NATURE 



"iNov. 26, 1885 



The anniversary meeting and annual dinner ci the Royal 

 Society will take place on Monday next — St. Andrew's Day. 



The session of the Society of Arts was commenced on 

 Wednesday last by a most important address by the President, 

 Sir F. Abel, on Appliances used in Mines. We shall give this 

 on a subsequent occasion. 



Sir Joseph Hooker, we learn, retires, after a tenure of 

 twenty years, from the Directorship of Kew Gardens on the 

 30th of the present month. 



The Savilian Professor of Geometry, J. J. Sylvester, M.A., 

 Hon. D.C.L., proposes to deliver a public lecture on Satur- 

 d.ay, December 12, at 4.45 p.m., in the Mathematical Lecture 

 Room in the University Museum, Oxford, "On a General 

 Theory of the Necessary Singularities of Curves of Unspecified 

 Order." The lecture, although presupposing some elementary 

 knowledge of modern algebra, will not go into details of calcu- 

 lation, but will have for its principal object to bring to light the 

 existence of a new world of algebraical forms, co-ordinate in 

 extent and parallel in character, genesis, and laws of association 

 with those which occur in the theory of invariants. 



We hear with regret that there is a possibility of the 

 Zoological Record being discontinued after the close of the next 

 (the 2ist) annual volume, unless additional support be received 

 from those most intimately concerned in the welfare of this 

 useful and (to zoologists) indispensable resume of the work done 

 in each year. It will be a standing disgrace to British, 

 Colonial, and American zoologists, if they allow the Record to 

 lapse on attaining its majority. Those who have worked with 

 it cannot but acknowledge the aid it has afforded them ; those 

 who work without it run the risk of finding themselves antici- 

 pated. There are probably many local societies, public 

 libraries, institutions, and private individuals that have not yet 

 supported it, but should do so. The Zoological Record Asso- 

 ciation consists of members and subscribers. Members render 

 themselves liable to the extent of 5/., and on the exhaustion of 

 this sum can withdraw or renew their membership. They 

 receive the annual volume, and the average cost to them has at 

 present amounted to about 24J. Subscribers pay annually l/., 

 for which they receive the volume, and incur no further liability. 

 All those who are interested in the continuance of our Zoological 

 Record, and who are not already amongst its supporters, 

 should lose no time in communicating with the Secretary of the 

 Zoological Record Association, Mr. H. T. Stainton, F.R.S., 

 Mountsfield, Lewisham, London, S.E. 



The Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund, which has been 

 established by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of Stamford, Connecti- 

 cut, " for the advancement and prosecution of scientific research 

 in its broadest sense," now amounts to $25,000. As the income 

 is already available, the trustees desire to receive applications for 

 appropriations in aid of scientific work. This endowment is not 

 for the benefit of any one department of science, but it is the 

 intention of the trustees to give the preference to those investi- 

 gations, 7tot already othenvise provided for, which have for their 

 object the advancement of human knowledge, or the benefit of 

 mankind in general, rather than to researches directed to the 

 solution of questions of merely local importance. Applications 

 for assistance from this fund should be accompanied by a full 

 statement of the nature of the investigation, of the conditions 

 under which it is to be prosecuted, and of the manner in which 

 the appropriation asked for is to be expended. The applications 

 should be forwarded to the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, 

 Dr. C. S. Minot, 25, Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Mass., 

 U.S.A. The first grant will probably be made early in January, 

 1886. 



La Societe de Physique et d'Hittoire naturelle de Geneve 

 offers a prize of 500 francs for the best unpublished monograph 

 on a class or family of plants. The prize was founded by A. 



P. de Candolle. Manuscripts may be written in Latin, French, 

 German (in Roman letters), English, or Italian, and should be 

 sent in to the President of the Society before October 1, 1889, 

 to the Athenajum, Geneva. Members of the Society are not 

 permitted to compete, and the prize may be reduced, or not 

 awarded at all, in the event of the essays being insufficient, or not 

 conforming to these rules. The Society hope to be able to give 

 the successful monograph a place in their Transactions, should 

 that mode of publication be agreeable to the author. 



Telegrams frjm Madrid state that earthquake shocks have 

 again occurred at Velez Malaga, on the coast of the province of 

 Malaga. There appears also to be some seismic movement on 

 (he opposite African coast, producing landslips of cohsiderable 

 magnitude close to the Mediterranean, while the bed of the sea at 

 the points affected is reported to have sensibly risen. There 

 have also been sharp shocks of earthquake in Andalusia, 

 especially at Alhama, which suffered so much last year. 



Dr. Forel writes that the following shocks of earthquake 

 have been observed in Western Switzerland : — November 15, 

 2h. 15m. a.m., at Sion, Gryon, OUon, or the same region which 

 was affected on September 26 last ; November 18, gh. 25m. 

 p.m., Chevroux, south-east bank of Lake Neuchatel ; November 

 20, 5h. 45m. a.m., at Gondo, on the south face ofthe Simplon. 



Several great earthquake waves from the Pacific were ob- 

 served at San Francisco on November 19 between i and 8 

 o'clock p.m. at intervals of thirty-five minutes. 



Brigade- Surgeon Aitchison, the naturalist with the Afghan 

 Boundary Commission, arrived in England on the 23rd inst. 

 He brought his numerous collections with him as far as Batoum, 

 and there shipped them on an English steamer for London. He 

 has succeeded in obtaining a very fine specimen of a tiger from 

 Turkestan, which, if it should reach England alive, will be 

 unique of its kind, as no living spi;cimen of this animal from 

 those districts has as yet been brought to Europe. 



Capt. Mangin, the inventor of the system of optical tele- 

 graphy as now practised in the French Army, has died suddenly 

 from an attack of apoplexy at the early age of forty-five. 



The committee for erecting a statue in commemoration of 

 the late Dr. Broca has opened a public competition for this 

 monument. 



The French Minister of War has granted new credits to the 

 Meudon aeronauts for the construction of a larger balloon. 

 Workmen are enlarging the shed for building the apparatus. 



M. Menier, the well-known electrical engineer and con- 

 tractor, has purchased a large property, rue de Chateaud'un 

 (Paris), and is rebuilding it on a new system. He will sell 

 electric light to all the lodgers in the house at a reasonable rate. 

 It is the first time this speculation has ever been tried in Paris. 



We understand that the Science and Art Department have 

 given their sanction to the exhibits from the Buckland Museum 

 Collection being retained by the South Kensington Aquarium 

 authorities until the close of the Indian aud Colonial Exhibition 

 next year. A better position f^r them could not be found, more 

 especially as the casts of fish hung upon the walls are in bon 

 accord with the living specimens in the tanks. 



The Norwegian Forest Association, started in 1881, is making 

 very good progress. At present there are about 250 members. 

 The Association's journal for the current year, embracing some 

 300 pages, contains a number of important papers by the most 

 eminent Norwegian writers on the subject of forests and forest 

 culture. A meeting for the discussion of important subjects 

 takes place annually. The question of preserving the old and 

 cultivating new forests appears to be coming more and more to the 

 front in Scandinavia, where the Government has now esta- 

 blished several schools with plantations for the cultivation of 

 young plants. In Sweden the children of the rural Board- 



