June 14, 1900] 



NATURE 



157 



up a list of furnished apartments, which can be had on 

 application. It is important, however, that all persons 

 proposing to attend the meeting should give a long 

 notice of their intention, in order to facilitate the 

 arrangements which the Committee wish to make for 

 their comfort. Ramsden B.\CCHUS. 



NOTES. 

 A Conference of delegates for the International Catalogue 

 of Scientific Papers was held at the Royal Society on Tuesday 

 and Wednesday. 



The second of the two soirees held annually at the Royal 

 Society will take place on Wednesday next, June 20. This is 

 the soiree to which ladies as well as gentlemen are invited. 



Mr. C. E. Borchgrevink will give an account of his 

 Antarctic work at the meeting of the Royal Geographical 

 Society on Monday, June 25, instead of June 18, as previously 

 announced. 



The annual visitation of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 

 will take place on Tuesday, June 26. The visitation has pre- 

 viously been held on the first Saturday in June, and the change 

 of the customary date is due to the absence of the Astronomer 

 Royal, and other astronomers, for the purpose of observing 

 the solar eclipse. This does not, however, explain the change 

 of day. 



On the occasion of the retirement of Sir Frederick Bramwell 

 from the office of honorary secretary of the Royal Institution, 

 the managers of the Institution unanimously resolved " to place 

 on permanent record an expression of their high appreciation 

 of the admirable way in which he has performed the duties of 

 that office and of his signal services to the Institution generally." 



The death is announced of Dr. Julius Althaus, the distin- 

 guished physician and neurologist. He was the author of works 

 on "Diseases of the Nervous System," "Failure of Brain 

 Power," " Diseases of the Spinal Cord," " Medical Electricity," 

 " Influenza" and " The Spas of Europe," and was an authority 

 upon the use of electricity in medical practice. 



The next lecture of the Zoological Society of London will be 

 deUvered at the Society's Meeting Room, on Thursday, June 21, 

 at 4.30 p.m., by Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. The subject 

 will be the gigantic sloths of Patagonia. 



At the last meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the 

 following were elected as British Honorary Fellows :— Dr. 

 Edward Caird, Master of Balliol College, Oxford ; Dr. David 

 Ferrier, professor of neuro-pathology, King's College, London ; 

 Dr. G. F. Fitzgerald, professor of natural and experimental 

 philosophy. Trinity College, Dublin ; Dr. Andrew Russell 

 Forsyth, Sadlerian professor of pure mathematics in the 

 University of Cambridge ; Dr. Archibald Liversidge, professor 

 of chemistry in the University of Sydney ; Dr. T. E. Thorpe, 

 principal of the Government Laboratories, London ; and, as 

 Foreign Honorary Fellows : — Dr. Arthur Auwers, secretary. 

 Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences; Prof. Wilhelm His, 

 Leipzig; and Prof Adolf Ritter von Baeyer, Munich. 



The celebration of the centenary of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England will commence on July 25 with a conver- 

 sazione at the College. On Thursday, July 26, a centenary 

 meeting will be held at the University of London, when an 

 address will be delivered by the president. Sir William Mac- 

 Cormac, and honorary fellowships will be conferred. On 

 Friday, July 27, there will be a conversazione at the Mansion 

 NO. 1598, VOL. 62] 



House. The Committee have issued invitations to foreign and 

 colonial surgeons, and propose to issue invitations to certain 

 persons of distinction residing in Great Britain and Ireland. 

 A short history of the College, with eight illustrations, has been 

 prepared, and will be presented to guests invited to the centenary 

 celebrations. 



The new clinical laboratories of Westminster Hospital were 

 opened by Lord Lister on Tuesday, in the presence of a distin- 

 guished company. The laboratories have been added to the 

 hospital to provide for a more scientific and systematic examina- 

 tion of disease than can be carried out satisfactorily in the wards. 

 A few particulars concerning the work of the hospital were given 

 by Sir J. Wolfe-Barry, K.C. B., and are reported in the Times. 

 Westminster Hospital was, he said, one of the oldest hospitals 

 in London, having been founded in 17 19. 30,000/. had been 

 spent in bringing the hospital up to modern requirements, and 

 in 1899 it was decided to add clinical laboratories and improve 

 the isolation wards and nursing accommodation. In time they 

 hoped to institute an electrical laboratory fitted with the 

 apparatus for the Rontgen rays and micro-photography. To 

 meet these expenses 10,000/. was wanted. — Dr. Lazarus-Barlow, 

 in giving a detailed account of the laboratories, said the hospital 

 tried to keep in front of all research and modern improve- 

 ments, scientific and clinical. The laboratories contained all 

 the most recent apparatus for the clinical work of the hospital. — 

 Lord Lister said it was no less a pleasure than an honour to 

 him to take part in that day's ceremony. The beautiful clinical 

 laboratories they had inspected would give the physicians of the 

 hospital an opportunity of bringing to bear on their cases the 

 most advanced knowledge and the most refined methods of in- 

 vestigation. Many a diagnosis which would otherwise be 

 obscure would be rendered clear in those rooms. He need 

 hardly say that the correct diagnosis was directly proportioned 

 to successful treatment. In respect of what Sir J. Wolfe-Barry 

 had said, he himself felt convinced that those who had worked 

 in the laboratories would not only benefit patients in the hospital, 

 but would also, unfailingly, be able to extend the boundaries of 

 knowledge and promote the now rapid advance of pathological 

 and therapeutic knowledge. The laboratories would also be of 

 service as a powerful means of affording sound practical know- 

 ledge to the student. 



During the early part of the present week a wave of unusual 

 heat has passed over parts of England, accompanied by brilliant 

 sunshine. In the neighbourhood of London, the shade thermo- 

 meter rose to 89 on„ Monday, the lith inst., and thunderstorms 

 occurred over several parts with heavy rainfall, amounting to 

 an inch in the Midland Counties. So high a temperature has 

 not occurred at so early a period of the summer in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London for more than fifty years. A sharp thunder- 

 storm also visited London about 10 a.m. on Tuesday, and 

 another occurred in the evening ; there was also a renewal of 

 severe thunderstorms over a large part of England. The 

 temperature on Wednesday was considerably lower than on 

 the preceding days. 



From St. Petersburg to Vladivostok by way of the Arctic 

 Ocean is (says the National Geographic Magazine) the plan of 

 itinerary of an exploring party that early in June leaves the 

 former city on the steamer Aurora. Six men of science and 

 twelve sailors, all experienced in Arctic travel and led by Baron 

 Toll, make up the party. Their special object is the careful 

 exploration of the Arctic regions north of Siberia. After a brief 

 stop at Tromsb, Norway, and at the new Russian port of 

 Catherine Harbour, on the Lapland coast, they will proceed to 

 the Taimur Peninsula, west of the Yenisei River, and there 

 establish their winter headquarters. The neighbouring territory 



