August i, 1895] 



NATURE 



325 



year the wings were finished, and on a morning 

 a])|)ointcd the maker appeared, furnished for flight, on a 

 htlle promontory ; he waved liis i)inions awhile to gather 

 air, then leaped from his stand, and in an instant dropped 

 into tlie lalve. His wings, which were of no use in the 

 air, sustained him in the water, and the Prince drew him 

 to land half dead with terror and \exation." 



These extracts show that Dr. Johnson had realised to 

 some extent the difficulty of the problem to be solved ; 

 although Herr von Lilienthal's experiments, recently 

 attempted by Prof. Fitzgerald, have to a certain extent 

 falsified the unixersal application of his final catastrophe. 



But, viewed with the cold calculating eye of mechanical 

 science, the poetical descriptions are seen to he. hope- 

 lessly absurd and impossible ; now that Mr. Maxim 

 has taken up the subject, and proved to demonstration 

 the enormous power required, out of all proportion to the 

 size, if man is ever to emulate the birds. 



A. G. GREENHILt,. 



NOTES. 



The Organising Committee of the third International Zoo- 

 logical Congress, to be held at Leyden, September 16-21, has 

 sent us a copj- of the provisional programme. The programme 

 contains some details with reference to the work proposed, not 

 given in our previous notes on the forthcoming Congress. At 

 the first general meeting, a discourse will be delivered by Dr. 

 VVeismann ,; Mr. Haviland Field's scheme for bibliographical 

 reform will be reported upon by M. E. L. Bouvier ; and a 

 report on the prize instituted in 1S92, at the Moscow meeting, 

 w ill be made by M. Blanchard. At the second general meeting, 

 Prof. Milne Edwards will give a discourse, and Dr. F. E. 

 Schulze will propose the nomination of a commission of three 

 members to draw up, in three languages, the code of zoological 

 nomenclature. Ur. John Murray will address the third general 

 meeting. With regard to the sections : up to the middle of July, 

 the first section had been promised a communication on Weis- 

 nianism, by M. A. (jiard ; on cellular theory, by Mr. A. Sedg- 

 wick ; on Plankton studies, by Prof. Victor Hensen ; and a 

 ])aper by Dr. S. Apathy. Dr. Kowdler Sharpe will address 

 Section II. upon the classification of birds ; and there will be 

 papers on the origin of the lacustrine fauna of European Russia, 

 ly Prof. N. Zograf (Moscow); on the fauna of Borneo, by J. 

 Buttikofer ; 'and on Pithecanthropus ereitiis, by Dr. E. Dubois. 

 In the third sectum. Prof. W. Leche (Stockholm) will read an 

 odontological paper, and there will also be papers by Prof. R. 

 Semon (Jena) and Prof. O. C. Marsh. In the fourth section, 

 papers referring to the classification of living and fossil inverte- 

 brates, and binnoniy, will be read by Dr. \". Salensky, Dr. C. W. 

 Stiles, M. Blanchard, and Prof. S. J. Hickson. The section 

 of entomology has received papers by M. E. de Selys-Lon- 

 champs. Father E. Wasmann, Dr. A. Fritze, and Prof. G. 

 Canestrini. In Section VI., papers on the comparative anatomy 

 and embryology of invertebrates will be read by A. de Korotnev, 

 M. E. Perrier, Prof. J. W. Spengel, and Prof. Herdman. We 

 understand that up to now the following delegates have been 

 ofiicially announced by the respective foreign Governments : — 

 Belgium, Prof Ed. van Beneden, Prof. Ch. van Bambeke, Prof. 

 Gilson, and Prof. Lameere ; France, Prof. Milne Edwards. MM. 

 R. Blanchard, E. Bouvier, A. Certes, J. de Guerne, II. Filhol, 

 Ch. Schhimberger, and L. Vaillant ; Great Britain, Sir W. H. 

 Flower, Prof. Sydney J. Hickson, Dr. J. Anderson, Dr. St. 

 <ieorge Mivart, and Dr. P. L. Sclater ; Sweden, Prof F. A. 

