368 



NA TURE 



[February 15, 1894 



ordinary work of the congress, special meetings will be held for 

 the discussion of questions relating to (a) general geology, 

 tectonics, &c. ; (/') stratigraphy and palaeontology ; {c) 

 mineralogy and petrography. Numerous excursions have been 

 planned ; six, before the congress, to different parts of the Jura, 

 and six, after the congress, to various districts of the Alps ; three 

 supplementary excursions are also proposed. Mr. W. Topley 

 (28, Termyn-street, London), who acted as general secretary to 

 the London Congress; in 1888, will be glad to receive subscrip- 

 tions or to give information. 



A MEETING to consider the question of raising a memorial to 

 the late Prof. Arthur Milnes Marshall, F.R.S., was held at the 

 Owens College on Friday last. Mr. Edward Dormer (deputy- 

 treasurer of the College) presided, and there were present, 

 amongst others. Principal Ward, Profs. Boyd Dawkins, 

 Osborne Reynolds, Schuster, Weiss, Leech, Herdman, and 

 Dixon, Dr. Hurst, Messrs. R. D. Darbishire, Forbes Carpenter, 

 R. Assheton, F. W. Gamble, and W. E. Hoyle. The meeting 

 was addressed by Principal Ward, Mr. Darbishire, and others, 

 and it was decided to form a committee to formulate a scheaae, 

 and submit it to a future meeting. Although no definite decision 

 as to the nature of the memorial was arrived at, the general 

 sense of the meeting seemed to be in favour of a fund to maintain 

 Prof. Marshall's library, which has been generously presented 

 to the College by his family. 



H. R.H. THE Duke of Cambridge has accepted the 

 presidency of a committee which has been formed to present a 

 testimonial to Dr. W. H. Dickinson on his retirement from the 

 office of senior-physician to St. George's Hospital, of which 

 his Royal Highness is a vice-president. Among the members 

 of the committee are the Duke of Westminster, the Earl of 

 Cork and Orrery, Mr. Shaw Stewart, and Colonel Haygarth, 

 vice-presidents of the hospital ; Mr. J. R. Mosse, treasurer ; 

 Sir Henry Acland, Admirals Sir George Willes and Sir W. 

 Houston Stewart, Sir George Humphry, Sir Francis Laking, 

 Surgeon-General Cornish, and a number of Dr. Dickinson's 

 past and present colleagues, and pupils and former students of 

 the St. George's Medical School. 



The death is announced of Brigadier-General J. Ammen, 

 who for some years held the Chair of Mathematics in Bacon 

 College, Georgetown, Kentucky, and that of Jefferson College, 

 Mississippi. 



The Right Hon. Sir Harry Verney, whose death, at the age 

 of ninety-two, occurred on Monday last, was the "father" of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England — an institution which 

 he assisted to establish in 1838. 



Lord Playfair has selected "The Modern Needs of 

 Scientific Teaching" as the title of his address to the students 

 of the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching, 

 at the Mansion House, on Saturday, March 10. 



Mr. Holbrook Gaskell having contributed ^1000 to 

 complete the endowment of the Chair of Botany at Liverpool 

 University College, the college council have decided to confer 

 the professorship upon Mr. R. J. Harvey Gibson, who has held 

 the lectureship in botany during the last five years. 



The Council of the Royal Meteorological Society have ar- 

 ranged to hold an exhibition of instruments, photographs, and 

 drawings relating to the representation and measurement of 

 clouds, next April. The Exhibition Committee invite co- 

 operation, as they are anxious to obtain as large a collection as 

 possible of such exhibits. The committee will also be glad to 

 show any new meteorological instruments or apparatus invented 

 or first constructed since the exhibition of 1892, as well as 

 photographs and drawings possessing meteorological interest. 



NO. 1268, VOL. 49] 



Among the documents in the possession of the Anthropo- 

 logical Institute are a considerable number of MS. vocabularies, 

 in many cases unique in their character. As it has never come 

 within the 'scope of the Institute to devote a large portion of 

 '\\.% Journal to the publication of such material, a fund is being 

 raised by subscription, independently of the Institute, to deal 

 with these documents. The subscription is one guinea, payable 

 in alternate years, and the first vocabulary to be published will 

 be one of the Ipurina Language (Upper Purus River), South 

 America, by the Rev. J. E. R. Polak. 



We learn from the Keiv Bulletin for February that an ex- 

 cellent portrait of Prof. Oliver, F.R.S., the late keeper of the 

 Herbarium and Library of the Royal Gardens, Kew, has been 

 painted by Mr. J. Wilson Foster (who also painted the portrait 

 of the present keeper, Mr. J. E. Baker, F.R.S., exhibited at 

 the Royal Academy in 1893). Prof. Oliver's portrait was com- 

 missioned by a number of his scientific and other friends, who 

 have presented it to the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens — the 

 scene of his labours from 1858 to 1890. 



An appeal for assistance has been issued by the committee 

 oftheBethnal Green Free Library, there being a deficit of 

 £200 on the last financial year, while the outlay of the present 

 one is calculated to reach ^^ 1,000. The work that this institu- 

 tion is doing is an excellent one, and the fact that no less than 

 50,000 persons attended the library and classes, &c. in con- 

 nection with it, and 27,000 the Gilchrist Educational Trust 

 Lectures, tells it is filling a real want. It will be a pity if such 

 a good work should languish for want of funds, subscriptions 

 towards which may be sent to Mr. G. F. Hilcken, the secretary 

 and librarian, Bethnal Green Free Library, London, E. 



The Academy says that the Hon. Walter Rothschild pro- 

 poses to publish a periodical in connexion with his Museum at 

 Tring, under the title of Novitates Zoologicae. It will con- 

 tain papers on mammals, birds, &c., and also discussions on 

 general questions of zoological or palseontological interest. 

 Descriptions of new species will be confined almost entirely to 

 those of which the types belong to the Tring Museum ; and 

 the other articles will, for the most part, be founded on work 

 carried on at that museum, or on specimens sent by Mr. 

 Rothschild's collectors. 



Mr. Lloyd Bozvvard, writing to us from Worcester, says 

 that on the 6th instant, shortly after noon, he saw a large 

 meteor of great brightness near the zenith. At the time of the 

 occurrence, the sun was brilliantly shining in a clear blue sky. 

 A remarkable feature was the intensity of the light of the 

 meteor. According to Mr. Bozward, this, if not exceeding the 

 radiance of the sun, was certainly equal to it. The meteor was 

 also seen at Birmingham, several observers comparing its light 

 to that given by the electric arc, while others say that it was of 

 a vivid green colour. 



The Royal Society of New South Wales offers its medal and 

 ;^25 for the best communication (provided it be of sufficient 

 merit) containing the results of original research or observation 

 upon each of the following subjects, to be sent in not later than 

 May I, 1894 :— On the timbers of New South Wales, with 

 special reference to their fitness for use in construction, manu- 

 factures, and other similar purposes ; on the raised sea-beaches 

 and kitchen middens on the coast of New South Wales ; on 

 the aboriginal rock carvings and paintings in New South 

 Wales. To be sent in not later than May i, 1895 :— On 

 the silver ore deposits of New South Wales ; on the physio- 

 logical action of the poison of any Australian snake, spider, 

 or tick ; on the chemistry of the Australian gums and resins. 

 To be sent in not later than May i, 1896:— On the origin 

 of multiple hydatids in man ; on the occurrence of precious 



