December 14, 1899] 



NATURE 



155- 



the various fields of ethnography. ... It is to be re- 

 gretted that the capital of a nation which embraces in its 

 domain so many and such diverse peoples should not 

 possess a museum which shows the ethnic characteristics 

 of some of these peoples in an adequate manner." 



Mr. Dorsey has returned to his own country convinced 

 that in the matter of the housing and exhibition of anthro- 

 pological collections the United States have nothing to 

 fear from comparison with Europe. He thinks that there 

 is no building in Europe so admirably planned for museum 

 purposes as the American Museum of Natural History 

 at New York. Here ample space for future e.xpansion 

 has been allowed on a scale unequalled in Europe, and 

 large, well lighted and commodious quarters have been 

 provided for storage and workrooms. He truly says 

 that numerous workrooms with abundant light should be 

 an essential feature of every museum. It is clear that in 

 the United States the study of ethnology is being pursued 

 with the same enthusiasm as in Germany, and that it has 

 succeeded in a similar manner in securing a large 

 measure of popular support. Viewed in the light of 

 these facts, the conditions of things in Great Britain 

 appears doubly deplorable. 



NOTES. 



The complimentary dinner given to Major-General Sir John 

 Donnelly on Tuesday, by his friends and former colleagues of 

 the Department of Science and Art, is a testimony of the esteem 

 in which he is held by all who have been associated with him in 

 the work of the Department. Sir John Gorst presided, and in 

 proposing the health of the guest of the evening, he pointed out 

 that in 1859, when Sir John Donnelly was entrusted with the 

 control of the science branch of the Department, the total 

 number of science students under instruction was 395, and the 

 payments made on account of their instruction amounted to 

 2COO/. In 1897, the number of students in Departmental 

 classes was 197,796, and the grants amounted to 169,000/. 

 These figures form the best of evidence as to the growth of 

 the work of the Department under Sir John Donnelly's ad- 

 ministration. In addition to Sir John Gorst and Sir John 

 Donnelly, among other speakers at the dinner were : — 

 Captain Abney, Major-General Festing, Sir Norman Lockyer, 

 Prof. Rticker, Sir George Gabriel Stokes, and Rear-Admiral 

 Sir William Wharton. 



Drs. Stevens and Christophers, of the Royal Society 

 Malaria Commission, left Liverpool on December 9 for Sierra 

 Leone, where they will continue their investigations on malaria. 

 At Blantyre, in East Africa, where they were before, they gave 

 more attention to investigating the relation of malaria to black- 

 water fever, which is very prevalent at that spot. Many persons 

 deny the connection between the two, but it is a point that still 

 requires to be settled. On the West Coast they will probably inves- 

 tigate the disease from the point of view of the mosquito theory. 



Prof. Georges Lemoine has been elected a member of 

 the section of chemistry of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in 

 succession to the late Prof. Friedel. 



The following are among the lectures to be delivered at the 

 Royal Institution before next Easter :— Mr. C. Vernon Boys, 

 six Christmas lectures (specially adapted for young people) on 

 fluids in motion and at rest, experimentally illustrated ; Prof. 

 E. Ray Lankester, twelve lectures on the structure and classi- 

 fication of fishes ; Dr. W. H. Rivers, three lectures on the 

 senses of primitive man ; Prof. H. H. Turner, three lectures on 

 modern astronomy ; Dr. Charles Waldstein, three lectures on 

 recent excavations at Argive Hera'um (in Greece) ; Lord 

 Rayleigh, six lectures on polarised light. The Friday evening 

 meetings will begin on January 19, when a discourse will be 

 NO. 1572, VOL. 61] 



given by Lord Rayleigh, on flight ; succeeding discourses will 

 probably be given by tl^e Hon. C. A. Parsons, Prof. J. 

 Reynolds Green, Mr. H. Warington Smyth, Prof. J. H. 

 Poynting, Major Ronald Ross, Prof Frank Clowes, Sir 

 Benjamin Stone, M.P., Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, Sir A. NoUe,. 

 Prof. Dewar, and other gentlemen. 



An agricultural conference for the West Indies will be held 

 at Barbados on January 6 and 8, 1900. His Excellency^ Sir 

 James Hay, K.C. MG. , the Governor of Barbados, has 

 promised to meet the representatives at Bridgetown on Saturday 

 morning, January 6, and offer them a welcome to the island. 

 Immediately after, the President (Dr. D. Morris, C.M.G.) will 

 deliver the opening address, and the business of the conference 

 will begin. A characteristic of the conference will be the 

 presence of representatives of the leading agricultural societies 

 in the West Indies. By this means it is anticipated that the 

 conference will act as an educative agent of great value, and by 

 enlisting the co-operation of those practically engaged in agri- 

 culture, its deliberations will have wider scope, and the influence 

 of the conference will be more widely recognised. The list of 

 subjects to be dealt with covers practically every branch of West 

 Indian agriculture. 



Ornithology has suffered a severe loss by the death of 

 Arthur Cowell Stark, M. B. , who was killed by a Boer shell at 

 Ladysmith on November 18. Dr. Stark was an ardent 

 naturalist, and specially conversant with South African ornitho- 

 logy, having devoted many years to the study of the birds of 

 the Cape Colony and adjoining countries. At the time of his 

 death he had just completed for the Press the first volume of a 

 work on South African birds, which is to form a portion of Mr. 

 W. L. Sclater's " Fauna of South Africa." Dr. S lark was in 

 England during the past summer engaged in the preparation of 

 his book, but returned to the Cape in September last, and pro- 

 ceeded to Natal in order to continue his collections in that 

 colony. When war broke out he offered his services as a volun- 

 teer on the Medical Staff, and was sent up to Ladysmith by the 

 last train that passed the Boer army. Standing at the door of 

 the Royal Hotel in Ladysmith, on November 18, he was struck 

 by an exploded shell, and died shortly afterwards. Dr. Stark 

 was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and a well-known, 

 member of the British Ornithologists' Union. 



A CoNGRts international des sciences ethnographiques will 

 be held in connection with the Paris Exposition, on August 26- 

 September i, 1900. There will be seven sections, dealing 

 respectively with general ethnology, sociology, and ethics ;. 

 ethnographical psychology ; religious sciences ; linguistics and 

 palaeography ; sciences, arts, and industries ; descriptive ethno- 

 graphy. The treasurer of the organising committee is M. 

 I Leclere, rue Lecourbe, 54, Paris, and the general secretary, 

 M. Greverath, rue d'Athenes 3 bis, to which address foreign 

 correspondence should be sent. 



The essay on the scientific work of Lord Kelvin, contributed 

 by Prof, G. F. Fitzgerald to an elegant volume just published 

 by Messrs. James MacLehose and Sons, Glasgow, is a master- 

 piece of appreciative writing. The volume contains a complete 

 account of the celebrations on the occasion of Lord Kelvin's 

 jubilee as professor of natural philosophy in the University of 

 Glasgow ; it is thus of particular interest to the many friends 

 who took part in the ceremonies, and to the scientific bodies 

 who sent delegates and messages of congratulation. Preceding 

 this report is Prof. Fitzgerald's essay, in which the nature and sig- 

 nificance of Lord Kelvin's contributions to science are described 

 with such remarkable lucidity that every one interested in the 

 progress of natural knowledge would do well to read it. A 

 striking photogravure of Lord Kelvin, from a portrait takers 

 in 1898, forms the frontispiece, and a portrait is given 



