July 6, 1893] 



NATURE 



229 



Evans (hon. treasurer) reported that the fund now amounted 

 to £'312 ly., that the granite memorial proposed to be set up 

 in front of the Laboratory at Rothamsted was nearly ready, and 

 that the portrait of Sir John Lawes, by Mr. Hubert Elerkomer, 

 was in progress. It was decided to request the Minister for 

 Agriculture to preside at the dedication of the memorial and the 

 presentation of addresses to Sir John Lawes and Dr. Gilbert by 

 various learned societies, on Saturday, the 29th inst. , at 3 p.m. 

 It was also decided that the fund should not be closed until after 

 the presentation, and subscriptions (not exceeding two guineas) 

 will be received until further notice by Mr. Ernest Clarke, hon. 

 secretary, at 12, Hanover Square. 



The next meeting of the Australasian Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science will commence in Adelaide, South Aus- 

 tralia, on September 25, 1893, under the presidency of Prof. 

 Ralph Tate, of the University of Adelaide. The Association 

 has been in existence since 1888, and now numbers over 900 

 members. The four previous meetings, held at Sydney, Mel- 

 bourne, Christchurch, and Hobart, under the presidencies re- 

 spectively of Mr. Russell, Baron von Mueller, Sir James Hector, 

 and Sir Robert Hamilton, K.C.B., have been very successful. It 

 is hoped that some visitors from the old country may be induced 

 to attend the coming meeting, where they may count upon a 

 cordial welcome. The time fixed is eminently suitable for 

 visitors ; and in previous years the Colonial Governments and 

 the local steamship companies have granted substantial reduc- 

 tions of fares to members of the Association, and it is anticipated 

 that the same privileges will be continued on the present occasion. 

 We may add that at the request of the local secretaries, two 

 former members of the Adelaide University, Prof. T. Hudson 

 Beare, of University College, London, and Prof. Horace Lamb, 

 of the Owens College, Manchester, have underaken to answer 

 inquiries, and to give all information in their power to intending 

 visitors. 



Dr. Archibald Sandemann, who at one time was Pro- 

 fessor of Mathematics at Owens College, Manchester, died at 

 Perth a few days ago. He was seventy-one years of age. 



At a special general meeting of the Geological Society, on 

 June 21, it wasdecided to have an index prepared to the first fifty 

 volumes of the Quarterly Journal, at an expenditure not exceed- 

 '"E £,\y>- If possible, the index will be issued early in 1S95, 

 in two numbers in paper covers, uniform with the Quarterly 

 Journal, and as a supplement to volume fifty. 



At the first meeting of the recently elected Council of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers the following reappointments were 

 made : — Mr. Hugh Lindsay Antrobus as Treasurer, Dr. William 

 Pole, F. R.S., as Honorary Secretary, and Mr. James Forrest 

 as the Secretary. The Council consists of Mr. Giles, President . 

 Sir Robert Rawlinson, K.C.B., Sir B. Baker, K.C.M.G.,' 

 F.R.S., Sir Jas. N. Douglass, F.R.S., and Mr. J. Wolfe Barry, 

 Vice-Presidents; Dr. William Anderson, F.R.S., Mr. Alex. 

 R. liinnie. Sir Douglas Fox, Sir Charles Hartley, K.C.M.G., 

 Mr. J. C. Hawkshaw, Mr. Charles Hawksley, Prof. Alex. 

 B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., Sir Bradford Leslie, K. CLE., Mr. 

 James Mansergh, Sir Guilford L. Moleswoith, K.C.I.E., 

 Mr. W. H. Preece, F.R.S., Sir Edward James Reed, 

 K.C. B , F.R.S., M.P., Ur. William Shelford, Mr. F. W. Webb, 

 and .Mr. W. II. White, C.B., F.R.S. 



