December 2 1, 1905] 



NA TURE 



179 



memory of the late Prof. Ernst Abbe at Jena between 

 the Volkshaus erected by him and the optical works to the 

 development of which he devoted his life. Zeiss instru- 

 ments are in themselves monuments to Abbe's work 

 wherever they are used, but there are probably many men 

 of science who will welcome the opportunity of contributing 

 to the establishment of some permanent representation of 

 his personality in the place which he made famous. Sub- 

 scriptions in support of the scheme should be sent to Dr. 

 Gustav Fischer, Jena. 



Among the letters from the honorary members of the 

 Essex Field Club read at the meeting at Chingford on 

 December 9 and referred to in our last issue (p. 157) was 

 a very appreciative one from the veteran naturalist Dr. 

 Alfred Russel Wallace, who had been attached to the club 

 from the period of its foundation, and who had lectured 

 at its meetings and taken part in many of the excursions 

 and discussions. It is of interest to note that Dr. Wallace 

 gave a preliminary account of his work on insular faunas 

 and floras, being the substance of his book " Island Life," 

 at a meeting of the club on January 4, 1881. In his 

 recently published life he refers also to the fact that before 

 his departure for America in 1886 he gave the club a 

 lecture on the subject of variation, one of the chapters of 

 his subsequent work on " Darwinism." 



Prof. Meldola, F.R.S., presided over a " science 

 dinner " given by the Maccabseans on December 16. After 

 the loyal toasts, the chairman said the Maccabaeans are a 

 society composed primarily, though not entirely, of Jewish 

 professional men, bound together by ties of race and re- 

 ligion. This race has contributed much to the advancement 

 of philosophy and of science. It is the race which gave 

 Maimonides and Spinosa to philosophy, the Herschels to 

 astronomy, Ferdinand Cohn to botany, the Meyers and 

 many others, including Bruhl, to chemistry, and Lippmann 

 and Herz to physics. Prof. Meldola concluded by 

 giving the toast of "Science," coupled in the first 

 place with the names of the representatives of scientific 

 institutions represented in the room, and afterwards with 

 individual representatives. Sir W. Huggins, f.R.S., and 

 Sir A. Geikie, F.R.S., responded for the Royal Society, 

 the Duke of Northumberland for the Royal Institution, 

 Major P. A. MacMahon. F.R.S., for the British Associ- 

 ation, Mr. J. J. H. Teal!, F.R.S, for the Geological Survey, 

 Sir J. Evans, F.R.S., for anthropology, Sir Henry Roscoe, 

 F.R.S. , and Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., for 

 chemistry, Prof Poulton, F.R.S., for biology, Prof. 

 Starling, F.R.S., for physiology, and Prof. Ayrton, F.R.S., 

 for applied science. 



Several subjects of scientific interest were discussed at 

 the conference on smoke abatement and the exhibition of 

 smoke-prevention apparatus held on December 13-15 in 

 the hall of the Horticultural Society, Westminster. The 

 inaugural address was to have been delivered by Sir Oliver 

 Lodge, F.R.S., but he was prevented by indisposition from 

 attending. Some manuscript notes by Sir Oliver Lodge 

 were read to the meeting by Sir William Richmond. 

 These notes dealt with fog as a destructive agent, and the 

 proposal that smoke and fog should be precipitated by 

 electrification of the air. The right way to deal with a 

 town fog, according to the author, was not to produce it. 

 The connection between fog and the imperfect combustion 

 of solid fuel was then illustrated, and the need for 

 improved methods of burning fuel insisted upon. At the 

 same meeting the question, " Is London fog inevitable? " 

 was discussed by Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S. On the second 

 NO. 1886, VOL. 73] 



day numerous papers were read, and of these may be 

 mentioned stoking and smoke abatement, by Commander 

 W. F. Caborne ; the abatement of smoke in factories, by 

 Dr. Rideal ; the artificial production of persistent fog, by 

 the Hon. Rollo Russell ; destructive effects of smoke in 

 relation to plant life, by Miss Agar and Mr. A. Rigg. At 

 the third meeting of the conference Sir John Ure Primrose 

 made a plea for a systematic analysis of the air of towns. 

 He said that samples of the rainfall collected in Glasgow 

 now show no traces of free acid, whereas only a few years 

 ago similar samples were found to be strongly acid. This 

 improvement in the city's atmosphere is due chiefly to 

 the check the Alkali Acts have imposed upon the emission 

 of acid gases by chemical and metallurgical works. The 

 exhibition of smoke-abatement appliances included grates, 

 stoves, cooking plant, heating flues, chimney construction, 

 and smoke-consuming and smoke-preventing apparatus. 



In the note on the contents of the Zeitschrift fiir wissen- 

 schaftliche Zoologie, vol. lxxx., part ii., published in our 

 issue of December 7, Mr. S. Hlava's paper is stated to 

 have been on the Radiata, instead of the Rotifera. 



" The Formation of Local Illustrative Collections in 

 Museums " is the title of an article by Mr. J. Maclauchlan, 

 of Dundee, in the October issue of the Museums Journal, 

 which may be commended to the best attention of the 

 governing bodies of provincial institutions of this nature, 

 who, in many cases, are too apt to convert them into mere 

 "curiosity-shops," or who attempt to usurp the functions 

 of large museums by the display of a more or less ill- 

 arranged general natural history collection. The rating of 

 museums and public libraries is another question discussed 

 in the same issue. 



The most interesting announcement in part iii. of the 

 first volume of the Journal of the Federated Malay States 

 Museums is, perhaps, the identification of a tooth of the 

 Indian Pleistocene Elephas namadicus from Perak. Dr. 

 C. W. Andrews being responsible for the determination, 

 there can be no reasonable doubt as to its correctness ; and 

 this being so, the matter is of considerable interest as 

 tending to link up the extinct proboscidean fauna of India 

 and Burma with that of Borneo, Java, and Japan. In the 

 same issue Mr. Bonhote describes a new rat, Mr. Ogilvie- 

 Grant a new whistling-thrush, and Mr. H. C. Robinson 

 a new tree-partridge, all from the Malay Peninsula or 

 adjacent islands. 



The greater portion of th» November issue of the 

 Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science is devoted to 

 three instalments of a long paper on the formation of 

 spicules, the author, Mr. W. Woodland, dealing in this 

 instance with calcareous sponges, Alcyonium, and the sea- 

 urchin larva. The relation of triradiate spicules to the 

 dermal cells to which they owe their origin is beautifully 

 illustrated in the plates, and it is shown that, as in the case 

 of the simpler types, the triradiate form is directly related 

 to the conformation of the secreting agency. As to the 

 use of these triradiate spicules, it is pointed out that the 

 hollow cylinders of which sycon-sponges consist are liable 

 to be swayed by the movements of the water, and that 

 were these oscillations to become excessive the organism 

 would be injured. Moreover, as the oscillations are both 

 vertical and horizontal, support in each of these directions 

 is essential. " Both of these elements are supplied by the 

 numerous triradiate spicules contained within the sponge- 

 wall, for it invariably follows from their conformation that 

 if one ray be vertically disposed, then the two companion 

 rays will lie in lines only deviating from the horizontal 



