August 31, 1893] 



NA TURE 



421 



with whose pioneer's work in British marine zoology he 

 was in active sympathy. A devoted husband, an exemplary 

 parent, a true friend, whose advice was always sound, 

 and whose criticism was as well founded as it was frank, 

 he passes from us in the heyday of life. His life 

 furnishes a noble example of independent manliness, and 

 of enthusiasm for the spread of truth and the cause of 

 scientific advancement. 



NOTES. 

 We learn from the Revue Ginirale des Sciences that M. 

 d' Abbadie, laie President of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 has asked the Academy to accept a considerable gift in the 

 name of his wife and himself. The donation consists of the 

 Abbadia estate (Basses-Pyrenees), having an annual revenue o 

 twenty thousand francs, and one hundred shares in the Bank of 

 F ranee, representing a capital of four hundred thousand francs 

 and an annual income of fifteen thousand. By the deed of gift, 

 these properties will not fall to the Academy until after (he 

 decease of the donors. Two of the principal clauses and charges 

 of the legacy are as follows : — (i) The Academy may establish 

 on the Abbadia estate any researches or laboratories, except 

 those devoted to vivisection. (2) An observatory must be 

 established at Abbadia, in which a catalogue of five hundred 

 thousand stars can be made, the work to be completed in 1950. 

 In order to reduce the expenses which this stipulation carries 

 with it, the work may be confided to seme religious order. The 

 Academy has nominated a commission to examine the condi- 

 tions of this munificent donation, and has expressed its deep 

 gratitude to M. and Mme. d'Abbadia. It is not too much to 

 say that this feeling is shared by all men of science. 



The following men of science have been elected Fellows of 

 the Reale Accademia dei Lincei : — In mathematics. Prof. L. 

 Bianchi and Dr. G. D'Ovidio ; chemistry. Dr. G. Ciamician 

 and Prof. D. MendelejefT; botany. Profs. E. Strassburger and 

 N. Pringsheim ; agriculture. Dr. F. Cohn. Dr. E. Bertini 

 has been elected a correspondent in mathematics ; E. Millose- 

 vich in astronomy ; A. Abetti in mathematical and physical 

 geography ; and O. Mattirolo in botany. 



The Times announces the death of Prof. M'Fadden A. 

 Newell, Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of 

 Maryland, U.S.A. He was educated at Trinity College, 

 Dublin, and the Royal College of Belfast, and went to the 

 United States in 1848. He was Professor of Natural Science 

 in the Baltimore City College from 1850 to 1854, and occupied 

 the same chair in Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, from 1854 

 to 1864. In 1865 he was appointed President of the Normal 

 School of the State of Maryland, succeeding, three years later, 

 to the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, a 

 post he held for a quarter of a century. In connection with Prof. 

 Crury he published a series of text-books entitled the " Mary- 

 land Series," and his Annual Reports, in twenty-five volumes, 

 are held in high esteem. 



We regret to record the death of Father R. P. Vines, 

 Director of Belen Observatory, Havannah. 



A DISASTROUS cyclone swept northward; along the Atlantic 

 seaboard of the United States on August 29. At Savannah, 

 Georgia, property to the value of millions of dollars has been 

 destroyed, and news of great loss of life and property is re- 

 ported from Brunswick, Georgia, and further south, while the 

 town of Tybee has been completely wrecked. It is reported 

 that the storm traced out a path marked by devastation across 

 Georgia and South Carolina to Charlotte, in North Carolina, 

 and thence to the east coast again to Petersburg, Virginia. 

 NO. T244, VOL. 48] 



The city of Savannah presents a scene of wreck and ruin sur- 

 passing even the effects of the great storm of August, 1881. 

 For eight hours the wind rushed through the city with terrific 

 force and swept down houses as if they were packs of cards. 

 Nearly every house in the city has suffered some damage, and 

 the streets have been rendered quite impassable by the 

 wreckage. 



A Reuter's telegram from New York states that a cyclone 

 passed over that part of the Atlantic coast on August 23, in 

 The direction of the New England States, and left its marks 

 over a region around New York extending over an area of 

 fully a thousand miles. A rainfall of 3-82 inches in twelve 

 hours was measured, and is said to be the highest ever 

 recorded by the local signal service. 



The next meeting of the French Association for the Advance- 

 mence of Science will be held at Caen, with M. Mascart as 

 president. M. E. Trelat will preside over the meeting to be 

 held at Bordeaux in 1895. 



It has been finally arranged that the Congress of the Photo- 

 graphic Society and Affiliated Societies shall beheld on October 

 :o, II, and 12. All the arrangements will be completed in 

 a few days, and a full programme will be circulated as soon as 

 possible. 



An International Exhibition of Photographic Art has been 

 organised by the Paris Photo Club, and will be held from 

 December 10 to the end of this year. The address of the 

 Secretary is 40 Rue des Malhurins, Paris. An international 

 exhibition of amateur photography will be held in the Museum 

 of Fine Arts, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, on October 1-31. 



The annual general meeting of the members of the Federated 

 Institution of Mining Engineers will be opened on Wednesday, 

 September 6th, in the rooms of the Philosophical Society of 

 Glasgow. A number of papers on mining subjects will then be 

 read, and on the two following days excursions will be made to 

 collieries, iron and steel works, and other places of interest. 



The Indiana Academy of Science has decided to make a 

 biological survey of the State of Indiana, and Profs. L. M. 

 Underwood, C. H. Eigenmann, and V. F. Marsters have been 

 appointed as organisers and directors of it. The first work 

 will be the preparation of a complete bibliography of materials 

 bearing on the botany, zoology, and palaeontology of Indiana, 

 to be published by the Academy. When this has been done, it 

 will be possible to discuss the fauna and flora, its extent, dis- 

 tribution, biological relations, and economic importance, and 

 thus accomplish the main purpose of the survey. 



Mr. J. F. James gives in Science a description of the 

 " Scientific Alliance of New York," instituted at the end of 

 last year, and having for its chief object the establishment of a 

 centre where knowledge of what is being done in one society 

 is conveyed to all the rest. Much is to be gained by this kind 

 of cooperation, both by science and individual workers. Already 

 the Alliance has been joined by the New York Academy of 

 Science, Torrey Botanical Club, New York Microscopical 

 Society, Linnean Society of New York, New York Mineral- 

 ogical Club, New York Mathematical Society, and the New 

 York Section of the American Chemical Society, each of these 

 societies being represented by its president and two members 

 upon the council of the Alliance. At the opening meeting the 

 president deprecated the views of so-called practical men in 

 whose eyes science "is worth only what it will bring when 

 offered in the form of dynamos, telephones, electric-lights, dye- 

 stuffs, mining machinery, and other merchantable wares." The 

 need of endowment for research in the region of pure science 

 was pointed out, reference being made to the German Univer- 



