Jantjabv 2, 1899.1 



KNOWLEDGE 



13 



deplored the fact that the opportunities in this country for 

 research directed to the prevention of disease are not equal 

 to those possessed by foreign nations. Lord Iveagh wishes 

 to help in removing this reproach to our country, and, on 

 the conditions named below, has offered the sum of 

 £250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand pounds) for the 

 purposes of the highest research in bacteriology and other 

 forms of biology as bearing upon the causes, nature, pre- 

 vention, and treatment of disease. He has proposed to the 

 council of the -Jenner Institute (lately the British Institute) 

 of Preventive Medicine — a body which includes leading 

 men in medicine and allied sciences in the British Isles — 

 that the donation shall be handed over to the institute on 

 condition that in future the control and management of the 

 affairs of the institute shall be placed in the hands of a new 

 board of seven trustees — three of the seven to be chosen by 

 the council of the institute, three by the donor, and one 

 by the council of the Koyal Society. The offer has been 

 cordially accepted at a meeting of the council. The donor 

 further proposes tliat part of the new fund shall be appro- 

 priated to the enlargement of the buildings of the institute 

 at Chelsea, part to increasing the at present sadly inadequate 

 salaries of the director and other members of the scientific 

 staff, part to the expenses of administration and main- 

 tenance, and the remainder chiefly to founding valuable 

 Fellowships and studentships, tenable for limited periods, 

 for research either in the laboratories of the institute or 

 in centres of outbreaks of disease, whether at home or 

 abroad. The conditions on which these Fellowships and 

 studentships may be held are not yet determined upon ; but 

 it is hoped to open them to all classes of Her Majesty's 

 subjects. Lord Iveagh, in our opinion, deserves the 

 gratitude of the nation for thus munificently providing for 

 the cultivation in the British dominions of biology and 

 allied sciences for the good of mankind in an institution 

 which henceforth will c ompare favourably with any similar 

 estabUshment in other parts of the world." 



In a letter to the Times, far from hostile in spirit, Sir 

 John Lawes and Sir Henry Gilbert criticise the statements 

 made by Sir William Crookes in his address as President 

 of the British Association on the wheat supply of the 

 world, and it is satisfactory to learn that the outlook is not 

 so gloomy as was depicted in that address. " That we 

 may have considerable fluctuations in produce and in 

 price," say these authorities, " the result of war, or of the 

 vicissitudes of the seasons in different countries, is very 

 probable ; but we believe that there will always be a suffi- 

 cient supply forthcoming for those who wLU find the money 

 to purchase it at a remunerative price." 



Prof. Chun, the leader of the German deep-sea expedi- 

 tion, has sent to Sir -John Murray an account of the pro- 

 gress of the work. On the 7th August, 1898, in the cold 

 waters of the Faroe Channel, from a depth of three hun- 

 dred and twenty-two fathoms, the trawl produced a rich 

 harvest of deep-sea sponges, sea-lilies, sea-stars, and sea- 

 spiders. Many deep-sea Crustacea and fishes which were 

 taken in the dredge and trawl by earUer expeditions, and 

 ■were therefore supposed to live on the bottom, have been 

 proved to live a pelagic life, floating or swimming in the 

 intermediate waters. Gorgeous radioUiria, violet-coloured 

 jelly-fishes, large astracoda, the size of nuts, living gela- 

 tinous sea-slugs, strange cuttle-fishes, and large new sea- 

 butterflies have been captured by the VaUUfias closing 

 nets in the deep intermediate waters of the North Atlantic. 



account of the expedition to the Royal Geographical 

 Society. He describes the climate as deUghtful and healthy ; 

 there are no stagnant pools, and theri is a fair supply of 

 good water ; forests are extensive, and many creepers and 

 ferns lend beauty and variety to the scenery. There are 

 only five species of mammals — two kinds of rats which 

 swarm everywhere, a shrew mouse, and two bats ; reptiles 

 are few and small, and insects fairly abundant. There are 

 several species of land crabs, and the robber crab is very 

 plentiful, and if one sat down for a short time in the forest, 

 at any spot, that spot speedily became the centre of a 

 circle, and along the innumerable radii the crabs could be 

 seen wending their way securely, if slowly, to the place of 

 meeting around the sitter. 



Mr. Charles W. Andrews, recently returned from 

 Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), has given a detailed 



A scientific expedition under the leadership of Herr 

 Meyer, the explorer, left Hamburg on the 1st December, 

 1898, for South Brazil and Argentina, where the party 

 wiU conduct anthropological and geological researches. 

 The expedition, which takes its own doctor, numbers 

 thirty members, and will be absent for two years. 



The medals of the Eoyal Society have this year been 

 awarded as follows : — The Copley Medal to Sir William 

 Huggins, for his researches in spectrum analysis applied to 

 the heavenly bodies ; the Piumford Medal to Prof. Oliver 

 ■Joseph Lodge, for his researches in radiation, and in the 

 relations between matter and ether ; a Royal Medal to 

 Dr. John Kerr, for his researches on the optical effect of 

 electrical stress, and on the reflection of light at the surface 

 of a magnetized body ; a Royal Medal to Mr. Walter 

 Gardiner, for his researches on the protoplasmic connection 

 of the cells of vegetable tissues, and on the histology of 

 plants ; the Davy Medal to Prof. Johannes Wislicenus, for 

 his contributions to organic chemistry, especially in the 

 domain of stereochemical isomerism ; and the Darwin 

 Medal to Prof. Karl Pearson, for his work on the quantita- 

 tive treatment of biological problems. 



Dr. A. M. W. Downing, chief of the "Nautical Alma- 

 nack ' office, gives some particulars on the total solar 

 ecUpse of 28th May, 1900, which will be useful to those 

 who contemplate an expedition to Algiers — a place easy of 

 access and in the centre of the shadow. 



The death of Mr. Edwin Dunkin, f.r.s., occurred on the 

 4th December, 1898, a gentleman whose name is familiar 

 as the author of several books : " The Midnight Sky," 

 " Familiar Notes on the Stars and Planets," and a work on 

 " The Movement of the Solar System in Space," determined 

 from the proper motions of one thousand one hundred and 

 sixty- seven stars. He was born at Truro in 1821, and 

 joined the staff of Greenwich Observatory while yet a 

 youth of seventeen, and remained there nearly half a 

 century. Mr. Dunkin was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society in 1815 ; served as Secretary from 

 1871 to 1877, and in 1884 was elected President ; he 

 attained to the Fellowshi'p of the Royal Society in 1876, 

 and from 1879 to 1881 was a Member of the Cotmcil of 

 that august body. Mr. Dunkin represented the Astronomer- 

 Royal in several eclipse expeditions, conducted many im- 

 portant operations in determining the telegraphic differences 

 in longitude of widely separated places, and he was the 

 responsible agent in the famous pendulum experiments 

 undertaken at Harton coal-pit, near South Shields, in 1854, 

 by the Astronomer-Royal, with the object of ascertaining 

 the mean density of the earth. 



