34 



NATURE 



[May 9, 1895 



Dr. Karl Voct, the eminent biologist, died at ("leneva on 

 Monday, at seventy-eight years of age. He was born at 

 Giessen, and studied under Liebig and Agassiz. After residing 

 for a time in I'aris, he returned to Germany, in 1847, as Pro- 

 fessor of Zoolc^- in the University of his native town, but 

 soon lost his chair for political reasons. In 1S52 he became 

 Professor of Geology at Geneva, and from that time identified 

 himself with the civic life of the country of his adoption. 



We regret to notice that Sir George Buchanan, formerly 

 medical officer to the Local Government Board, died on Sunday 

 last, at the age of sixty-four. .\s mentioned in these columns 

 last week, he was chairman of the Royal Commission on Tuber- 

 culosis, the report of which has just been published. His 

 contributions to the literature of preventive medicine, hygiene, 

 and sanitation arc numerous and of prime importance. He was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1882. 



(Ds .Monday, May 20, a meeting will be held at the Royal 

 Geographical Society to commemorate the fiftieth annivcrsar)' of 

 the sailing of the Arctic Expedition, under Sir John Franklin. 

 The Society's anniversary meeting and the annual conversazione 

 will be held on the following Monday, May 27. 



The Earl of Selbome, whose death occurred on Saturday 

 la.st, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in i860. He 

 was raiscil to the |>eerage as Baron Selbome in 1872. The 

 little Hami)shire vill.Tge, from which the title was derived, is 

 that which is immortalised by Gilbert White's " Natural 

 History." 



The l)e|>artment of Science and .\rt has received, through 

 the Foreign Office, a programme of an Exhibition of Medicinal 

 and Useful Plants, which is to be held at the Hague in July next. 

 Intending exhibitors may obtain further information from Dr. 

 .M. J. Greshoff, 97 Laan van Meerdervoort, at the Hague. 



.SiXTV-six natives, and as many as 252 animals, have been 

 brought over from .Somaliland by Herr .Menges, for the East 

 .Vfrican Village at .Syilenham. .\mong the animals was a 

 " Waller" antelope, and numerous lions, cheetahs, hyenas, 

 jackals, l>al>oons, and ostriches. A further instalment of twenty 

 lions, eleven elephants, four zebras, nineteen ostriches, six 

 leopards, four pythons, and other animals will shortly arrive. 



An International Health Exhibition is to be opened in I'aris 

 in a few days, and is to remain oj^n until .September 15 next. 

 The exhibits arc divided into ten gfoups, .is follow : — ( 1 ) I lygiene 

 of the house : (2) the health of towns; (3) treatment of infec- 

 tious diseases: (4) demography and sanitary statistics; (5) 

 siinitarj- .science; (6) hygiene of infancy: (7) industrial and 

 professional hygiene ; (8) fixnl prmlucls : (9) the hygiene of 

 clothing — launrlrv' \\r>rk. sanitary clothing. ,Vc. ; fio) pliy^icil 

 exercise. 



A toiitsE of lectures on " Our Edible Sea Fish and the .Sea 

 Fisheries." to lie delivcre<l by Prof. W. .'\. Herdnian, F. R.S., 

 at University College, Liver|)W)l, has Iwen arranged by the 

 I.Anca.shire .Sea Fisheries Joint Committee. The object of the 

 lectures is to interest and inform the general public in a ni.itler 

 of national im|Hirtance, vi/. the present |iosilion and future 

 pros|wct.s of our fisheries, the need of protection and regulation, 

 and the Iwnefils which may lie expected to result from Midi 

 ■•pcrations, and from fish. hatching and shell-fish culture. 



The librar)' of the Marine Biological Association's laboratory 

 at Plymouth is in want of a number rif volumes to complete sets 

 of th<*c Ux.ks which form an essential |nrt of the e(|uipinenl of 

 an institution where scientific in» estigation is carried on. Among 

 the volumes liadly nce<led arc : I'liilosofhical Tiaii sat lions pre- 

 vious to 1878, anil the PrtKetdinns of ihe Royal .Society previous 

 NO. 1332, Vf)I„ 52] 



to 18S8. Fellows of the Royal Society, who do not wish to 

 keep their old Transactions and Proceedings, or the families of 

 Fellows who are dead, could not bestow those volumes more 

 worthily than by giving them to the Plymouth Laborator)-. 

