348 
NAGURLE 
[Fepruary 11, 1897 
On Wednesday evening, February 3, the Leathersellers’ 
Company entertained at a Court dinner a considerable number 
of representatives of the colonies and dependencies of the j 
empire, including Sir Donald Smith (High Commissioner for 
Canada), Sir Saul Samuel (Agent-General for New South Wales), 
and many others. The company also included many of the 
scientific friends of the Master, Dr. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., 
himself one of the foremost of British chemists, and popularly 
known as the discoverer of ‘‘mauve,”’ the first of the colours 
derived from coal-tar. The Leathersellers’ Company, like others 
of the great guilds of London, are now devoting part of their 
revenues to promoting scientific education with a view especially 
to its application to industrial pursuits; and, recognising the im- 
portance not only of elementary instruction, but the cultivation 
of the highest branches of scientific work, they have recently 
established a research scholarship, of the value of £150 a year, 
in connection with the Central Technical College of the City 
and Guilds of London Institute (see p. 332). 
THE late M. James Lloyd, of Nantes, author of the “* Flore 
de YOuest de la France,” who died in May last, has bequeathed 
his fortune and his collections ‘to the town of Angers. The 
latter consist chiefly of a herbarium and a botanical library, 
which are to be housed in a special building, and funds are left 
for their maintenance, and for the payment of a curator, who is 
to be selected by the Mayor of Angers from a list of three 
candidates to be nominated by the President of the Botanical 
Society of France. The names of candidates are to be sent to 
the President of the Society, 84 Rue de Grenelle, Paris, by 
March 15, and the post is to be conferred ‘‘en dehors de toute 
considération de grades universitaires,” on ‘‘un botaniste 
humble, ami de la nature, voué au progrés de la science que 
jai aimée et cultivée.”. 
Tue Vienna Academy of Sciences has (says the Zavcet) 
employed a portion of the Treit] Fund in sending a commission, 
composed of Dr. Hermann Miiller, Dr. Ghon, Dr. Albrecht, 
and Dr. Péch, to investigate the nature of the bubonic disease 
now prevailing in India. The members of the expedition have 
just left Trieste, and will remain at Bombay for three or four 
months. The Treitl Fund is so called after the late Herr Treitl, 
a Vienna citizen, who bequeathed to the Academy all his 
fortune, amounting to about £100,000. 
IN view of the increasing interest now being taken in the sub- 
ject of aerial navigation, it has been decided to endeavour to 
place the Aeronautical Society on a more useful footing. The 
Council propose, should sufficient support be given, to greatly 
increase the scope of the Society ; to issue a journal at least 
quarterly, containing not only reports of meetings of the Society, 
but original articles, reprints, and records of all that is going on 
at home and abroad in the subject of aeronautics, and all news 
likely to be of interest to members ; to hold frequent meetings 
for the reading and discussion of papers and exhibition of 
models ; to collect a library of books and periodicals for reference 
of members ; and, if possible, to procure the use of a room as 
library and museum. The Hon. Secretary of the Society is 
Captain B. Baden-Powell. 
WE regret to announce the deaths of the following men of 
science :—Heinrich Gatke, the ornithologist, whose observa- 
tions on bird-migration for fifty years are published in his 
‘* Heligoland as an Ornithological Observatory”; Prof. Franz 
Baur, professor of forestry in Munich University ; Dr. August 
Streng, professor of mineralogy in the University of Giessen ; 
Dr. E. A. B. Lundgren, professor of geology in the University 
of Lund; A. A. van Bemmelen, director of the Zoological 
Gardens at Rotterdam, and for many years president of the 
Netherlands Zoological Society; Dr. Hermann v. Nordlinger, 
formerly professor of forestry in the University of Tiibingen ; 
NO. 1424, VOL. 55] 
Dr. Salvatore Trinchese, professor of comparative anatomy and 
comparative embryology in the University of Naples, and the 
author of many valuable works in general biology ; and Galileo 
Ferraris, the well-known electrician, of Turin. 
FIFTY years spent in scientific investigation is a period worth 
commemorating. We therefore offer our congratulations to 
Dr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., upon the attainment of his jubilee 
as contributor to the advancement of natural knowledge. From 
the Sheffield Daily Telegraph we learn that a few evenings ago 
Dr. Sorby inaugurated his year of office, as President of the 
Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, by giving an 
address upon a half-a-century spent in scientific work. In this 
interval he has published more than one hundred papers, which 
have made for the progress of science. Fis first papers were 
on animal and vegetable chemistry ; the earliest being published 
in 1847. Very soon afterwards his attention was specially 
directed to the structures produced by currents during the 
deposition of stratified rocks, and to the conclusions to be 
derived from them. In 1849 he prepared what were the 
first transparent microscopical sections of rocks, and his first 
paper on thin microscopical structures was published in 1850, 
in which most of the modern methods were first adopted. That 
was followed by numerous papers on the structure of rocks and 
minerals, or on chemical or physical questions connected with 
them. From the study of the microscopical structure of rocks, 
he was led to that of meteorites and meteoric iron. In 
order to throw light on that subject he commenced, in 1842, 
the microscopical study of iron and steel by new methods 
and new illuminators. In order to assist in the study of 
meteorites, Dr. Sorby invented, in 1865, the direct-vision spec- 
trum microscope, and various accessory apparatus. The appli- 
cation of those instruments led to the study of the colouring 
matters of animals, plants and minerals, and to the publication 
of about forty papers connected with almost every department 
of science. Dr. Sorby has also advanced many other branches 
of knowledge, his researches on marine organisms, and in con- 
nection with the archzeology of natural history, being especially 
noteworthy. Nearly thirty years back the value of his work 
was recognised by the presentation of the Wollaston gold 
medal from the Geological Society. A quarter of a century ago 
the Dutch Academy of Sciences made him the first recipient 
of the Boerhaave gold medal, which is only awarded once in 
twenty years. Two years afterwards—in 1874—the Royal 
Society awarded him a Royal medal. Then followed the 
honorary degree of LL.D., conferred upon him by Oxford 
University. Dr. Sorby’s services to science have thus been 
recognised by various authorities, and we trust he may still live 
long to add to the researches which have enriched the store- 
house of knowledge. 
THE annual general meeting of the Society for the Protection 
of Birds will be held on Tuesday, February 23, at the West- 
minster Palace Hotel. The Earl of Stamford will occupy 
the chair. 
THE Weekly Weather Report, issued by the Meteorological 
Office, states that for the week ending the 6th inst. the rainfall 
was much in excess of the mean over England and the south of 
Ireland, the fall being in most cases three and four times as great 
as the average value. Over Scotland and the north of Ireland the 
amount was less than normal. In most parts of England the 
rainfall since the beginning of the year is about an inch above 
the average, while in the north and west of Scotland the de- 
ficiency is about four inches. 
THE Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lombardo announces the 
award of the following prizes :—One of the five Cagnola prizes 
ot 2500 lire, and a gold medal, of value 500 lire, to Dr. Andrea 
