276 



NA TURE 



[January 19, 1899 



Mr. T. G. Baker, F.R.S., has retired from the post of 

 curator of the Herbarium at Kew, in which he is succeeded by 

 Mr. W. Botting Hemsley, F.R.S. 



Proi'. G. H. Darwin, K. R.S., ha? been nominated 

 president of the IJoyal Astronomical Society, for election at 

 the annual meeting on February lo. Mr. F. W. . Dyson has 

 been nominated to succeed I'rof. Turner as secretary. 



With a view to encourage inoculation among its servants, 

 the Madras Government has authorised the grant of three days' 

 •casual leave on full pay to those inoculated. The operation is 

 purely voluntary. Similar concessions are granted to those 

 attending the Government and aided schools. 



It is reported that an extraordinary long-distance telephone 

 test has been made at Little Rock, Arkansas, by President 

 Chas. J. Glidden, of the South-Western Telegraph and Tele- 

 phone Company, who held a conversation over the wire with a 

 Boston friend. The distance from Little Rock to Boston is 

 1900 miles. 



The Automobile Club de France announces a competition 

 for motor-car accumulators, to t.ike place in Paris in April 

 next. Tests will be made on the life of the cells, and on their 

 useful efficiency ; and account will be taken of the " frequency, 

 importance, and facility of operations for maintenance," and of 

 the weight of the cells. 



We learn from Science that Prof. G. W. Farlow, of Harvard 

 University, has been elected president of the American Society 

 of Naturalists ; Prof. R. S. Woodward, of Columbia University, 

 has been elected president of the American Mathematical Society, 

 in succession to Prof. Simon Xewcomb ; and Prof. John Dewey, 

 of the University of Chicago, has been elected president of the 

 American Psychological Association. 



Reijter reports that the eruption of \'esuvius on January 15 

 attained great proportions, the flow of lava being greater than 

 any which has hitherto occurred. Streams of lava are flowing 

 ■down the mountain side, one passing near the observatory and 

 another going in the direction of the lower station of the funicular 

 railway. 



The death is announced of Dr. Constantine Vousakis, pro- 

 fessor of physiology in the University of Athens. 



The death is announced of Brigade-Surgeon Lieut. -Colonel 

 Robert Pringle, late of the Indian army. Lieut. Colonel 

 Pringle was for many years attached to the sanitary department 

 of the North-West Provinces and Oudh, and took a keen 

 interest in all problems connected with public health, es])ecially 

 in relation to India. He was the author of numerous papers 

 and pamphlets contributed to medical journals, the Society of 

 Arts, sanitary conferences, and other places. 



The death of Prof. Wilhelm Dames, professor of geology 

 and pal.vontology at the University of Berlin, in his fifty-sixth 

 year, is announced in the Athenaeum. He was a pupil of 

 Beyrich, and succeeded him in 1896 as director of the 

 geological-pal.-vontological collection. Amongst his many 

 scientific publications, his studies upon fossil fishes stand in the 

 foreground. Since 18S3 he had been the co-editor with E. 

 Kayser of the Berlin Palaontologische Ahhandlungen. 



Dr. Gottlieb Cji.ucm;, Kmeritus professor of physiology 

 and anatomy in the University of Brussels, has (says the 

 J.aiicct) died at Nice, aged eighty-six years, having been born 

 in Westphalia in 1812. While a student in Berlin he worked 

 with Froriep, who was prosector at the Charilc, and discovered 

 the oil globules in cells undergoing fatty degeneration. .Vfter 

 a period of study in Paris he published an important paper on 

 influenza treated historically and pathologically, for which he 

 ivas awarded a prize by the Berlin Medical F.acully. In iSjS 

 NO. 1525, VOL. 59] 



he was appointed professor of physiology in Brussels. His 

 " Atl.is of Pathological .\natomy " appeared in parts from 1843 

 to 1850. For the last twenty-three years he had been living in 

 retirement. 



The Times correspondent at Washington states that Prof. 

 Worcester, of .Michigan University, has been asked to be a 

 member of the commission which President McKinley will send 

 to the Philippines. It is understood that the commission will 

 study the manners and habits of the Filipinos, the material 

 resources of the country, and its commercial possibilities, but 

 will not attempt to deal with the problem of its govcrnmenl. 

 Dr. Schurman, president of Cornell University, will be pre- 

 sident of the commission, which is expected to sail about 

 February I. 



An abstract of a report on the mineral resources of the 

 Philippine Islands, sent by Dr. George F. Becker to the U.S. 

 Geological Survey, is published in ScieiKe. Dr. Becker says 

 that, so far as is definitely known, the coal of the Philippine 

 Islands is all of the Tertiary age, and might better be 

 characterised as a highly carbonized lignite. Lignite is widely 

 distributed in the archipelago ; some of the seams are of excel- 

 lent width, and the quality of certain of them is high for fuel in 

 this class. Coal exists in various provinces of the Island of 

 Luzon, and a number of concessions for mining have been 

 granted. Many of the other islands contain coal, and in the 

 great Island of Mindanao it is known to occur at eight different 

 localities. In the Island of Cebu petroleum has been found 

 associated with coal at Toledo, on the w'est coast, where a 

 concession has been granted. It is also reported from Asturias, 

 to the north of Toledo on the same coast, and from Alegria to 

 the south. Natural gas is said to exist in the Cebu coal fields. 

 On Panay, too, oil is reported at Janinay, in the province of 

 lloilo, and gas is reported from the same island. Petroleum 

 highly charged with paraftin is also found on Leyte at a point 

 about four miles from Villaba, a town on the west coast. Gold 

 is found at a vast number of localities in the archipelago, from 

 northern Luzon to central Mindanao. In most cases the gold 

 is detrital, and is found either in existing water-cour.ses, or in 

 stream deposits now deserted by the current. Copper ores are 

 reported from a great number of localities in the Philippines. 

 .\ lead mine has been partially developed near the town of 

 Celm, and there is iron ore in abundance in Luzon, Caraballo, 

 Cebu, Panay, and doubtless in other islands. Sulphur deposits 

 abound about active and extinct volcanoes in the Philippines. 



A Reuter correspondent at Cadiz reports that the coffin 

 containing the remains of Christopher Columbus has been 

 opened. It was found to contain about thirty bones and some 

 ashes. The coflin was then closed again and conveyed on board 

 the despatch boat Giralda, which was to leave on Wednesday for 

 Seville, where the remains of Columbus will lie received with 

 great ceremony and deposited in the cathedral. 



The prize awards of the Paris Academy of Medicine are 

 announced in the HrilisU Medical foiinial. This year, as 

 usual, the most noteworthy features were the decisions of the 

 Academy .is to the Audiffred, Laborie, Chcvillon, and Adrien 

 Buisson prizes. Two years ago Madame .Audifl'red gave a 

 cajiital sum, estimated 10 produce an income of 2400 francs 

 (960/.), to be awarded as a prize to any one who shall discover 

 a means of curing or preventing tuberculosis. Among the 

 serious workers who competed, special mention is made of Dr. 

 Auclair, of Paris, who has made interesting researches on the 

 substances extracted from the tubercle bacillus, and has shown 

 that the falty matters contained in excess in the bacillus are 

 necrosing agents, and doubtless play a part in the resistance of 

 the Isicilli to phagocytosis. A sum of So/, was awarded to him 

 by way of encouragement, while 20/. was given on the same 



