234 



NA TURE 



[January 4, 1900 



organising committee, and Dr. Sicard de Plauzoles is the secre- 

 tary. The official address is lo boulevard Raspail, Paris. 



Prof. Milne-Edwards has been elected vice-president of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences for this year. 



The eighth Pasteur Institute existing in France was^opened 

 at Lyons on Monday, the seven others, in order of seniority, 

 being Paris, Algiers, Tunis, Montpellier, Marseilles, Bordeaux 

 and Lille. In connection with this, the Times poijits, oiit that 

 there are six Institutes in Russia, at St. Petersburg, Moscow, 

 Samara, Kharkof, Warsaw and Odessa ; five in Italy, at 

 Bologna, Milan, Naples, Palermo and Turin ; and two in 

 Austria-Hungary, at Vienna and Budapest ; while there are also 

 Institutes at Saragossa, Malta, Bukharest, Constantinople, 

 Aleppo and Tiflis. There are three in North America, at 

 New York, Chicago and Havana, and two in South America, 

 at Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Ayres. 



The important paper which Prof. J. J. Thomson communi- 

 cated to the British Association meeting at Dover, on the masses 

 of the ions in gases at low pressures, has been published in the 

 December number of the Philosophical Magazine. 



The ion is now playing such an important part in physical 

 investigations that many are anxious to become familiar with 

 the work which has brought electrolysis to its present stand- 

 point. An interesting article on electrolysis and the theory of 

 ions has been communicated to La Revue des deux Mondes by 

 M. A. Dastre, in which our readers will find the history of the 

 isubject fully stated. 



We regret to see the announcement that Sir James Paget, 

 Bart, F.R.S., died on Saturday last, at the age of eighty-five. 



The Times states that the Paris Observatory will henceforth 

 in all its publications reckon the day from midnight to mid- 

 night, the hours being numbered from o to 24. This system 

 of time reckoning has been adopted in our Nautical Almanac 

 since 1891. 



We learn from Science that Dr. G. A. Dorsey, curator of 

 anthropology, Field Columbian Museum, accompanied by an 

 assistant and the Rev. H. R. Voth, have gone to the Pueblo of 

 Oraibi, Arizona. The object of the expedition is to secure 

 additional ethnological material for the Museum, to witness the 

 winter solstice ceremony just past in order to get suggestions 

 for new groups, and also to start a systematic and somewhat 

 extended excavation in order to strengthen the archceological 

 exhibit from this interesting region. The expenses are covered 

 by Mr. Stanley R. McCormick, of Chicago, who has placed 

 5000 dollars at the disposal of the Museum in addition to the 

 10,000 dollars already expended on the Hopis. 



The Daily Chronicle recalls that a London paper of the first 

 week of 1800 alluded to the then recent hot disputes in France 

 and England respecting the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

 According to the paragraph, the famous Joseph Jerome Le- 

 fran9ais de Lalande, who then occupied the Chair of Astronomy 

 in the University of Paris, had taken an active part in the con- 

 troversy, and he had pronounced in favour of January i, 1801. 

 His decision had been generally accepted as correct on both 

 sides of the Channel. The newspaper referred to remarks : 

 "The same ridiculous question was agitated in 1700." So does 

 history repeat itself. 



At the last meeting of the British Astronomical Association, 

 Mr. Maunder made a statement with reference to the arrange- 

 ments that are being made by the Association for the proposed 

 expedition to Spain and Algeria to view the solar eclipse of 

 NO. 1575, VOL. 61] 



May. 28. Subject to a sufficient number of passages being 

 actually taken before January 31, the Royal Mail steamer Tagiis, 

 or a sister vessel, will be engaged, and will start from South- 

 ampton on Friday, May 18, at 6 p.m., calling at Cadiz and 

 Alicante, and arriving at Algiers at 6 a.m. on Thursday, the 

 24th. The vessel will stay there until after the eclipse, leaving 

 at 6 a.m. on Tuesday the 29th, and calling at Alicante, Gibraltar, 

 and Lisbon on the way to Southampton, which will be reachecl 

 at 7 a.m. on Monday, June 4. It is hoped the members of the 

 Association would divide themselves into three groups — ^those 

 observing the eclipse (i) in the interior of Spain ; (2) at Alicante 

 or neighbourhood, and (3) in Algeria, where the ship will act as 

 hotel for those who may wish to use it in that capacity. 



Under the auspices of the Albany Institute and the Albany 

 Historical Art Society, the anniversary of the birth of Prof. 

 Joseph Henry was celebrated in that city on December 17th. 

 In opening the meeting President Colvin paid a glowing 

 tribute to Prof. Henry. The Electrical Review of New York 

 reports him to have remarked; — "In 1831 Prof. Henry de- 

 veloped his system of magnetic telegraphy, and within these 

 halls (Albany Academy) placed a telegraph wire a mile in length, 

 over which signals were sounded by the self-same magnet and 

 bell which you will hear to-night. The telegraph was now a 

 reality — he would not patent it. Thus here began a greater 

 phase of his character, his unselfishness and his devotion to the 

 public welfare. We are now brought face to face with that 

 noble nature, which as college professor, as director and de- 

 veloper of Smithson's magnificent bequest to the American 

 people, as counsellor of the United States Government in its 

 most important scientific and technical works, as a discoverer in 

 many branches of science, made him great among our greatest — 

 faithful, noble and true." An illustrated account of Henry's 

 work appears in the Scientific American of December 23. 



Prof. S. W. Stratton, of the University of Chicago, has 

 recently been appointed Inspector of Standards, Bureau of 

 Weights and Measures. In accepting this position (remarks 

 Science) Prof. Stratton takes immediate charge of the United 

 States Office of Weights and Measures at a most opportune time. 

 This Office has long had in its custody the national standards of 

 length and mass, and has done much valuable work for science 

 and the arts, which has been the logical outcome of this custody. 

 Within the last two, years the Office has taken up vigorously the 

 matter of standards for electrical measurements, has acquired 

 apparatus and made special studies, and is now ready to do 

 valuable work along that line. It is especially well equipped for 

 measurements of resistance of the highest degree of accuracy. 



The thirty-first volume of the Zeitschrift fiir physikalische 

 Chemie]\xs\. issued forms a pleasing novelty in scientific public- 

 ation. This Jubelband, which is published as a whole and not 

 in parts as usual, is dedicated by his pupils to Prof. J. H. van 't 

 Hoff, to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his taking the 

 degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Utrecht. 

 The introduction to the volume, by Prof. Ostwald, consists of a 

 short biography of the distinguished Dutch Professor, and an 

 appreciative resume of his far-reaching discoveries, together with 

 a complete list, compiled by Dr. E. -Cohen, of his published 

 researches. The authors of all the. papers are old students of 

 Prof, van 't Hoff, and each paper is written in the author's own 

 language, with the exception of the Polish and Swedish con- 

 tributors, so that German, English, French and Dutch are 

 represented. As there are twenty-six papers in all, it is hardly 

 possible to give a summary of them here, but the diversity of 

 the subjects treated serves to shew the many-sided originality of 

 the author of the modern theory of solution. An excellent 

 portrait of Prof, van 't Hoff in heliogravure is included in the 

 volume. 



