34 



NA TURE 



[May io, 1900 



for the erection of their mosquito-proof house in the Campagna, 

 •on the line of the railway running from Rome to Tivoli. 



A MEETING of the International Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, Arts and Education will be held at the 

 Society of Arts to-morrow (May ii), at 4 p.m. Sir Archibald 



■Geikie, F.R.S., vice-president of the British Committee, will 

 preside. The secretary, Prof. Patrick Geddes, will deliver an 

 address on the nature and aims of the Association and its forth- 



•coming assembly at the Paris Exhibition. 



In connection with the International Congress of Physics to 

 be held in Paris from August 6 to 12, a preliminary programme 

 of papers has been issued. Over sixty reports have already been 

 ipromised, and among the names of contributors we notice those 

 of Amagat, Arrhenius, d'Arsonval, Battelli, Becquerel, Blondlot, 

 Bouty, Boys, Branly, Brillouin, Broca, Cornu, Curie, Exner, 

 Griffiths, Hurmuzescu, Lippmann , Lorenz, Poincare, Potier, 

 Poynting, Pringsheim, Righi, Spring, J. J. Thomson, Villard, 

 Warburg and Wien. 



The next meeting of the Comite International des Poids et 

 Mesures is fixed for September 10, 1900. Owing to the death 

 of M. Joseph Bertrand, and the resignation of Prof. Thalen, 

 two of the original members of the Comite, the number of 

 members is now limited to eleven. Great Britain will be repre- 

 sented at the forthcoming meeting by Mr. H. J. Chaney, a 

 •member of the Comite. 



The death of M. Edouard Grimaux, at the age of sixty-five, 

 occurred during the past week. M. Grimaux succeeded Cahours 

 as professor in the Ecole Polytechnique at Paris, and also held 

 a chair at the Agronomic Institute. He made numerous and 

 valuable contributions to organic chemistry, and was the author 

 of several chemical treatises. He will be gratefully remembered 

 by chemists for an admirable biography of Lavoisier, which he 

 published in 1884. M. Grimaux lately became prominent in 

 connection with the Dreyfus case. At the Zola trial he ex- 

 .pressed his belief in the innocence of Dreyfus. For this he was 

 deprived of his professorship by General Billot, notwithstanding 

 ■the fact that he had rendered devoted service to the army in 

 1870. In 1894 M. Grimaux was elected to the Academy in the 

 place of Fremy. 



Replying to a question in the House of Commons on Mon- 

 ■day, Mr. Akers-Douglas stated that the new National Physical 

 Laboratory is not to be erected, as has been reported, in the 

 Queen's Cottage grounds, or in any other grounds attached to 

 Kew Gardens. It will stand quite outside those Gardens on 

 •Crown land. The only part of the scheme which might possibly 

 be supposed to affect the amenities of the Gardens is a small 

 ■building which will not, at the outside, cover a quarter of an 

 acre. Tiiis building will be so placed as not to interfere with 

 ■the views from the Gardens over the Old Deer Park, and it will 

 not be opposite to that part of the Gardens round the Queen's 

 Cottage which is reserved in a wild state. The building will 

 only be used for delicate scientific work which will not disturb 

 ■the seclusion of the neighbourhood of the Queen's Cottage, and 

 which, in fact, itself requires as much quiet and privacy as can 

 >be obtained. 



The Paris correspondent of the Chemist and Druggist states 

 that science is represented at the Salon by several portraits of 

 average merit. The best is that of Dr. Vaillard, head army 

 surgeon and professor at the Val de Grace Military Hospital, 

 where he is known to two or three generations of army pharma- 

 cists who have followed his lectures. Dr. Vaillard is of middle 

 age, and is shown standing, in regimental dress, with the Cross 

 ■of the Legion of Honour on his tunic. His left hand is leaning 

 on a laboratory-bench, on which are a microscope and a variety 

 NO. 1593. VOL. 62] 



of analytical appliances. To his right is a lecture-blackboard, 

 and one can dimly see his written demonstration. The artist is 

 M. Paul Bourdier. The portrait of M. Hautefeuille, chemist, 

 and member of the French Institute, is the work of a lady 

 artist. She shows him in everyday attire in a corner of his 

 laboratory, sitting at a table, with a collection of scientific 

 apparatus near at hand ; in the background is a furnace, at 

 which an assistant in a white blouse is working. M. Tisserand, 

 of the French Institute, is another portrait of fair merit. One 

 would like to see more of this class of picture, but must suppose 

 artists find no market for them. 



The death of Dr. Edmund Atkinson on the 4th inst., after a 

 very short illness, will be a matter of deep regret to his large 

 circle of friends. He was born at Lancaster in 1831, and was a 

 student of Owens College, Manchester, in the early days of 

 that institution. There he became assistant to the late Sir 

 Edward Frankland, the first professor of chemistry in the 

 College, and was associated with him in organising the labora- 

 tory which has since become so well known. About 1854 he 

 went abroad for some years and continued his .scientific studies 

 at the Universities of Marburg, Gottingen and Heidelburg, and 

 at the Ecole de Medecine in Paris under Wurtz. On his return 

 to England he became private assistant to Sir Benjamin Brodie 

 at Oxford, then science master at Cheltenham College, and after- 

 wards professor of experimental science at the Royal Military 

 College, Sandhurst, and at the Staff College. He was several 

 times elected upon the council of the Chemical Society, and was 

 one of the founders of the Physical Society, of which Society he 

 was treasurer from the beginning until the last anniversary 

 meeting, with the exception of a short interval a few years ago. 

 Dr. Atkinson rendered great service to science by his numerous 

 translations into English of foreign scientific works ; among 

 these the best known are Ganot's " Elements of Physics," von 

 Helmholtz's "Popular Scientific Lectures" and Mascart's 

 "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism." He was a man of 

 excellent judgment in practical affairs, and of late years he gave 

 much time as a magistrate to the local affairs of his neighbour- 

 hood. He was always ready to undertake onerous duties for 

 those in need of help, and was a most generous and steadfast 

 friend. 



The council of the Royal Geographical Society have 

 awarded the two Royal medals for this year to Captain H. H. P. 

 Deasy and Mr. James McCarthy. The Founders' medal has 

 been awarded to Captain Deasy for the exploring and survey 

 work accomplished by him in Central Asia. Mr. McCarthy is 

 the Government surveyor of Siam, and the Patron's medal has 

 been awarded to him for his great services to geographical 

 science in exploring all parts of the kingdom of Siam, for his 

 laborious work during twelve years in collecting materials for 

 a map, to form the basis of a survey system, and for his admir- 

 able map of Siam just completed. The other awards have 

 been made as follows : — The Murchison award to M. Henryk 

 Arctowski for the valuable oceanographical and meteorological 

 work which he performed on the Belgian Antarctic expedition ; 

 the Gill memorial to Mr. Vaughan Cornish for his researches, 

 extending over several years, on sea-beaches, sand-dunes, and 

 on wave-forms in water ; the Back grant to Mr. Robert Cod - 

 rington for his journeys in the region between Lakes Nyassa 

 and Tanganyika, during which he removed, on behalf of the 

 Society, the section containing the inscription from the tree 

 under which Livingstone's heart was buried ; and the Cuth- 

 bert Peek grant to Mr. T. J. AUdridge for his journeys during 

 the past ten years in the interior of Sierra Leone, during 

 which he has done valuable geographical work. 



The following opportunities for the study of botany during 

 the ensuing summer season in the United States are mentioned 



