490 



JSA TV RE 



[March 23, 1899 



NOTES. 



Wk regret to see the announcement of the- death ol Prof. O. 

 C Marsh, the distinguished palx'ontologist of Yale University. 



The French .Minister of I'ublic Instruction has nominated 

 I'rof. I'oincare president of the Bureau des Longitudes ; M. 

 Faye, vice-president : and Prof. Lippniann, secretary. 



The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be 

 held on Thursday and Friday, May 4 and 5, commencing each 

 day at 10.30 o'clock a.m. The President-elect (Sir William 

 Roberts-Austen, K.C.B.) will deliver his inaugural address; 

 and papers promised by Prof. J. O. Arnold, Mr. H. Bauerman, 

 Mr. E. Disdicr, Messrs. Jeremiah and A. P. Head, Baron H. 

 von Jiiptner, Prof. H. Louis, Mr. Berlrand S. Summers, and 

 I'rof. Wiborgh are expected to be read and discussed. The 

 annual dinner of the Institute will be held in the Grand Hall 

 of the Hotel Cecil on May 4. The autumn meeting of the 

 Institute will be held in Manchester on August 15-18. 



A DINNER which took place at the Fishmongers' Hall on 

 March 14, possesses especial interest to us, on account of 

 the fact that it was given in honour of science, and that 

 the guests included a great number of scientific men, among 

 them being the Presidents of the following Societies and 

 scientific bodies: Royal, Royal Horticultural, Royal College of 

 Physicians, Royal geographical, Uermatological, Royal Micro- 

 scopical, Victoria Institute, Royal Statistical, Royal College 

 -of -Surgeons, Royal Astronomical, Zoological, Linnean, Chem- 

 ical, Entomological, Philological, and Clinical. The toast 

 of the evening was " Science," and was proposed in an 

 ■eloquent speech by the Prime Warden, Mr. J. A. Travers, who 

 pointed out the great advance science had made in the last 

 twelve years ; he recommended, further, the special study of 

 preventive medicine, to ensure for (Ireat Britain a safer footing 

 in foreign climates. Lord Lister responded to the toast, and 

 urged City Companies to support pure science ; he referred also 

 to the help they had rendered the Jenner Institute. Sir William 

 MacCormac then proposed the health of the Prime Warden. 

 The occasion is noteworthy in that it indicates the growing 

 recognition of the value of scientific work. 



On March 18 the Austrian Society of Engineers celebrated 

 its jubilee in the Municipal Council Chamber, Vienna, under 

 the presidency of Mr. 1". Berger. There was a large attend- 

 ance of members ; and representatives of sixty-six kindred 

 societies presented addresses. Congratulatory speeches were 

 <lelivered by the Austrian Minister of Railways, the Minister of 

 Commerce, the (Jovernor of Lower Austria, the Secretary of 

 Ihe Iron and Steel Institute, London, the Secretary of the 

 French .Society of Civil Engineers, Paris, and the Secretary of 

 the .Society of (iernian Engineers, Berlin, A paper was then 

 read by Mr. A. Riicker on the part taken by the Austrian Society 

 of Engineers in the technical progress of the past fifty years. 

 The Austrian Society is a very intiuential one. At its foundation 

 in 1848 it numbered seventy-nine members ; at the present time 

 there are 2388. 



Dr. J. N. Lan(;i.ev, F.R.S., University Lecturer on 

 Histology, Cambridge, has been elected a member of the 

 Athena'um Club under the provisions of the rule which empowers 

 the annual election by the Committee of nine persons " of dis- 

 tinguished eminence in science, literature, the arts, or for public 

 services." 



The aiiniver.^ary meeting of the Chemical Society will be 



held on Wednesday, March 29, at 3 p.m. Prof. Dewar has 



presented to the Society a daguerreotype of Dalton, the portrait 



J)eing one of two taken in 1842. In expressing thanks for Ihe 



NO. I 534. VOL. 59] 



gift on behalf of the meeting at which Prof. Dewar announced 

 his intention of presenting the daguerreotype to the Society, 

 Prof. Tilden remarked that he believed that the well-known 

 portrait of Dalton engraved by Jeans, and appearing as the 

 frontispiece in Roscoe and Schorlemmer's "Treatise on 

 Chemistry," was prepared from a drawing made from this 

 daguerreotype. 



Father R. P. Colin, known for his cartographical works 

 on Madagascar, has been elected a correspondant of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, in the section of geography and navigation. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times states that the French 

 Minister of Agriculture has created at the Agronomic Institute 

 a chair of biology of plants cultivated in France and her 

 Colonies. 



The steamer Soutliern Cross has arrived at Port Chalmers, 

 New Zealand, from Victoria Land, with Mr. Borchgrevink and 

 the other members of the Antarctic expedition under his charge. 



Prof. Duclaux, director of the Pasteur Institute at Paris, 

 has had the honour of the second class of the Osman Order 

 conferred upon him by the Sultan. 



The New York .Vcademy of Sciences will hold its sixth 

 annual exhibition in the American Museum of Natural History 

 on April 11 and 12. Tlie exhibition will illustrate the advances 

 in various departments of science during last year. 



A DEi'UTATiON of the Decimal Association to the President 

 of the Board of Trade, in favour of the compulsory adoption of 

 the metric weights and measures in this country, was arranged 

 for yesterday as we went to press. 



The Associated Chambers of Commerce passed the following 

 resolution at one of their meetings last week : — " That, in view 

 of the time w-asted in teaching a system of weights and measures 

 which, according to the First Lord of the Treasury, is ' arbitrary, 

 perverse, and utterly irrational,' and in the opinion of Her 

 Majesty's Consuls is responsible for great injury to British 

 trade, this association urges Her Majesty's Government to in- 

 troduce into and endeavour to carry through Parliament as 

 speedily as possible a Bill providing that the use of the metric 

 system of weights and measures shall be compulsory in this 

 country within two years from the passing of the Bill, and 

 suggests that meanwhile the system should be adopted in all 

 specifications for (Government contracts." 



The proposal to place in Corsock Parish Church, by half- 

 guinea subscriptions, a memorial window in memory of Prof. 

 James Clerk Maxwell has already been referred to in these 

 columns. A corresporulent informs us that, to complete the 

 window, about 40/. more is required. There should be no 

 difficulty in obtaining this amount from admirers of Clerk Max- 

 well who have not yet subscribed. Subscriptions may be sent 

 to Rev. George Sturrock, The Manse, Corsock, by Dalbeattie, 

 N.B. 



A ijUESTlON was asked in the House of Commons on Thurs- 

 day as to when the North Sea F-isheries Conference would get 

 to work, how the conference would be constituted, and what 

 instructions would be given to it. In reply Mr. Brodrick said : 

 "The Foreign Ollice are quite aware of the urgency of this 

 question, and have urged the Swedish Government to hurry on 

 the assembly of the conference. The conference will meet in 

 the month of May, and delegates will be sent by the various 

 Powers concerned. This question will be considered by experts 

 and by pr.iclical men sitting together. The programme of the 

 conference is now before Her Majesty's Government.'" 



