DEcEMBER 24, 1896] 
research bearing directly or remotely on nature-study and 
biology took part in congratulating the guest of the evening on 
his having obtained one of the blue ribbons of scientific merit— 
among the said representatives being Signor Francesco Brioschi, 
the eminent mathematician, who presides over the Accademia 
dei Lincei, and Prof. Semeraro, rector of the University. The 
first to speak was the veteran professor of chemistry, Signor 
Stanislao Cannizzaro (himself a former recipient of Royal 
Society honours), who, in the name of the University of 
Catania, dwelt on the gratification felt by that seat of learning 
and shared by all others in Italy at the English recognition of 
their compatriot. After him came Signor Francesco Todaro, 
professor of anatomy at the Sapienza, whose speech was dedi- 
cated to an exposition of the motives that guide the Royal 
Society in awarding the Darwinian medal. A third speaker 
was Prof. Semeraro, rector of the University, who, in the name 
of the Senatus Academicus, thanked Prof. Grassi for the honour 
he had conferred on their common alma mater, Prof. Grassi’s 
reply was exemplary for its modesty, its recognition of the 
brotherhood of science, its lofty view of the motivesand methods 
of scientific investigation, and its bright forecast of the future. 
Referring to the aid, encouragement, and inspiration he had 
received from his academic colleagues and brethren of the bio- 
logical laboratory, he dwelt with grateful insistence on the 
helping hand extended to him by Dr. Baccelli, who was present. 
The banquet closed in animated conversation, among the topics 
of which was the rapprochement, just signalised in Prof. Grassi’s 
case, between British and Italian research.” 
THE announcement made last week to the effect that Dr. 
Thorne Thorne is inspecting the vaccination systems abroad is 
confirmed by a statement in the 7%mes that the Govern- 
ment has a full intention of introducing next Session a Bill to 
promote free vaccination throughout England on some such plan 
as obtains on the continent. In order that the Local Government 
Board should have details of the mode of dealing with this 
question abroad, a small committee, presided over by Dr. 
Thorne Thorne, principal medical officer of the Board, has been 
for the last fortnight in France and Belgium. The committee 
first visited Paris, where the members were shown over the 
Institut Vaccinal, affiliated to the municipality of Paris, and 
afterwards saw the mode of treatment at the Académie de 
Medecine, where vaccine lymph is distributed gratuitously, afte, 
admixture with glycerine, throughout France at the expense of 
the State. From Paris Dr. Thorne Thorne and his assistant 
travelled to Brussels, and were there shown over the Ecole de 
Médecine Vétérinaire, the State Department for Belgium, and 
afterwards the whole work of vaccination was explained at Dr, 
Janssen’s Vaccination Department under the municipality of 
- Brussels. It was intended to extend the inquiry, but, other 
medical foreign departments not being quite ready to receive 
the expert committee, Dr. Thorne Thorne has returned to 
London. The committee will start again in a couple of weeks 
for Germany, to examine the question there, and this will be of 
a more extended nature, as German vaccination depots are 
more widespread. 
THE trial trip of the torpedo boat 7zrdézéa, which has been 
built by the Marine Steam Turbine Co., Limited, for the pur- 
pose of testing the application to marine propulsion of the 
Hon. Charles Parsons’ steam turbine engine, was a really re- 
markable performance. An account of this trip, which took 
place on the 15th inst., is given in the Mewcastle Daily 
Chronicle for the 17th, from which we make the following 
extract :—‘‘Several most successful runs were made, and the 
very high speed of 29°6 knots was attained over the measured 
mile, It is believed that this is a speed greatly in excess of 
anything that has ever been previously accomplished by a vessel 
of the small dimensions of the 7urbinéa, which is only 100 feet 
NO. 1417, VOL. 55] 
NATURE 
181 
in length, 9 feet in beam, and has but 42 tons displacement 
when fully loaded. Indeed, the speed already attained upon 
this preliminary trial trip by this small boat nearly approaches 
the maximum limit of speed so far attained by the largest torpedo 
boat destroyers, which have more than twice her length and 
about six times her displacement. Having regard to the fact 
that this was only a preliminary trial, and that it was shown 
that there was a considerable reserve of power still to be called 
upon, it is anticipated that a still higher speed materially in 
excess of the remarkable result already obtained will eventually 
be realised. In any case, the obtained results as recorded 
above, are such as cannot fail to be of extreme interest to all 
naval architects and marine engineers.” A correspondent 
writes :—‘‘ The circumstance that the time-honoured piston 
engine seems to be beaten for marine propulsion at high speeds 
by what may be looked on as a more primitive machine, is 
striking. The wnexfected speed of all modern torpedo boats is 
indeed a matter of much interest to the students of even 
theoretical hydrodynamics.” 
THE Congrés des Sociétés Savantes will be opened at the 
Sorbonne, Paris, on April 20, 1897, and will continue in session 
for three days. 
Two of the three Royal Institution’s Christmas lectures, on 
“Visible and Invisible Light,” will be given by Prof. S. P. 
Thompson, F.R.S., on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons next 
week. 
THE following are among the papers to be read at the meet- 
ings of the Society of Arts after Christmas :—The roller boat of 
M. Bazin, by Emile Gautier ; English orchards, by George 
Gordon ; the prevention of fires due to leakage of electricity, 
by Frederick Bathurst ; dairy produce and milk supply, by M. 
J. R. Dunstan ; the transmission of power by alternating electric 
currents, by W. B. Esson; London water supply, by Prof. 
Percy F. Frankland, ¥.R.S.; the chemistry of tea, by David 
Crole ; children’s sight, by R. Brudenell Carter ; light railways 
by Everard C. Calthrop ; cycling—historical and practical, by 
George Lacy Hillier. 
WE regret to announce the death of Mr. Sidney Waters, a 
familiar figure at the Royal Astronomical Society, and the 
author of several interesting papers and charts. He was elected 
a Fellow of the Society in 1873, in which year he read two 
papers on the distribution of resolvable and irresolvable nebulz, 
and the distribution of the clusters and nebule. A paper on 
the distribution of the stars in the southern hemisphere appeared 
in the Monthly Notices for 1878, and his last work consisted of 
two very fine maps showing the distribution of the nebulz and 
clusters in Dr. Dreyer’s Catalogue. Mr. Waters will be sorely 
missed and deeply regretted by every one who knew him. 
A LARGE meteor was seen to pass over New York City from 
west to east at twenty minutes past five on December 4, while 
it was still daylight. It was noticed by observers over a wide 
range of locality, from points nearly twenty miles north, to 
Staten Island on the south. 
Tue New York Aquarium at Castle Garden was opened on 
December 10, with about one hundred species of fish already 
collected. The galleries will not be entirely finished for a month 
ortwo. The stock will be increased in the spring by importations 
from Florida, Bermuda, California, and elsewhere. Over 11,000 
people visited the Aquarium on the opening day. 
AFTER conducting the Zoo/ogzs¢ for exactly twenty years, Mr. 
J. E. Harting has resigned the editorship owing to increased 
demands upon his time, and in order to be able to devote him- 
self to the preparation of new editions of some of his books on 
birds, and to complete an original work on ‘‘ British Quadru- 
peds,” for which he has been collecting material since 1874. 
The Zoolog?st was founded in 1843 by the late Edward Newman, 
