372 



NATURE 



\_Ati.gust 19, 1880 



Caribbean Sea, and of the Gulf of Mexico have appeared 

 in the Museum publications. He had begun to work at the 

 magnificent collection of Halcyonarians made by the 

 Blake in the Caribbean Sea, and had already made good 

 progress with his final report on the Holothurians. The 

 Crinoid memoirs published by him relate to a few new 

 species of Comatula and to the interesting genera 

 Rhizocrinus and Holopus. 



The titles of his memoirs indicate the range of his 

 learning and his untiring industry. His devotion to 

 science was boundless. A model worker, so quiet that 

 his enthusiasm was known only to those who watched 

 his steadfast labour, he toiled on year after year without 

 a thought of self, wholly engrossed in his search after 

 truth. He never entered into a single scientific contro- 

 versy, nor ever asserted or defended his claims to dis- 

 coveries of his own which had escaped attention. But 

 while modest to a fault and absolutely careless of his own 

 position, he could rebuke in a peculiarly eftective, though 

 always courteous, manner ignorant pretensions or an 

 assumption of infallibility. 



Appointed keeper of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology after the death of Prof. Agassiz, he devoted a 

 large part of his time to the administration of the museum 

 affairs. Always at his post, he passed from his original 

 investigations to practical details, carrying out plans 

 which he had himself helped to initiate for the growth of 

 the institution. As he had been the devoted friend of 

 Prof. Agassiz' father, he became to his son a wise and 

 affectionate counsellor, without whose help in the last ten 

 years the Museum could not have taken the place it now 

 occupies. 



If he did not live to see the realisation of his scientific 

 hopes, he lived at least long enough to feel that their 

 fulfilment is only a matter of time. He has followed 

 Wyman and Agassiz, and hke them has left his fairest 

 monument in the work he has accomplished and the 

 example he leaves to his successors. 



Cambridge, Mass., August 2 Alexander Agassiz 



NOTES 



The honour of a Knight-Commandership of the Bath has 

 been conferred upon Mr. E. J. Reed, C.B., F.R.S., late Chief 

 Constructor of the Navy. 



We give this week, by the continued kindness of General 

 Myer, the International Monthly Chart for October, 187S, 

 showing mean pressure, temperature, force and prevailing 

 direction of wind at 7.35 a.m. Washington mean time, for that 

 month. The lessons which it teaches may be learned by com- 

 parison with the chart for the previous mouth ; any remarks we 

 may have to make upon it we reserve for the issue of the next 

 chart. 



We are happy to state that the Worshipful Company of 

 Drapers have intimated their intention of continuing, at all 

 events for the present, their annual subscription of one hundred 

 guineas to the Research Fund of tlie Chemical Society. 



The eighth session of the French Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science was opened on August 11 at Rheims, under the 

 presidency of M. ICrantz, senator and e.x-director of the Uni- 

 versal Exhibition of 1S7S. In his opening speech M. Ki-antz 

 paid a tribute to the memory of Paul Broca, and spoke of the 

 late Universal Exhibition as well as the construction of the 

 Trocadero Palace. The General Secretary, M. Mercadier, ac- 

 cording to the routine of the French Association, reviewed the 

 work done last year at Montpellier. Addresses were also deli- 

 vered by M. Diancourt, Mayor of Rheims, and M. Paulane, ex- 

 Mayor, President of the Local Committee. The report read by 

 M. Georges Masson, the treasurer, shows that the French Asso- 

 ciation is very prosperous, numbering 3,000 members, with a 



capital of 300,000 francs. The income is 60,000 francs. The 

 attendance is considered to be very good, the local attrac- 

 tions being really unexceptionable in a city whose wines are 

 famous in the whole world, and which is the centre of inter- 

 esting excursions. On the 12th M. Perrier delivered, in the 

 General Sesdon, an address on the law of selection. 



The Cambridge meeting of the British Medical Association 

 last week is considered to have been one of the most successful 

 which the Association has held. The presidential address by 

 Prof. Humpliry traced the history of medical science in the 

 English univerdties, and showed the causes of the gradual 

 divorce between uaiversity and medical studies up to the last 

 few years. lie reiterated his advocacy of university residence 

 for medical students, and of continual advance and expansion of 

 good teaching and examining. He claimed that in no other 

 Ijranch of knnvledge were true science and sound practice so 

 perfectly conjoined ; in no other was there so much that was 

 calculated to give strength and balance to the thinking and 

 the observing faculties ; nor was there any in which mental 

 and bodily effort were more required or more telling. What 

 problems were harder of solution than those relating to the 

 aberrations of the human organism? The very difficulty of the 

 problems caused them to be overlooked. Clearer knowledge of 

 physiology and pathology, of heredity, of the effects of social 

 laws and climatic variations, would have a vast influence on the 

 whole frame rtork of civilisation; and thus he was led to con- 

 clude with Descartes that all great movements in the world of 

 thought, of philosophy, or of morals, and of government, were 

 to come out of medicine. Cambridge ought not to fail in doing 

 its share in the great work, and renewed life would come to all 

 it; best interests from a wise encouragement of medicine. The 

 British Medical Association brings together in one aim an enor- 

 mous pou er, and ought to aid in wearing away false dogmas 

 and false notions of conflicting interests. Dr. Humphry further 

 urged on the vast mass of members of the Association a hearty 

 participation in the collection of facts bearing on the effects of 

 temperature, climate, soil, &c., on disease, under the guidance 

 of a medical investigadon committee. The latter proposal 

 awakened a cordial response, and the Council were requested to 

 see it carried out. The honorary degree of LL.D. was con- 

 ferred on Doctors Broivn-Sequard, Donders of Utrecht, Gross 

 of Philadelphia, Sir W. Jenner, Sir W. Gull, Sir George 

 Burrows, Prof. Haughton of Dublin, Mr. Wm. Bowman, Mr. 

 Josej.h Lifter, Dr. Denis O'Connor of Cork (the retiring presi- 

 dent of ih^ British Medical Association), Mr. Jolm Simon, C.B., 

 and Dr. Andrew Wood. Dr. Chauveau of Lyons was unavoid- 

 ably a'jsent from the meeting, and consequently could not receive 

 in person the degree which would otherwise have been conferred 

 upon him ; and Prof. Broca's damented death caused another 

 varialion from the list as originally settled. 



The International Congress of Hygiene will meet at Turin on 

 September 6 under the presidency of King Humbert, who 

 will give the inaugural address. The general meeting will 

 take place in the Carignan Palace. The Congress will end by 

 an excursion to Milan, where a cremation will take place. 



In a brief report of the recent French scientific cruise in 

 the Tnivailleur, in the Bay of Biscay, M. Alph. Milne- 

 lulnards says the weather was very good, allowing them 

 in the last fortnight of July to dredge twenty-four times, 

 sometimes using two dredges at once. The bottom has a 

 thick layer of greenish-grey ooze, which was apt to fill the 

 dredges, so recourse wa, had largely to weighted rods with hemp 

 or tnig bundles, swabs, &c., attache!, to sweep the bottom. Sir 

 William Thomson's wire apparatus proved very serviceable in 

 sounding. The greatest depth reached was 2,700 m., and the 

 least exceeded 300 m. An important collection of marine 



