446 



NATURE 



[March 9, 1899 



metry, his real aim is declared by Klein— and the de- 

 claration can find ample support from his memoirs and 

 his treatises — to have been the achievement of progress 

 in the theory of diftercntial equations. It was for this 

 purpose that he developed his theory of transformations, 

 and worked at it from his earliest productive days to his 

 latest with a consistent tenacity characteristic alike of 

 the nature and the strength of his mathematical genius. 



The death of Sophus Lie removes from the rank of 

 active workers in pure mathematics one of the most 

 conspicuous, independent, and original minds of his 

 tjeneration. .■^. K- F- 



NOTES. 

 The Joint Committee of the Royal Society and the Royal 

 Geographical Society, appointed to promote the project of an 

 .Anlarclic Expedition, have made recommendations to the Royal 

 .Society Council and to the Council of the British Association, in 

 pursuance of which the Treasurer of the Royal Society has 

 applied on behalf of the Council to the Government Grant 

 Committee for looo/., and the Council of the British Asso- 

 ciation has resolved to recommend to the General Committee to 

 contribute a like amount towards the expenses of the proposed 

 undertaking. 



The Croonian Lecture will be given at the Royal Society 

 on Thursday next, March l6, byDr. Burdon-Sanderson, K.R.S. 

 Subject — "The Electrical Concomitants of Motion in Animals 

 and Plants." 



A MEETING of the committee of the Liverpool Association of 

 Foreign Consuls was held on February 27, in the office of the 

 Brazilian Consulate, for the purpose of taking into consideration 

 the Liverpool School of Tropical Diseases and its recognition 

 by the Governments represented. The company having been 

 addressed by Mr. Alfred L. Jones, as representing the Congo 

 Free Stale, and by .Mr. Ehrenberg, consul for Sweden and 

 Norway, it was agreed to hold a general meeting of the consuls 

 on -March 9, so that they might be better able to inform their 

 Governments on the subject. Prof. Koyce then explained that 

 four courses of two months each would be given to qualified 

 men every year. Liverpool, he thought, was the best possible 

 place in which to establish such a school, as they had examples 

 of the diseases in question brought from all the tropical regions 

 of the world. Besides instructing qualified medical men who 

 would have appointments on shipboard, or intended to practise 

 in tropical countries, Ihey would admit missionaries to the 

 classes, and would also train black women as nurses. 



Beini', invited to take part in the opening of the new School 

 of Tropical Diseases at Liverpool, Prof Koch has written 

 regretting his inability to be present, and saying : " Permit me 

 to express my sympathy with the new institution and to offer 

 my best wishes for the success of your grand and useful under- 

 taking. I certainly hi>pc to be able later to have the opportunity 

 to personally visit the new inslitulinn.y In another letter the 

 professor says ; " HIackwaler fever is the most important disease 

 in West Africa, but one which, I am convinced, it will be easy 

 10 prevent when the course and character of the disease become 

 more familiar. Up to the present we have received, with very 

 few exceptions, very satisfactory accounts. Those practitioners 

 in the tropics who have written, give nothing more than 

 anecdoiary reports of no .scientific value whatever. It will be 

 one of the most important duties of the new school to give 

 medical men going out to the tropics a clear idea of the disea,se, 

 and to impress on them how to make and collect scientific and 

 useful observations. Vou in Liverpool have opportunities of 

 scei^ng ca.ses ; even here in Germany I have seen five cases (two 

 NO. 1532, VOL. 59] 



in Berlin) during the last half-year in persons who have 

 returned from the tropics." 



We are informed by the Secretary 01 the Institution of Elec- 

 trical Engineers that, as many members and others failed to 

 gain admission to the meeting on March 2, Mr. .Marconi has 

 promised, at the request of the Council, to repeat his lecture 

 on wireless telegraphy, with demonstration, on Thursday, 

 March 16, in the theatre of the Examination Hall, Victoria 

 Embankment. Up to 7.45 p.m. admission will be only by 

 tickets, to be obtained by members on application to the 

 Secretary. 



The Royal Institution Friday evening discourse on March 

 ID is on " Measuring Extreme Temperatures," by Prof. H. L. 

 Callendar, F. R.S. ; that on March 17 is on " The Electric Fish 

 of the Nile," by I'rof Francis Gotch, F. R.S. ; and that on 

 March 24 on " Transparency and Opacity," by Lord Rayleigh, 

 F.R.S. 



The new laboratories in connection with the Middlesex 

 Hospital Medical School are, we hear, now completed. They 

 are equipped w ith all the best modern appli.ances for the purpose 

 of instruction and original research. An inaugural conversazione 

 will be held on the evening of Wednesday, March 15, in the new ' 

 buildings, when many objects of interest will be exhibited. 



The President of the Board of Trade has consented to receive 

 a deputation of representatives from the Decimal Association, 

 Chambers of Commerce, Educational Institutions, and Trades 

 Unions on March 22, when the Government will be urged 

 to make compulsory the use of the metric weights and 

 measures after a period of two years, January I, 1901, having 

 been suggested as a suitable date for the introduction of the new- 

 system. 



The Fothergillian gold medal for 1899 has, on the recom- 

 mendation of a special committee of the Meilical Society of 

 London, been awarded to Dr. S. Monckton Copeman " in 

 recognition of his researches on the preservative effects of 

 glycerine upon vaccine lymph and of the benefits in a practical 

 sense that have arisen therefrom." 



Science announces that the House Committee on Appropri- 

 ations has recommended an increase of 4200 dollars in the 

 annual appropriation for .scientific work of the United States 

 Fish Commission. This increase is made after an examination 

 of the practical results that have attended the lines of scientific 

 research carried on during the past year. 



A Bill has been introduced into the New York Assembly 

 appropriating 30,000 dollars to continue the promotion of the 

 sugar beet industry. Of this amount 2500 dollars are devoted 

 to making experiments by the Commissioner of .\griculture. 



Ir is reported that a committee has been appointed by the 

 Council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers to inquire into 

 the future of electrical engineering in the domain of telephony 

 in this country. 



On November 17, 1897, the sum of twenty thousand dollars 

 was given to the National Academy of Sciences, as trustee, to 

 establish a fund to be known as the Benjamin .\pthorp Gould 

 Fund, in memory of the father of the donor. Miss Alice Bache 

 Gould, the income lo be used to assist the prosecution of re- 

 searches in astronomy. A sufficient available income has now 

 accrued from the fund to warrant beginning its distribution, and 

 the Directors are prepared to receive and consider applications 

 for appropriations. In accordance with the wish of the donor, 

 work in the astronomy of precision shall, in all crises, be given 

 the preference over any work in astrophysics. The fund is in- 



