June 22, 1882] 



NATURE 



183 



Great Britain, and his articles embrace a very wide range 

 of topics relating to the several departments of scientific 

 research to which he had devoted himself, and many of 

 his researches have attracted unusual attention from their 

 value as adding to scientific knowledge. 



At the age of seventy-six his failing health compelled 

 him to give up active duties as president, and he resigned 

 to give place to Mr. Francis A. Walker. He still con- 

 tinued to hold the position of professor emeritus, and 

 retained it at the time of his death. His health has 

 permitted him to continue at his duties, but he has not 

 been strong, and the cause of his death, as above stated, 

 is supposed to have been apoplexy. He was appointed 

 by President Hayes as President of the National Academy 

 of Sciences, and had returned from Washington only a 

 few days before his death, where he had been presiding 

 over a meeting of the academy. 



The New York Nation, in reference to [the death of 

 Prof. Rogers, says : — 



The death of Prof. Wm. B. Rogers, in Boston, on 

 May 30, removes not only one of the foremost of our 

 scientific men, but perhaps the one who had in the highest 

 degree the faculty of presenting the claims of science on 

 popular interest and respect with force and lucidity. He 

 had a remarkable gift of expression, and an unusually 

 winning and persuasive manner, both of which were 

 supported by a character of the utmost purity and 

 simplicity. 



NOTES 

 The Council of the Society of Arts have awarded the Albeit 

 Medal of the Society of the present year to Louis Pasteur, 

 Member of the Institute of France, For. Memb. R.S., for "his 

 researches in connection with fermentation, the preservation of 

 wines, and the propagation of zymotic diseases in silk worms 

 and domestic animals, whereby the arts of wine making, silk 

 production, and agriculture, have been greatly benefited. The 

 Council have awarded the Society's Silver Medals to the follow. 

 ing readers of papers during the Session 1SS1-2 : — To Prof. 

 Silvanus Thompson, D.Sc, for his paper on " Storage of Elec- 

 tricity " ; to J. Emerson Dowson, for his paper on " The Pro- 

 duction and Use of Gas for Purposes of Heating and Motive 

 Power " ; to Col. G. F. Pearson, for his paper on " The Teach- 

 ing of Forestry " ; to Prof. Barff, M.A., for his paper on "A 

 New Antiseptic Compound, and its Application to the Preserva- 

 tion of Food " ; to Spencer Walpole, for his paper on " The 

 Fish Supply of London " ; to George F. Deacon, for his paper 

 on "The Constant Supply and Waste of Water"; to Capt. 

 Richard F. Burton, for his paper on " Gold on the Gold_Coast" ; 

 to R. Warington, for his paper on " Some Practical Aspects of 

 Recent Investigation in Nitrification"; to S. G. Thomas and 

 Percy C. Gilchrist, for their paper on the " Manufacture of Steel 

 from Phosphoric Pig-iron " ; to Alexander M. Chance, for his 

 paper on " The Recovery of Sulphur from Alkali Waste by 

 Schaffners Process, a record of recent results " ; to James Mylne, 

 for his paper on " Experiences of an European Zemindar (land- 

 holder) in Behar. " Thanks were voted to the following Members 

 of Council for the papers they had read : — To Capt. Douglas 

 Galton, C.B., F.R.S., for his paper on " The American System 

 of Heating Towns by Steam"; to W. H. Preece, F.R.S., for 

 his paper on " Electric Lighting at the Paris Electrical Exhibi- 

 tion" ; to Lieut. -Colonel C. E. Webber, R.E., for his paper on 

 " Telephonic Communication " ; to Sir Rutherford Alcock, 

 K.C.B., for his paper on " The Opium Trade." 