 Other volumes which would be welcomed are : Proceedings of the 

 Zoolt^cal Society previous to 1891, and the Zeilschri/t /iir 

 lyissensch Zoologie previous to 1875. .-\ny s|)ecial monographs 

 on biological subjects, or separate copies of |wiK:rs, would also 

 be gladly received. Ever)' man of science knows that the litera- 

 ture of a subject should be easy acce.ssible to an investigator, and 

 will therefore recognise the necessity of making the library ai 

 Plymouth less deficient in works of reference than it is at 

 present. 



We gave last «eek a list ol the new oflicers of the I'.S. 

 National Academy of Sciences, elected at the recent annual 

 meeting. The new members elected at the same meeting were — 

 Dr. William H. Welch of Johns Hopkins University, Dr. 

 William L. Elkiii of \'ale University, Prof. Charles S. Sargent 

 of Harvard University, and I'rof. Charles Whitman of Chicago 

 University. Three foreign associates were chosen — Prof. 

 Rudolph Leuckart of the University of Leipzig, Prof. Julius 

 von Sachs of Wurzburg, and Prof. Sophus Lie, of Leipzig. 

 The Barnard gold medal was voted to Lord Rayleigh for 

 the discovery of argon. The Watson medal and a jiurse 

 of 100 dollars was presented to Prof. L. C. Chandler for his 

 researches on the variation of latitude and on the variable stars. 

 An account of this award was given in Naii're a year .igo 

 (vol. 50, p. 157). A list of the japers read at the meeting will 

 lie found among our Reports of Sixrieties. The .\cademy selected 

 Philadelphia as the place for the autumn meeting, and fixed the 

 date at October 29. At that meeting the new president. Prof. 

 Wolcott Gibbs, will be inducted into oftice, and Prof. O. C. 

 Marsh's term of office will terminate. 



A NEW era of cheap telephoning seems to have foUoweii the 

 expiration of certain |>atentsand the judicial annulment of others 

 in the United States a few months ago. Simultaneous announce- 

 ments of reduced rates in Connecticut and Illinois coincide wiili 

 the formation of a new company — the .Slandar<l Telephone 

 Company — with ramifications or sub-companies extending all over 

 the United .States, and an aggregate capital of 160,000,000 

 dollars. Preliminar)- arrangements were very quietly made, lull 

 this company now comes forward with rates of 3 dollars a 

 month, instead of many times that amount novv charged, in 

 some cases running as high as 240 dollars a year. Efforts ha\e 

 lK;en made, to induce the legislature of the .State of New 

 ^'ork, to secure a compulsory reduction of rates : but the old 

 companies have opposed such legislation strenuously, on the 

 ground that no chea]>er service could be given. The Slandanl 

 Company, however, claim to have discovered a new principle or 

 method of o|H-rating in electricity, which will enable them 

 to converse over uiiprece<lented distances — say from New 

 York to Denver, or even .San I'rancisco — at very moderate 

 cost. The reticence maintained, however, makes it im|X)S- 

 sible to decide whether or not these extravagant claims are 

 well-grounded. 



At the .second International Zoological Congress luld In Mos- 

 cow In 1892, a resolution wiLS |>assed to Ihe effect that the ihiril 

 meeting should take place in Leyden, Ihe olilesi University of 

 the NelheHands, and that Dr. F. A. Jentink, Director of the 

 Leyden Natural llistor)' Museum, should be its President. .\ 

 circular informs us that the Netherlands' Zoological .Society is 

 making Ihe necessary arrangements for this meeting, which is to 

 be held on September 16-21, umler the |)alroiiage of the (^hieen- 

 Regent of Ihe Netherlands. The Ministers of the Interior, of 

 Ihe Public Works, and of Commerce anil Industry, will be 

 Honorary Presidents of the Congress. A number of well-known 



