October 3 i, 1S95J 



NATURE 



651 



received ^5000 from Mr. M. H. White and Mr. F. T. White, 

 in memory of their father ; a new laboratory, built at a cost of 

 ;^8ooo, is almost coniiileted for the departments of bacteriolojiy, 

 histolofjy, and pharmacy in the Medical College of the 

 University of Minnesota ; and by the will of Colonel W. L. 

 Chase, ^1000 is bequeathed to Harvard College to establish a 

 scholarship in the medical school. 



DlRlNC the recent Zoological Congress, at one of the meet- 

 ings of the Section of Comparative Anatomy and Embryology, 

 I'rof A. Kovalewsky bore testimony to the greatness of Huxley 

 in words of which the following is a translation : — " In the list 

 of men of science who expressed their intention to take part in 

 our Congress will be found the name of Thomas Huxley ; but 

 <leath has prevented him from being among us. In the person 

 of Huxley, science has sustained a great loss. We do not know 

 any other investigators of our century who had the talent of fore- 

 sight to such an extent as Huxley. It «as he who, properly 

 speaking, founded modern embryology by demonstrating the 

 homology of the germinal layers of X'ertebrales with the ectoderm 

 and endoderm of Ccelenterales. It was he who supported 

 Darwin in the publication of the fundamental work on the origin 

 of species, and it was he who was the fervent propagator of the 

 views therein contained. The two names of Darwin and Huxley 

 have built up the story of the scientific world." 



The following gentlemen have been recommended for election 

 as the Coimcil and otificers of the London Mathematical Society 

 at the annual meeting to be held on Noveniber 14 : — President, 

 Major I'. .\. Macmahon, F.R.S.; Vice-Presidents, Prof. M. J. M. 

 Hill, K. R.S., M. Jenkins, A. 13. Kempe, F.R.S. ; Treasurer, 

 Dr. J. Larmor, F.R.S. ; Secretaries, R. Tucker and A. F-. H. 

 Love, F.R.S. Other members — II. F. Baker, G. H. Bryan, 

 F.R.S., Lieut. -Colonel A. J. Cunningham, Prof. Elliott, F.R.S., 

 Dr. Glaisher, F.R.S., Prof Greenhill, F.R.S., Dr. Hobson, 

 F.R.S., Prof. W. H. H. Hudson, and F. S. Macaulay. It will 

 lie seen that Mr. Jenkins, after thirty years' service, has retired j 

 from the office of Secretary, on the score of his delicate state of 1 

 health. The Society held its first meeting on January 16, 1865, ] 

 and on the retirement of Mr. H. M. Bonipas (November 20, ' 

 1865), Mr. Jenkins was requested to act as Secretary until the 

 annual general meeting (January 15, 1866), when he and the 

 late G. C. de Morgan were elected joint Secretaries. 



Nex r Sunday will be Museum Sunday — the fourth arranged 

 by the Sunday Society. On that day special sermons or dis- 

 courses will be given by many leading men in London and the 

 provinces, in support of the Society's object, viz. the opening of 

 museums, art galleries, libraries, and gardens on Sundays. The 

 cause is a righteous one, and deserves every support. A number 

 'f special exhibitions will be held in the afternoon of Sunday, 

 and these, together with the museums and other places of 

 interest which will be open, make a fairly extensive list of 

 institutions opened in the manner advocated by the Society. The 

 list clearly indicates that the public opinion of the country is 

 really on the side of a rational observance of the weekly day 

 I A rest. 



The death is announced of Prof. II. Hellriegel, in his sixty- 

 fipurth year. His investigations in the domain of agricultural 

 -cience produced man)' valuable results, and it was his researches 

 I hat led to the discovery of the fixation of free nitrogen by 

 leguminous plants, through the medium of micro-organisms in 

 I he root nodules. 