 .Smith ; Swhzerkuul, Prof. Th. Studer, and E. Jung ; United 

 States (Department of .VgricuUure), Dr.- C. W. Stiles. 



.\ IIESIRF. is widely felt among the pupils of Prof Leuckart 

 that the occasion of the fiftieth year of his doctorate should not 

 pass without some durable mark of recognition from those who 



NO. 1344, VOL. 52] 



have known and valued his inspiring influence. It is proposed 

 that the memorial should take the form of a marble bust, and 

 an appeal for contributions is being circulated as widely as 

 possible. There is naturally some difficulty in obtaining the 

 addresses of all old pupils ; and it is hoped that those who 

 receive the appeal will make it generally known. Contributions 

 should be sent to Herr Carl Gr.aubner (C. F. Winters Verlag, 

 Leii)zig, Johannes-gasse S), who has consented to act as 

 treasurer of the memorial fund. 



If is proposed to honour Sir Joseph Lister by presenting his 

 portrait to the Roj-al College of Surgeons for England, to be 

 placed by the side of the portraits of John Hunter and other 

 great surgeons of the past. On Tuesday last, in the presence of 

 a large company. Sir Joseph was presented with a testimonial, 

 in the form of a portrait of himself, subscribed for by his past 

 colleagues and pupils, as a mark of esteem and admiration, 

 on his retirement from the chair of clinical surgery at King's 

 College Hospital. 



The sixty-third annual meeting of the British Medical AjJd- 

 ciation was opened on Tuesday, when Dr. E. Long Fox retired 

 from the presidential chair, and Sir J. Russell Reynolds was in- 

 stalled as his successor. Dr. Ward Cousins, in moving the 

 report of the Council, said that when they last met in London, 

 in 1873, they numbered only 1500, whereas now their member- 

 ship exceeded 16,000. The financial position of the .Association 

 is most satisfactory', the assets exceeding the liabilities by more 

 than ^60,000. In his opening address, Sir Russell Reynolds dwelt 

 chiefly upon the great advances that have been made, during the 

 past twenty years, in the elucidation of both structure and func- 

 tion — such, for example, as in the researches upon the thyroid, 

 the adrenal bodies, the spleen, and the liver ; the advance of 

 bacteriology ; the function of the axis-cylinder of nerves ; and the 

 development of a new field of therapeutics in the serum-treat- 

 ment of disease. 



The death is announced of Prof H. Witmeur, Professor of 

 Mineralogy and Geology in the University of Brussels, and of 

 Prof. Josef Loschmidt, at Vienna. 



Sir John Tomes, F.RS., died at Caterham on Monday, at 

 eighty years of age. He was elected into the Royal .Society in 

 1850, after carrying out valuable work referring to dental physio- 

 logy and surgery. In 1SS3, with the late Prof Huxley, he was 

 elected an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons ; 

 an<l three years later the honour of knigjithood was conferred 

 upon him, in recognition of his services to his profession. 



We have already noted that an international conference for 

 the protection of birds useful in agriculture, by helping to 

 destroy injurious insects, has recently been held in Paris. Most 

 of the countries in Europe were represented at the conference ; 

 and it was agreed that various measures should be taken to pre- 

 .serve useful birds, and to protect their nests and eggs from 

 destruction. A list of birds considered useful has now been 

 published by the Commission, and as this includes a number of 

 our caged friends as well as other birds at present ruthlessly 

 sacrificed for ornament.al purposes, the trade in birds in various 

 directions will naturally be curtailed. We learn from the J^ihrue 

 Siicntifiquc that a period of three years is to be accorded to 

 the different countries of Europe to allow them to arrange their 

 laws in accordance with the principles agreed upon by the 

 International Commission. 



The prospectus is issued of a proposed complete directory of 

 living botanists of all countries, inclusive of the ofticers of botanic 

 gardens, institutes, and societies, as also of their works and the 

 botanical papers issued by them. Any communication should 

 be made to Herr J. Dbrfler, HI Barichgasse 36, Vienna, of 

 the botanical section of the Imperial Museum of Natural 

 History. 



