Fesruary 11, 1897] 
NATURE 
349 
Giulio Rossi, of Padua, for his essay on methods of registering 
the phases of two alternating currents. The Brambilla prize of 
1500 lire and a gold medal are awarded to Prof. Carlo Figini, 
for his improvements in the weaving industry ; and rewards, of 
§00 lire each, to Signor Sala Salvatore and Signor Scartazzi 
Antonio. The Fossati prize of 2000 lire is awarded to Prof. 
Angelo Mosso, of Turin, for his essay on the temperature of the 
brain. For the Tommasoni prize for an account of the life of 
Leonardo da Vinci, rewards of 1000 lire each have been awarded 
to Signor Nino Smiraglia Scognamiglio and Prof. G. B. De 
Toni. A number of other prizes have been unawarded. 
For the coming year, the Reale Istituto Lombardo offers 
the following prizes, which are open to competitors of all nation- 
alities, on condition that the essays are written in Italian, 
French, or Latin. The prize of the Institution of 1200 lire, for 
experiments confirming Maxwell’s theory of dielectric stresses ; 
six Cagnola prizes of 2500 lire, each accompanied by a gold 
medal of 500 lire, for essays on various selected subjects, mostly 
medical ; one Brambilla prize, for improvements in some in- 
dustry in Lombardy ; one Secco-Comneno prize of $64 lire, for 
an essay on uremia ; and prizes founded by the brothers Giacomo 
and Filippo Ciani, for popular Italian literary works. A num- 
ber of other prizes are also announced in the Rezdzcontz of the 
Institution, both for competition in 1897 and later years; but 
many of these are exclusively open to Italians. A full account 
of the conditions attaching to the various competitions is given 
in the journal in question. 
AT the ninth annual meeting of the American Physiological 
Society, held in Boston and Cambridge, December 29 and 30, 
1896, Prof. W. H. Howell proposed the following resolution 
regarding the work of the late Prof. H. Newell Martin :—‘‘ The 
members of the American Physiological Society have heard 
with profound regret of the death of Prof. H. Neweli 
Martin. In commemoration of his distinguished services, the 
Society adopts and places upon its official record the following 
expression of its appreciation and esteem. In the death of 
Prof. Martin, the Society has lost a member to whom it owes 
an especial debt of gratitude. He was actively concerned in its 
foundation and organisation, and during the critical period of its 
early history he gave much time and thought to its interests. 
He served for six years as its secretary and treasurer, and strove 
always with enthusiasm to make a successful beginning of an 
enterprise which he believed would foster the spirit of scientific 
research in physiology, and bring its active workers into stimu- 
lating fellowship. For its present prosperous condition, and 
its prospects of future usefulness, the Society feels that it is 
largely indebted to his wisdom and energy. In a broader field 
his influence upon the science of physiology has been deeply 
felt. His own splendid contributions to experimental physiology 
will have an enduring value, while the stimulus given by him to 
others has been, and will continue to be, an influential factor 
in the development of physiological instruction and research 
in this country. As an investigator and teacher he was dis- 
tinguished, not only by his originality and ability, but by many 
noble traits of character. His modesty, his genuine interest in 
all kinds of biological work, his steady insistence upon the 
highest ideals of scientific inquiry, his chivalrous conception of 
the credit due to his fellow-workers, and the generous sympathy 
and affection always felt and shown by him for the work of 
younger investigators, are some of the qualities which will endear 
his memory to those who were so fortunate as to be brought 
into intimate association with him as teacher or as friend.” 
Prof. H. P. Bowditch, in seconding the resolution, said :— 
“* Probably few of the younger members of the Society are 
aware of the great debt which we owe to Dr. Martin for 
establishing the high standard which the Society has always 
NO. 1424, VOL. 55]. 
maintained with regard to the qualifications of the members. It 
was always Dr. Martin’s contention that a candidate for admis- 
sion to our ranks should be required to demonstrate his power 
to enlarge the bounds of our chosen science, and not merely to 
display an interest in the subject and an ability to teach text- 
book physiology to medical students. To his wise counsel in 
this matter the present prosperity of the Society is, I think, 
largely to be attributed. I trust that the resolution will be 
adopted, and placed upon the records of the Society,” The 
resolution was unanimously adopted. 
THE manna sent to the Israelites on their journey out of Egypt 
to the Holy Land is regarded as identical with an edible lichen 
in Kerner and Oliver’s ‘‘ Natural History of Plants”; and the 
older view that it was the sap of a tamarisk, exuded under the 
influence of a parasite, is held to be without foundation. Mr. 
M. J. Teesdale reviews the subject in the February number of 
Sczence Gossip, and the evidence he brings forward is opposed to 
the conclusion to which reference has been made. He shows 
that an exudation from the twigs of the tamarisk (Zaszarziz 
gallica) has more points of resemblance with the manna of the 
Israelites than either the edible lichen or the sweet gums 
exuded by leguminous shrubs, such as d/hag? maurorum or A. 
desertorum—both known to the Arabs as camel’s-thorn. 
HERR K. Roper gives, in a dissertation presented for a 
Leipzig degree, the results of an investigation as to the polar 
limit of true forest-land, as distinguished from tundra. The 
boundary line reaches its highest latitude in the old world in the 
Taimyr peninsula (724° N.), runs eastward to the Tschuktschee 
peninsula, and there bends rapidly to the southward. On the 
west coast of America it begins near the Arctic circle, and goes 
gradually northwards to the Mackenzie delta, where it attains 
its highest latitude in about 69° N. The most southerly point is 
in 57 N. lat., on the East Main River, and from thence the 
limit crosses Labrador, Greenland and Iceland, in a direction 
trending towards the North Cape. 
WE have received the third of the Arbetten aus dem Geo- 
graphischen Institut der Universitat Bern, edited by Prof. 
Briickner, consisting of an exhaustive discussion, by Dr. 
Hermann Walser, of the surface changes which have taken place 
in the canton of Ziirich since the middle of the seventeenth 
century. Dr. Walser takes, as his starting point, the topo- 
graphical map of J. C. Gyger, published in 1667, and traces the 
subsequent topographical history of the district by reference 
to an immense number of papers and maps to the present time. 
He finds that geological and human agencies have combined 
during the last 240 years to greatly diminish the number and 
size of lakes in the canton, that the amount of deforestation 
has been trifling, and that the area occupied by vineyards has 
steadily increased. 
THE spell of warm weather in the United States, from July 28 
to August last, is stated by Prof. H. A. Hazen, in the A/onthly 
Weather Review, to have covered a larger area, and given ab- 
normally high temperatures for a greater number of consecutive 
days than ever before recorded. 
A sOLAR halo, with two mock-suns, and a rainbow overhead, 
was seen by Mr. J. W. Scholes, Huddersfield, at about 12.30 p.m. 
on January 29. The mock-suns and the rainbow only lasted a 
few minutes, but the white solar halo remained visible for nearly 
half an hour. 
Ir will be remembered that, some years ago, experiments 
on rain-making were carried on in Texas. Ina short brochure, 
Dr. W. Hentschel suggests a plan of artificially producing 
rain, based on the well-known effects of statical electricity 
in promoting the formation of drops. The suggestion is to 
