July 



'895] 



NA TV RE 



\o\ 



The death is announced of Prof. Baillon, Director of the 

 Botanical Laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine at the 

 Sorbonne. Prof. Haillon was one of the nio.st distinguished of 

 Krench botanists, and perhaps quite the most prolific author of 

 works in that science of the last ijuarter of a century. The 

 Times gives the following details of his life. He was born at 

 Calais, November 30, 1827, and was destined for the medical 

 profession. He prosecuted his studies at Paris, and soon 

 obtained prizes for work in " L'Ecole Praticiue," and in the 

 hospitals. In 1855 he received the double degree of doctor of 

 medicine and of the natural sciences. In 1864 he was appointed 

 Professor of Medical Natural History to the Faculty of Paris, 

 and soon afterwards Professor of Hygiene to the Central School 

 of Arts and Manufactures. He was decorated with the Legion 

 d'Honneur on August 17, 1867, and promoted to Officer July 

 13, 1888. His chief publication was " I listoire des Plantes," a 

 vast undertaking, in twelve fully-illustrated volumes, the public- 

 ation of which commenced in 1866, and concluded only three 

 years ago. It has been partly translated into English. His next 

 great work was a " Dictionnaire de Botanique," which he begun 

 in 1876 ; the first volume appeared in 1S78, and the fourth 

 in 1885. He also published a number of monographs and 

 studies on various natural orders and group; of plants. 



Mr. W. N. Moore has succeeded Prof. Mark W. Harrington 

 as Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau. 



Mr. O. a. L. Pihl, whose careful measurements of the stars 

 in the cluster x Persei are well known in astronomical circles, 

 has just died at Christiania. 



Prof. J. G. Aoardh has presented his fine collection of 

 dried algai to the University of Lund, on the condition that it 

 remains there intact, and the specimens not be lent out. 



Mr. Ciiari.es Leigh, assistant in the General Library of 

 the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, has been 

 appointed to the post of assistant secretary and librarian to 

 the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, created 

 tinder the Wilde Endowment Fund. 



A SHARP earthquake shock was felt at .\lgiers at 1 1.25 on the 

 night of Friday last, July 19. The direction of motion is said 

 to have been from nest to east. 



The National Herbarium of the United States at Washington 

 has been transferred from the building of the Department of 

 Agriculture, and now forms a part of the National Museum in 

 the Smithsonian Institution. The collection of grasses remains, 

 however, with the Department of Agriculture, as also do the 

 collections of the Divisions of \'egetable Pathology and 

 Forestry. .-V movement is now on fool among American 

 botanists for providing the National Herbarium with a suitable 

 building and a staff of scientific assistants. 



TiiK adjudicators appointed under the provisions of the deed 

 of settlement of the Daniel Hanbury Memorial Fund have, says 

 the Phaniiaitiitital Journal, awarded the eighth Hanbury Gold 

 Medal to Dr. August Vogl, Professor of Pharmacology and 

 Pharmacognosy in the University of \'ienna. The medal is 

 awarded biennially for the prosecution or promotion of original 

 work in the chemistry and natural history of drugs. On the 

 last occasion, in 1893, it was awarded to the late Johann 

 Michael .\Iaisch, who received it just before his death. 



The following grants have been made by the Council of the 

 Chemical Society on the recommendation of the Research Fund 

 Committee :— .£30 to Messrs. J. J. Hummel and A. G. Perkin, 

 for the investigation of certain natural colouring matters. ;f 10 

 to Dr. H. Ingle, for the purchase of various aldehydes, ketones, 

 and hydrazine, to continue his work on stereoisomeric osazones. 

 NO. 1343, VOL. 52] 



^10 to Dr. J. J. Sudborough, to continue his work on diortho- 

 substituted benzoic acids. ^^15 to Mr. E. Haworlh, for the 

 synthesis of an acid having the composition CgH]j(COOH)o, and 

 the comparison of its properties with those of camphoric acid. 

 ^^5 to Mr. K. E. Doran, for a research on the preparation of 

 mustard oils by the reaction of chlorocarbsnic esters with lead 

 thiocyanate. £i$^o Dr. W. A. Bone, to continue a research on 

 the substituted succinic acids, and on the behaviour of various 

 trimelhylene compounds on treatment with the sodium com- 

 pound of ethylic malonate. ;^lo to Dr. B. Lean, to extend his 

 work on the derivatives of ethylic butane tetracarboxylate. 

 ^20 to Dr. J. Walker, for an investigation of the conditions of 

 equilibrium between the cyanates and the corresponding ureas. 



Mr. W. .S.wille-Kent, who has recently returned from 

 Western Australia, has presented and otherwise placed at the 

 disposal of the Trustees of the British Museum a further collec- 

 tion of Madreporarian corals and sponges collected by him on 

 the north-western coast-line of the above-named colony. The 

 series includes many new species and specimens calculated to 

 prove attractive exhibits in the public galleries. With this latest 

 addition included, the Natural History Museum becomes 

 possessed of the most complete collection of Australian Madre- 

 poraria that has yet been brought together, and which now com- 

 prises typical examples collected by the same authority from 

 every region of the extensive coral-producing waters of the 

 Australian continent. Mr. Saville-Kent will probably be 

 engaged for the next few months in the compilation of a book 

 dealing generally with the more interesting natural history 

 observations and investigations he has recorded and prosecuted 

 during the past ten years while holding the appointments of 

 Commissioner of Fisheries to the several Governments of Queens- 

 land, Tasmania, and Western Australia. 



By the provisions of the will of the late Dr. William Johnson 

 Walker, two prizes are annually offered by the Boston Society of 

 Natural History for the liest memoirs written in the English 

 language on subjects proposed by a Committee appointed by the 

 Council. For the best memoir presented, a prize of sixty dollars 

 may be awarded ; if, however, the memoir be one of marked 

 merit, the amount may be increased to one hundred dollars, at 

 the discretion of the Committee. For the next best memoir, a 

 prize not exceeding fifty dollars may be awarded. The competi- 

 tion for these prizes is not restricted, but is open to all. Attention 

 is especially called to the following points : — (i) In all cases the 

 memoirs are to be based on a considerable body of original and 

 unpublished w-ork, accompanied by a general review of the 

 literature of the subject. (2) Anything in the memoir wliich 

 shall furnish proof of the identity of the author shall be considered 

 as debarring the essay from competition. (3) Each memoir mu>t 

 be accompanied by a sealed envelope enclosing the author's 

 name and sujjerscribed with a motto corresponding to one 

 borne by the manuscript, and must be in the hands of the 

 Secretary on or before .Vpril I of the year for which the 

 prize is offered. The subjects for 1896 are : — (i) A study of an 

 area of schistose or foliated rocks in the eastern United .States ; 

 (2) a study of the development of river valleys in some considerable 

 area of folded or faulted .Appalachian structure in Pennsylvania, 

 \'irginia, or Tennessee ; (3) an experimental study of the effects 

 of close-fertilisation in the case of some plant of short cycle ; 

 (4) contributions to our knowledge of the general morphology or 

 the general physiology of any animal, except man. The subjects 

 for 1897 are: — (i) A study of glacial, fluviatile, or lacustrine 

 phenomena associated with the closing stages of the glacial 

 period ; (2) original investigations in regard to the chalazal 

 impregnation of any North American species of Angiosperms ; 

 ! (3) an experimental investigation in cytology ; (4) a contribution 

 I to our knowledge of the morphology of the Bacteria. 



