April 26, 1894] 



NATURE 



60: 



Three research scholarships, each of the value of ;^250, and 

 open only to British subjects, have been instituted by the Grocers' 

 Company " as an encouragement to the making of exact re- 

 searches into the causes and prevention of important diseases." 



The University College of Liverpool has a generous friend 

 in Mr. George Holt, who has recently offered ^10,000 to the 

 Council for the endowment of a chair of pathology in the 

 Medical School. The only endowed chair hitherto possessed 

 by the school is that of physiology, which was also a gift from 

 Mr. Holt. 



The Chemist and Druggist says that the herbarium of the 

 late Isaac C. Martindale, of Philadelphia, comprising over 

 200,000 different plants and ferns gathered from every country 

 in the world, and valued at ten thousand dollars, has been pre- 

 sented to the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. The 

 herbarium was bought from the heirs of the late proprietor by 

 Mr. Howard B. French and Messrs. Smith, Kline, and French 

 jointly, and given to the College by these gentlemen. 



The agricultural correspondent of the Times points out that 

 the appointment of an official agrostologist to the Department 

 of Agriculture at Washington is an event of exceptional in- 

 terest, for it involves a recognition of the primary importance of 

 the grasses in the rural economy of the nation. The duties of 

 the United States agrostologist will include the identification of 

 grasses and the investigation of forage plan ts, the preparation 

 of monographs on grasses, and the cond uct of various inquiries 

 into grasses and forage plants. The gentleman who has been 

 selected to fill the post is Prof. Frank L. Scribner. He has 

 already filled the position of chief of the section of vegetable 

 pathology in the Agricultural Department at Washington, and 

 has recently been Director of the Tennessee Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. 



The recent operations in Eppiug Forest have given rise to a 

 large amount of correspondence in the daily papers, all the 

 writers, with one or two exceptions, being opposed to the 

 thinning of the timber and to the other improvements being 

 effected by the Conservators, The Epping Forest Committee 

 of the Corporation of London have so far met the public view 

 of their proceedings as to promise that further operations shall 

 be suspended till a select committee of experts have gone over 

 the ground and reported upon the matter. Without prejudicing 

 the decision of this committee, i t may fairly be stated that the 

 newspaper correspandents have given a most exaggerated ac- 

 count of the number of trees felled. In the meantime, the 

 Essex Field Club has convened a meeting for Saturday, April 

 28, to examine the districts under discussion, and to give an 

 opportunity for the ventilation of the whole question of the 

 Forest management. The meeting will be conducted by the 

 verderers, Sir T. Fowell Buxton and Mr. E. N. Buxton, Prof. 

 Meldola, F. R. S., who as first president of the Club has in these 

 columns expressed his views on the question (vol. xxvii. p. 447), 

 and Prof. C. Stewart, the President of the Linneau Society. 

 Mr. Angus D. Webster, a well-known expert in forest matters, 

 who is now manager of woods to the Duke of Bedford, will be 

 present at the meeting, and many other authorities are expected 

 to take part in the proceedings. 



The Romanes lectuie for 1894 will be delivered by Prof. 

 Weismann, at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, on Wednesday, 

 May 2, at 2. 15 p.m. 



Dr. John Hopki.nson, F.R.S., will deliver the "James 

 Forrest " lecture at the Institution of Civil Engineers, on 

 Thursday, May 3, at 8 p.m., his subject being "The Relation 

 of Mathematics to Engineering." 



NO. 1278, VOL. 49] 



A COURSE of five lectures on "Geographical Distribution" 

 will be delivered by Mr. F. E. Beddard, F. R.S., in the Lecture 

 Room in the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's Park, on 

 Satuidays at 4 p.m., commencing Saturday, May 19. 



On Thursday, May 3, Prof. Dewar will deliver the first of a 

 course of lectures at the Royal Institution, on " The Solid and 

 Liquid States of Matter " ; on Saturday, May 5, Captain Abney 

 delivers the first of the Tyndall Lectures on "Colour Vision," 

 and on Tuesday, May i, Prof. Judd begins a course of lectures 

 on " Rubies." 



During the present term. Prof. Clifton is lecturing at Oxford 

 on the optical properties of crystal, ; Messrs. W. W. Fisher 

 aud Watts on inorganic and organic chemistry respectively ; 

 Prof. A. H. Green on field geology and applied geology ; Prof. 

 Ray Lankester on the Mammalia; Prof. Burdon .Sanderson on 

 the special senses; and Prof Vines continues his advanced course 

 in botany. Dr. Tylor lectures on the races of mankind, as 

 classified by language, civilisation, and history ; and Mr. H. 

 Balfour on the progress in the arts of mankind, particularly as 

 illustrated by the Pitt-Rivers collection. Numerous supplemen- 

 tary lectures by demonstrators and others are announced in all 

 the departments. 



The programme of the meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, 

 to be held at the Institution of Civil Engineers on May 2 and 3, 

 has been issued. Mr. Windsor Richards will preside and 

 deliver an address. Prof. J. O. Arnold will read a paper on 

 the "Physical Influence of certain Elements upoa Iron " ; Mr. 

 William Hawdon will describe a new departure in the con- 

 struction of blast furnaces ; and Mr. Jeremiah Head will point 

 out the growing importance of Scandinavia as a source of 

 iron ore supply. Mr. D. Selby-Bigge will discuss the uses of 

 electricity in the way of replacing steam and other motors in the 

 iron and steel industries. Mr. G. J. Snelus will explain a new 

 French process — a Bessemer process on a small scale. A paper 

 on the relations between the chemical constitution and ultimate 

 strength of steel will be read by Mr. W. R. Webster ; and 

 Mr. J. E. Stead and Mr. H. K. Bamber will speak, the former 

 on the microscopic examination of iron and steel, and the latter 

 on the analysis of steel. 



La Nature credits Mr. J. Lancaster, an American orni- 

 thologist, with the assertion that he has seen frigate-birds flying 

 continuously for seven days. According to his observations, the 

 birds do not get fatigued even after staying such a long time in 

 the air ; in fact, not only can the frigate-bird maintain itself in 

 the air almost without moving its wings, but it can travel with 

 a velocity of 160 kilometres per hour with very little exertion. 

 Though the albatross has usually a greater breadth of wing 

 than the frigate-bird, it can only sustain itself in the air four or 

 five days. 



The Roman villa at Llantwit-Major has been described, and 

 the remains figured, by General Pitt- Rivers. In the Western 

 Mail of Monday last, Mr. John Storrie says that he has visited 

 a Roman villa at Ely, near Cardiff, and found that the wall 

 plaster is painted with exactly the same patterns as that of 

 the villa at Llantwit. There is other evidence that both villas 

 were erected by the same workmen. Mr. Storrie also found 

 relics not only of the pre-historic village, but of palaeolithic 

 man, thus indicating that the district examined n^^y have been 

 a settlement of man continuously from the time of the paleo- 

 lithic men of the river gravels, then the marsh dwellers, then 

 the Romans, and that it was only deserted when the present 

 village of Ely took its rise probably during the early Norman 

 period. 



The fourth trip of H.M.S. Jackal, for physical observations 

 in the northern part of the North Sea, takes place next week. 



