 normale. 



An important change in the administration of the U.S. 

 National Museum is announced in Science. Three sections 

 have been organised — a section of anthropology, a section of 

 luology and a section of geology, each having a head curator 

 with an annual salary of 3500 dollars. Dr. W. H. Holmes 

 has been appointed head curator of anthropology ; Dr. 

 Frederick W. True, head curator of biology ; and Dr. George 

 P. Merrill, head curator of geology. Dr. True and Dr. 

 Merrill are already connected with the Museum, and it is 

 expected that Dr. True will continue to act as the executive 

 curator. Dr. Holmes, who leaves the Field Columbian Museum, 

 Chicago, to accept this position, was formerly connected with 

 the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Ethnology. 



Dr. Alfred M. Mayer, professor of physics at the Stevens 

 Institute of Technology since the foundation of that institute, 

 died on July 13, aged sixty-one years. He was a Member of 

 the National Academy of Sciences, and one of the original 

 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. 



The statue of Darwin that has been erected by the Shrop- 

 shire Horticultural Society at the entrance to the Public Library 

 and Museum, the former school buildings, of Shrewsbury, will, 

 says Natural Science, be unveiled by Lord Kenyon, President of 

 the Society, on August 10. The statue, which is of bronze on 

 II granite pedestal, is the work of Mr. Horace Montford, of 

 NO. 1448, VOL. 56] 



Shrewsbury, and is not wholly unlike the fine statue in the 

 Natural History Museum, South Kensington. 



The Council of the British Institute of Preventive Medicine 

 have appointed Dr. Allan Macfadyen Director of the Institute. 



The British Medical Association has awarded the Stewart 

 Prize of 50/. to Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, and the Middlemore 

 Prize of 50/. to Dr. Alexander Hill. Sir Walter Foster and 

 Mr. C. G. Wheelhouse have been awarded the gold medals for 

 distinguished merit. 



Carbide of calcium not exceedingly 5 lbs. in quantity, when 

 stored in separate, substantial, hermetically-closed metal vessels, 

 containing not more than i lb. each, may now be kept without a 

 licence, the Secretary of State having been advised that such 

 small quantities might be safely exempted from the operation of 

 the Order of Council of February 26, in which certain parts of 

 the Petroleum Acts were applied to the substance. 



The preliminary programme of the sixteenth congress of the 

 Sanitary Institute, to be held in Leeds, from September 14 to 

 18, has now been issued. The president of the congress is Dr. 

 Robert Farquharson, M.P. The congress will include three 

 general addresses and lectures. The sections will meet for two^ 

 days each, and deal with (i) sanitary science and preventive 

 medicine, presided over by Mr. T. Pridgin Teale, F.R.S. ; (2) 

 engineering and architecture, presided over by Mr. Lewis- 

 Angell ; (3) chemistry, meteorology, and geology, presided over 

 by Mr. William Whitaker, F.R.S. There will be six special 

 conferences, the subjects and presidents of which will be 

 " River Pollution," Major Lamorock Flower ; " Municipal 

 Representatives," Councillor B. Wormsley ; " Medical Officers 

 of Health," Dr. Edward Seaton ; "Municipal and County 

 Engineers," Mr. Thomas Hewson; "Sanitary Inspectors," 

 Mr. Peter Fyfe ; "Domestic Hygiene." In connection 

 with the congress a health exhibition of apparatus and ap- 

 pliances relating to health and domestic use will be held. 

 Excursions to places of interest in connection with sanitation 

 will be arranged for those attending the congress. It appears 

 from the programme that over three hundred authorities, includ- 

 ing several County Councils, have already appointed delegates to 

 the congress, and, as there are also over two thousand members 

 and associates in the Institute, there will probably be a large 

 attendance in addition to the local members of the congress. 



At a very numerously attended meeting of the Essex Field 

 Club, held at Easton Lodge, near Dunmow, by the invitation 

 of the Earl and Countess of Warwick, on Wednesday, July 21, 

 a discussion was held for the consideration of practical methods 

 for the protection of our native fauna and flora from the 

 destruction and actual extermination which now threaten many 

 interesting species. Mr. C. G. Barrett (hon. secretary to the 

 Committee of the Entomological Society for the Protection of 

 Insects in danger of extermination) opened the subject by a 

 short address on " Insect protection : its necessity, means, and 

 objects." Mr. J. E. Harting spoke with respect to birds and 

 mammals ; Prof. Boulger referred to the wholesale collecting 

 which was exterminating many rare plants ; and Prof. Meldola 

 urged that children should be taught to respect the sacredness 

 of life. The President, Mr. David Howard, strongly supported 

 the pleas of the speakers, and Mr. W. Cole hinted at the injury 

 that might be caused by legislative interference with the balance 

 of nature. Eventually the following resolution of Prof. 

 Boulger's was adopted unanimously, and the Club resolved to 

 assist the scheme of the Entomological Society in every possible 

 way : " That in view of the danger of extermination threatening 

 many beautiful, rare and interesting plants, all lovers of nature 

 should do their best to avoid this danger (a) by abstaining from 

 wholesale collecting, collecting for merely individual private 



