August 15, 1901 



NA TURE 



381 



pupils presented him with a magnificent engraved por- 

 trait of himself in 1S87 ; and at a dinner given in his 

 honour by the Scientia Club in i8go, M. Charles Richet, 

 who presided, referred to him as " the conqueror of the 

 sea and apostle of zoology." His pupils and colleagues 

 were, in fact, deeply sensible of his great services to 

 science, and lost no opportunity of expressing their 

 esteem. 



Lacaze-Duthiers worked in his laboratory at Banyuls 

 up to a few days of his death, and almost up to his last 

 hour his faculties were engaged in the extension of scien- 

 tific knowledge. He was the animating spirit of French 

 zoology and the mentor of many living naturalists. He 

 devoted his life and his means to science, and worked 

 for her interests without regard for fatigue or consider- 

 ations of age. In announcing his death to the Paris 

 Acadeiny of Sciences, which adjourned the meeting of 

 July 22 to show regard for him, M. Fouqu(^, the presi- 

 dent, remarked : — " .Son esprit etait ouvert a toutes les 

 nouveautes scientifiques, sa parole claire et facile, son 

 enseignement plein d'entrain. II aimait la discussion et 

 savait en faire jaillir la lumiere. II laisse parmi nous le 

 souvenir d'un Confrere ^rudit et laborieux, doue d'une 

 prodigieuse activite, habile a resoudre les problemes com- 

 pliques que soulcve Torganisation du rogne animal." 



Not only France, but the whole scientific world is 

 poorer by the death of so great a naturalist. 



NOTES. 



We regret to see the announcement that Prof. Baron von 

 NordenskjrJId, the renowned Arctic explorer, died at Stockholm 

 on August 12. 



According to the Copenhagen correspondent of the Temps, 

 the two Nobel scientific prizes of 200,ooof. have been awarded 

 to Prof. Finsen, of Copenhagen, for his treatment of lupus by 

 light, and the Russian physiologist, M. Pawloff, for his works 

 on nutrition. 



Th e Fifth International Congress of Zoology was opened at 

 Berlin on Monday in the buildings of the Reichstag, the 

 interior of which has been arranged for the convenience of the 

 members of the congress. In the absence of the Crown Prince, 

 who is the patron of the congress, the foreign delegates were 

 welcomed by Prof. Moebius, the president, who moved that 

 the assembly should send a telegram expressing profound 

 sympathy and regret to the Emperor of Germany. This pro- 

 posal was seconded by Prof. E. Perrier, of I'aris, and was 

 unanimously adopted. A telegram expressing thanks for the 

 sympathy was received from the Emperor on Tuesday. Other 

 speakers at the opening meeting were the Chief Burgomaster 

 of Berlin, Herr Kirchner, and the Rector of Berlin University, 

 Prof. Ilarnack. The meetings will be held throughout this 

 week, and the congress will be concluded on Sunday with a 

 visit to the biological station on Heligoland. 



The annual awards of prizes by the Reale Accademia dei 

 Lincei, of Rome, are as follows : — The Royal prize for 

 chemistry has been adjudged to the late Prof. Amerigo 

 Andreocci for his researches on heterocyclic compounds and on 

 the santonine group, and other papers. The Royal prize for 

 philosophy and moral science has been adjjdged to the late 

 Prof. Carlo Giussani. In political science and jurisprudence no 

 award has been made, and the same is true of the Santoro 

 prize relating to agricultural zoology. The two prizes instituted 

 by the Minister of Public Instruction in favour of teachers in 

 secondary schools for work in natural science have been divided, 

 awards being given to Profs. Liberto Fantappic (Viterbo), 

 Antonio Neviani (Rome), De Toni (Venice), and Giacomo 

 Trabucco (Florence). Two "Ministerial" prizes of a similar 

 NO. 1659, VOL. 64] 



character for philosophical and social sciences are awarded to 

 Profs. Luigi Einaudi (Turin) and Aurelio Covotti (Palermo). 

 At the special meeting of the Accademia at which these awards 

 were made, an obituary discourse on the late Prof. Angelo 

 Messedaglia was given by Signor Luigi Luzzatti, and an address 

 was read by Signor Gerolamo Boccardo on science and social 

 progress. A list of Prof. Messedaglia's writings is appended to 

 the former discourse in the Kendicon'.i delle Sednte solenni 

 containing the report of the meeting. 



The twelfth annual general meeting of the Institution of 

 Mining Engineers will be held at Glasgow on September 3-6 

 under the presidency of Sir W. T. Lewis, Bart. 



A Reuter telegram from Geneva states that a meeting of the 

 International Association of Botanists was held in the University 

 there on August 7. A number of foreign universities and 

 societies, including the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and 

 Glasgow, and Trinity College, Dublin, were represented. 



The Paris correspondent of the Chemist and Druggist states 

 that with a view to give an impetus to the study of applied 

 chemistry in Paris, it has been decided to build additional 

 laboratories at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. The 

 initial expense is estimated at 500,ooof. (20,000/.), and the 

 annual upkeep at something over 3000/. The laboratories will 

 also be used for experiments in physics and mechanics. 



The Times records that the German South Polar expedition 

 sailed from Kiel on Sunday by the steamer Gauss. Herr 

 Rothe, Imperial Under-Secretary of State for the Interior, 

 thanked the members of the expedition in the name of the 

 Emperor and of Germany, and hoped that their labours would 

 meet with complete success. Prof, von Drygalski, the leader of 

 the expedition, replied on behalf of the expedition. 



The balloon in which M. Santos Dumont made his recent 

 trial trips has met with an accident which has placed it beyond 

 repair, so a new one is being constructed and will be ready by 

 September I. The new balloon will have nearly the same 

 volume as the one that came to grief on August 8 —34 metres in 

 length and 6 metres in diameter in the centre — but, instead of 

 being cylindrical, it will be ellipsoidal in shape, and the ballonet, 

 instead of being at one end, will be placed in the middle. 



The wireless telegraph station established on the Nantucket 

 lightship by the New York Herald enables passengers by in- 

 coming vessels equipped with the Marconi instruments to enter 

 into communication with the American Continent and through 

 it with the whole world from fourteen to sixteen hours earlier 

 than is the case at present. The installation of the station is 

 rapidly approaching completion. The Lucania, which sailed 

 from Liverpool on Saturday last, will be the first Transatlantic 

 liner to greet the New World with a wireless message sent from 

 a ship at sea. 



The Pioneer Mail al \\\A!n3!a3A states that as a consequence 

 of the continued fall in prices, the area under indigo in the 

 North-West Provinces of India is rapidly falling. In 1900 there 

 was a slight and temporary recovery, but during the present year 

 there has again been a very marked decline. According to the 

 preliminary statement received from the village accountants, the 

 total area sown with indigo up to the middle of April this year 

 amounts to 119,313 acres, as compared with 188,645 acres re- 

 turned last year ; while that reported to be irrigated from 

 canals up to the end of May last is 78,894 acres, against 162,298 

 acres returned last year. The decrease in the former area 

 amounts to about 37 per cent., in the latter to 50 per cent. 



The Society of German Engineers has decided to prepare 

 and publish the trilingual technical dictionary proposed a year 



