t9S 



NA TURE 



[June 28, 1900 



NOTES. 



The annual visitation of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 

 by the board of visitors, took place on Tuesday last. 



A SPECIAL joint meeting of the Royal and Royal Astro- 

 nomical Societies is being held in the rooms of the Royal Society 

 to-day, to receive preliminary accounts of the observations of 

 the recent eclipse of the sun. 



The Nilson Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Prof. Otto 

 Pettersson, of Stockholm, before the Chemical Society on 

 Thursday next. 



The great kindness and attention shown oy the Alcalde and 

 other authorities at Santa Pola to the astronomical party who 

 went there to observe the recent eclipse, and to the captain and 

 officers of H.M.S. Theseus, who conveyed the members of the 

 expedition from Gibraltar, occasioned a very pleasing little 

 episode. On leaving Santa Pola a donation of lo/. was col- 

 lected, and left by Captain Tisdall with the Mayor for the benefit 

 of the poor of the town. This gift was highly appreciated by 

 the local authorities, and the amount has been distributed by 

 a local committee. The children in the schools were not for- 

 gotten, and each of them received a packet of sweets and a 

 memorial card relating to the eclipse and the visit of the expe- 

 dition. We are also able to state that the Mayor of Santa 

 Pola has received from the Spanish Government a decoration 

 of the First Order of the Civil Administration. We heartily 

 congratulate him on his new honour, which all who had any 

 relations with him know was well deserved. 



At a public meeting recently held in Belfast, it was decided 

 to renew the invitation to the British Association to visit Belfast 

 in 1902, and a representative deputation was appointed to 

 present the invitation at the forthcoming Bradford meeting of 

 the Association. The last meeting in Belfast took place in 

 1874, and was under the presidency of Prof. Tyndall. 



Sir William MacCormac is to receive to-day the honorary 

 degrees of M.D. and M.Ch. from the University of Dublin. 



The death is announced of Prof. Boutan, general inspector of 

 public instruction in France. Prof. Boutan was one of the 

 founders of the Societe fran9aise de Physique, and was also 

 the author, jointly with M. d' Almeida, of a treatise on physics. 



The death is announced of Dr. Karl Lange, professor of 

 pathological anatomy in the University of Copenhagen ; also of 

 Dr. Wilhelm Kiihne, professor of physiology at Heidelberg. 



The new physical laboratory at Owens College, Manchester, 

 will- be opened to-morrow by Lord Rayleigh. The new labora- 

 tory will have a larger floor area than that of any other similar 

 institution in the world, with the exception of the Johns 

 Hopkins and the Strasburg laboratories. Great efforts have 

 been made to provide an equipment of the most modern appa- 

 ratus for use in every branch of physical science, and to main- 

 tain conditions which shall ensure their being used to the 

 best advantage. The research laboratories are to be an im- 

 portant feature of the new buildings, and should attract a large 

 number of students. Another feature is the electro-technical 

 wing, which is to constitute a John Hopkinson memorial, and 

 will be formally handed over by the relatives of the late Dr. 

 John Hopkinson, on the occasion of the opening ceremony. 

 It is understood that Dr. C. H. Lees, formerly chief assistant 

 lecturer in the physics department of Owens College, will 

 occupy the post of assistant director of the new laboratories, 

 under Prof. A. Schuster, the director, and that Mr. R, Beattie 

 has been appointed lecturer in electrotechnics. 



At the conversazione to be held at the London Medical 

 Graduates' College and Polyclinic on Wednesday, July 4, Prof. 

 Osier F.R.S., of Baltimore, will deliver an address on " The 

 NO 1600, VOL. 62] 



Teaching of Practical Medicine," and the museum will be 

 inaugurated. 



The annual general meeting of the Rontgen Society will be 

 held on Thursday, July 5. The Presidential Address will be 

 delivered by Mr. Wilson Noble. 



The second annual meeting of the Astronomical and Astro- 

 physical Society of America is being held in conjunction with 

 the meeting of the American Association at Columbia Uni- 

 versity. In addition to the papers to be presented, there 

 will be discussions upon the following subjects : — The eclipse of 

 May 28 last ; Observations of Eros to be made at the next 

 opposition ; Spectroscopic determinations of motion in the 

 line of sight. 



An important' meeting of the Committee of the Liverpool 

 School of Tropical Medicine was held on the 19th inst., when 

 it was reported that the Government were co-operating with 

 the School in the matter of the despatch of the Yellow Fever 

 Expedition to America and Brazil, and that a letter had been, 

 received from the Marquess of Salisbury asking •whether the 

 Committee wished him to communicate with the British repre 

 sentatives in the countries to be visited by the expedition. The 

 offer was gratefully accepted, and a further letter was received 

 from Lord Salisbury saying that he had asked the British Am- 

 bassador at Washington and H.B.M. Consul at Para to obtain, 

 all possible facilities from the United States and Brazilian 

 authorities respectively on behalf of the expedition. Official 

 invitations for the expedition to visit Washington had been re- 

 ceived from the heads of the medical departments of the U.S. 

 army, and to visit Baltimore from the authorities of the Johns 

 Hopkins University. As has already bien stated in these 

 columns, the expedition consists of Dr. Durham (Grocers Re- 

 search Scholar) and Dr. Walter Myers (John Lucas Walker 

 Student), both of Cambridge. The expedition, which started 

 on Tuesday last, goes first to Canada, and then proceeds direct 

 to Washington and Baltimore. After conferring with the 

 bacteriological experts there, the expedition will go to New 

 York, and sail from that port to Para. Subsequent movements 

 will be guided by circumstances. 



At a dinner given last Monday in honour of the Yellow Fever 

 Expedition, Mr. A. L. Jones, chairman of the school, announced 

 his intention of giving 1000/. to.vards the erection of a Tropical 

 Diseases Hospital in Liverpool in connection with the Royal 

 Southern Hospital, to be associated with the name of Miss Mary 

 Kingsley. It was also announced that Mr. Blaize, of Lagos, 

 and Mr. John Holt, of Liverpool, had promised 500/. each to 

 th2 same object. Two other subscriptions of 100/. each were 

 announced. 



The Summer School of Medicine, which was to have been 

 held at Cambridge from June 25 to June 30, has, unfortunately, 

 had to be abandoned in consequence of the meagre number of 

 acceptances received. The necessity for the taking of this step 

 is the more to be regretted, as very careful preparations had been 

 made to insure a successful session ; demonstrations of the 

 malarial and other blood parasites, and of the most recent 

 work on cancer, had been arranged for, and in addition to 

 these subjects lectures were to have been given by experts in 

 their several lines of work upon various other matters of medical 

 and surgical interest. 



There are, it is estimated, about 400 lepers in France. 

 They are scattered about in Brittany, in the Pyrenees, on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, and in Paris, where they number 

 150. Among the lepers there are missionaries and nurses who 

 have fallen victims to their devoted care of sufferers in other 

 countries, and officials and soldiers who have contracted the 

 disease in the colonies. An anti-leprosy committee has, says 

 the British Aledical lotirnal, recently been formed on the 



