Fuly 15, 1886} 
NATURE 245 
agencies. While the rocks beneath a glacier are being 
worn and rounded, the stones set in the ice are in turn 
battered and scratched and often ground down to plane 
surfaces that are not infrequently polished and covered 
with glacial striae. 
As a tule, alpine glaciers follow pre-existing drainage 
valleys, which they enlarge and broaden. As frequently 
stated, a stream-cut gorge is distinctly V-shaped, but after 
being occupied bya glacier it is found to have become 
U-shaped in cross-section. 
The records of glacial action looked for by geologists 
are: deposits of morainal material, which frequently 
differs from the adjacent country rock, and may occur in 
an irregular manner or be grouped definitely as lateral 
and terminal moraines; boulders perched in fortuitous 
positions, as on steep slopes and hill-tops ; smoothly 
rounded rocky knolls; polished and scratched rock 
surfaces ; rock-basins, &c. 
NOTES 
Ir is stated that the forthcoming ‘‘ Life and Letters of Charles 
Darwin,” by Mr. Francis Darwin, will contain a brief auto- 
biographical fragment. 
Mr. Murray announces a new edition of Darwin’s work on 
“The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,” with 
the author’s latest corrections. 
WE learn from the 7zmes that Dr. Hermann Abich, the dis- 
tinguished Austrian naturalist, died at Vienna on the Ist inst. at 
the advanced age of eighty years. He was born at Berlin on 
December 11, 1806, and attained the grade of Doctor in the 
University of that city before he was twenty-five. His first 
scientific tours were in Sicily and Italy. He then became Pro- 
fessor of Mineralogy at Dorpat, and devoted most of his Jeisure 
during his residence in Russia to travels in the Caucasus, 
Armenia, and Northern Persia. His earliest published work 
was on Vesuvius and Etna in 1833-34, and his latest seems to 
have been brought out in 1862 on the Geology of Daghestan. 
By his own request his remains were removed to Gotha for the 
purpose of cremation. 
WITH reference to the recent catastrophe by which the Kinz 
ef Bavaria and his physician lost their lives, Sctesce notes that 
Dr. Gudden is a sad loss to science, for he was one of the most 
noted authorities in the sphere of nervous and mental diseases. 
He has also been at the head of a laboratory in which investi- 
gations of the fine anatomy of the brain, spinal cord, and sense- 
organs have been carried on. He has given his name to a 
manner of studying the connections of the nervous system which 
is as ingenious as it has proved fruitful of results. His method 
consists in extirpating a sense-organ or other part of an animal 
when young, and then allowing the animal to grow up. At 
death the animal is examined, and the fibres which have failed 
to develop will thus be marked out as the paths of connection 
between the extirpated sense-organ and the brain-centre. For 
many years he had been at work on the problem as to the mode 
of connection between the retina and the brain, but his results 
are not yet before the public. 
ACCORDING to Sczence the first circular of the local committee 
at Buffalo of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, announces that the meetings will be held in the recently 
enlarged high-school building. Reduced rates have been ob- 
tained over many of the railroads, most of which allow a return 
ticket at one-third of the usual fare. The Western Union Tele- 
graph Company will place its lines and district telegraph system 
at the service of members. The Botanical Club of Buffalo is 
arranging an excursion and reception for the Botanical Section, 
and the local Entomological Club is doing the same kind service 
for the Entomological Section. The address of the local secre- 
tary is Dr. Julius Pohlman, Buffalo, N.Y. 
As our readers are aware, it has been resolved to mark the 
memorable event of the attainment, on August 31 next, of his 
hundreth year by the venerable father of modern science, 
“Le Doyen des Etudiants,” as he loves to call himself{—M. 
Chevreul—by striking a medal in his honour. The execution of 
this medal has been intrusted to M. Roty, old ‘‘ pensioner” of 
the Academy of France, at Rome. Contributions towards the 
commemorative medal are, of course, not to be limited to 
France, but will embrace the whole scientific world, which 
everywhere alike claims the author who extended the bounds of 
science as its honoured citizen. Subscriptions, which will be re- 
ceived up to the 22nd of this month, may be addressed to the Presi- 
dent of the Committee, 8, Rue Guy-de-la-Brosse, Paris. A list 
of the subscribers will accompany the medal, which is to be pre- 
sented to M. Chevreul on his centenary day, and if the amount 
of the subscriptions allows of it, a copy of the medal will be sent 
to the subscribers. 
AT the sitting, on June 7 last, of the Academy of Sciences at 
Paris, M. Halphen delivered an address in praise of the labours 
of M. Bouquet, his immediate predecessor in the seat he holds 
in that body. From the foundation of the Academy down to 
the present time, the duty of eulogising departed members has 
devolved exclusively on the Perpetual Secretaries at the anni- 
versary meetings. The annual death-rate of members has, 
however, of late been such that a large number of them 
were in danger of disappearing from the roll without any 
formal record of their services. The initiative thus taken by 
M. Halphen was followed up at the next meeting. This step 
has, of course, been taken in imitation of the arrangements of 
the Académie Frangaise, in accordance with which each in- 
coming member is required to eulogise his predece-sor at a 
special meeting, an answer being also given in the name of the 
Academy by another member appointed for that purpose. 
RECENT soundings have given the following depths for the 
different Swiss lakes :—Constance, between Uttwyl and Fried- 
richshafen, 255 metres; Geneva, between Rivaz and Saint- 
Giugolphe, 256 metres ; and between Lausanne and Evian, 330 
metres ; Brienne, 261 ; Thun, 217; Lucerne, between Gérau 
and Rueteren, 214 metres ; Zug, 198 ; Neuchatel, 153 ; Wallen- 
stadt, 151; and Ziirich, 143 metres. 
AccorDING to Prof. Heim, of Ziirich, the total number of 
glaciers in the Alps is 1155, of which 249 have a length of more 
than 7500 metres. Of this number the French Alps contain 
144, those of Italy 78, of Switzerland 471, and of Austria 462. 
The total superficial area of these glaciers is between three and 
four thousand square kilometres, those of Switzerland amounting 
to 1839 kilometres. The greatest length is reached by the 
Aletsch glacier, which is 24 kilometres long. As to thickness, 
it will be remembered that Agassiz, when measuring a crevasse 
in the Aar glacier, did not reach the bottom at 260 metres, and 
that he calculated the depth of the bed of ice at a certain point 
of this glacier at 460 metres. 
We have received the Aud/etin for the past year of the 
Society for Indo-Chinese Studies of Saigon. Amongst the 
papers is one by that indefatigable student, Dr. Tirant, 
on the odoriferous woods of Cochin China, which, though 
numerous in variety, are of four principal kinds, the most im- 
portant being aloes and sandalwood. We have already notice. 
a series of papers by the same writer on the fishes and reptiles 
of Cochin China. Another interesting paper deals with the 
textile plant Sazzsevéera as found in Cochin China. 
A Commission composed of MM. Becquerie, Berger, and 
Mascart, having been appointed to examine the question of the 
