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NATURE 



[December 19, 1895 



vitch, the governor of Moscow (and grandson-in-law to Queen 

 Victoria), has granted it his patronage. The nominal president 

 will probably be the Minister of Public Education ; the acting 

 president will almost certainly be Prof. Klein, the Dean of the 

 Faculty of Medicine in the University of Moscow. Prof. 

 Erisman, who holds the chair of Hygiene, has, as already 

 stated, been elected general secretary. The meetings of the 

 Congress will be held in the theatres and laboratories of the 

 University Clinique, \!<!\ti,o-C2\\QAklinitcheski gorodok, or clinical 

 townlet. Papers and discussions must be in either the French 

 or German language ; Russian has been excluded lest the Con- 

 gress should become national rather than international, and 

 English on the grounds that it is a language little used or 

 understood by other than Englishmen. 



On Monday afternoon, in the Botanical Theatre of University 

 College, London, Prof. Bonney was presented with his portrait 

 by former geological students of the University of Cambridge 

 and of University College, London. A large number of past 

 and present pupils were present, and Mr. J. J. H. Teall occupied 

 the chair as Prof. Bonney's senior pupil. Mr. J. E. Marr referred 

 to the affection and esteem in which Prof. Bonney was held by 

 all his pupils, and Miss Raisin spoke on behalf of the lady 

 students. At the conclusion of her remarks. Prof. W. J. Sollas 

 made the presentation on behalf of the subscribers. The portrait 

 having been unveiled, Prof. Bonney replied. In the course of 

 his remarks he advised those who heard him never, if they could 

 help it, to take things on trust. No doubt books were of great 

 value, but before they trusted them they must know the writers. 

 They must gather facts, and, having done so, take a comprehen- 

 sive view of them and treat them as inductive. They should not 

 be fascinated by brilliant hypothesis, nor try to write too much ; 

 for careless observation and unsound induction were rather a 

 curse than a blessing to science. 



Dr. J. Batty Tuke has been elected President of the Royal 

 College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 



The largest battery of dynamite guns in the world was tested 

 recently at San Francisco, and found to work satisfactorily. 



We understand that the Bruce photographic telescope is to 

 be transferred from Harvard University at Cambridge, U.S., to 

 the University station at Arequipa, Peru. 



The Council of the Royal Statistical Society have awarded 

 the Howard medal of 1895 to Mr. John Watson, for his essay 

 on " Reformatory and Industrial Schools." 



Reuter reports that Dr. Warth, of .the Geological Survey of 

 India, while gold-prospecting in Chota Nagpur, Bengal, struck 

 a reef of remarkable richness. The Indian Government has 

 ordered the erection of stamps for trial crushings. 



The deaths of the following men of science are announced : — 

 Dr. Popoff, Extraordinary Professor of Physiology in the Univer- 

 sity of Dorpat ; Dr. A. de Cerqueira Pinto, formerly Professor 

 of Organic Chemistry in Bahia ; Dr. Teichmann, formerly Pro- 

 fessor of Anatomy in Cracow. 



Surgeon - Colonel C. Roe, who has been appointed 

 honorary secretary of the Association for the establishment of a 

 Pasteur Institute in India, has made an appeal for funds to ensure 

 the success of the scheme. There is little doubt that the required 

 amount will be collected. 



The two following afternoon lectures will be delivered at the 

 Royal Institution in January, in addition to the arrangements 

 already announced : Dr. A. Donaldson Smith, "To the North 

 of Lake Rudolf and among the Gallas," and Mr. Walter R. 

 Lawrence, CLE , on " The Valley of Kashmir." 

 NO. 1364. VOL. 53] 



Prof. W. H. Dall recently returned to Washington from an 

 expedition to examine the coal-fields of Alaska. He found and 

 brought back pieces of fat of a mammoth preserved in ice for 

 ages, being the first discovery of the kind in America. He also- 

 discovered a species of bear not previously known to zoologists, 

 but apparently familiar to residents of Alaska, and known there 

 as the ice-bear. 



The Automatic Telephone Company has just been incor- 

 porated at Albany, and will construct a new system of telephones, 

 which, as the name implies, are self-acting and independent of 

 any central office. Each subscriber can make and discontinue 

 his own connections by means of an improved device. Tests 

 have already been made, and the system will be at once put in 

 use in New York and Brooklyn. 



An advance copy of Appendix I. 1896, to the Kew Bulletin 

 has been sent us. It contains a list of seeds of hardy herba- 

 ceous annual and perennial plants and of hardy trees and shrubs 

 which, for the most part, have ripened at Kew during the year 

 1895. These seeds are not sold to the general pul^lic, but are 

 available for exchange with colonial, Indian, and foreign 

 botanic gardens, as well as with regular correspondents of Kew. 

 We hasten to publish this information for the benefit of directors- 

 of botanic gardens across the seas. No application, except 

 from, remote colonial possessions, can be entertained after the 

 end of March next year. 



A telegram from Captain Roborovsky, dated December 4,. 

 announces that the Russian Tibet expedition has finally returned 

 to the Russian dominions, at Zaisan, after having crossed 

 Dzungaria, by two different routes, on their way from the 

 Lyukchun depression. The same telegram announces that the 

 expedition, which has covered nearly 10,700 miles and made a 

 survey of the whole route, and determined the positions of 

 thirty points by astronomical observations, returns heavily laden 

 with natural history collections : 280 specimens of mammals, 

 1300 of birds, 450 of amphibia and fishes, 30,000 of insects,. 

 25,000 (1300 species) of plants, 300 of seeds, and 300 geological 

 specimens. The meteorological station at Lyukchun hasbeen 

 working for fully two years. 



It is satisfactory to learn that the efforts made by the 

 Engineer, to secure the repeal of the existing legal restrictions on 

 the use of mechanical road carriages, are being well supported 

 by many who are taking personal interest in the new vehicle. 

 From a note in the current number of our contemporary, it 

 appears that all the necessary steps have begn taken to bring the 

 subject before the notice of the Government ; that Mr. 

 Chaplin, as President of the Local Government Board, has 

 expressed himself in strong sympathy with the movement, and 

 that the memorial to him, prepared by the Engineer, and signed 

 by leading manufacturing firms and engineers all over the 

 country, has now been placed in his hands. The way for the 

 introduction of a Bill has thus been prepared, and an associa- 

 tion has already been formed to support the demand for freedom 

 to use mechanical road carriages equal to that now enjoyed for 

 horse-hauled vehicles. 



The death is announced, in the Times, of M. A. P. Kostycher, 

 Director of Agriculture in Russia. M. Kostycher was appointed 

 Professor of Agriculture in 1876, and created the first laboratory 

 in Russia for the study of soils and agricultural products. He 

 held this appointment for seventeen years, in the course of which • 

 he made some very interesting researches into the nature and 

 origin of the celebrated "black earth," which is such a 

 source of wealth to the 250,000,000 acres of land in Southern 

 Russia. His six volumes on this subject are regarded as standard 

 works. In 1894 he was appointed assistant to M. Yermolof, 

 who had just been placed at the head of the Agricultural 

 Department. M. Kostycher contributed a very elaborate 



