April 30, 1896]" 



NA TURE 



609 



I 



* 



NOTES. 



A I n<vrot;KA\ iRH of Sir Joseph Lister, President of the 

 Ixwyal Society, accompanied by a biographical sketch, will 

 aiipear in next week's Nature, as an addition to the series of 

 " Scientific Worthies." 



The "James Forrest" lecture of the Institution of Civil 

 PIngineers will be delivered on Thursday, May 7, by Dr. A. B. 

 W. Kennedy, F.R.S., the subject being " Physical Experiment 

 in relatiun to Engineering." 



Prof. Ehrlich has been appointed Director of the new 

 State Institute in Berlin for the testing of therapeutic serum. 



The Trustees of the late Earl of Moray have granted a 

 donation of £\^']'>, to the Ben Kevis Observatory. 



The Bill before the House of Representatives adopting the 

 metric system of weights and measures as legal standards in the 

 United States, has (says Science) been referred back to the Com- 

 mittee. The Bill was ordered to a third reading by a vote of 

 119 to 116, but this vote was afterwards reconsidered. 



Dr. J. E. Aitcheson, CLE., the naturalist who was attached 

 to the Afghan Delimitation Commission, has returned to London 

 from North-West India and Kashmir, where for the past four 

 years he has been continuing the' further investigation of the 

 fauna and flora of those regions. 



We regret to announce that Prof. Dr. Adalbert Krueger, 

 Director of the Kiel Observatory, died on Tuesday, April 21, 

 He was in his sixty-fourth year. 



Thi; deaths are announced of M. Joaquim P. N. da Silva, 

 distinguished for his archaeological works, at Lisbon, in his nine- 

 tieth year ; M. Jules Lefort, Member of the Paris Academy of 

 Medicine, and the author of many treatises on pure and applied 

 chemistry and pharmacy, his most important work being in 

 connection with water analysis ; Prof. Dr. Ofterdinger, at one 

 time Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in Tubingen 

 University; and M. J. B. Dureau, the founder, in i860, of the 

 Journal des fabric ants de siicre. M. Dureau was also the author 

 (if a " Rapport sur I'lndustrie de sucre a I'Exposition universelle 

 de 1867," and of a valuable work entitled "I'lndustrie du sucre 

 ilepuis i860." 



We learn from Terrestrial Magnetism that M. Moureaux has 

 been entrusted by the Minister of Public Instruction, at the 

 request of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, with the 

 investigation of a pronounced anomaly in the distribution of 

 terrestrial magnetism, which certain observations have revealed 

 in Southern Russia. 



Arrangements are being made in Limoges to celebrate this 

 year the centenary of the introduction of porcelain into France, 

 I)y means of an Exposition, in which the history of porcelain 

 manufacture will be traced by specimens of work and processes. 

 The Exposition is being organised by the Societe Gay-Lussac, 

 working in conjunction with representatives of the town of 

 Limoges. 



On Tuesday next, May 5, Mr. C. V. Boys, F.R.S., will 

 liegin a course of lectures at the Royal Institution, on " Ripples 

 in Air and on Water" ; and on Thursday, May 7, Mr. W. 

 uwland, late of the Imperial Japanese Mint, will begin a course 

 ■ I lectures on "The Art of Working Metals in Japan." The 

 Iriday evening discourse on May 8 will be delivered by Prof. 

 Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S., his subject being "Electric 

 Shadows and Luminescence." That on May 15 will be on 

 "Cable Laying on the Amazon River," Mr. Alexander Siemens 

 being the lecturer. 



NO. 1383, VOL. 53] 



We learn from Science that Mr. William I. Hornaday^ 

 formerly of the U.S. National Museum, has been appointed 

 Director of the proposed Zoological Park in New York. He 

 enters upon his duties immediately, and will first consider and 

 report to the Executive Committee upon the difficult question 

 of location of the Park. At the last meeting of the Society the 

 three first honorary members were elected as follows : Sir 

 William H. Flower, Prof. Alexander Agassiz, and Prof. J. A. 

 Allen. 



Our American correspondent writes under date April 17 : — 

 " Prof. Frederick A. Starr, of the University of Chicago, has 

 just returned from a three months' tour in Central America. He 

 found many genuine dwarfs, but not constituting a tribe, as they 

 spoke nineteen languages in Oaxaca, thirteen in Chiapas, and 

 twenty-one in Guatemala, indicating a lack of unity among them. 



" The new remedy for consumption, aseptolin, the formula 

 for which has recently been given to the world by Dr. Cyrus 

 Edson, is now used in the New York State's prisons at Sing 

 Sing, Dannemora, and Auburn, with marked success. At the 

 last-named prison there was not one death from consumption 

 during the entire month of March, which is quite unpre- 

 cedented. Twenty thousand cases are under treatment, the 

 larger number being outside the prisons, with two hundred 

 cures reported. 



"It is remarkable that with the abundant sea-life teeming 

 about it, and within short distances, New York City has never 

 possessed an aquarium. Castle Garden has now been con- 

 verted to that use, and will be opened to the public within a 

 few weeks with admirable equipment. It is peculiarly fortu- 

 nate that the underlying strata are such as to filter the water 

 from the adjoining harbour, thus providing an inexhaustible 

 supply of pure sea-water for the tanks from an artesian well. 



"The extraordinary weather, perhaps, deserves another note. 

 While snow-storms still prevail at the West, and three feet of 

 snow, being the heaviest snow-fall in many years, was reported 

 on Monday from New Mexico, unprecedented heat has pre- 

 vailed along the North Atlantic seaboard for five days, the 

 thermometer reaching 85° at New York City on the i6th, and 

 again to-day, which exceeded by 14° all previous records of 

 same date, and was hotter than any April weather previously 

 recorded. From other points still higher temperatures were re- 

 ported : 90° at Hartford, Conn., and Moonsocket, R.I. ; 92° 

 at Manchester, N.H., and 94° at Middletown, N.Y." 



The summer meetings of the Institution of Naval Architects 

 will be held this year in Hamburg, on Monday, June 8, and the 

 following day. On Wednesday, June 10. the meetings will be 

 transferred to Berlin, on the invitation of the Imperial German 

 Government, and they will be continued there during the 

 remainder of the week. Full particulars of the papers to be 

 read, of the works and places of interest to be visited, and of 

 the excursions and entertainments which are being organised, 

 will shortly be issued. The meetings are receiving the warmest 

 support from the Imperial Government, under whose direction 

 the arrangements in Berlin are being prepared. 



On July 2 the Second International Congress of Applied 

 Chemistry will open in Paris. In addition to strictly technical 

 questions,, the congress will discuss the analytical processes needed 

 for the guidance of manufacturers and the benefit of the con- 

 sumer. The proceedings will be conducted in ten sections, and, 

 judging from the number and interest of the questions ^vhich will 

 be brought up in each, there will be no lack of work. The 

 sections represent such diverse subjects as chemical products, 

 electro-chemistry, colouring matters and dyeing, pharmaceutical 

 products, metallurgy and mining, sugar-refining, vintnery, brew- 

 ing, distilling, agricultural chemistry, photography, alimentation, 

 and milk-supply. The Association des Chemistes de Sucerie et 

 de Distillerie, which is organising the congress, has formed a 



