February i6, 1899] 



NATURE 



375 



spired his successors with the spirit of observation, investigation, 

 and experiment. We see this exemplified in his great followers 

 Cline, Abernethy, Astley Cooper, Travers, Green, Brodie, 

 Lawrence, and others since their time. They have been 

 makers of English surgery, and each in turn has done much 

 to raise it to that high standard which it has always 

 maintained." 



It is interesting to learn that " it is not the intention of the 

 Government to move the Geological Museum from Jermyn 

 Street." This is the reply (reported in the Standard oi February 

 10) which was given by the Right Hon. A. Akers-Douglas to a 

 question asked in the House of Commons by Sir F. Powell. 

 Those who are accustomed to make practical and scientific use 

 of the Geological Survey and of the Museum in Jermyn Street, 

 will hail ihis decision with satisfaction. 



In the House of Commons, on Thursday last, Mr. Akers- 

 Douglas announced that it is proposed to commence the new 

 buildings in front of the South Kensington Museum within the 

 next few weeks. He said that all the new buildings on the east 

 side of the Exhibition Road will be devoted to the art collections. 

 The existing science building on the east side of the road will be 

 the only portion which will continue to be used for science pur- 

 poses. The new science buildings will be erected on the west 

 side of the road. 



In reply to a question referring to the Imperial Institute' 

 asked in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr. Chamberlain 

 said : " I believe that a conference of representatives of the 

 Government, the Imperial Institute, and the London Uni- 

 versity will shortly take place to consider whether a part of the 

 Institute buildings can, with due regard to all existing interests, 

 be made available for the accommodation of the London 

 University,- as reconstituted by the Act of last Session. Until 

 the result of the deliberations of the conference is known it 

 would be premature to consider what, if any, further steps 

 should l)e taken in the matter." 



Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., P'.R.S., having on Wednesday 

 attained his sixty-fifth birthday, retires from the position of 

 Engineer-in-Chief and Electrician to the Post Office, but it is 

 hoped that his services will be retained by the Postmaster- 

 General as consulting engineer. 



Ar the anniversary meeting of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society on B'riday last, Mr. Frank McClean, F.R.S., was 

 awarded the gold medal of the Society for his photographic 

 survey of stars in both hemispheres, and other contributions to 

 the advancement of astrcmomy. 



The Board of Agriculture have appointed a departmental 

 committee to inquire into and report upon the working of the 

 Diseases of Animals Acts in so far as they relate to glanders, and 

 to consider whether any more effective measures can with 

 advantage be taken to prevent the spread of that disease. 



On Friday last Mr. W. W. Skeat, of Cambridge University, 

 left England upon a scientific expedition to the southern portion 

 of Siam lying immediately to the north of the Protected States 

 of the .Malay Peninsula. Mr. Skeat is accompanied by two 

 zoologists — Messrs. Evans and Annandale, of Oxford— and by 

 Mr. Gwynne-Vaughan, formerly of Christ's College, Cambridge, 

 as botanist. Later on several other scientific members are to 

 join the party. The expedition will investigate the fauna and 

 flora of the region mentioned, as well as the ethnology of its 

 inhabitants, and it is expected will last about a year. 



Dr. D. T. MacDougal, of the Botanical Department of 

 the University of Minnesota, has been elected director of the 

 laboratories of the New York Botanical Gardens, and will 



begin his duties in that institution upon the completion of the 

 museum and laboratory building in July. The main horti- 

 cultural houses of the garden, covering nearly three acres, are 

 now in process of construction, and will be ready for use during 

 the current year. 



A REPORT from Krasnoyarsk states that the remains of a 

 balloon, and the bodies of three men, have been found between 

 Komo and Pit, in the province of Yeniseisk, by two Tunguses, 

 a tribe inhabiting the Taimur peninsula, in northern Siberia. 

 It is suggested that the dead men are Herr Andree and his 

 companions, but the information so far received is not sufficient 

 tojustifyany conclusion being arrived at. The latest news is 

 from Stockholm, and it reports that a telegram has been 

 received there from M. Reuterskiold, the Swedish Minister in 

 St. Petersburg, in which he states that he has to hand a 

 telegram from the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia con- 

 firming the statements of the two Tunguses. The Governor 

 adds that he has despatched a mining inspector to conduct 

 investigations on the spot. 



The Department of Science and Art informs us that a horti- 

 cultural congress will be held at Ghent in June next. 



The twenty-ninth general meeting of the Institution of Mining 

 Engineers will be held in North Staffordshire on Wednesday, 

 February 22. 



The death is announced of Dr. Dareste de la Chavanne, dis- 

 tinguished by his investigations in animal teratology, and 

 formerly president of the French Society of Anthropology. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of the Rev. 

 William Colenso, F.R.S., of New Zealand. He was dis- 

 tinguished as a naturalist, and made many valuable investiga- 

 tions of Maori antiquities and myths. 



The Athenaeum announces the death of the well-known 

 zoologist and geologist. Dr. Franz Lang, of Soleure, at the age 

 of seventy-eight. He was for many years teacher of natural 

 history at, and rector of, the Kantonal-Schule, and also one of 

 the presidents of the Swiss Naturforschende Gesellschaft. 



Mr. A. A. Campbell Svvinton will give a lecture on 

 "Electric Discharges in Vacuo, and the Rbntgen Rays," at 

 the Glasgow Philosophical Society, on March i. 



We learn from the Lancet that the Cameron prize of the 

 University of Edinburgh, which is conferred on persons who have 

 made valuable additions to the subject of practical therapeutics, 

 has, on the recommendation of the Faculty of Medicine, been 

 awarded by the Senatus Academicus to Dr. Monckton Cope- 

 man, of the Local Government Board, London, in recognition 

 of his researches on the employment of glycerine for destroying 

 pathogenic organisms in vaccine lymph. 



The question of the future water-supply of London, which 

 has agitated the minds of many, was dealt with on February 8, 

 at a meeting of the Sanitary Institute, by Mr. R. E. Middleton. 

 He maintained that our magnificent river (the Thames) can 

 afford a more than sufficient supply of water of the best quality, 

 and at far less expense, than the suggested scheme for procuring 

 a supply from Wales. Sir Douglas Galton, who occupied the 

 chair at this meeting, said it had been abundantly shown that 

 the filtration of water, as practised in London, gave us a most 

 admirable supply at the present time. Major Flower remarked 

 that the Staines Reservoir, now in course of construction, would, 

 when completed, meet all requirements, and obviate the necessity 

 of going to a distant source for the supply of water. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal that, on February 

 2, a new Bacteriological Institute was formally opened in the 

 Univerity of Louvain. The Institute is on a large scale, and 



NO. 1529, VOL. 59] 



