June 15, 1882] 



NATURE 



159 



sopher and man of science, Mr. Darwin, he received over twenty 

 telegrams from cities in Italy, expressive of Italian sympathy 

 with the loss this country had sustained." 



We have received from Bucharest a little brochure of the 

 greatest interest, in the shape of a translation into Roumanian of 

 Sir John Lubbock's British Association address, "Fifty Years 

 of Science," by Prof. J. P. Licherdopol. The translation, we 

 learn from the title page, is made from the report in Nature. 

 Prefixed is a brief address to Sir John Lubbock, which is written 

 in vigorous and almost perfect English. " Your ' Fifty Y'ears 

 of Science,' " the translator writes, "has impregnated itself in 

 the heart of the people who populate the plains and mountains 

 of the Lower Danube. The scientific truths and literary beauties 

 of such a work of genius cannot remain unknown to the Rou- 

 manians ; I therefore took upon myself the pleading duty of 

 making it more known among them. I beg of you, therefore, 

 to glance at it, and to receive it as your own ; you will recognise 

 it, perhaps, by its forms, which are impossible to be changed." 

 As the translator styles himself Professor of Natural History 

 and Physical Science, ex-Assistant Naturalist to the Museum of 

 Natural History, and preparator in the Chemical Laboratory ; 

 and as a list of other scientific works, original and translated, 

 is prefixed, it is evident that science has a hopeful place in 

 Roumanian education and literature. 



A committee of members of the Academy of Sciences, the 

 Academy of Medicine, the Society of Agriculture, and the 

 faculty of science in the Superior Normal School of Paris, has 

 been formed for the purpose of presenting to M. Pasteur a medal 

 in commemoration of his fruitful researches. 



We regret to announce the death of Mr. Scott Russell, the emi- 

 nent engineer, which took place on Thursday morning last, in the 

 seventy-fifth year of his age. John Scott Russell, according to 

 Engineering, w as the eldest son of the Rev. David Russell, a Scotch 

 clergyman. His great predilection for mechanics and other 

 natural sciences induced his father to allow him to enter a work, 

 shop, to learn the handicraft of the profession of an engineer. 

 He subsequently studied at the Universities of Edinburgh, St. 

 Andrews, and Glasgo a-, and graduated at the last at the early 

 age of sixteen. He had attained to such proficiency in the 

 knowledge of the natural sciences, that on the death of Sir John 

 Leslie, Professor of Natural Philosophy in Edinburgh, in 1S32, 

 the young Scott Russell, though then only twenty-four years of 

 age, was elected to fill the vacancy temporarily, pending the 

 election of a permanent professor. About this time he com- 

 menced his famous researches into the nature of waves, with the 

 View to improving the forms of vessels. His first paper on this 

 subject was read before the British Association in 1S35. The 

 interest created by this paper was so great that a committee was 

 appointed by the Association tj carry on the experiments at their 

 expense. Mr. Scott Ru-sell discovered during these researches 

 the existence of the wave of translation, and developed the 

 wave-line system of construction of ships in connection with 

 which his name is so widely known. In 1837 he read a paper 

 be;ore the Royal Society of Edinburgh, " On the Laws by 

 which water opposes resistance to the motion of floating todies." 

 For this paper he received the large gold medal of the Society. 

 In 1844 Mr. Scott Russell removed to London. In 1847 he 

 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He for a short 

 time occupied the post of the secretary of the Society of Arts, 

 which place he resigned to become joint secretary with Sir 

 Stafford Northcote of the Great Exhibition of 1 85 1. He was, 

 in fact, one of the three original promoters of the Exhibition, 

 and under the direction of the late Prince Consort, took a 

 leading part in organising it. Mr. Scott Russell was for many 

 years known as a shipbuilder on the Thames. The most im- 

 portant work he ever constructed was the Great Eastern steam- 



ship. Mr. Scott Russell was one of the earliest and most active 

 advocates of ironclad men-of-war, and he has the merit of having 

 been the joint designer of our first sea-going armoured frigate 

 the Warrior. In early life he took a great interest in steam 

 locomotion on ordinary roads, and while at Greenock he con- 

 structed a steam coach which ran for some time successfully 

 between Greenock and Paisley. His greatest engineering work 

 was without doubt the vast dome of the Vienna Exhibition of 

 1873. The last engineering work which Mr. Scott Russell ever 

 designed was a high level bridge to cross the Thames below 

 London-bridge. It was intended to cross the river with a span 

 of 1000 feet, and to allow of a passage beneath it for the largest 

 ships. 



The death is announced of Mr. James Spence, Professor of 

 Surgery in Edinburgh University, in the 70th year of his age. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. P. A. Bergsma, late 

 director of the Batavia Observatory. He died on May 1, during 

 his passage through the Red Sea, on the way home from India. 

 We quite recently announced the retirement of Dr. Bergsma 

 from his post in Batavia Observatory, where she has done so 

 much good work. 



In anticipation of the jubilee meeting this year the British 

 Medical Journal devotes most of its last number to a Historical 

 Sketch of the British Medical Association. 



As a result of the action taken by the Essex Field Club with 

 reference to the preservation of Epping Forest in its natural 

 condition, a conference was held on Friday evening, June 9, at 

 the residence of Mr. E. N. Buxton at Woodford. Of the 

 verderers there were present besides Mr. Buxton, Sir T. Fowell 

 Buxton, and Mr. Andrew Johnston. The scientific claims of 

 those to whom the preservation of the forest as such is a mattei 

 of importance, were ably advocated by many well-known natu- 

 ralists who had been invited to lake part in the discussion. 

 Among the rpeakers were Dr. Henry Woodward, Dr. M. C. 

 Cooke, Mr. J. E. Harting, Mr. Charters White, the President 

 of the Quekett Club, Mr. G. S. Boulger, and Messrs. R. 

 Meldola and Wm. Cole, the President and Secretary of the 

 Essex Field Club. The results of the conference were, as we 

 learn, satisfactory with respect to the future of the forest. 



Those entomologists] who study fossil insects, and palaeon- 

 tologists generally, should feel grateful to Mr. S. H. Scudder 

 for having compiled " A Bibliography of Fossil Insects," forming 

 No. 13 of the "Bibliographical Contributions" appearing in 

 the Bulletin of Harvard University. It extends (including an 

 appendix) to 47 pages in double column--, and must include 

 nearly 1000 references, to each of which, as a rule, are appended 

 a few lines of explanatory notes. The subject is made to include 

 spiders and myriopods, in addition to true insects. No trouble 

 appears to have been spared in order to render it as complete as 

 pos-ible ; on this point Mr. Scudder laments that the enormous 

 increase of popular literature that has taken place latterly, con- 

 taining hosts of minor papers wholly popular in character, has 

 vastly increased the labour of compilation without corresponding 

 advantage. He doubts if as much activity is now shown in the 

 department of fossil entomology as when the labours of Heer 

 gave a sudden impetus to its study. Possibly the often eminently 

 unsatisfactory and speculative nature of the subject has something 

 to do with this. 



With reference to Prof. Riley's extracts from Dr. Macgowan's 

 papers on the utilisation of Ants in Horticulture, in China, a 

 correspondent calls our attention to a long article in the Ceylon 

 Observer for April 26, in which is reprinted the following extract 

 from Tennent's Natural History of that island : — " To check the 

 ravages of the coffee bug (Lecanium coffeie, Walker), which for 



