February 22, 1900] 



NA TURE 



397 



NOTES. 



Sir George Stokes has bsen elected an Associate of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences. 



We learn that the name of Dr. William Osier, F.R.S., at 

 present superintendent of the Johns Hopkins Hospital at 

 Baltimore, is being mentioned in connection with the vacancy 

 in the Chair of Medicine at Edinburgh. 



An extra meeting of the Chemical Society will be held on 

 Thursday, March 8, when a lecture, "On Recent Researches 

 on Nitrification," will be given by Prof. Warington, F.R.S. 

 The chair will be taken at 8.30 p.m. 



The Paris Geographical Society has awarded its annual grand 

 gold medal to Major Marchand, and silver and bronze medals 

 to other members of his expedition. 



On the 28th inst. Mr. Robert H. Scott will retire from the 

 post of secretary to the Meteorological Council. At the end of 

 '.he year 1899 Mr. Scott had completed thirty-three years of 

 service in the Meteorological Office, and for the last twenty-five 

 years has acted as secretary of the International Meteorological 

 Committee, which honorary position, we understand, he will 

 continue to hold until the next meeting of that committee 

 in September. Mr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., Fellow of Emmanuel 

 College, Cambridge, and hitherto assistant director of the 

 Cavendish Laboratory, and lecturer in physics in the University 

 of Cambridge, has been appointed as successor to Mr. Scott. 

 Mr. Shaw has been a member of the Meteorological Council 

 since May 1897, and will continue to hold that position in 

 addition to that of secretary. 



At the annual meeting of the Russian Geographical Society, 

 on February 7, the great Constantine medal was awarded to 

 A. M. Pozdyeeff for his work, " Mongolia, and the Mongols," 

 and other works upon the same country'; the Count Liitke's 

 medal to L. K. Artamonoff for geodetical and geographical 

 work in Caucasia, Persia, and Abyssinia ; the Semenoffs gold 

 medal to E. W. Brettschneider for his extensive work, in 

 English, "History of European Botanical Discoveries in 

 China" ; the great gold medal of the Society to N. A. 

 Marrusa for his collection Qf the parables of Wordan ; and 

 the Prjevalsky medal to E. E. Anert for his geological work in 

 Manchuria. Three small gold medals were awarded to R. N. 

 Savelieff for meteorological work, N. N. Lelyakin for astro- 

 nomical calculations, and to V. N. lochelson for a communi- 

 cation on the nomads of the tundras of North-east Siberia. 

 It is interesting to note that the Semenoff silver medal was 

 awarded this year to Madame M. A. Lyamina for her works 

 popularising the results obtained by the Russian travellers, 

 whose splendid full reports, published in statelyquarto volumes, 

 remain, as has often been pointed out in these columns, inacces. 

 ible to the general reader. Eleven more silver medals and 

 ive bronze medals were given to different persons for minor 

 works. 



The death is announced of Dr. Hermann Schaffer, honorary 

 professor of physics in the University of Jena. 



The March exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society will 

 be provided by the National Photographic Record Association, 

 and will be opened on Wednesday, March 7, by Sir Benjamin 

 Stone, M.P. 



Dr. Schwendener, professor of botany at Berlin, has been 

 elected a correspcndant of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in 

 the section of botany, in succession to the late Baron F. de 

 MUller. 



KG. 1582, VOL. 61 I 



The meeting of the Physical Society to-morrow (February 

 23) promises to be of special interest. Prof. R. W. Wood, of 

 the University of Wisconsin, U.S.A., is to describe his recent 

 investigations in optics, and will exhibit son:« of the apparatus 

 used in those experiments, together with photographs demon- 

 strating the evolutions of reflected wave fronts. 



The committee of the Athenoeum Club, acting under the ru e 

 which empowers the annual election of nine persons "of dis 

 tinguished eminence in science, literature, the arts, or for public 

 services," have elected Dr. David Gill, C.B., F.R.S., 

 Astronomer Royal at the Cape of Good Hope, a member of 

 the Club. 



Austrian geology has suffered a severe loss in the death of 

 Mr. K. M. Paul, chief geologist on the Austrian Geological 

 Survey, on February 10, at the age of sixty-two. While hi& 

 chief work was the investigation of the geological structure of 

 the Carpathians and of the environs of Vienna, his intimate 

 knowledge of the geology of Galicia led to his being regarded as 

 one of the leading authorities on the occurrence of petroleum. 



The anniversary meeting of the Geological Society was held on^ 

 Friday, February 16. The officers were appointed as follows : — 

 President: Mr. J. J. H. Teall, F.R.S. ; Vice-Presidents : Prof. 

 J. W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S., Mr. Horace W. Monckton, Prof H. 

 G. Seeley, F.R.S., and Prof W. J. Sollas, F.R.S. ; Secretaries r 

 Mr. R. S. Herries and Prof. W. W. Watts ; Foreign Secretary : 

 Sir John Evans, K.C.B,, F.R.S. ; and Treasurer: Dr. W. T. 

 Blanford, F.R.S. The medals and funds awarded, as already 

 announced (p. 279), were presented. The President delivered 

 his anniversary address, which dealt chiefly with the present 

 state of knowledge regarding underground geology in the south- 

 east of England. 



At a special meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society, held on February 13, Prof. Horace Lamb, 

 F.R.S., being in the chair, the Wilde Medal for 1900 was pre- 

 sented to Lord Rayleigh for his numerons and brilliant contri- 

 butions to mathematical and experimental physics ami to 

 chemistry. A Dalton medal, struck in 1864, was presented to 

 Sir Henry Roscoe, F.R.S., for his remarkable original researches- 

 in chemi-stry, and for his distinguished services to scientific edu- 

 cation. The third award, which was to Prof. A. W. Flux, was 

 that of the Wilde premium of fifteen guineas for two much ap- 

 preciated papers on " The cost of sea transport in proportion 

 to values of cargoes," and "The fall in prices during the past 

 twenty years." After the presentation of the medals, Lord 

 Rayleigh proceeded to deliver the Wilde lecture, for which he 

 took as the subject, " Flight, Natural and Artificial." 



We learn from the Electrician that the late Prof. D. E. 

 Hughes has bequeathed the sum of 2000/. for the foundation of 

 a " David Hughes Scholarship" in connection with the Institu- 

 tion of Electrical Engineers. The text of that portion of the 

 will which relates to the bequest is as follows r — I direct and 

 declare that the legacy of two thousand pounds, so bequeathed 

 to the said Institution of Electrical Engineers, of which I am 

 Past President, shall be invested by them in any manner for the 

 time being authorised by law for the investment of trust funds, 

 for the purpose of founding in connection with that Institution 

 a Scholarship Fund, to be called the David Hughes Scholarship 

 Fund. And I direct that the annual income produced by the 

 investments for the time being constituting the fund shall l>e 

 given each year to a student preparing himself for the career of 

 an electrical engineer, under conditions similar in all respects to 

 those under which the fund now known as the Sir David 

 Salomons Scholarship Fund is administered, but so that if and 

 so often as for any reason the Scholarship hereby founded shall 

 not be for any given year awarded to any student, the anrvual 



