566 



NA TURE 



[April 14, 1892 



made in anatomical and physiological knowledge. The 

 inferences to which he was chiefly guided by anatomical 

 considerations have thus been placed on a wider basis, 

 at the same time that they have been brought into 

 complete harmony with the more certain evidence of 

 experiment. 



The above ragmentary account of Sir William Bow- 

 man's scientific work may sufifice to show how much his 

 early achievements aided the advancement of knowledge, 

 and how materially they influenced the work of the other 

 great anatomists and physiologists of that stirring time. 

 Who can say how much more a man of such power would 

 have contributed to the building up of the great science 

 which in the vigour of youth he cultivated with such 

 extraordinary success, had not external circumstances 

 withdrawn him — too early — from its service ? 



jj. BuRDON Sanderson. 



NOTES. 

 The new London County Council seems to have rather more 

 enlightened ideas as to the need for the promotion of technical 

 education than its predecessor. On Tuesday, when it was 

 moved that the recommendation of the Finance Committee 

 with regard to the Council's receipts and expenses for the year 

 ending March 31, 1893, should be adopted, Mr. Quintin Hogg 

 proposed as an amendment that the following words be added 

 to the motion: — "Provided that ;,{^30,ooo, being part of the 

 amount receivable by the Council for the financial year ending 

 March 31, 1893, under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise 

 Duties) Act, 1890, be carried over to a suspense account, instead 

 of being applied in reduction of rate, and that such ;,^30,ooo, 

 when carried over, be dealt with on or before October I next 

 by the Council for any purpose authorized by the above Act : 

 and that a special committee be appointed to consider what 

 action the Council should take under the Technical Education 

 Acts, 1889-91, and the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise 

 Duties) Act, 1890, with power to draw up a scheme or schemes 

 for the consideration of the Council." This was seconded by 

 Mr. Baum, and warmly supported by Sir John Lubbock and 

 other speakers. The amendment was adopted by a large 

 majority, only three voting against it. 



Dr. Scott having accepted the charge of the Jodrell Labora- 

 tory at Kew, the Assistant-Professorship in Botany at the Royal 

 College of Science at South Kensington w ill be vacant at the 

 end of the present session. The appointment rests with the 

 Lord President of the Council, and candidates for the post 

 should send their applications to the Secretary, Science and Art 

 Department, accompanied by testimonials. The salary is ;^40o 

 per annum. 



Sir Andrew Clark, F.R.S., has been elected for the fifth 

 time President of the Royal College of Physicians of London. 



Mr. Francis Darwin, F.R.S., author of "The Life and 

 Letters of Charles Darwin," has been elected a member of the 

 Athenseum Club, under the terms of the rule which provides for 

 "the annual introduction of a certain number of persons of dis- 

 tinguished eminence in science, literature, or the arts, or for 

 public services." 



The Trustees of the British Museum have appointed Mr. 

 Arthur Smith Woodward to the Assistant-Keepership of the 

 Department of Geology in succession to Mr. Etheridge, who has 

 been retired by the operation of the Order in Council of August 

 1890. A junior assistantship which thus becomes vacant will 

 shortly be filled by competition among the candidates nominated 

 by the principal Trustees. 



NO. I 172, VOL. 45] 



Mr. F. J. M. Page has been appointed to the Chair of 

 Chemistry and Physics at the London Hospital rendered vacant 

 by the death of Dr. Tidy. 



Dr. Hugh Robert Mill has been appointed to succeed 

 Mr. J. S. Keltic as Librarian to the Royal Geographica 

 Society. 



We have already announced that the Royal Medals of the 

 Royal Geographical Society have been awarded to Mr. A. R. 

 Wallace and Mr. E. Whymper. The Murchison grant has 

 been awarded to Mr. Swan (who accompanied Mr. Theodore 

 Bent in his expedition to Mashonaland) ; the Back grant to the 

 Rev. James Sibree for his many years' work on the geography 

 and bibliography of Madagascar ; the Cuthbert Peck grant to 

 Mr. Campbell for his important journeys in Korea ; and the 

 Gill Memorial to Mr. Garrett for his geographical work during 

 the past fifteen years in Sierra Leone. 



At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, on Monday, 

 Mr. Ernest Gedge read a paper on a recent Expedition under 

 Captain F. G. Dundas, R.N., up the River Tana to Mount 

 Kenia, in East Africa. He said that his account of the expe- 

 dition had been compiled from the notes and jonrnals of the 

 European members thereof. In appearance the Tana might be 

 likened to a miniature Nile for the whole of its navigable length, 

 a distance of some 360 miles by river, flowing through a vast 

 plain, and generally confined between low banks. The sur- 

 rounding districts were flooded during the rise of the river in 

 the rainy season. In fact, the whole country from Charra 

 across to the Ozi River might be described as one vast swamp 

 choked with rank vegetation. Only a small fraction of this 

 area was cultivated at present. Above Hameye, the river 

 was a succession of rapids and falls ; the channel was choked 

 with boulders, and quite unnavigable. In fact, it had the 

 general appearance of a mountain torrent of large dimensions. 

 With regard to the geological structure on the upper reaches, 

 this appeared to consist principally of gneissic formations above 

 Hameye, which, on nearing Mount Kenia, gradually changed 

 to indurated hornblendic schists, till on the mountain itself it 

 again changed to basaltic rocks and volcanic ash. 



Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., has announced in the Times 

 that during some recent excavations in Endsleigh Street, N. W., 

 in connection with the deepening of the main sewer, the work- 

 men came upon the remains of a mammoth and other prehistoric 

 animals at a depth of about 22 feet from the surface. In the 

 central excavation, near the north end of the street, two large 

 tusks of a mammoth were met with lying near together along 

 with other bones belonging to the same animal. A portion of 

 one of these tusks was brought to the surface, and it was found 

 to measure at its thickest part nearly 2 feet in circumference. 

 The length of the complete tusks would probably be at least 

 9 feet or 10 feet. In another excavation on the west side of the 

 street, at a distance of about 15 feet from the above-mentioned, 

 the lower jaw and other bones of a younger mammoth were 

 discovered at about the same depth from the surface. The dark 

 loamy soil in which the remains were embedded has yielded on 

 examination many seeds of contemporary plants ; and Mr. 

 Clement Reid, of the Geological Survey, to whom samples of 

 the loam were submitted, has been able to determine the pre- 

 sence in it of about twenty species. These show that the land 

 at the time was of a marshy nature. Deposits usually classed 

 with the high-level gravel and brick earth of the Thames Valley 

 were found overlymg the animal remains ; hence the geological 

 age during which the animals lived, in Dr. Hicks's opinion, 

 must be included in what is known as the Glacial period. 



A BUST of Gustav Nachtigal has been set up in the Berlin 

 Museum fiir Volkerkunde, beside the collections formed in the 



