154 



NA TURE 



[December 15, i! 



A SHOR 1" course of lectures adapted for a juvenile audience 

 will be given at the Society of Arts on Wednesilay evenings, 

 January 4 and 11, 1899, at 7 o'clock, by I'rof. !•'. Jeffrey Bell. 

 The first lecture will be on " Hands and Feet," and the second 

 lecture on " Some Ways in which Animals Breathe." 



The following are among the Lecture Arrangements at the 

 Royal Institution before Easter : — Sir Robert Ball, six lectures 

 {adapted to young people) on astronomy ; Prof. E. Ray 

 Lankester, ten lectures on the morphology of the moUusca ; Mr. 

 A. Henry Savage Landor, three lectures on Tibet and the 

 Tibetans ; Dr. Allan M.-icfadyen, four lectures on toxins and 

 antitoxins ; the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, seven lectures on 

 the mechanical properties of bodies. The Friday Evening 

 Meetings will begin on January 20, when a discourse will be 

 <lelivered by Prof. Dewar on liquid hydrogen ; succeeding dis- 

 courses will probably be given by the Right Hon. Sir Mount- 

 Stuart E. Grant Duff, Mr. Victor Ilorsley, Prof. H. S. Hele- 

 Shaw, Mr. Richard R. Holmes, Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., 

 Prof. H. L. Callendar, the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, and 

 other gentlemen. The year 1899 is the centenary year of the 

 Royal Institution, and arrangements are being made with a view 

 to its celebration in a fitting manner. Details will be announced 

 at a later period. 



Referring to next.year's meeting of the British and French 

 Associations, the Paris correspondent of the Times remarks : — 

 Science, happily, has no politics, and the French .\ssociation 

 for the Advancement of Science, with the view of fraternising 

 with the British Association, has fixed its next congress for 

 September 14 to 22 at Boulogne. The office-bearers of the two 

 associations have agreed on a joint gathering at Dover during 

 the two congresses. Although the younger association will thus 

 cross the Channel to .show its deference for seniority, it is under- 

 stood that there will be a return visit. The Fiench Association 

 having thus, so to speak, broken the ice, it may be hoped that, 

 just as it has already held a congress across the Spani-sh frontier, 

 it will before long receive and accept an invitation from some 

 English town. The distance can evidently be no objection, for 

 it has held two congresses in Algeria and a third in Tunis. 



Sir VVii.Li/Vii Jenner, G.C.B., F.R.S., Physician in 

 Ordinary to the (^"ss" *"d 'o 'he Prince of Wales, died on 

 Sunday, at the age of eighty-three years. From a long obituary 

 notice in the Times, we extract the following particulars of his 

 career: — He was born in 1815, at Chatham, and was educated 

 at University College. In 1844 he graduated as M.D. in the 

 University of London ; and in 1848 he was appointed professor 

 of pathological anatomy to University College and assistant- 

 physician to University College Hospital. In 1S52 he was 

 elected a Fellow of the lioyal College of Physicians, and was 

 appointed Gulstonian Lecturer. He then became physician to 

 the Hospital for Sick Children, assistant-physician to the 

 London Fever Hospital in 1853, and full physician to University 

 ■College Hospital in 1S54. In 1S57 he succeeded to the pro- 

 fessorship of clinical medicine in University College. In 1862 

 'he was appointed Phy.sician in Ordinary to Her Majesty, and 

 professor of the principles and practice of medicine at Univer- 

 sity College. In the following year he was appointed Physician 

 in Ordinary to the Prince of Wales, and in 1864 was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society. He was created a baronet in 

 186S, K.C.B. in January 1872, and G.C.B. in 1889. He was 

 President of the Royal College of Physicians from 1881 to 188S, 

 and had received honours from many learned bodies both in this 

 country and abroad. He was a D.C.L. of Oxford, LL.D. of 

 Cambridge and of Edinburgh, a Commander of the Order of 

 Leopold of Belgium, and an honorary member of the Belgian 

 Academy of Medicine. Jenner was not a voluminous writer. 

