August 14, 1884] 



NA TUBE 



37i 



paper mulberry [Broussonetiapapyrifera, Vent), also fibrous 



plants, including the Rhea, or China grass (Boehmeria 

 nivea, W. and A.)- Much progress has been made in 

 arranging the specimens in the new building which has 

 been providedf or the herbarium, and numerous contribu- 

 tions have been received both to the herbarium and to 

 the gardens. In the Report on the cinchona plantations 

 Dr. King gives details of the year's crop, of the expendi- 

 ture for the year, and of the progress of the several forms 

 or varieties. At the factory the total out-turns for the 

 year was 8714 lbs. of febrifuge, 250 lbs. of which were of 

 the new crystalline preparation, which closely resembles 

 the ordinary febrifuge, but, on examination, the grains 

 are seen to be small crystals ; it differs, however, in con- 

 stitution from the old febrifuge, inasmuch as it contains 

 none of the amorphous alkaloid which is the ingredient 

 in that preparation which causes the nausea which some- 

 times follows its administration. The efficiency of the 

 staff both in the Calcutta Gardens and at the cinchona 

 plantations is indicated by the testimony which Dr. King, 

 with his usual frankness and consideration, bears to the 

 ability of his subordinates. 



From the Botanic Garden, Hong Kong, Mr. Charles 

 Ford, the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforesta- 

 tion Department, reports, under date April 30, 1884, of 

 the department under his charge. A good many plants 

 both of commercial and horticultural interest have been 

 grown with more or less success, including the carob tree 

 {Ceratonia Siiii/i/a) of Southern Europe, the Chinese tea 

 oil tree {Camellia drupifera), the Chinese varnish tree 

 (Alearites vernicia), and many others. A very interesting 

 account of a visit to the Lo-fau-shan Mountains and a 

 list of the plants collected is given in this Report. 



NOTES 



Her Majesty's Government, on the recommendation of 

 the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, have 

 given their adhesion to the International Geodetic Association, 

 and have nominated the undermentioned gentlemen as dele- 

 gates of the United Kingdom to the Association, viz. : — The 

 Director-General of the Ordnance. Survey (for the time being), 

 Col. A. R. Clarke, R.E., F.R.S., the Astronomer-Royal, the 

 Hydrographer of the Navy (for the time being), General J. T. 

 Walker, R.E., C.B., F.R.S. 



Two academic honours have recently, Science states, been 

 conferred in the United States upon scientific men, which are 

 worthy of note because more rare and costly than such distinc- 

 tions usually are. At New Haven, on the day before com- 

 mencement, a bronze statue of Prof. Silliman, for more than 

 fifty years a teacher of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology in 

 Yale College, and the founder of the American yournal of 

 Science and Arts, was placed on its pedestal near the new 

 chapel. The other honour is that of a medal struck at the 

 U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, at the request of the colleagues and 

 friends of Prof. Sylvester, to commemorate his residence in 

 Baltimore during a period of seven years, marked, among other 

 things, by the establishment of the American yournal of Mathe- 

 matics. The medal, in size and general aspect, is not unlike 

 that which was struck in commemoration of the life of Agassiz. 

 On one side is an accurate and spirited portrait of the mathe- 

 matician, with the name Sylvester ; on the reverse a Latin in- 

 scription commemorates the fact that he was for seven years 

 Professor of Mathematics in the Johns Hopkins University — 

 from 1S76 to 1883. The original medal in gold was sent to 

 Prof. Sylvester, in his new home in the University of Oxford ; a 

 duplicate in silver was retained in Baltimore, and a few impres- 

 sions in bronze have been distributed among his scientific friends 

 and correspondents. 



Science, in referring to the recent researches of Koch, states 

 that work of value upon the subject of micro-organisms is not 

 done in this country (the United States), nor will it be until 

 some such encouragement is offered to investigators as is the 

 case in France and Germany. This kind of research requires 

 the rare combination of many forms of training, added to a 

 critical, analytical, and judicial mind. These we can have; but 

 until the facilities for the work are offered, until the necessity 

 for personal sacrifice and self-denial is done away with, we can 

 hope for no better work in the future than has been done in the 

 past ; in other words, what is first needed in order to place our 

 own investigations upon an equality with those of the two 

 countries mentioned above, is a thoroughly-equipped, fully- 

 endowed laboratory, with a strong corps of well-trained and 

 salaried officials. These remarks might very well have been 

 written concerning our own country, and the official mission of 

 Dr. Klein to India is a tardy recognition by our Government of 

 the necessity of State intervention if scientific research is to be 

 pursued with any hope of speedy and substantial practical re- 

 sults. The true way to encourage such inquiries (Science truly 

 says) lies in the establishment of a Commission composed of 

 men thoroughly trained and qualified for the work, and then to 

 treat it as the German Government has treated its Cholera 

 Commission, that is, to give it full powers and funds to allow 

 the prosecution of its labours to the end. 



The death is announced at the age of seventy- five years of Sir 

 Erasmus Wilson, the eminent surgeon. 



The death is also announced of Mr. John Aitken, J.P., of Urm- 

 ston, well known as a geologist in the northern counties. Deceased 

 was born in 1820. He was early distinguished for his applica- 

 tion to scientific matters, and he twice filled the office of President 

 of the Manchester Geological Society. He wrote for the Society's 

 papers a number of articles relating chiefly to the geology of 

 Clitheroe, Bacup, and Holcombe, and he also contributed to the 

 Geological Magazine and the American Journal of Science. He 

 furnished for Newbiggin's " History of the Forest of Rossendale " 

 the geological section relating to that district. 



Sir John Lubbock has been compelled, for personal reasons, 

 to abandon his intention of attending the meeting of the British 

 Association at Montreal. 



A committee was appointed in 1S82 at the Montreal meeting 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 "to confer with committees of foreign associations for the 

 advancement of science with reference to an international con- 

 vention of scientific associations." The committee consists of 

 Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, Mr. Alexander Agassiz, and Prof. Simon 

 Newcomb. If the British Association responds, as has been 

 suggested, by also appointing a committee, the official channels 

 for the interchange of opinion between the two national bodies 

 will be suitably established on both sides. We (Science) are 

 unable to make any authorised statement as to what the American 

 committee has done or proposes, but its membership justifies the 

 conviction that it is capable of efficient action, wisely planned. 

 We shall await their report with interest. 



The Committee appointed by the Government at M. Pasteur's 

 request to verify his experiments in the treatment of hydrophobia 

 has just presented its first report. M. Bouley is president, his 

 colleagues being MM. Beclard, Paul Bert, Tisserand, Villemin, 

 and Vulpian. The Committee states that M. Pasteur's experi- 

 ments have been entirely borne out. Inoculation with the 

 attenuated virus of hydrophobia gives a dog immunity from the 

 disease, just as similar treatment preserves a sheep from charbon. 

 All the twenty-three dogs submitted by M. Pasteur as having been 

 thus inoculated have resisted the strongest virus on inoculation, 

 whereas the majority of the nineteen non-inoculated dogs have sue- 