The following has been forwarded to us from the Royal 

 Society for publication : — 



Florence, May 23, 1882 

 My Lord, — An interesting commemoration in honour of 

 Charles Darwin was held on Sunday last, the 21st instant, in the 



great hall of the Florence " Istituto di Studi Superiori." The 

 commemoration was promoted by the Students in Medicine and 

 Natural Science. The proceedings were simple, consisting of a 

 few opening words by the Chairman of the Committee, Signor 

 Fairman, a medical student, and a well turned and appreciative 

 discourse by Prof. Mantegazza, whose scientific reputation is 

 not confined to Italy. A bust of Darwin, in terra cotta, stood 

 on the platform and marked the occasion. There were present 

 the Prefect of Florence, the Council and Professors of the Insti- 

 tute, &c, while the large ball was crowded to overflowing with 

 a mixed and attentive audience of ladies and gentlemen, showing 

 the interest that the occasion had evoked. 

 I have, &c, 

 (Signed) D. E. Colnaghi, 



H.M. Consul-General. 

 The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G., &c. 



An appreciative paper on Darwin, by the eminent naturalist, 

 M. Alfh. de Candolle, appears in the May number of Archives 

 ties Sciences. Darwin was prompt to acknowledge the work of 

 his predecessors — Lamarck, Erasmus Darwin, and others — but 

 seems with others to have overlooked the observations and ideas 

 of Duchesne (1766), an evolutionist before Lamarck, to which 

 M, de Candolle was able to call his attention while visiting him 

 in 1880. Duchesne says : "The genealogical order is the only 

 one that nature indicates, the only one that fully satisfies the 

 mind ; every other is arbitrary and vain (vide dHtMes)." In the 

 manner of exposition of facts and in reasoning, Charles Darwin 

 (in M. de Candolle's opinion) rather resembles Duchesne than 

 Lamarck or Erasmus Darwin. Lamarck is more systematic. 

 Erasmus perceives much that he does not profoundly investigate; 

 he is diffuse and lacks scientific method. Among other things. 

 M. de Candolle remarks that nearly all litterateurs and men of 

 science of the first rank have lived, during part of the year at 

 least, in a town. One can hardly cite more than two exceptions 

 (and they are very different), viz. Voltaire and Charles Darwin. 

 The author gives an interesting picture of his visit to Darwin, 

 who, as a septuagenarian, he says, " etait plus anime et paraissait 

 plus heureux que je ne l'avais vu quarante-et-un ans auparavant, 

 Ilavait l'ceil vif et une expression enjouee, tandis que ses photo- 

 graphies montrent plutot sa conformation de tete d'un philosophe 

 de l'antiquite. Sa conversation variee, franche, gracieuse, tout 

 a fait d'un gentleman, me rappelait celle des savantes d'Oxford 

 et de Cambridge." The author was struck with the sight of 

 the domestic animals at Down, showing a " tranquillite qui 

 suppose de bons maitres. . . . Vraiment, me disais-je, l'histoire 

 des variations chez les animaux a ete faite ici, et les observations 

 doivent continuer, car Darwin n'est jamais inactif." 



The death is announced (though on doubtful authority) of 

 Dr. Jules Crevaux, who has recently done so much for the 

 exploration of French Guiana and the Amazon Valley. Dr. 

 Crevaux, it is reported, has been assassinated, with his whole 

 party, by Tobas Indians, while ascending the Pilcomayo River, 

 on Argentine or Bolivian territory. He had started from 

 Buenos Ayres, and had discovered near Salto the ruins of an 

 ancient native city. The unfortunate explorer was only thirty- 

 five years of age. He was a surgeon in the French Navy, and 

 in July, 1877, undertook his first expedition into the interior of 

 Guiana. Starting from Cayenne, he traversed an almost entirely 

 unknown region, crossed the Tumuc-Humac Mountains, the 

 water-shed between the Maroni and the Yari, a tributary of the 

 Amazon. On a second journey in 1878-79, Crevaux went from 

 Cayenne to the Oyapock, followed it up, and discovered the 

 Kow, an unknown affluent of the Yari, followed the latter to its 

 sources, and visited and explored to their sources the little- 

 known affluents of the Amazon, the Paru, lea, and Yapura. In 

 1880 he again set out, this time to the Magdalena and the 