The death of Dr. Robert Brown deprives science of one of 

 her most popular exponents. Dr. Brown was born at Campster, 

 Caithness, in 1842. He studied in the University of F.dinlmrgh, 

 and afterwards in the Universities of Leyden, Copenhagen, and 

 Rostock, receiving from the latter the degree of Doctor of Philo- 



NO. 1357. VOL. 52] 



sophy. In 1861 he visited Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the 

 western shores of Baffin's Bay, and made a number of valuable 

 observations. Between 1863-66 he travelled for scientific pur- 

 poses in many of the least-known parts of America, and some of 

 the Pacific Islands, from the West Indies and Venezuela to 

 Alaska and Behring Sea Coast, .as botanist of the British 

 Columbia Expediticm and commander of the Vancouver Island 

 Exploring Expedition, during which he introduced various new 

 plants into Europe, and charted all the interior of Vancouver, 

 then unknown. In 1867 he visited Greenland, making, with 

 Mr. E. Whymper, the first attempt by Errglishmen to penetrate 

 the inland ice, and formed those theoretical conclusions regard- 

 ing its nature, afterwards confirmed by Nansen and Peary. Dr. 

 Brown afterwards travelled extensively in the Barbary States of 

 North Africa. Settling down in Scotland he was successively 

 lecturer on geology, botany, and zoology in the Royal High 

 School, Edinburgh, and Heriot Watt College, Edinburgh, the 

 Mechanics' Institution, Gla^ow, and elsewhere. He was an 

 honorary or ordinary member of many learned societies in this 

 country, in America, and on the continent. In 1876 he re- 

 moved to London, in order to devote himself entirely to literary 

 work, and for the greater part of the period, from that time to 

 his death, was on the editorial stall" of the Standard. He was 

 the author, or part author, of about thirty volumes, and of a 

 large number of scientific memoirs, articles, and reviews. 



The thirty-fourth annual meetingof the Yorkshire Naturalists 

 Union was held yesterday at Vork Museum, and the presidential 

 address was delivered by Dr. R. Braithwaitc, on " The Study of 



Mosses." 



.Mr. Akchibai •.) Den.nv, of Dumbarton, has accepted the 

 presidency of the Institution of Junior Engineers, in succession 

 to Mr. Alexander Siemens, and will deliver his presidential 

 address on I'riday evening, November I, at the Westminster 

 Palace Hotel ; I'rof. A. B. W. Kennedy, Past-President, in the 

 chair. 



The Epping Forest Free Local Museum, established by the 

 Essex Field Club in Queen Elizabeth's Lodge, Chingford, will 

 be declared open next Saturday afternoon, by Mr. R. C. Halse, 

 Chairman of the Epping Forest Committee of the Corporation 

 of London. Short addresses on the subject of local museums 

 will be given by Mr. -A. Smith Woodward, and others. 



The Session 1S95- 96 of the Royal Geographical Society, for 

 the evening meetings, will commence on November 11, when an 

 account of theprogressof the Jackson-IIannsworth .\rctic Expedi- 

 tion will be given by Mr. h. Montefiore. On November 25, a 

 paper on the Fitroe Islands will be read by Dr. Karl Grossmann ; 

 exploration in the Central .\lps of Japan will be described by 

 the Rev. Walter Weston on December 9 ; and movements of 

 the earth's crust, by Prof. John Milne, F.R.S., on January 6. 

 Other papers which may be expected after Christinas are 

 the following : Journey across Tibet, by St. George R. Little- 

 dale ; exploration in the Alps of New Zealand, by E. .\. 

 Fitzgerald ; our knowledge of the oceans, by Dr. John Murray ; 

 the geography of the English lake district, by J. E. Marr, 

 1'. R..S. ; the canons of Southern Italy, by R. S. Giinther ; 

 British Central .\frica, its geography and resources, by Alfred 

 Sharpe. The following subjects, among others, will be submitted 

 for consideration and discussion at the special afternoon meet- 

 ings : — The construction and uses of globes, by J. V. Buchanan, 

 F.R.S. ; the struggle for life in the North Polar region, by 

 A. Trevor-Battye ; an attempt to reconstruct the maps of 

 Herodotus, by J. L. Myres. Under the joint auspices of the 

 Society and the London University Extension,. Mr. II. J. 

 M.ickinder is giving a course of twenty lectures on the principles 

 of geography, at Grcsham College. 



