NA TURE 



[June 7, 1894 



A LARGE number of pupils, friends, and colleagues of Prof. | 

 Bertiand, the Permanent Secretary of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, met at the Kcole Polytechnique on May 27, and pre- 

 sented him with a medal struck in commemoration of the jubilee 

 of his service on the staff of the school. M. Maurice La-wy, 

 the President of the Academy of Sciences, presided over the 

 meeting, and among those who assembled to do honour to 

 Prof. Bertrand were General Andre, MM. Faye, Darbou.v, and 

 Comu, M. Gaston Boissier (the Administrator of the College 

 de France), G. Perrot (the Director of the Ecole Normale), M. 

 Poincarc, and M. Mercadier ^the Director of Studies at the 

 Ecole Pol) technique). " Un pays s'honore en honorant ses 

 grands citoyens," says the Revue Scientifiqiie in its report of the 

 ceremony. This aphorism is borne in mind in France more 

 than anywhere else. Bertrand has now been honoured by 

 receiving the homage of his admirers and pupils, like Pasteur 

 and Hermite before him. It is right that this regard should be 

 expressed in the manner it has, for the mathematical sciences do 

 not appeal to the generality ; and the only recompense a student 

 of them can hope for is a recognition of the scientific importance 

 of his labours by fellow-workers. The meeting at the Poly- 

 technic School, and the speeches that were made at it, must 

 have made Prof. Bertr.ind feel that the consecration of his life 

 to the search for truth has brought a reward worth working for. 



The death is announced of Geheimrath A. Kundt, Professor 

 of Physics in Berlin University, and of Dr. K. W. Baur, 

 Professor of >(athematics in the Stuttgart Technische Hoch- 

 schule. 



The British Medical Journal states that Prof. Czerny has 

 declined the offer of the Chair of Surgery in the University of 

 Vienna, made to him by the .Austrian Government. It is be- 

 lieved that the reason for his refusal to accept the succession of 

 his old master, Billroth, is the inadequacy of the laboratory and 

 teaching equipment in the AUgemeines Krankenhaus. 



We learn from La Nitture that a company, formed sometime 

 ago for the purpose of constructing an electric railway on the 

 Jungfrau, have asked permission to devote a sum of one hundred 

 thousand francs to the erection of a geophysical observatory, 

 and five thousand francs annually for its maintenance. The 

 observatory would have an altitude of 4200 metres, and the 

 projected line would put it into direct communication with the 

 valley below. 



According to the Zoologist for June, a committee of Eng- 

 lish sportsmen and nalurali-ls h.is been formed for the purpose 

 of devising some scheme for the protection of South African 

 mammaU, chiefly giraffe, zebra, gland, gnu, koodoo, and other 

 antelope-, several of which, owing to indiscriminate slaughter, 

 are on the verge of extinction. To attain this desirable end it 

 is proposed to enclose a suitable tract of country, of about one 

 hundred ihoui^and acres, with a wire fencing, strengthened by a 

 strong live fence of thorn on the outside. It is hoped that the 

 Hrilish South African Chartered Company may allow such an 

 enclosure to be made in the district near Fort Salisbury, which 

 has already been reserved for game by the Company. That 

 such a scheme is fea.sible is shown by the success which has 

 attended Mr. Austin Corbin'.i efforts to establish in New Ilamp- 

 ihirr, U.S. .A., a similar game park to that suggested, covering 

 an area of twenty-eight thousand acres. The description of 

 the enclosing and stocking of this park, which follows the pro- 

 posals of the new preservation society in the Zoologist, will do 

 much to combat adverse criticism. 



The aim of the National Home-Reading Union may be 



summed up in a short sentence — to render study attractive. A 



happy experience of four successive summers has proved to the 



coancil of the society that there is no other means by which 



NO. 1284. VOL. 50] 



this can be accomplished so effectively as by taking the student 

 to the locality which most abundantly illustrates his work. \Ve 

 all know that geology can only be learned in the field : 

 and, in like manner, the beginnings of history acquire 

 an objective reality as one stands within the circle at 

 Stonehenge. Botany, also is irresistibly interesting when 

 the teacher accompanies his pupils through a wood or over 

 a moor. The summer assemblies of the Union, which are open 

 to all, whether members of the Union or not, will be held this 

 year at Buxton, in Derbyshire, during the last week in June, 

 and at Salisbury during the first week in July. The character 

 of the scientific side of the meetings may be gathered from the 

 following abridged list of lecturers and subjects. At Buxton the 

 inaugural address will be given by the Ven. Archdeacon Farrar, 

 and lectures will be delivered by the Rev. R. Harley, F. R. S., and 

 others. The geological excursions will be conducted by Mr. J. C. 

 Marr, F.R.S., who will lecture on "The Building of the 

 Pennine Chain." Conferencesupon various social and educational 

 subjects have also been organised. The object of the meeting 

 at Salisbury will be the study of the monuments with which 

 the district abounds, illustrative of the archa:ology, art, 

 and history of Early England — " from Stonehenge to .Salis- 

 bury Cathedral." Among the lecturers are Professor Jebb, 

 General Pitt Rivers, F.R.S., and Sir Robert Ball, F.R.S. 

 Archrcology and geology will be in the charge of Dr. Humphry 

 Blackmore, Professor T. Mclvenny Hughes, F. R.S., and 

 Baron Anatole von Hii^el. Mr. -V. C. Seward will lecture 

 on Botany, and accompany the excursions as botanical guide. 

 The Marquis of Bath will preside at the Salisbury assembly, 

 and the Right Hon. \V. Woodall, M.P., at the Buxton meeting. 

 Full programmes can be obtained from the Secretary to the 

 Union, Surrey House, Victoria Embankment, London, \V. C. 



The current number of Himmel utulErde contains a valuable 

 article by Dr. J. Hann, entitled " Ebb and Flow of the Earth's 

 Atmosphere.'" The paper deals entirely with the diurnal and 

 annual range of the barometer, and Dr. llann's laborious inves- 

 tigations of these phenomena have frequently been referred to 

 in our columns. It is more than 2co years ago since the re- 

 gular variation of the barometer by day-time was first observed, 

 and the first person who investigated the regular variation dur- 

 ing the night-time, and fixed the morning minimum at about 

 3h. or 4h. a.m. was the celebiated botanist Colestino Mutis, 

 at Bogota, who commenced his observations in 1761. Blan- 

 ford and F. Chambers first explained the characteristic differ- 

 ence between the daily range on the sea-coast and at inland 

 stations, and showed the connection of this difference with land 

 and sea breezes. Dr. Hann points out that while there is a 

 large number of theories as to the cause of the double daily 

 oscillation of the barometer, none of them satisfactorily explains 

 the whole of the phenomena. With regard to the yearly range 

 he shows that when the values for the northern and southern 

 hemispheres are separately considered, it is found that the 

 smallest quantities occur in bjlh hemispheres in July, so that 

 we obtain the important result that the values of the double 

 daily oscillation depend more upon the position of the earth 

 with respect to the sun than upon the seasons. He agrees with 

 Lord Kelvin and others that the only means of eventually 

 obtaining a satisfactory explanation of the subject will be by 

 harmonic analysis, and by comparison of the variations at a 

 large number of stations. 



The sixth annual report of the trustees of the Marine 

 Biological Laboratory at Wood's Holl, Massachusetts, informs 

 us that not only has the past season been very successful as far 

 as the number of students and investigators and the quality of 

 their work are concerned, but also that the condition of the 

 finances is more satisfactory than at any lime since the fouuda- 



