December 6, 1894I 



NA TURE 



I 29 



powder produced from the stalactites was found to be 

 2"85. The lava is decidedly basic, as the quantity of 

 silica determined analytically was 4S'5J per cent. On 

 some of the stalactites a thin layer of colourless crystals 

 were recognised under the microscope. An examination 

 of these incrusting crystals proved them to be selenite. 



NOTES. 



We are pleased to note Ihat the Court of the Salters' Com- 

 pany have placed at the disposal of the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute a grant of £,iyi a year, for founding one or more 

 Fellowships for the encouragement of higher research in 

 chemistry in its relation to manufactures. The Fellowships 

 will be awarded by the E.'ieciitive Committee of the Institute, 

 and the amount of the grant attached to each will be determined 

 by the Committee, with reference to the nature of the research, 

 the time required to complete it, and the merits of the candidate. 

 The Executive Committee will each year apply the sum pro- 

 vided by the .Salters' Company to the award of Fellowships to 

 British-born subjects, of a value not exceeding ;^I50 (a) to 

 students of the Institute who have completed a full three-years' 

 course of instruction in the chemical department of the 

 Central Technical College, or (/') to candidates duly qualified 

 in the methods of chemical research in its relation to manu- 

 factures, without restriction as to age or place of previous 

 study. A Fellowship may be renewed for a second and third 

 year, but cannot be held by anyone for more than three years. 

 The holders of the Fellowships will be required to devote their 

 whole time to the prosecution of research, unless otherwise 

 sanctioned by the Executive Committee. The researches will 

 be carried out at the Institute's Central Technical College. Ap- 

 plications for Fellowships should be made in writing addressed 

 to the Honorary Secretary of [the Institute, Gresham College, 

 Basinghall Street, London, E.C., and should state the nature 

 of the research proposed to be undertaken, and the qualifications 

 of the candidate. The first award will be made early in the 

 new year. 



We notice with deep regret that Sir Charles T. Newton, 

 K.C.B., the eminent archceologist, died on November 28. 



Communication by telephone between Vienna and Berlin 

 has just been opened. The length of the line is 410 miles. 



Dr. S. Nawaschin has been appointed Professor of Botany 

 and Director of the Botanic Garden at the University of Kiew ; 

 and Dr. IC. Schilbersky Professor of Botany and Vegetable 

 Pathology at the Hungarian Agricultural Institute, Buda-Pesth. 



The editorship oixhejahrhiklurjurwiiscnschajllkhe Botanik, 

 vacant by the death of Dr. I'riiigsheim, has been accepted by 

 Prof. Pfeffer, of Leipzig, and Prof. Strasburger, of Bonn. All 

 communications should be addressed to the former of these. 

 The /(i/(;-('w/;«- have been edited by Dr. Pringsheim since their 

 commencement in 1857, and contain many important contri- 

 butions to structural and physiological botany. 



Dr. Philip Lenard, who was the late Prof. Hertz's 

 assistant and prival-docent at the University of Bonn, has 

 recently been appointed Extraordinary Professor of Physics in 

 the University of Breslau. He has published a number of im- 

 portant investigations on cathode rays, phosphorescence, 

 electrification of water-drops, and kindred subjects. 



The Council of the British Institute of Public Health, 

 realising the great and general interest which is at the present 

 time taken in the question of the anti-toxic serum treatment 

 of diphtheria, have made arrangements for a lecture to be 

 given in the Examination Hall of the Rjyal Colleges of 



NO. 1310. VOL. 5 1] 



Physicians and Surgeons, Victoria Embankment, on Friday, 

 December 7, at 5 p.m. by Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, entitled 

 "The Diagnosis and .\nti-toxic Treatment of Diphtheria. " 



The second series of lectures fgiven by the Sunday Lecture 

 Society begins on Sunday afternoon, December '9, in St, 

 George's Hall, Langham Place, at 4 p.m., when Mr. E, 

 Neville Rolfe will lecture on " The Buried Cities of 

 Campania." Lectures will be subsequently given by Mr. 

 Wyke Bayliss, Prof. Marshall Ward, F.R.S., Prof Vivian B. 

 Lewes, Mr. Oswald Brown, Mr. .\tthur Clayden, and Mr. Jas, 

 Craven. 



The following lecture arrangements have been made at the 

 Royal Institution : Prof. J. A. Fleming, F. R. S., six lectures 

 (adapted to a juvenile auditory) on the work of an electric 

 current ; Prof Charles Stewart, twelve lectures on the internal 

 framework of plants and animals ; Mr. L. Fletcher, F.R.S., three 

 lectures on meteorites; Dr. E. B. Tylor, F. R. S., two lectures 

 on animism ; Lord Rayleigh will also deliver six lectures. 

 The Friday evening meetings will commence on January iS, 

 when Prof. Dewar will deliver a discourse on phosphores- 

 cence and photographic action at the temperature of boiling 

 liquid air. Succeeding discourses will probably be given by 

 Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff, Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, Mr. Clin- 

 ton T. Dent, Prof A. Schuster, Prof. A. W. Rucker, Prof. 

 Roberts-Austen, Prof. H. E, Armstrong, and Lord Rayleigh, 

 among others. 



Dr. Patterson, in a lecture before the Piscatorial Society, 

 at the Holborn Restaurant this week, entitled " Salmon, Sea- 

 trout, and Trout— What are they ? " maintained that they were 

 all varieties of one species, varying according to their environ- 

 ments. On the same evening an exhibition of this year's speci- 

 men fish was held by this Society in their museum at the Holborn. 



At a meeting held at the Borough Road Polytechnic, on 

 November 23, a London branch of the Conchological Society of 

 Great Britain and Ireland was formed. -It is thought that such 

 a branch, with monthly meetings for discussion, for exhibition, 

 and for exchange, cannot fail to be of advantage. The branch 

 will in no way be a rival of the Malacological Society, but 

 probably a feeder to it. The first ordinary meeting will be held 

 on Thursday, January lo, 1895, at 7 p.m., in a room lent by 

 the Governors of the Borough lioad Polytechnic. The attend- 

 ance of any conchologists in or near London will be welcomed 

 at this meeting. 



During the past few years the American Museum of Natural 

 History, situated in Central Park, New York City, has grown 

 very considerably. It suffers from the common complaint, how- 

 ever, of not having suflicient funds to devote to the enlargement 

 of the collections, and this in a city where millionaires most do 

 congregate. The report of the operations of the Institution last 

 year shows that the opening of the museum on Sundays is greatly 

 appreciated. Many important additions have been made to the 

 various collections, the most noteworthy accessions being in the 

 department of mammalian palasontology. .\lthough only in 

 the third year of its establishment, the collections in this depart- 

 ment already equal in importance those secured by other 

 institutions through many years of eflfort. The intention is to 

 form a great collection to represent the evolution of the mam- 

 mals of North America. Thus far the expeditions to the 

 Rocky Mountain region have secured nearly one thousand five 

 hundred specimens. Fifteen perfect skulls have been obtained 

 from the Bridger Uasin, Wyoming. The remains of monkeys, 

 horses, tapirs, primitive rhinoceroses and rodents have also 

 been obtained by the explorations under Dr. J. L. Wortman, 

 and many of them are in an excellent state of preservation. 

 The most notable specimen in the collection is a complete 



