DEcEMBER 31, 1896] 
NATURE 
203 
the very important correction to sea-level is apparently 
left out of account (p. 205), but the passage is not clear. 
It was the younger, not the elder, Ross (p. 241) who 
conducted the successful Antarctic expedition. The 
historic drift of the Hansa in the ice was not “from 
Smith Sound right down to Davis Strait” (p. 281), but, 
as correctly given at two other places in the book, along 
the east coast of Greenland. The ‘‘ geographical congress 
which lasted a week” (p. 289) at Newcastle in 1889, was 
the British Association, Section E of which was addressed 
by Nansen. On p. 291 the remarkable statement that 
Dr. Nansen was presented by the Royal Geographical 
Society with “the patrons of the Victoria medal,” is 
resolved, on reference to the authority cited, into “the 
Patron’s or Victoria Medal.” 
We miss any statement in the preface as to whether 
Dr. Nansen gave his approval to the publication of this 
translation of a work which was compiled in his absence, 
from data which must have been very incomplete. We 
are reluctant to suppose that his friends would, without 
his express sanction, have published so much of a purely 
personal and, sometimes, of a private nature, and the 
suspicion that they may have done so should have been 
made impossible. HuGH ROBERT MILL. 
CELEBRATION OF PROF. CANNIZZARO'S 
JUBILEE. 
Ve an impressiveness worthy of the high scientific 
value of the man who was honoured, the seventieth 
birthday of Prof. Stanislao Cannizzaro was celebrated on 
November 21 in Rome. In the wide amphitheatre of 
the Chemical Institute of the Royal University, in the 
same place where the illustrious investigator’s activity 
was continually shown, many of the highest and most 
distinguished persons of the Eternal City met to do 
honour to him. Colleagues, friends, pupils collected to 
pay to this renowned chemist their tributes of esteem, 
veneration and affection, and in these feelings the whole 
scientific world joined. ; 
No company more distinguished ever sat in those 
school benches. There were Senators Cremona, Tomasi- 
Crudeli, Todaro, Blaserna, ex-Minister Bacelli, Profs. 
Beltrami, Grassi (Darwin Medallist), Striiver, Luciani, 
Cerruti, Helbig, Bovio, Prof. W. Longuinine of Moscow, 
and many others. 
When, accompanied by the President of the Council, 
Marquis Di Rudini, by the Under-Secretaries of State, 
Hon. Galimberti and Arcoleo, by the Prefect Count 
Bonasi, and the Rector Magnificus, Prof. Semeraro 
Cannizzaro entered the hall, the audience burst into long 
and loud applause. 
Prof. Senator Paterno opened the proceedings by say- 
ing that the Committee spontaneously formed among 
Prof. Cannizzaro’s students has been obliged to confine 
itself to a few things, not for want of means, as many 
offers were sent from various parts of the world, but on 
account of the desire of Cannizzaro himself. Prof. Paterno 
presented a gold medal of admirable workmanship, 
which at one side holds in relief Cannizzaro’s imagine, 
and at the other the following inscription : “To Stanislao 
Cannizzaro scholars and admirers, on the occasion of his 
seventieth birthday.” He presented also an artistic 
bust of Cannizzaro in bronze from one of his English 
admirers, and numerous pergamenas, addresses, letters, 
telegrams, sent by the most important scientific Societies 
of the world. An address was sent by the Royal Society 
of London ; and the Faculty of Science in the University 
of Heidelberg sent a pergamena in Latin. Among the 
bodies which sent letters of congratulation were the 
““Académie des Sciences de Belgique,” the Italian 
“ Accademia dei Quaranta,” and the Academies of Turin, 
NO. 1418, VOL. 55 | 
Naples, Bologna, Venice, Milan, Catania. The Academy 
of St. Petersburg,sent the following telegram. 
“L’académie impériale des sciences rempli de con- 
sideration pour les travaux de Villustre savant participe 
aux voeux et felicitations unanimes a l’occasion de son 
jubilée. 
“Te sécretaire perpetuel, 
** General Lieutenant Doubrovine.” 
Among the foreign Chemical Societies, those of 
London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, the American Chemical 
Society sent addresses : 
Congratulatory letters and telegrams were also received 
from the Société chimique de Paris, Bucarest, Heidel- 
burg, Munich, from the Verein Deutscher Chemiker, from 
the Chemical Society of Finland, the, Badische Anilin 
und Sodafabrik, the Chemical Laboratories of Tubingen, 
Bucarest, Lisbon, and from all the Italian Universities. 
The Chemical Society of Aix-le-Chapelle sent a 
pergamena. 
Among the most eminent persons who sent their best 
wishes to Cannizzaro, we take notice of the following : 
Lieben, Baeyer, \. Meyer, Mallet, Alnovillicus (Erlen- 
meyer, sen), Curtius, Wislicenus, Hantzsch, Fittig, &c., 
General Annibale Ferrero, Italian Ambassador at London, 
Ministers Guicciardini and Codronchi, Prof. Cosfa 
(Turin), Prof. Ugo Schiff (Florence), &c. The Uni- 
versity of Kasan. have made Cannizzaro Honorary 
Professor on this occasion; and the Grand-Duke of 
Baden conferred on him the “ Komandeurkreuz 1° Klasse 
des Zahringer- Lowes.” 
Prof. Semeraro, Rector Magnificus of the Roman 
University, delivered the following address :— 
“This festival does not only belong to the University of 
Rome, but also to the world’s science. Cannizzaro’s 
work is to be considered as having two parts, the one 
dear to the world, the other dear to us. We have seen 
the former in the addresses, letters, telegrams sent on 
this occasion; the latter is to be found in his teaching 
career, which is nearer to his heart. 
“When Cannizzaro received the Copley Medal, the 
celebrated man said, he has been but a teacher, he had 
but loved the school and his pupils. My science, said 
he, has been the aim of my life for their instruction and 
warfare. 
“His greatest glory lies in the fact that most of the 
professors now teaching in Italian Universities have been 
his scholars. The pressure of business, as Vice-President 
of the Senate, and Member of the Superior Council of 
Public Instruction, and many others, never were pre- 
texts to him for overlooking the modest duty of a teacher.. 
That is what makes him glorious in our University. 
“ Since Cannizzaro was admitted in Senate for his own 
scientific merits, he has never rested. He acquired from 
the Government the means for studying, and creating 
the first great Italian chemical school, and we all have 
seen what a happy success he has obtained by these 
means. 
“To-day we can say on Cannizzaro what is said in an 
ancient inscription of a great Roman church, ‘ Virtede 
vixit, fama vivit, gloria vivet.’” 
In presenting to Cannizzaro the Grand Cordon of the 
Crown of Italy, Hon. Galimberti, Under-Secretary at 
the Public Institution Office, said :— 
“This adds nothing to your fame, but is a proof that 
your own Government joins with those around you in 
their congratulations. People could give you this decora- 
tion with greater title, but none with greater affection 
and devotion than I do. Your name, as the Royal 
Society of London has said, is worthy of being joined 
with those of Galileo, Torricelli, Volta, and Galvani. 
To Emanuel Kant, who, in his absolute sentence, con- 
sidered chemistry as a union of empirical knowledge, 
you replied half a century ago, pronouncing among the 
