JuLy 24, 1902] 
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logical science. Truly the Colonies are in this respect following 
the mother country, and we may soon expect the Empire, so 
active in neglecting science, to be the laughing stock of civilised 
peoples. 
Tue Copenhagen correspondent of the Times reports that the 
International Conference for Biological and Hydrographical 
Research, the object of which is to promote ocean research for 
fishery purposes, was opened there on July 22. Dr. Deuntzer, 
Danish Foreign Minister, welcomed the delegates, who repre- 
sented Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, 
Holland, Germany and Denmark. In reply to Dr. Deuntzer’s 
welcome, the British delegate, Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff, ex- 
pressed the thanks of the delegates, who, he declared, earnestly 
hoped that their labours would have fruitful results. Herr 
Herwig, the German delegate, was elected president of the 
conference. 
Ir is stated that Prof. Virchow, who is now staying at Harz- 
burg, is obliged to keep to his room owing to general weak- 
ness. His condition is causing uneasiness among his friends. 
Tue British Medical Journal announces that the King of 
Italy has given 10,000 lire to the Italian Red Cross Society in 
aid of the campaign against malaria in the Campagna this 
season. Prof. Postempski will, as formerly, act as director of 
the medical service organised under the auspices of the 
Society. 
Mr. E. B. BarLey has been appointed a geologist on the 
Geological Survey of Scotland. 
THE death is announced of Prof, Gerhardt, the well-known 
authority on diseases of the lungs and children’s diseases, at his 
estate of Damberg, in Baden. Prof. Gerhardt, who was born in 
1833, held professorships at Jena, Wiirzburg and Berlin, and 
was the author of several important medical works. 
Mr. BENJAMIN MARTELL, whose death we regret to see 
announced, for more than thirty years played a prominent part 
in the many important changes which have taken place during 
that period in connection with the development of ship con- 
struction in this country. He was born in 1825, and trained at 
Portsmouth Dockyard, where he served his time as an appren- 
tice. Ie joined Lloyd’s Register Society in 1856, and in sixteen 
years, after serving the Society at several of the important ship- 
building centres in the country, was called to the position of 
chief surveyor, which he held until his retirementin 1899. The 
tables of freeboard prepared by Mr. Martell, and afterwards 
placed upon the Statute Book, represent the results of one of the 
many pieces of work which he successfully carried out for the 
good of the shipping community. 
WE regret to announce the death of Prof. V. Safarik 
(Schafarik) at the mature age of seventy-three, which took 
place at Prague on July 2. Prof. Safarik became professor of 
chemistry in the Bohemian Polytechnicum in 1868. In 1882 
he was appointed professor of chemistry in the Bohemian Uni- 
versity and in 1892 professor of descriptive astronomy, from 
which post he retired in 1896. In the fifties and sixties of last 
century he published several papers in organic chemistry (specific 
volumes, vanadium, platino-cyanides, &c.), and his last chemical 
paper was on the constitution of natural silicates, in 1872. Later 
on he devoted himself to astronomical investigations, which he 
carried out in his private observatory, and his work on the sur- 
faces of planets, variable stars, &c., is well known to astro- 
nomers. He was an adept at grinding and polishing metallic 
and glass mirrors for reflectors and in silvering the latter. He at- 
tended the Bradford meeting of the British Association in 1873,and 
from that time was often in communication with several leading 
NO. 1708, VOL. 66] 
British astronomers. Those who knew Prof. Safarik personally 
could not but admire his very wide, almost universal knowledge ; 
indeed, he was one of the last polyhistorians of the Alexander 
Humboldt school, whose work he translated into the Bohemian 
language. He has left behind a long series of astronomical 
observations, which he was prevented by ill-health from pub- 
lishing. 
AT the meeting of the London County Council on Tuesday, 
the Technical Education Board reported the result of the inquiry 
by a special subcommittee of the Board as to the need and pre- 
sent provision for special training of an advanced kind in con- 
nection with the application of science (especially chemistry and 
electricity) to industry, and as to what, if any, developments are 
needed to secure efficient training in these subjects for senior 
county scholars and other advanced students who desire to 
qualify themselves to take leading positions in scientific indus- 
tries. The report of the special subcommittee deals with 
matters which the Board points out are of great importance to 
the present and future prosperity of various English industries, 
notably some connected with London. The members of the 
special committee came, without a dissentient voice, to the con- 
clusions (1) that England (and London in particular) has suf- 
fered the loss of certain industries and that others are in 
danger ; (2) that this loss has been largely due to defective 
education, especially in the higher grades ; and (3) that London 
is still seriously behind other cities, notably Berlin, in the pro- 
vision for the higher grades of scientific training and research. 
The report was accepted, with the addition of the reeommenda- 
tion ‘‘that the Technical Education Board be instructed to 
report as to the steps it proposes to take in order to give practical 
effect to the suggestions contained in the report.” 
GRANTS in aid of the following researches were made at a 
recent meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Elizabeth 
Thompson Science Fund :—r150 dollars to Prof. H. E. Crampton, 
Columbia University, New York, for experiments on variation 
and selection in Lepidoptera. 100 dollars to Dr. F. W. 
Bancroft, University of California, Berkeley, Cal., for experi- 
ments on the inheritance of acquired characters. 125 dollars 
to Dr. J. Weinzirl, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 
N. Mex., for investigation of the relation of climate to the cure 
of tuberculosis, it being agreed that if the work justifies it the. 
same amount will be granted next year. 300 dollars to Prof. 
H. S. Grindley, University of Illinois, Urbana, IIl., for in- 
vestigation of the proteids of flesh. 300 dollars to Dr. H. H. 
Field, Ziirich, Switzerland, to aid the work of the concilium 
bibliographicum. 250 dollars to Prof. T. A. Jaggar, Harvard 
University, Cambridge, Mass., for experiments in dynamical 
geology, provided the secretary receives the necessary assurance 
that the work can be undertaken with reasonable promptitude. 
s0 dollars to Dr. E. O. Jordan, University of Chicago, Chicago, 
Ill., for the study of the bionomics of Anopheles. 300 dollars 
to Dr. E. Anding, Miinchen, Bavaria, to assist the publication 
of his work ‘‘ Ueber die Bewegung der Sonne durch den Wel- 
traum,” but the grant is conditional upon other means being also 
secured by the author sufficient to accomplish the publication. 
300 dollars to Prof. W. P. Bradley, Wesleyan University, 
Middletown, Conn., for investigations on matter in the critical 
state. 300 dollars to Prof. Hugo Kronecker, Bern, Switzer- 
land, for assistance in preparing his physiological researches for 
publication. 300 dollars to Prof. W. Valentiner, Grossh, 
Sternwarte, Heidelberg, Germany, to continue the work of 
Grant No. 93 (observations on variable stars). 
Ir is reported that a storm of unusual violence, accompanied 
by torrential rain and a heavy hail shower, broke over the city 
of Kieff on July 20. A violent cyclone passed over Chalon- 
sur-Sadne on July 15 between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., blowing down 
