352 



NATURE 



[August 7, 1890 



NOTES. 



A MEETING was held at Stonyhurst College, on Tuesday, to 

 consider a proposal for the establishment of some memorial of 

 the late Father Perry. Sir Edward Watkin, M.P. , presided, 

 and he was supported by the Bishops of Salford, Shrewsbury, 

 and Mangalore (India), Sir John Lawson, and a large body of 

 Catholic gentry. It was resolved that the memorial should con- 

 sist of a 16-inch equatorial telescope. A Committee of scientific 

 men was appointed. 



The Town Council of Edinburgh has resolved to renew the in- 

 vitation to the British Association to meet in Edinburgh in 1892. 



The Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science 

 will hold its third annual meeting at Christchurch, New Zealand. 

 The first general meeting will take place on January 15, 1891, at 

 8 p.m., when Baron F. von Miiller, F.R.S., will resign the chair, 

 and Sir James Hector, F. R.S., President-elect, will deliver an 

 address. The railway authorities of Queensland, New South 

 Wales, Victoria, and South Australia have consented to allow 

 members who are going to attend the Christchurch meeting to 

 obtain retui n tickets to Sydney or Melbourne at single fares ; 

 and various steamship companies have undertaken to convey 

 members to Sydney or Melbourne and back at a reduction of 

 20 per cent, on the ordinary rates. Application has been made 

 to the New Zealand Shipping Company and to the Shaw, Savill, 

 and Albion Company for passages at reduced rates to members 

 of the British Association visiting New Zealand to attend the 

 meeting, and it is expected that this will be granted. Informa- 

 tion may be obtained from Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings, 27 

 Chancery Lane, the local secretary in London. 



The International Medical Congress, now at work in Berlin, 

 held its first meeting on Monday in the Renz Circus. The 

 Berlin correspondent of the Times says it is calculated that no 

 fewer than 4500 members of the medical profession were present, 

 representing every State and city in Europe. Many also came 

 from North and South America. The French delegates, 34 in 

 number, were received with marked cordiality. The medical 

 profession in England was largely represented, among those 

 present being Sir James Paget, Sir Henry Acland, Sir Joseph 

 Lister, Sir John Banks, Sir William Turner, of Edinburgh, Sir 

 William Stokes, of Dublin, Prof. Grainger Stewart, of Edin- 

 burgh, Dr. Dick, Director-General of the Naval Medical De- 

 partment, Mr. Ernest Hart, representing the British Medical 

 Association, Surgeon J. K. Notter, of Netley, representing the 

 War Office, and Dr. Lauder Brunton. The proceedings began 

 with the opening address of the President, Prof. Virchow, who 

 heartily welcomed to Berlin his confreres from all parts of the 

 world. The President was followed by Dr. Lassar, Secretary- 

 General of the Congress, who sketched the general plan of the 

 labours of the Congress, and gave some interesting statistics 

 regarding the representation of the countries taking part in it. 

 After Herr von Gossler, Minister of Public Worship, and Herr 

 von Forckenbeck, Burgomaster of Berlin, had welcomed the 

 members in the name of the State and of the town of Berlin, 

 several of the foreign delegates addressed the Congress. Dr. 

 Hamilton, Surgeon-General of the American Army, was the first 

 speaker. He was followed by Sir James Paget, who, on 

 mounting the tribune, was warmly received. A paper on " The 

 Present Position of Antiseptic Surgery," by Sir Joseph Lister, 

 brought the proceedings to a close. At the end of the plenary 

 sitting, the Congress resolved itself into its various Sections, 

 which met in the halls of the Exhibition buildings in Moabit. 

 The proceedings in the Sections on Monday were, for the most 

 part, confined to the election of the various office-bearers. The 

 serious work began on Tuesday. 



On July 22 Messrs. D. C. Worcester and F. S. Bournes left 

 Minneapolis for the Philippine Islands, where they will spend 

 NO. 1084, VOL. 42] 



two years in the study of distribution, the collection of birds and 

 corals, and the prosecution of general zoological and botanical 

 work. The expedition was fitted out at a cost of over $10,000, 

 by Mr. L. F. Menage, of Minneapolis, and the collections made 

 by Messrs. Worcester and Bournes will be deposited in the 

 museums of the Minnesota Academy of Sciences at Minneapolis, 

 where also the work upon the collections will be conducted after 

 the return of the explorers. 



On Friday evening an important decision was arrived at in 

 the House of Commons with regard to the revenue to be derived 

 from the new duties on spirits in England. Mr. A. Acland 

 moved that the Council of any county or county borough should 

 receive power to use for the promotion of technical education 

 any part of the share allotted to it, and that the remainder 

 might be used as an educational endowment within the meaning 

 of the Endowed Schools Act, the County Council acting as the 

 governing body of the endowment. To the second part of 

 this amendment — that relating to intermediate education — the 

 Government declined to assent. The first part, however, they 

 accepted. Mr. Mundella, Sir Lyon Playfair, and Sir Henry 

 Roscoe expressed regret that the entire proposal of Mr. Acland 

 was not adopted, but were unanimous in thinking that the 

 decision of the Government, so far as it went, was most satisfac- 

 tory. Sir Henry Roscoe said he wished to be allowed to say 

 how gratified he was at the acceptance by the Goverment of the 

 first portion of his hon. friend's amendment. To the great 

 centres of industry which had already accepted the Technical 

 Education Act it would be a matter of very great importance. 

 In small places also, especially in the country, the money would 

 be of the very greatest consequence. 



Dr. Nansen's expedition to the North Pole will start in the 

 spring of 1892. Captain Sverdrup, who will take the nautical 

 command, is at present on board a fishing-boat in the Polar 

 seas, practising manoeuvring among ice. Dr. Nansen wishes 

 that his crew may consist wholly of Norwegian sailors, but will 

 admit some foreigners among the scientific staff. 



Science announces that Prof. R. S. Woodward, who was for 

 many years chief geographer of the U.S. Geological Survey, 

 has been appointed assistant in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey. Before his connection with the Geological Survey, Prof. 

 Woodward was assistant astronomer of the U.S. Transit of 

 Venus Commission. He was chairman of the Section of Mathe- 

 matics and Astronomy of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science in 1889, and is well known for his 

 investigations in mathematics, astronomy, and physics. 



We learn from Science that records have been received, at the 

 office of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, of observations 

 made during the last cruise of the Pensacola. The stations in- 

 clude the West Coast of Africa, and some islands in the North 

 and South Atlantic. The work was done by an officer of the 

 survey. Assistant E. D. Preston, aided by members of the ship's 

 company. Gravity and magnetic measures were made at St. 

 Paul de Loanda (Angola), Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena, 

 Ascension, Barbadoes, and Bermuda. In addition, magnetic 

 observations alone were made at the Azores (Fayal), Cape 

 Verde Islands (Porto Grande), Sierra Leone (Freetown), Gold 

 Coast (Elmina), and in Angola at Cabiri. The pendulums 

 used in the gravity work were the ones employed in 1883 in 

 Polynesia, and in 1887 at the summit of Haleakala and other 

 stations in the Hawaiian Islands. The computations are now 

 under way at the office in Washington. 



Prof. Huxley contributed to the Times of Tuesday a valu- 

 able letter on medical education — the subject with which Dr. 

 Wade had dealt in his Presidential address to the British Medical 

 Association. In this letter Prof. Huxley urges that the scien- 

 tific training of medical students, and of those who propose to 