 NO. 1520, VOL. 59] 



His chief works were on the " Identity or non-identity d 

 typhus and typhoid fevers," and on "Diseases commonly en 

 founded under the term continued fevers." He also puUishc 

 his Gulstonian Lectures on emphysema, and two or ihrci 

 volumes of clinical lectures on diphtheria, rickets, tuberculoi.is. 

 and other subjects. 



After a long illness, Sir William .Vnderson, K.C. B., F.R..S.,| 

 Director-General of Royal Ordnance Factories, died on Sunday 

 last, December 1 1. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1835, and 

 was educated at the High Commercial School there, where he 

 was head of the school and silver medallist, and had conferred oD 

 him the Freedom of St. Petersburg. He was a pupil of Sii 

 William Fairbairn, and a member of the firm of .Messrs. Courtney 

 and Stephens, engineers, of Dublin, from 1855 to 1864. He 

 communicated a number of papers on engineering subjects to the 

 Institute of Civil Engineers of Ireland, and was President of that 

 Society in 1863. He received the Telford medal and the James 

 Watt medal of the Institute of Civil Engineers. He was dis- 

 tinguished for the ability with which he applied his knowledge 

 of the science of heat, and other cognate sciences, to the prac- 

 tical requirements of the engineer. The knowledge of Russian 

 obtained in early life enabled him to translate the works uf 

 Chernoff on steel, and the researches of General Kalakontsky on 

 the internal stresses in cast-iron and steel. He was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society in 1 891 ; and was Vice-President uf 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Past-President of the Institu- 

 tion of Mechanical Engineers, and hon. D.C.L. of Durham 

 University. In 1S89 he was appointed Director-General of the 

 Royal Ordnance Factories, and last year he was created a 

 K.C.B. 



A MEMORIAL has been prepared for presentation to the Lord 

 President of the Council (the Duke of Devonshire) and the 

 President of the Board of Trade {Mr. Ritchie), protesting 

 against the proposed removal and distribution of the collection 

 of fish which was brought together by the late Mr. Fran'. 

 Buckland, and has formed the Buckland Fish Museum inSoulii 

 Kensington Museum. With the view of rescuing the museum 

 and increasing its usefulness, it is proposed that it should ba . 

 made part of the duties of the inspectors of fisheries to preserve 

 and deposit in the Museum of Economic Fish Culture any 

 objects of permanent interest which may come under their 

 notice, together with models of improvements in fish passes, 

 fish culture apparatus, &c. , which may be useful for reference or 

 record. It is also suggested that the secretary and the in- 

 spectors of the Fisheries Department, together with the repre- 

 sentatives of the Fishmongers' Company, should be appointed 

 visitors to advise on and aid in the efficient man.Agement and 

 development of the museum. 



The death of Dr. James I. Peck, .assistant professor of biolog) 

 in Williams College, and distinguished for his investigations ii' 

 marine biology, is announced in Scieiue. The following par 

 ticulars are given, by Prof. H. C. Bumpas, of his contribution^ 

 to biological knowledge : — In 1 888 Dr. Peck prepared one 01 

 the first serious contributions to the study of variation that ha 

 been made since the time of Darwin. The summer of 1SS9 h 

 spent at Woods Holl, where he worked upon the habits of thi 

 young of certain food fishes. In 1890 he published his Cym- 

 buliopsis paper. In 1892 he was again a memljer of the 

 scientific staff of the Fish Commission Laboratory, where he 

 worked upon the I'teropods and Heteropods collected by the 

 Athatross. The summer of 1893 was spent in preparing his 

 paper on the " Food of the Menhaden," and in 1S94 he con- 

 tinued his plankton studies and prepared a paper on the 

 "Sources of Marine Food." In 1895 lie was pl.aced in charge 



