March 9, 1882] 
NATURE 
449 
the {Lyell Medal to Dr, John Lycett, of Scarborough ; the 
balance of the Wollaston Fund to Dr. G. J. Hinde; the balance 
of the Murchison Fund to Prof. T, Rupert Jones ; a moiety of 
the Lyell Fund to Prof. Charles Lapworth, Mason College, 
Birmingham, and to the Rey. Norman Glass; a portion of the 
proceeds of the Barlow-Jameson Fund to baron Constantin 
von Ettingshausen, Professor of Botany at Graz. Mr. J. W, 
Hulke, F.R.S., was elected President, in succession to Mr. 
Etheridge. 
‘THE Rey. Thomas Romney Robinson, D.D., died on Tues- 
day, after a short illness, at his residence, The Observatory, 
Armagh, at the patriarchal age of eighty-nine years. He retained 
his mental faculties in surprising activity and vigour to the last. 
M. DEsor, one of the last companions of Agassiz in his great 
Alpine excursions, which led to the discovery of the theory of 
glaciers, has just died in Neufchatel. M. Desor, although born 
in Germany, was of French extraction, and had been a natura- 
lised Swiss citizen, and became the president of the National 
Council. He bequeathed all his fortune to tue city for scientific 
purposes. 
Dr. W. R. Hopcxinson, Senior Demonstrator at the Royal 
College of Chemistry, has been appointed to the Professorship 
of Chemistry and Physics at the Royal Military Academy, 
Woolwich. 
PROFESSORS ROSCOE AND ABELL, as presidents respectively of 
the Chemical Society and Institute of Chemistry, will hold a 
reception on the 22nd inst, at the Crystal Palace in connection 
with the Electric Exhibition, 
THE Sanitary Institute is to hold an Exhibition of Sanitary 
Apparatus and Appliances at Newcastle-on-Tyne, this year, 
from September 26 to October 21, in connection with the fifth 
Autumn Congress of the Institution. 
On April 18 next a Congress of Greek physicians and natu- 
ralists from all parts of the world will meet at Athens. 
THE International Congress for Ethnographical Sciences, 
called together by the Paris Ethnographical Institution (founded 
1859), will meet at Geneva on April 10 next under the presi- 
dency of M. Carnot. Besides all the European States, India, 
Egypt, Japan, Canada, the Uhited States, the Argentine Re- 
public, and Australia will be represented. The Institution 
includes amongst its main objects the facilitation of the personal 
intercourse between men of science of all countries, and also the 
support of exploring travellers. All information regarding the 
Congress is furnished upon application by M. G. Becker, Lancy, 
near Geneva, 
WE learn from No. 13 of the Johns Hopkins University 
Circulars (February, 1882) that Prof. Cayley, F.R.S., has com- 
menced residence as Lecturer in Mathematics. He read a paper 
at the January meeting of the ‘‘ Mathematical Seminary ” entitled 
*©On Two Cases of the Quadric Transformation between Two 
Planes.” 
Wuitsr this winter has been remarkably mild in Western 
Europe, it has been of quite unusual severity in South-Eastern 
Russia. The main chain of the Caucasus is covered from the 
top-to the lowest valleys with snow. ‘The great depression of 
the Kura and Arako rivers looks like a Siberian plain covered 
with snow. ‘The bright sun of the south seems unable to warm 
the cold soil, and in the night the small streams and irrigating 
channels freeze. Even the Mikhael Gulf of the Caspian, south 
of Krasnovodsk, was frozen from December 19 to January 7, 
and the thickness of the ice was 4} inches. 
COLONEL BRINE and Mr, Simmons started on Saturday 
morning from Canterbury in their balloon trip across the 
Channel, the wind being considered favourable, After getting 
about thirteen miles out from Dover the aéronauts discovered 
that the wind backed to the south-west, and thinking discretion 
the better part of valour they lowered their car into the sea and 
were picked up by a passing steamer, after having been in the 
air for about three hours. 
INSTEAD of allotting the surplus from the Electrical Exhi- 
bition to the new School of Chemistry and Physics, M. Cochery 
has kept it for the establishment of a laboratory of electricity, 
which will be under his administration. 
A COMMITTEE is being formed at Neuss on the Rhine, with the 
view of erecting a monument to the late Dr. Theodor Schwann, 
in the public gardens of that towu. Dr. Schwann, as our 
readers will remember, was a native of Neuss. 
Tue February number of Watwren contains an interesting 
notice of the changes of movement observable in the Norwegian 
glaciers, which, as is proved by well-attested local records, have 
repeatedly advanced and receded within the last two centuries. 
It would appear that the vast system of the Justedal glaciers 
has been especially affected by these variations, for here, where 
the ice has been diminishing since 1750, it had previously been 
advancing so rapidly, that in 1742 the local magistrate was sum- 
moned by the occupants of a hamlet known as ‘‘ Ni Gaard,” 
Nine Farms, to inspect the damage that was being done, and to 
grant them remission of their taxes on such lands as no longer 
admitted of cultivation. The official report states that the 
glacier had then approached within one hundred ells of the 
nearest farm, and that in the following year the buildings were 
thrown down and crushed under the advancing masses of ice. 
Gradually the other farmsteads disappeared, leaving nothing but 
the name of the spot to attest that it had once been cultivated. 
Since this period the Justedal glaciers generally, have been re- 
treating, a fact which was first noticed by Prof. Smith, of Upsala, 
who, writing in 1817, draws attention to the milder winters 
which in Scandinavia had characterised the latter half of the 
last century, while the years 1740-42, which succeeded several 
hard winters and bad summers, had beenso especially inclement 
that they are known in Norway as the ‘‘ Green years,” from the 
unripe condition of the corn. This period coincides with the 
date of the devastations of the Nigaard glacier which, after a 
prolonged process of diminution has, according to De Seue, 
been again steadily advancing since 1869. The Folgefon 
glacier, near the Sérfjord has, as we learn from the report of 
Sexe, who visited it in 1864, been subject to similar alternations, 
At the present time it is advancing, its extremity having between 
1860 and 1878 been projected 40 metres further forward, bringing 
it within 200 metres of cultivated flelds. 
THE meteorological report of the weather in 1881, as ob- 
served in Christiania, exhibits the same anomalies that have 
been recorded in other countries. Notwithstanding periods of 
exceptionable mildness, the mean annual temperature was 1° R. 
jower than the normal. The highest temperature (20°'4 R.) was 
recorded on May 31, the lowest (—18°"7 R.) on January 14, In 
November and December the temperature was higher than usual, 
the excess amounting in the latter month to 3°°6 R., which was 
largely influenced by the abnormal heat,of December 28, when 
the thermometer at noon marked 9°*4 R., a temperature that 
has never before been reached since the opening of the observa- 
tory in 1837; while since 1857 the mean for December had not 
risen above the freezing point. The rainfall was marked by 
equally great irregularity in the manner of its distribution, only 
5 millimetres being recorded for April, and 102 for August, the 
former being 19°3 mm. below the average, and the latter 24 mm. 
above it. 
A SERIES of scientific lectures in Chinese to the Chinese 
schools in Peking, commenced by the American mission, is said 
