Marcu 25, 1897 | 
WATURE 
495 
years ago he fitted out one of the relief expeditions to bring back 
Lieut. Peary from the Arctics. He also provided funds for the 
expedition under Prof. Charles S. Sargent, which collected the 
forestry exhibit known as the Jesup Collection in the American 
Museum of Natural History, a very complete exhibit of different 
kinds of wood in the United States. The expedition now con- 
templated will be led by Prof. F. W. Putnam, the veteran anthro- 
pologist, for a long time curator of the Peabody Anthropological 
Museum at Harvard University, and secretary of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science. He will be 
assisted by Dr. Franz Boas, who has spent several years among 
the Indian tribes in the north-west of America, and by a corps 
of assistants. The plan is to proceed first to the north-west 
coast of North America, north of British Columbia, following the 
coast up to Alaska and Bering Strait. Thence the party will 
‘cross into Asia, and work down to Siberia, to China, along the 
Indian Ocean, and into Egypt. 
A PUBLIC meeting to promote the National Jenner Memorial 
will be held in the theatre of tne University of London, on 
Wednesday, March 31, at 4 p.m. The chair will be taken by the 
Duke of Westminster, K.G., and among those who will address 
the meeting will be Lord Herschell, Lord Playfair, Lord Lister, 
and Prof. Michael Foster. 
PHysicists who will be in Paris during Easter week should 
endeavour to visit the exhibition of new physical experiments 
and apparatus at the rooms of the Société Frangaise de Physique, 
44 rue de Rennes. The exhibition will be held on Friday, 
April 23, and Saturday, April 24. The principal experiments 
brought before the Society during the past twelve months will 
be repeated each evening at 8 p.m. ; and the apparatus will be | 
on view during the whole of the Saturday. 
WE regret to have to record the deaths of Dr. Kolbe, formerly 
professor of mathematics at the Technical High School at 
Vienna; Dr. Robert Hogg, a distinguished horticulturist, and 
author of numerous works on the vegetable kingdom and its 
products ; M. Charles Contejean, a young French physiologist 
known in the biological world by some important researches ; 
Mr. Lorenzo N. Johnson, formerly instructor in botany in the 
University of Michigan ; Prof. John Pierce, formerly professor 
of chemistry in Brown University, U.S.; and Mr. John 
Biddulph Martin, the president of the Royal Statistical Society, 
and a member of several other scientific societies. 
AN instance of the solicitude shown by Government depart- 
ments in Germany towards University professors is related by 
the Berlin correspondent of the Aritésk Medical Journal. It 
appears that Prof. Kayser, the successor of Hertz as Director of 
the Physical Institute in the University of Bonn, is invalided, 
and his symptoms seem to point to influences from insanitary 
surroundings. In consequence, the Prussian Cuitus-Minister 
ordered a thorough examination into the institute building. 
Prof. Finkler, of Bonn, and Prof. Proskauer, Assistant at the 
Berlin Koch Institute, have been entrusted with the work, and 
will submit proposals for alterations, or even partial rebuilding, 
to the Medical Department of the Ministry. 
THE present year being the sixtieth of Sir George Gabriel 
Stokes’s connection with Cambridge, the wish has been expressed 
that his bust should be executed by some artist of eminence, and 
should be preserved in the Hall of Pembroke College, Sir G. G. 
Stokes having been a member of that college since October 1837. 
A working Committee has been formed for carrying out the 
proposal, and Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A., has expressed his 
willingness to undertake the work of executing the bust. The 
Committee are desirous, if general support is given to the 
project, that a replica of the bust should also be executed, and 
NO. 1430, VOL. 55 | 
presented to the University, in which Sir G. G. Stokes has held 
the Lucasian Professorship for nearly fifty years. For this 
double purpose a sum of not less than four hundred guineas will 
be required, of which amount about one-third has been given or 
promised. Donations may be paid to the credit of the “* Sir G. 
G, Stokes Bust Fund” at Messrs. Barclay and Co., Mortlock’s 
Bank, Cambridge, or to either of the Secretaries, Rev. C. H. 
Prior, and R. A. Neil, at Pembroke College. 
THE Institution of Naval Architects have made arrangement 
to hold an International Congress of Naval Architects and 
Marine Engineers at the Imperial Institute, in the course of the 
coming summer. The Prince of Wales has consented to act as 
Honorary President of the Congress, and will deliver the speech 
of welcome on the opening day. Invitations to take part in 
the Congress have been sent to the Ministers of Marine of all 
the principal maritime powers of the world, to the French 
Association Technique Maritime, to the American Society of 
Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. A large and repre- 
sentative Reception Committee is in course of formation, and 
the Council are receiving every encouragement from H.k.H. 
the Prince of Wales, from the Government, the City of London, 
as well as from the shipbuilding and shipowning interests 
throughout the country. The exact date of the Congress is not 
yet fixed, but the meetings will probably take place early in 
July. 
THE Comité d’Organisation of the seventh International 
Geological Congress, to be held at St. Petersburg from August 
29 to September 4, have received so many applications from 
persons who are not geologists, and yet wish to obtain free rail- 
way tickets and to participate in other advantages arranged by 
the Russian Government, that they have issued a special circular 
stating that the facilities offered are intended only for geologists. 
Excursion tickets will only be granted to persons who are 
known by their contributions to geology. Even with this re- 
striction, the meeting promises to be a large one, for more than 
six hundred geologists have applied for tickets. All geologists 
| who have paid their subscription will obtain a non-transferable 
| ticket, giving them the right to travel first-class on the Russian 
and Finland railways free of cost. The excursions arranged, 
both to precede and succeed the meeting, include a visit to the 
Urals, or to Esthonia, or to Finland, before the meeting, and to 
the Caucasus and Crimea after the meeting. 
Tue work upon ‘The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain,” 
which has engaged Sir Archibald Geikie’s attention for some 
time, will be published in a few days by Messrs. Macmillan 
and Co. The subject of the former volcanoes of the British 
Isles has occupied much of the author’s time and thought all 
through his active life. Born among the crags that mark the 
sites of some of these volcanoes, he was led in his boyhood to 
interest himself in their structure and history. Since that time 
he has taken advantage of every opportunity of extending his 
knowledge of the phenomena they present, by personally 
examining the volcanic records of our own islands, and the 
volcanic regions of Europe and Western America. The forth- 
coming work will realise a long-cherished desire to combine 
the materials thus accumulated into a general narrative 
of the whole progress of volcanic action from the remotest 
geological period down to the time when the latest eruptions 
ceased. It is dedicated to Prof. Ferdinand Fouqué and M. 
Michel-Lévy, and will be a very important contribution to 
geological literature. 
Dr. NANSEN was present at the meeting of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society on Monday, when a paper on ‘‘ The North 
Polar Problem” was read by Sir Clements Markham. In the 
course of some remarks upon the subject of the paper, he said 
that he thought the most interesting and important result of the 
