March 17, 1887] 



NA TURE 



473 



A DINNER was lately given to Prof, de Lacazc-Duthiers by 

 some forty or fifty of his pupils, who also presented him with a 

 magnificent engraving of his own likeness. This was a well- 

 ileseried tribute of admiration for the good and useful work 

 done in the department of zoology by Prof, dc Lacaze-Duthiers. 

 He has done great service to students of natural science by his 

 personal labours, by the establishment of the two marine zoo- 

 logical stations of Roscoff and Banyuls-sur-Mer, and by the 

 founding of the Archives de Zoologie Expc'rimentale. 



The zoological station of Cette, on the Mediterranean coast, 

 founded by Prof. Sabatier, of Montpellier, has been recently 

 attached to the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Cette is a 

 very interesting place for zoologists, owing to the abundance of 

 the fauna and its variety. 



The laboratories of the Paris Medical School will soon — that 

 is, in the course of the spring or summer — be transferred to new 

 buildings in front of the Medical .School. The present labora- 

 tories are ugly and unhealthy. 



Southampton, we are glad to see, is anxious to possess a 

 University College of its own. On Wednesday, the 9th inst., 

 a public meeting, over which the Mayor presided, was held to 

 express the general opinion on the subject, and resolutions were 

 unanimously carried in favour of the scheme. In one of these 

 resolutions it was state! that, in the opinion of the meeting, 

 "The Hartley Institution is admirably fitted, and has high 

 cl.aims, to form the nucleus of a University College for South- 

 ampton andjthe surrounding district." 



Sir Joseph Whitworth's will, dated December 1884, has 

 now been proved. He leaves two hundred shares in Sir Joseph 

 Whitworth and Company (Limited) to the Owens College, 

 Manchester ; eighty shares to the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 London ; and forty to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 

 By his will, after making certain bequests, he left the residue of 

 his estate to the School Boards of Manchester, Salford, and 

 Stockport, and to the Science and Department, South Kensing- 

 ton ; but by codicils added last year he revokes his bequests to 

 the School Boards and South Kensington, and leaves all his 

 real estate and the residue of his personal estate to his executors 

 and trustees absolutely for their own use and benefit, but in con- 

 fidence that they will make such dispositions of his property for 

 educational purposes as they know that he would have wished 

 made. 



We regret to announce the death of M. Alexander Boroiin, 

 Professor of Chemistry at the Medico-Surgical Academy at St. 

 Petersburg, and one of the most eminent Russian musical com- 

 posers. He died on February 27. 



The death is announced of Dr. Gustav Heinrich Kircheii- 

 pauer, first Burgomaster of Hamburg, and a well-known 

 naturalist. He died on March 4. 



\ decree has been signed by the King of Italy by virtue of 

 which a new and complete edition of the works of Galileo will 

 be published at the cost of the State. The Minister of Educa- 

 tion, with the assistance of some eminent professors, will 

 superintend the publication, which will fill twenty quarto 

 volumes of 500 pages each. 



By the investigation of forty-two large North German lakes, 

 the well-known zoologist Dr. Otto Zacharias has proved that 

 the lower fauna occupies an intermediate position between that 

 of the Scandinavian and that of the Swiss and Italian fresh- 

 water basins. Since it is supposed that during the Ice epoch 

 gigantic glaciers stretched from the north of Europe to the foot 

 of the Kiesengebirge, it is interesting to learn that the North 

 German lakes contain a number of lower Crustaceans that, till 

 now, have only been found in Scandinavia. 



The Academy of Sciences at Berlin has granted the following 

 sums for the furtherance of zoological research ; — 75/. to Dr. 

 Karl Brandt (Konigsberg) for investigations on Radiolaria ; 50/. 

 to Prof. Ludwig (Giessen) for the continuation of his work on 

 Echinoderms ; 100/. to Dr. Heinicke (Oldenburg) to continue 

 hii researches on the varieties of the herring. Besides these 

 sums, 1950/. has been given for the printing of some important 

 zoological works, viz. Prof. Dohrn's " Jahresbericht," Dr. 

 Taschenberg's "Bibliothek," and Prof. Fritsch's work on 

 " Electric Fishes." 



The total value of fish landed on the coasts of Scotland for 

 the two months ending^ February 18S7 was 190,068/., being an 

 increase over the corresponding period of last year of 8434/. 



The twenty-second volume of the Transactions and Proceed- 

 ings of the Royal Society of Victoria has been sent to us. It 

 contains the address of Prof. Kernot, the President, delivered 

 on March II, 1886; and among the papers are "The Atmo- 

 sphere a Source of Nitrogen in Plant Economy," by Mr. E. 

 Lloyd Marks ; " Notes on some Evidences of Glaciation in the 

 Australian Alps," and "The Cryptogamia of the Australian 

 Alps," by Mr. James Stirling ; " On an Apparatus for Utilising 

 the Force of the Tides," by Mr. Lockhart Morton ; and "On 

 an Apparatus for Determining the Stability of Ships," by Mr. 

 C. W. McLean. 



We have received Parts 21-25 of " Landerkunde des Erdteils 

 Europa." The editor of this admirably illustrated work is 

 Prof. Alfred Kirchhoflf, and among the contributors are Profs. 

 Penck, Egli, and Heim. The aim of the writers is not merely 

 to describe the countries with which they deal, but to bring out 

 the influence of geographical conditions upon material, political, 

 and social progress. 



In reference to the acclimatisation of flat-fish in American 

 waters, the latest Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 

 states that in April 18S0 five soles sent from England reached New 

 York, and were deposited outside Sandy Hook. In October 

 188 [, out of a consignment of turbot and soles sent from 

 England, three soles and six turbots survived. These were 

 transferred to the Sheep's Head Bay. In order to ascertain 

 whether any trace of these fish could be found, the Fish Com- 

 mission in October last trawled in the vicinity of the spots 

 mentioned, but did not succeed in capturing any flat-fish. 



The Botanical Museum of Hamburg will be rendered more 

 generally serviceable to German commerce and industry by 

 the addition of a commercial laboratory. For analyses and 

 investigations a most moderate tariff has been set up. 



I N an article in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for March, 

 Mr. Herbert Goss raises the question whether Aporia cratir.gi is 

 dying out in this country. At one time this butterfly was 

 common in Kent, Sussex. Hampshire, Huntingdonshire, North- 

 amptonshire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and Glamorgan- 

 shire. Now it has disappeared, apparently, from all these 

 counties. Mr. Goss does not think that this can be attributed 

 to the rapacity of collectors, and he holds that it can be 

 accounted for only in some localities by cultivation anl drain- 

 age. It seems to him more probable that the extreme scarcity 

 or total extinction of the Black-veined White may be due to a 

 succession of wet ungenial summers and mild winters. 



The investigations into the causes and nature of the species of 

 elephantiasis known in Java as bcri-bcri, and in Japan as kakke, 

 which have been conducted at Acheen, in Sumatra, by a medical 

 officer delegated by the Japanese Government, and Dr. Cor- 

 nelissen, Inspector of the Medical Service of the Netherlands 

 India, have led to the following results: (r) fen-feW must be 

 regarded as a disease produced by minute organisms ; (2) these 



