May 19, 1892] 



NA TURE 



61 



to the Gartenflora as recently as February of the present 

 year. Dr. Kegel was the recipient of many honours in 

 his adopted country, and he was elected a foreign mem- 

 ber of the Linnean Society of London in 1890. This is 

 the second of her few prominent botanists that Russia 

 has lost within a year. 



NOTES. 



The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be 

 held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 25 Great George 

 Street, London, on Thursday and Friday, May 26 and 27, 

 commencing each day at 10.30 a.m. Sir Frederick Abel, F.R.S., 

 the President, will deliver an address on Thursday, May 26. 

 The following papers will be read and discussed on the same 

 day, as far as time permits : — (i) On experiments with basic 

 steel, by W. H. White, F.R.S., Director of Naval Con- 

 struction and Assistant-Controller of the Navy ; (2) on the 

 production of pure iron in the basic furnace, by Colonel H. S. 

 Dyer, Elswick Works, Newcastle-on-Tyne ; (3) on experiments 

 on the elimination of sulphur from iron, by E. J. Ball, 

 and A. Wingham, London ; (4) on platinum pyrometers, 

 by H. L. Callendar, London. On Friday, May 27, the 

 following papers will be read and discussed : — (5) On the manu- 

 facture and application of chilled cast iron (Gruson's system), by 

 E. Reimers, Technical Director of the Gruson Works, Madge- 

 burg ; (6) on valves for open hearth furnaces, by J, W. Wailes, 

 Calderbank, near Glasgow ; (7) on the calorific efficiency of the 

 puddling furnace, by Major Cubillo, Trubia Arsenal, Spain ; (8) 

 on a practical slide- rule for use in the calculation of blast furnace 

 charges, by A. Wingham, London ; (9) notes on fuel, and 

 its efficiency in metallurgic operations, by B. H. Thwaite, 

 Liverpool. 



The annual meeting of the Society of German Men of 

 Science and Physicians will be held at Niirnberg from September 

 12 to 18. At the same time and place there will be a meeting of 

 the German Mathematical Association. In connection with these 

 meetings there will be a mathematical exhibition, including 

 models, drawings, apparatus, and instruments used in teaching 

 and in research in pure and applied mathematics. The project 

 has the support of the Bavarian Government, and those who 

 are organizing the exhibition have secured the co-operation of 

 various competent men of science, and of the mathematical depart- 

 ments of some colleges, besides that of prominent publishers and 

 well-known technical institutions. Space will be granted free of 

 charge to exhibitors. 



Prof. Elisha Gray, Chairman of the Committee on the 

 Electrical Congress to be held in connection with the Chicago 

 Exhibition, is about to visit all the important electrical centres 

 in the Old World. He will attend meetings of the different 

 electrical organizations, and hopes to strengthen the interest of 

 European electricians in the Exhibition. 



We learn from Science that Mr. Timothy Hopkins has made 

 provision for the endowment and maintenance of the seaside 

 laboratory at Pacific Grove recently established under the 

 auspices of the Leiand Stanford Junior University. The Hopkins 

 Laboratory will be under the general direction of Profs. 

 Gilbert, Jenkins, and Campbell. It will be open during the 

 summer vacation, and its facilities will be at the disposal of 

 persons wishing to carry on original investigations in biology, as 

 well as of students and teachers. Microscopes, microtomes, and 

 other instruments necessary for investigations will be taken from 

 the laboratories of the University. 



The great surgeon Richet has been succeeded in the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences by Dr. Guyon. 

 NO. T T77. VOT,. 46] 



The distinguished mycologist, M. Rouraegucre, of Toulouse, 

 died on February 29 at the age of sixty-three. He had been 

 for fourteen years sole editor of the quarterly Revue Mycologique, 

 and was the author of a number of mycological works, the best- 

 known being " Cryptogame illustree. Champignons d'Europe," 

 with 1700 illustrations. 



An interesting course of lectures is being delivered in con- 

 nection with the Palestine Exploration Fund. They are 

 being given in the lecture-room of the Royal Medical Society. 

 On Tuesday, Canon Tristram lectured on the natural history 

 of Palestine. The following are the remaining lectures of the 

 course : — May 31, twenty-seven years' work, by Mr. Walter 

 Besant ; June 7, the Hittites up to date, by Dr. W. Wright ; 

 June 21, the story of a "Tell," by Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie; 

 June 28, the modern traveller in Palestine, by Canon Dalton. 



The members of the Geologists' Association will make an excur- 

 sion to Down on June 1 8. »The directors will be Mr.W. E. Darwin 

 and Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S. Having arrived at Urpingion, 

 the party will walk up the valley to Green Street Green, where 

 shells and bones have been found in the gravel that forms the 

 bottom of the dry upper part of the valley of the Cray. The 

 walk will be continued through High Elms Park to Down (3J 

 miles from the station). From Down a short stroll eastward 

 gives a good view of a fine chalk valley. An opportunity will 

 be taken for examining the clay-with-flints which caps the 

 chalk over the higher grounds. The formation of this clay will 

 be discussed, with a notice of Darwin's remarks thereon, and 

 with reference to other like deposits. The general geology of 

 the district will also be described, and the marked features 

 caused by the clayey covering over the chalk, by the fine escarp- 

 ment of the lower London Tertiaries, and by the London Clay 

 hills beyond. By permission of Mrs. Darwin, the house and 

 grounds rendered classic as the residence of Charles Darwin 

 (Down House) will be shown to members, and Mr. De B. 

 Crawshay will exhibit specimens of the flint implements that 

 have lately been found over the high grounds of the neighbour- 

 hood, Messrs. Allen will exhibit others. The return journey 

 will be made across the Tertiary escarpment at Holwood Park, 

 and then down the dip-slope of the Blackheath Beds, over Hayes 

 Common to Hayes (a walk of four miles). 



On Saturday afternoon. May 28, Prof. H, Marshall Ward will 

 begin at the Royal Institution a course of three lectures on some 

 modern discoveries in agricultural and forest botany. 



Orchid-lovers find much to admire in the latest of Mr, 

 William Bull's exhibitions. An enthusiastic writer in the 

 Times describes Mr, Bull's orchid-house as " at present a dream 

 of beauty." 



Early on Tuesday morning some parts of West Cornwall 

 were visited by an earthquake. The Times says that in the 

 village of Manaccan, in the Lizard district, the shock was sc 

 severe that the villagers almost without exception were awakened 

 from their sleep by the shaking of their beds and the rattling of 

 articles in their rooms. Their houses, too, distinctly shook, and 

 in one case a person who was awakened from his sleep saw the 

 door of his bedroom thrown wide open. At Redruth, some 12 

 or 15 miles distant, the shock was also felt. At first it was 

 thought there had been an explosion somewhere in the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



During the past week a complete change of weather 

 conditions has taken place over the British Isles. The anti- 

 cyclone which had lain over the country with such persistency for 

 several weeks showed signs of giving way on the 12th, and during 

 the two following days a large but shallow depression spread over 

 the kingdom from west and north-west, while the wind shifted 

 to south-westward with unsettled and showery weather. The 

 temperature, though cooler, was somewhat high for the time of 



