544 



NATURE 



[April 7, 1892 



The honour of knighthood has been conferred on Dr. George 

 Buchanan, F. R.S., on his retirement from the post of Medical 

 Officer to the Local Government Board. 



The friends and admirers of the late Mr. IL W. Bates, 

 F.R.S., propose to give substantial expression to their regard 

 for his character. A fund is to be raised for presentation to his 

 widow. Any communications relating to the matter should be 

 addressed to S. W. Silver, 3 York Gate, Regent's Park, N.W, 



A BRANCH of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society has 

 been established in London. At the first meeting, which was 

 held on Monday, Prof. James Bryce delivered an address on 

 "The Migrations of the Races of Men considered historically." 

 The Marquis of Lothian, President of the London branch, 

 occupied the chair. He said they had no intention of compet- 

 ing, or in any sense of vying with, the Royal Geographical 

 Society. The Scottish Society had branches in Glasgow, Dun- 

 dee, and Aberdeen ; and it had been felt that another might 

 be appropriately formed for the benefit of members in London. 



The Committee appointed to consider the question of grants 

 to University Colleges in Great Britain have issued their Report. 

 The principle on which they consider that the distribution of 

 the grant to the Colleges now sharing it should be made for the 

 remainder of the quinquennial period is as follows : (i) they 

 award a grant to each College, varying according to the nature 

 and extent of its University work ; (2) a grant for every pro- 

 fessor or other teacher receiving more than ;^250 per annum ; 

 (3) a percentage on the College income from all sources. A 

 table is printed, giving the present grants, which the Committee 

 wish to be continued ; and the grants which they wish to be 

 added. 



The rebuilding of the College of Agriculture, Downton, ren- 

 dered necessary by the destructive fire of last year, has now been 

 so far completed that the premises will be ready for occupation 

 and use next term. 



The Director of the new Imperial German Zoological Station 

 at Heligoland will be Dr. Heincke, of Oldenburg, a recognized 

 authority on fish and fisheries. As his first assistant he will have 

 Dr. Clemens Hartlaub (son of Dr. G. Hartlaub, the well-known 

 ornithologist of Bremen), who will take charge of the scientific 

 branch of the establishment. Since the death of Dr. Philip 

 Carpenter, Dr. Clemens Hartlaub has become one of our leading 

 authorities on starfishes. He has just published in the Nova 

 Acta of the Imperial Leopoldino- Caroline Academy, an elaborate 

 memoir on the Comatulidse collected by Prof. Brock in the 

 Moluccan Seas and deposited in the Gottingen Museum. In 

 the course of this article nine species of the genera Antedon and 

 Aciinometra are described as new to science. 



On March 26, the members of the Geologists' Association, 

 assembled at the house of Mr. W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., 

 President of the Geological Society, in order to inspect the hand- 

 some private museum he has attached to his residence. The 

 occasion was rendered particularly 'interesting by the fact that 

 the Council of the Association had decided to take this oppor- 

 tunity of presenting to Mr. Hudleston an illuminated address 

 expressing its sense of the helpful interest he had always shown 

 in the work of the Association. Among those present were 

 many former Presidents and officers of the Association, who now 

 rank as leaders of geological science. Although at least one 

 hundred persons had been concerned in the arrangement of the 

 testimonial, the secret was so well kept that the presentation 

 came as a complete surprise to its intended recipient. The sig- 

 natories of the address had been selected to represent all grades 

 of past and present workers of the Association. In making the 

 NO. II 7 I, VOL. 45] 



presentation, the present President of the Geologists' Associa- 

 tion, Rev. Prof. J. F. Blake, after suitably referring to 'Mr. 

 Hudleston's eminent services to geological science, expressed 

 the particular pleasure he felt that it should have fallen to his- 

 share to hand a testimonial so richly deserved to his old col- 

 league and fellow-worker. Mr. Hudleston, in the course of 

 a well-chosen reply, referred to the curious coincidence that of 

 the authors of the joint work of Blake and Hudleston many 

 years ago, the one was President of the Geologists' Association 

 and the other of the Geological Society during the same year. 

 The contents of Mr. Hudleston's museum, now in course of 

 arrangement, excited considerable interest, particularly the 

 minerals, many of the choicest specimens of which are from the 

 private collection of the late Prof. J. Tennant, and also the 

 extensive series of British Jurassic Gasteropoda collected by the 

 author for the monograph now in course of publication by the 

 Palseontographical Society. 



Mr. J. P. Barrett, chief of the department of electricity in 

 connection with the Chicago Exhibition, has issued a pamphlet 

 containing all the information that can be needed to enable 

 intending exhibitors to proceed intelligently. He will be glad 

 to give special information to any one who may want it, and 

 invites correspondence. 



A BODY called the Scientific Alliance was recently organized 

 at New York. It consists of six societies engaged in the 

 promotion of research, and two others will probably soon 

 be added. The six societies are the New York Academy of 

 Sciences, the Torrey Botanical Club, the New York Micro- 

 scopical Society, theLinnean Society of New York, the New York 

 Mineralogical Club, and the New York Mathematical Society. 

 According to Science, these societies do not in any way sink 

 their individuality or surrender any part of the management 

 of their own affairs. Their union is merely in the way of 

 co-operation for the advancement of science, and for mutual 

 encouragement, carried out through a central representative body, 

 known as the Council, having advisory powers only. The 

 Council is made up of the president and two other delegates 

 from each society, A monthly bulletin is issued under the 

 authority of the Council, announcing the proposed proceedings 

 of all the societies, and a copy of this bulletin is sent to every 

 member. The bulletin contains an invitation to the members to 

 attend any of the meetings. An annual directory is issued, and 

 it is proposed that there shall also be an annual report on the 

 work done. Science says that the brief experience of the 

 Alliance has convinced the members that still closer union 

 is necessary, and this feeling has led to a movement for 

 the securing of a permanent building as a home for all the 

 societies. It is hoped that a building may be erected in a central 

 part of New York, " large enough to aiiford each society rooms 

 for its ordinary meetings, for its library and collections, as well 

 as facilities for research, and also to contain a lecture hall,' 

 capable of seating twelve hundred people, to be used by all the 

 societies in their public work." 



We have referred in the astronomical column to the astrono- 

 mical observations recorded in the "Washington Observations 

 for 1887." We will here briefly summarize the contents of this 

 volume with regard to the other observations there tabulated.. 

 Appendix I. contains a report upon some of the magnetic obser- 

 vatories of Europe, which was made by C. C. Marsh, who was 

 commissioned to pay special attention to the instruments, build- 

 ings, methods of observing, and the question of the reduction of 

 the observations. In this report, which was considerably cut 

 short, owing to the author having to proceed to sea on his 

 return, much interesting and valuable material has been collected 

 which should be consulted by all those who are connected with 

 the taking of such observations, and with the construction of 