A .MEETING of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union will be held 

 at Kirk wood, Moorside, on Monday, July 10, for the investigation 

 of the neighbourhood of Donthwaite Dale, Sleighiholme Dale, 

 and Kirkdale. 



The curator of the Maidstone Museum has printed and is 

 circulating an Exchange List of duplicate lepidopterous insects 

 VO. 1236, VOL. 48] 



contained in ihe museum. It embraces the Rhopalocera only, 

 and upwards of £0CO specimens are available for distribution. 

 Copies of the Exchange List can be had on application. The 

 housing and proper supervision of duplicate natural history 

 specimens has become in many museums a serious tax upon 

 the ingenuity and time of the curators, and it would seem very 

 desirable that exchange lists should become more general than 

 is the case at present. Their value would be greatly increased, 

 moreover, if for this purpose a uniform system of nomenclature 

 were adopted. 



Two prizes of %iy) and $75 respectively will be awarded by 

 the Anthropological Society of Washington at the end of this 

 year for the best essays on the elements that go to make up the 

 most useful citizen of the United States, regardless of occupa- 

 tion. The prizes are open to competitors of all nationalities. 

 While it is not proposed by the Society to limit the scope of 

 the discussion, and while each essay will be considered on its 

 merits by the Commissioners of Award, it is suggested, in view 

 of the character of the Society and the wishes of the donor 

 of the prize fund, that the treatment be scientific, and that 

 the potential citizen be considered (l) from the point of 

 view of anthropology in general, including heredity, anthro- 

 pometry, viability, physiological psychology, &c. ; (2) from the 

 point of view of personal characteristics and habits, such as 

 care of the body, mental traits, miimial skill, sense training and 

 specialisation, and all-round manhood ; and {3) from the ethical 

 point of view, including self-control, humanity, domesticity, 

 charity, prudence, energy, esprit de corps, patriotism, &c. 

 Essays submitted in competition for the prizes should be delivered 

 not later than November i, 1893, to the Secretary of the Board 

 of Managers of the Society, Mr. Weston Flint, No. Iioi K 

 Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., to whom all correspondence 

 relating to the prizes should be addressed. 



We are requested by the Imperial and Royal Austro- Hun- 

 garian Consulate-General to call attention to the charital.le 

 foundation instituted by the Sisters Froehlich at Vienna, for 

 making pecuniary grants to persons who have distinguished 

 themselves in art, science, or literature. The grants are made 

 irrespective of nationality, provided that the applicants are 

 resident in Austria. Further information can be obtained 

 at the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Embassy, 

 18 Belgrave Square, S.W. 



A CORRESPONDENT, writing to the Pioneer Mail, says that 

 Muriee was visited by a terrific hailstorm on May 28. The 

 hailstones are described as being fully the size of racket balls, 

 and they bounded from the ground to a height of four or five 

 feet. They did a large amount of damage to trees and flowers, 

 and strewed the neighbourhood with small branches and leaves. 

 Numerous panes of glass were broken, and the ground was 

 covered with hail to a depth of between two and three inches. 



In the Repertorium fiir Meteorologie (vol. xvi.) A. Schoenrock 

 describes a remarkable oscillation of temperature at St. Peters- 

 burg and neighbourhood on February 11 last. On the loth the 

 thermometer rose all day, the readings being - I2°'l F. at 

 7 a.m., — o°-4 at i p.m., 23''-4 at 9 p.m., and at about 3.45 a.m. 

 of the nth, 28° 4. At this time the thermometer began to fall 

 very rapidly, the decrease being no less than 23° in the course 

 of a quarter of an hour, and by 7 a.m. it had fallen to 2^6. The 

 wind, which had been southerly on the morning of the lOlh, 

 suddenly changed to east-north-east on the morning of the Iltb, 

 the force being light on both days. The phenomenon was to a 

 less extent observed at other stations around St. Petersburg ; to 

 the eastward it did not reach beyond Ssermaxa, but the westerly 

 limit could not be determined for want of stations. 



