6l2 



NA TURE 



[April 27, 1899 



had eighteen years' training in his subject, while his discoveries 

 in relation to the tnalarial parasite have placed him amongst the 

 foremost investigators. In January last Dr. Laveran com- 

 municated Major Ross's researches to the French Academy of 

 Medicine, the Italian observers have confirmed his observations, 

 and more recently I'rof. Koch has shown their importance and 

 accuracy. In no place in this country will such work be more 

 generally appreciated than in Liverpool. 



Prok. Heinrich Kiei'ERT, the distinguished geographer, 

 ■died at Berlin on Friday last, at the age of eighty-one. His 

 geographical work consisted largely in the construction of maps 

 illustrative of ancient history, and more especially of South- 

 Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Prof Kiepert was born at 

 Berlin, and studied at the University of that city, .\fter having 

 charge for a few years of ihe Geographical Institute in Weimar, 

 Kiepert returned to Berlin, and in 1859 was appointed Extra- 

 ordinary Professor, and in 1S74 Ordinary Professor, of Geography 

 in the University. His activity in the production of maps and 

 atlases, together with memoirs to accompany these, continued 

 almost unabated to the end. 



The death is announced, at eighty-two years of age, of Mr. 

 Jabez Hogg, distinguished as an ophthalmic surgeon, micro- 

 scopist, and writer of scientific works. He was vice-president 

 of the Medical Society in 1851-52, was elected a Fellow of the 

 Linnean Society in 1866, and honorary secretary to the Royal 

 Microscopical Society from 1S67 to 1872. He was the first 

 president of the Medical Microscopical Society. Mr. Hogg was 

 a prolific writer, and was the author of works on photography, 

 <lomestic medicine, English forests and forest trees, experi- 

 mental and natural philosophy ; history, construction, and 

 applications of the microscope ; colour blindness, microscopic 

 examination of water, and numerous papers on disease of the 

 •eye, contributed to the medical journals. 



Mr. Joseph Wolf, an artist whose pictures of animals have 

 delighted many naturalists, died on Thursday last, at the 

 age of seventy-nine. Referring to his career, the Titnes states 

 that he was early apprenticed to a lithographer, studied in 

 Antwerp, and came by invitation to London to take up the 

 work of illustration for Gray's " (ienera of Birds," a standard 

 work then in progress. This led to work for the Proceedings of 

 the Zoological and Linnean Societies. .Xmong other books for 

 which he made drawings were " The Birds of Nurth-East 

 Africa," " The Birds of Japan," and Gould's " Birds of Great 

 Britain"; while he also helped to illustrate Livingstones 

 "Missionary Travels," Wallace's "Malay .-Vrchipelago,'" and 

 Baldwin's " African Hunting." His studio was once a resort 

 of explorers, artists, and scientific men ; among his friends and 

 admirers were Darwin, Owen, Oswell, and the Duke of Argyll. 

 It is, however, chiefly by the books he has enriched with in- 

 imitable illustrations that he is best known. In the seventies 

 his " Life and Habits of Wild Animals" was in the hands of 

 «very naturalist. 



Reuter's Agency is informed th.at the following are Dr. 

 Sven Hedin's plans for his new expedition in Central .Asia : — 

 Dr. Sven lledin will start from Stockholm at the end of June, 

 and will travel direct through Russia and Turkestan to Kashgar, 

 taking a new route over the mountains. On reaching Kashgar 

 he will proceed in an easterly direction for the purpose of 

 making fresh investigations in Chinese Turkestan, where he 

 hopes to find further antif|uities. Thence he will visit the Lop- 

 nor region, and will cross the great Sand Desert by more than 

 one route. After going to Tibet and exploring that portion of 

 the country to the south of his former route, he will return via 

 India. As in the case of his famous journey across Asia, Dr. 

 Sven Hedin's objects on this expedition are purely scientific. 

 NO. 1539, VOL. 59] 



Dr. Hedin is, however, better prepared than he was on that 

 occasion, and hopes to achieve even better results than he did 

 then. The expenses of the expedition, which will amount to 

 2000/., have been defrayed by King Oscar, .Mr. Emanuel Nobel, 

 and others. 



The first annual report of the Secretary of the Washington 

 Academy of Sciences has been issued. For several years efforts! 

 have been made to federate the various scientific societies inl 

 Washington, and a committee appointed with this end in view 

 formulated a pl.an of co-operation in 1882, which was adopted by 

 the Anthropological and Biological Societies, but was rejected by 

 the Philosophical, and thus failed to be realised. Six years later a 

 movement to secure a permanent committee to deal with ques- 

 tions of common interest was more successful, and a Joint Com- 

 mission, upon which the several scientific .societies were repre- 

 sented, was created. Out of this Commission, which was 

 primarily organised for business purposes, the Washington 

 Academy has grown. 'The Academy was incorporated a year 

 ago, with Prof. J. R. Eastman as president, Prof G. K. Gilbert 

 as secretary, and Mr. B. R. Green as treasurer. The vice- 

 presidents, elected on the nomination of the ■several scientific 

 societies, are : for the Anthropological Society, Prof. J. W. 

 Powell ; Biological, Dr. L. O. Howard ; Chemical, Mr. H. N. 

 Stokes; Entomological, Mr. W. H. Ashmead ; Geographic, 

 Mr. A. Graham Bell ; Geological, Mr. C. D. Walcott ; and 

 Philosophical, Prof F. H. Bigelow. In addition to the seven 

 societies here mentioned, the affiliated societies are the Columbia 

 Historical Society, and the Medical Society. 



On Tuesday next, May 2, Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, 

 F.R.S., will deliver the first of a course of two lectures at the 

 Royal Institution on electric eddy currents. These are the 

 Tyndall lectures. The Friday evening discourse on May 5 will 

 be delivered by Dr. W. J. Russell, F. R.S. ; his subject is 

 " Pictures produced on photographic plates in the dark." 



The expenses connected with the preparation and publica- 

 tion of the second volume of the " Recueil des donnees numer- 

 iques," just issued by the French Physical Society, have been 

 paid by a friend of science who desires to remain anonymous. 

 The amount paid was 9600 francs, in addition to which M. 

 Gauthier.Villars deducted 734 francs from the account as the 

 contribution of the printer towards this valuable work. 



Mr. F. J. Bennett, who joined the Geological Survey of 

 England in 186S, has just resigned his post on the staff. During 

 his long service he has mapped large areas of the Cretaceous, 

 Tertiary, and Drift deposits in the Eastern counties, and in 

 Surrey, Berkshire, and Wiltshire. He retires to West Mailing 

 in Kent. 



Dr. M. E. Wadsworth has protested against the introduction, 

 by Dr. E. Hussak and Mr. G. T. Prior, of the name " Zir- 

 kelite " for a new mineral, on the ground that he (Dr. Wads- 

 worth) had previously used the name for a basaltic glassy lava, 

 which often forms the entire mass of thin dykes, and the 

 exterior parts of larger dykes of diabase and melaphyr. 



Mr. a. a. Jin.iEN has discussed (/ounial of the Franklin 

 Institute, April 1899) the elements of strength in the consti- 

 tution and structure of building-stones. He remarks that 

 blocks of hewn stone are always seamed and weakened by 

 minute cracks. Kude processes of quarrying, ihe use of heavy 

 hammers, and blasting, are apt to act injuriously on stone, and 

 to cause an inferiority in hewn as compared with sawn cubes. 

 He draws attention to the minute structure of various rocks ; 

 and, after all, concludes that the most satisfactory of all tests, 

 when available, under known conditions and of sufficient 



