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A'A rURE 



[December 22, 1S98 



spectroscopy at the Berlin Technical High School. Prof. Vogel 

 was born in the year 1834, and he devoted his working life and 

 energies to the advancement of photography. 



Prof. Beiiring, together with Dr. Ruppel, is reported by 

 the Berlin correspondent of the British Medical Journal to 

 have applied for a German patent for a tuberculosis serum. His 

 claim is: "A method for producing a highly poisonous and 

 immunifying substance from tubercle bacilli, or from cultures of 

 tubercle bacilli." 



Mr. Bokchgrevink, and the members of the Antarctic 

 expedition under his charge, sailed from Hobart on Monday. 



We learn from the Lancet that Luigi Galvani, the great 

 anatomist of the Bolognese school, and better known for his 

 discovery of animal electricity, received on Sunday, December 

 4, at Bologna, the honour of a centenary celebration— that of 

 his death, which took place on December 4, 1798. The occasion 

 evoked the presence of the leaders of the local medical school, 

 and its orator was Signor Erminio Vitta, representing the Com- 

 mittee of Italian telegraphists now organising a similar com- 

 memoration of Alessandro Volta. The proceedings were highly 

 successful. 



0.\ Monday evening Prof. Ramsay delivered a lecture, by 

 special invitation, to the members'of the Berlin Chemical Society 

 in the Chemisches Institut, on "The New Gases and their 

 Relations to the Periodic Law." Prof. Liebermann presided, 

 and in the crowded audience were Prof. ' \'irchow, Prof. 

 Liebreich, Prof, von Bezold, Prof. \Yarburg, Prof. Fischer, and 

 many other eminent men of science. The German Emperor 

 and Empress visited the Chemisches Institut on Tuesday after- 

 noon, in order personally to listen to a private exposition by 

 Prof. Ramsay of his discoveries and methods. 



It has already been announced that the Geological Society 

 has decided to undertake the publication of the manuscript in 

 its possession of a portion of the third volume of Hutton's 

 "Theory of the Earth," and to accept the generous offer of 

 Sir Archibald Geikie to edit and prepare it for the press. The 

 third volume will be printed in the style of the first and .second 

 volumes of the same work, and will contain about 300 pages. 

 The manuscript is now ready to go to the printers, and, as only 

 a limited number will be issued, the Secretary of the Society 

 would be glad to receive the names of intending purchasers. 



The Rome correspondent of the Daily Mail reports as 

 follows : — Some very important discoveries have recently been 

 made in the Vatican library. While examining some State 

 documents of the sixteenth century, the -Vbbe Cozza Luzzi, 

 assistant librarian, had the good fortune to find the original 

 manuscript treatise by Galileo Galilei on the tides. The manu- 

 script, which was hitherto only known as N 8193, is all in 

 Galileo's own handwriting, and ends with the words : — 

 " Written in Rome in the Medici Gardens, on January 8, 1616." 

 The great astronomer had dedicated the book to Cardinal 

 Orsino, his admirer, and Mrecenas. Leo XIII. has taken the 

 greatest interest in the discovery, and has ordered the manu- 

 script to be published in an elegant edition at the expense of the 

 Vatican. The discovery of this treatise, the original of which 

 was considered lost, is all the more important as it differs con- 

 siderably from the text hitherto accepted as Galileo's, and now 

 in course of publication, together with Galileo's complete works, 

 by the Accade mia della Crusca. ■ 



Science publishes some particulars in regard to the forthcoming 

 meeting of the American Society of Naturalists, and of the 

 Societies holding their meetings in New York City in con- 

 junction with it. The first meeting of the Society of Naturalists 

 NO. I 52 I, VOL. 59] 



will be in the American Museum of Natural History nn 

 December 28. After a welcome by the President of the 

 Museum, Mr. Morris K. Jesup, Prof. Henry K. Osborn will 

 give a lecture on ' ' Collections of Fossil Mammals and their 

 Care." The chief meeting of the Naturalists will be held on 

 the afternoon of December 29 at Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia 

 University. After the Societies have been welcomed by 

 President Low, a series of short papers will be read en 

 "Advances in Methods of Teaching," as follows : — Zoolog)', 

 Prof. E. G. Conklin, University of Pennsylvania ; anatomy. 

 Prof. George S. Huntington, Columbia University; physiolog)-, 

 Prof. W. T. Porter, Harvard Medical School ; psycholog)', 

 Prof. Hugo Munsterberg, Harvard University ; anthropology. 

 Dr. Franz Boas, Columbia University ; botany. Prof. W. F. 

 Ganong, Smith College. 



At tne end of last year the Council of the German Chemical 

 Society appointed a Commission, consisting of Profs. Landoh, 

 Ostwald and Seubert, to draw up a table of atomic weights fui 

 use in calculations incident to the practice of analytical chemistry. 

 The report of the Commission is to be found in the last number 

 of the Bcrichte. It is decided to take oxygen as 16000, and t'> 

 select atomic weights for other elements in direct or indirect 

 comparison with this value. It is noteworthy that Prof. Seubert, 

 who has hitherto stood out for hydrogen (i '000) as the proper 1 

 basis for atomic weights, now concedes that for practice ; 

 purposes oxygen as l6'ooo is the more suitable standard. 

 Hydrogen thus becomes i '01. In the table as printed the atomic 

 weights are not given beyond the last trustworthy figure, and ia ■ 

 no case beyond the second decimal place. Nickel is given at S87» : 

 cobalt as 59 ; but these numbers are marked as open to some( 

 doubt. It is proposed to print the table annually in the Bericht , 

 with any revision that may be found necessary. The wish :> 

 expressed by the Commission that there should be some inter- 

 national understanding on the subject of the atomic weigl 

 used in analytical chemistry ; and it is remarked that the achie\ 

 ment of this would not be difficult, since the German table .» 

 practically the same as that issued in America by Prof. 

 F. W. Clarke on behalf of the Atomic Weight Commission of 

 the United States. The Council of the Society Imve requested 

 the Commission to open international negotiations. 



The two following items of news give support to the case f ( 

 the adoption of the metric system in this country : — The Boai 

 of Trade have received information that a large amount . 

 ironwork for bridges in Norway has been ordered from An:- 

 werp. The contractors state that they would gladly have placid 

 the order in England, but have lately gone over to order all 

 their iron from the continent, because they cannot get Engli-h 

 makers to supply the work according to the metric system, 

 and it is too complicated for them to work it all out into English > 

 measurement, feet and inches. — At a recent meeting of the, 

 Bristol Chamber of Commerce it was unanimously resolveil : 

 "That the Council of this Chamber, in view of the repealed i 

 warnings of II. M. Con.suls, and deeply sensible itself of the 

 injury done to British trade by the delay in the adoption of the 1 

 metric system of weights and measures by this country, strongly 

 urges the Government and all public bodies to aid in making;, 

 the system familiar to the public, by making use of it in their' 

 various contracts, returns, and reports." 



Upon the subject of mosquitoes and malaria, the Brilis't, 

 Medical foitruat publishes the following note :— We learn on | 

 trustworthy authority that the Italian investigators have once 

 again succeeded in conveying to man malarial infection by means I 

 of mosquito biles. The parasite in this instance was the benign ( 

 tertian ; the mosquito employed was the same as that which hasi 

 already proved an efficient transmitter of the malignant terti:iO|< 



