September 9. 1 897] 



NATURE 



451 



made by Profs. Strasburger, Virchow, Haeckel, KoUiker, Weiss, 

 and others, while Prof. Michael Foster, Sec.R.S., furnishes a 

 note ; and it will also include several hitherto unpublished letters 

 between Malpighi and the Royal Society. A commemorative 

 medal has been struck, bearing on the obverse the profile effigy 

 of the anatomist, and date. The reverse has an oak garland 

 with inscribed legend, " It fama per orbem." The pro- 

 gramme of Wednesday's celebration included a " Commemo- 

 razione malpighiana " by Prof. Romiti, held at the Teatro 

 Comunale, and a special performance of Massenet's " Manon." 

 The Royal Society sent an address of congratulation to the 

 President of the Committee. It nominated Dr. D. H. Scott, 

 F.R.S., honorary keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory at Kew 

 Gardens, as its representative, but at the last moment Dr. Scott 

 was prevented by sudden indisposition from attending. 



The German Pharmaceutical Association has awarded the 

 first Fliickiger Memorial Medal to Mr. E. M. Holmes, Curator 

 of the Pharmaceutical Society's Museums, in recognition of his 

 services to botany and pharmacognosy. 



The eleventh International Congress of Orientalists opened 

 at Paris on Monday, under the presidency of M. Rambaud, the 

 French Minister of Public Instruction. 



The collections, notes, and apparatus of the Zoological Ex- 

 pedition sent by Columbia University to Alaska have all been 

 lost in the City of Mexico, which was wrecked while attempting 

 to enter Queen Charlotte Sound on August 4. The members 

 of the expedition were rescued from the ship, but the results of 

 their season's work have been entirely lost. 



We regret to announce the deaths of Mr. William Archer, 

 F.R.S., librarian of the National Library of Ireland; Dr. T. 

 Bogomoloff, professor of medical chemistry in the University of 

 Kharkoff; Dr. John Braxton Hicks, F.R.S., one of the 

 pioneers of British work on diseases of women, and a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society since 1862. 



The Lancet announces the death of Dr. Holmgren, professor 

 of physiology in the University of Upsala. Dr. Holmgren was 

 born in 1831, and worked for many years under Briicke, Du 

 Bois Reymond, and Helmholtz. He was appointed to the chair 

 of Physiology in 1864, and had the honour of establishing the 

 first physiological institute in Sweden. He was chiefly known 

 in this country from his researches on colour-blindness and his 

 plan of testing the colour sense by means of wools. 



The forty-second annual exhibition of the Royal Photo- 

 graphic Society is now in course of preparation. It will be 

 opened to the public on Monday, September 27, and the 

 Saturday previous there will be a private view, followed in the 

 evening by a conversazione at which the President, the Earl of 

 Crawford, K.T., F.R.S., and Council will receive the Fellows, 

 Members, and their friends. The exhibition will be open 

 daily from 10 to 5, and on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday 

 evenings (when lantern slides will be shown) from 7 to 10 ; and 

 will close on November 13. 



At the final meeting of the International Medical Congress 

 at Moscow on August 26, the first award of the international 

 prize instituted by the City of Moscow was made to M. Henri 

 Dunant, of Geneva, for the services he has rendered to humanity 

 in the part he has played in founding the Red Cross Societies. 

 This triennial prize, to be awarded by successive international 

 congresses, either for the best work upon medicine or hygiene, 

 or for eminent services rendered to suffering humanity, will 

 amount to 5000 francs (200/. ), representing the interest at 4 per 

 cent, on the capital of 16,450 roubles voted by the municipality. 

 NO. 1454, VOL. 56] 



It is stated that a large quantity of instruments have arrived 

 at Dover for use in connection with some experiments in 

 telegraphing without wires. The arrangements include experi- 

 ments from Fort Burgoyne to the north of Dover Castle and 

 other parts of the surrounding country, which offers facilities 

 for work of this character. From the results which have been 

 attained elsewhere it is believed the system can be successfully 

 applied to lightships. From the position at Dover the Goodwin 

 I lightships will be made the objects of experiments under the 

 I direction of Mr. W. H. Preece. The sending apparatus will 

 be at Fort Burgoyne, and the receiving apparatus will be moved 

 to different parts of the district. 



Most of the subjects of address and papers brought before the 

 meeting of the British Medical Association at Montreal were of 

 too technical a character to be usefully chronicled in these 

 columns. On Wednesday, September i, the eleven sections 

 met in the several rooms assigned to them. In the section of 

 Medicine, Dr. Stephen Mackenzie delivered an address on the 

 influences that have determined the progress of medicine during 

 the preceding two and a half centuries. Mr. Christopher Heath 

 opened the proceedings in the section of Surgery by the 

 delivery of an address on the teaching of surgery. In the section 

 of Public Medicine the proceedings were opened by Dr. E. P.. 

 Lachapelle, who described the progress in sanitation that 

 had been effected in Canada down to the present time. Dr. 

 R. M. Bucke, of London, Ontario, delivered the presidential 

 address in the section of Psychology, on the evolution of 

 the human mind since the days of prehistoric man. Among 

 other addresses was one on " British Medicine in Greater 

 Britain," by Dr. William Osier ; "The Surgeon of Old in War," 

 by Dr. W. Mitchell Banks, and " On the Progress and Results 

 of Pathological Work," by Prof. W. Watson Cheyne. The 

 meeting was brought to a close on September 3, with an address- 

 by Dr. Herman Biggs on the working of the health department 

 of New York City, and the efforts made by that body to stamp 

 out consumption. The social side of the meeting was very 

 successful, both the members of the medical profession and 

 private citizens displaying lavish hospitality. The Canadians 

 appear to have done everything in their power to make this, the 

 first meeting of the Association outside the United Kingdom, 

 one of exceptional brilliancy in every respect. The McGill 

 University conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on 

 Lord Lister, Prof. Richet, Sir William Turner, Dr. Henry 

 Barnes, Dr. Michael Foster, Dr. W. H. Gaskell, Mr. Christopher 

 Heath, Prof. Alexander Macalister, Dr. R. Saundby, and Mr. 

 C. G. Wheelhouse. A speech was made by Lord Aberdeen ir> 

 his capacity as visitor of the University. Lord Lister, Prof. 

 Richet, and Dr. Michael Foster returned thanks in suitable 

 terms. 



A FINE waterspout was seen off Cromer on Saturday last. 

 Sir William Flower, who saw it from New Haven Court, says 

 that the whole phenomena consisted of two distinct portions 

 (i) The real waterspout; a column of water, soon dissipated 

 into steam, rising from the sea, and caused, apparently, by a 

 violent and greatly concentrated cyclonic action of the air. (2) 

 A greatly elongated portion of the lower edge of an extremely 

 dense black cloud which was hanging just over it attracted into the 

 vortex. The two travelled along together in the direction of 

 the prevailing wind, but the apex of the descending prolongation 

 of the dark cloud always pointed to the centre of the ascending, 

 column, though its length, form, and direction varied from time 

 to time. 



Several sensational paragraphs have appeared in the daily 

 press during the past few months as to an alleged method of 

 converting silver into gold, said to have been discovered by Dr. 



