iSo 



NATURE 



[December 20, 1894 



At the request of the Ottoman Government, Dr. G. Agamen- 

 none, of the Italian Meteorological and Geodynamic Office, will 

 shortly proceed to Constantinople to found there a seismological 

 obseri-atory of the first order. Amongst the instruments to be 

 erected are an .\gamennone seismometrograph and a tromometer 

 similar to those in use in the principal Italian observatories. 

 The tromometer will be provided with a photographic recording 

 apparatus, and is specially adapted for registering the long, 

 period pulsations from distant earthquake centres. 



Directors of Botanic Gardens abroad will be glad to know 

 that a list of seeds of hardy herbaceous annual and perennial 

 plants and of hardy trees and shrubs which, for the most part, 

 have ripened at Kew during the year 1S94, is given in an 

 appendix, recently issued, to the AVw Bulletin. These seeds 

 are not sold to the general public, but are available for ex- 

 change with Colonial, Indian, and Foreign Botanic Gardens, as 

 well as with regular correspondents of Kew. No application, 

 except from remote colonial possessions, can be entertained 

 by the Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew after the end of 

 March. 



The death is announced of Pafnulij Tchebitchef, the eminent 

 Russian mathematician. He w.-is a Foreign Member of the 

 Royal Society, and an Associc Etranger of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences. 



Dr. F. B Hawki.ns died on December 7, at the great age 

 of ninely-eight. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 sixty years ago, and was one of the oldest members of the 

 medical profession. 



The Laiuet understands that the Premier has consented to 

 leceivea deputation to advocate (he formation of a University 

 for London on the lines recommended by the recent Royal 

 Commission. The meeting will probably take place about the 

 middle of January. 



The Paris correspondent of the Chemist and Druggist re- 

 ports that the Municipal Council have presented fifteen hundred 

 francs to the Ecole Normale Superieure, to erect a bust of M. 

 Pasteur in ihit college. The Council have also voted in favour 

 of changing the name of the rue d'Ulm to that of "rue 

 Pasteur." 



At the invitation of the associitei scientific clubs of Berlin, 

 a numerous assembly met on Friday last in order to com- 

 memorate the great services rendered to science by the late Prof, 

 von Helmholtt. The Girman Emperor and Empress, and | 

 many Ministers and members of Parliament, attended the ' 

 ceremony. 



Our Cambridge correspondent informs us that the Coutts 

 Trotter Studentships in Physics at Trinity College have been 

 awarded for two years to Mr. I. L. Tuckelt, and for one year to 

 Mr. S. \V. J. Smith, both being scholars of the College. 



The Council of the Marine Biological Association has 

 appointed Mr. E. J. Allen to be director of (he Plymouth 

 laboratory, in succession to Mr. E. J. Bles, who lately resigned 

 that position. Mr. Allen is a pupil of Prof F. IC. Schulize, of 

 Berlin, and has been engaged in researches upon the ctrlomic 

 and nervous «y«temi of Crustacea, some interesting results of 

 which were recently noticed in our columns. 



.VrranoemenTs have been made to begin the new series of 

 Scitnte on the first day of the new year, under wholly different 

 direction and auspices. The New York Nnlion says that (he 

 paper will hereafter be under the control of a representative 

 editorial committee, and will undertake to report on the progress 



NO. 1312, VOL. 51] 



of science for men of science. The managing committee is 

 constituted as follows : — Mathematics, Prof. Simon Newcomb ; 

 Mechanics, Prof. R. S. Woodward ; Astronomy, Prof. E. C. 

 Pickering; Chemistry, Prof. Remsen ; Physiography, Prof W. 

 M. Davis ; Paheontology, Prof. O. C. Marsh ; Morphology, 

 Prof. VV. K. Brooks ; Zoology, Dr. C. Hart Merriam ; Botany, 

 Prof. N. L. Britton ; Hygiene, Dr. J. S. Billings; Physiology, 

 Dr. H. P. Bowditch ; Ethnology, Dr. J. W. Powell ; Anthro- 

 pology, Dr. D. G. Brinton ; Psychology, Prof. Catlell. 



The Organising Committee of the International Geographical 

 Congress have issued an invitation circular to members of geo- 

 g raphical societies, and all who take an interest in any of the 

 various aspects of geography, to attend the meetings of the 

 Sixth International Geographical Congress, which will be held 

 in London from July 26 to .■\ugust 23, 1895. The subjects to 

 be dealt with at the Congress will be grouped under the follow- 

 ing heads : — (i) Mathematical Geography ; (2) Physical Geo- 

 graphy, including Oceanography and Geographical Distribution; 

 (3) Cartography ; (4) Exploration ; (5) Descriptive Geography ; 

 (6) Historical Geography ; (7) .\pplied Geography, including 

 AnthropoGeography ; (S) Education. Intending contributors 

 of papers should send in their communications (written in 

 English, French, German, or Italian) before the end of next 

 April. -Vn exhibition of instruments, maps, globes, photo- 

 graphs, and other objects representative of the present state 

 and past history of geographical science, will be held in connec- 

 tion with the Congress. 



Dr. E. deTeli.enberg writes to us, from the Natural History 

 Museum at Berne, with reference to a communication made by 

 Sir John Lubbock to the Geological Society, on November 7 

 (Nati/re, vol. li. p. 94), on some nummulites from the valley 

 of Lauterbrunnen at Murren. Sir John Lubbock remarked 

 that " the find will necessitate a substantial correction of the 

 geological map" ; but Dr. de Tellenherg says that the nam- 

 mulitic layer described was known long ago, and is shown on 

 several geological maps ; while the conclusion, that the rock is 

 "not Malm, but Eocene,'' appears to have been arrived at fifty 

 years ago. 



In a presidential address to the members of the Tyneside 

 Naturalists' Field Club, just received. Prof. G. S. Brady gives 

 an interesting sketch of the present state of fisheries and fish- 

 culture in Great Britain. He describes a visit to Mr. Armistead's 

 successful salmon and trout hatchery near New -Vbbey, and 

 recommends the foundation of a hatchery on the Northumber- 

 land coast to aid in keeping up and improving the supply of 

 sea-fish, and of a biological laboratory attached to it for the 

 scientific study of the marine fauna of the neighbourhood. We 

 hope that everyone interested in the maintenance of our sea- 

 fisheries, and in the study ol marine biology in the northeast of 

 England, will cordially .assist n the realisation of this timely 

 proposal. A work of this kind, as Prof. Brady suggests, comes 

 fairly within the powers of the County Councils, which have 

 alrcaily shown a cammendablc care for the interests of .agri- 

 culture, and a desire generally to help forward technical and 

 scientific education. 



Thk current number of the />o!liilino meiisiiale of the Italian 

 Meteorological Society contains a summary, by Profs. K. Bartoli 

 and E. .Sirocciatl, of their determinations of the absorption of 

 solar radiation by fog and by cirrus clouds. The investigations 

 were very carefully conducted, and the results arc therefore of 

 considerable interest. It was found ih.at a veil of cirrus was 

 able to intercept as much as 30 per cent, of the sun's rays ; 

 while a slight fog, equally diffused in all directions, intercepted 

 from 58 to 92 per cent, of the solar rays, which would have 

 been transmitted with a perfectly clear sky. Full particulars of 



