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Marcu 7, 1912] 
NATURE I 
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versity, publishes the reply received from Dr. Wallace, 
in which he says :—** From the day when I first saw 
a Bee-orchis (Ophrys apifera) in ignorant astonish- 
ment, to my first view of the great forests of the 
Amazon; thence to the Malay Archipelago, where 
every fresh island with its marvellous novelties and 
beauties was an additional delight, nature has 
afforded me an ever-increasing rapture, and the 
attempt to solve some of her myriad problems an 
ever-growing sense of mystery and awe. And now, 
in my wild garden and greenhouse, the endless 
diversities of plant life renew my enjoyments; and 
the ever-changing pageants of the seasons impress 
me more than ever in my earlier days. I sincerely 
wish you all some of the delight in the mere con- 
templation of nature’s mysteries and beauties which 
I have enjoyed, and still enjoy.” 
Tue Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 
will celebrate the centenary of its foundation on 
March 19, 20, and 21. An important feature of the 
celebration will be the publication of three com- 
memorative volumes: an index to the scientific con- 
tents of the entire series of Proceedings and Journal, 
now amounting to eighty-five volumes; a detailed 
history of the academy by the recording secretary, 
Dr. Edward J. Nolan, of which the Short History 
contributed by him to the ‘“ Philadelphia Founders’ 
Week Memorial Volume’’ in 1909 may be regarded 
as a Prodromus; and a quarto volume of liberally 
illustrated memoirs by members and correspondents. 
A sufficient number of contributions have been re- 
ceived to guarantee the success of the latter publica- 
tion, and the general committee has reason to believe 
that the entire celebration will be an adequate recog- 
nition of the honourable record of the society as one 
of the most efficient agencies in the cultivation of the 
natural sciences in America during the past hundred 
years. 
A MEETING was held at the Mansion House on 
February 28 in support of the London School of 
Tropical Medicine. Mr. Harcourt, Secretary of State 
for the Colonies, was the principal speaker. He said 
that in the last seven years the School has received 
from the Tropical Diseases Research Fund 13,000l. for 
special work in protozoology and entomology, for 
which separate laboratories in new buildings have 
recently been provided. The School has managed to 
save 5000l. as the nucleus of an endowment fund, but 
at least another 20,0001. is required to put it on a 
sound financial basis. It is also desired to raise 
1o,00ol. for the provision of additional laboratories 
and residential quarters. Mr. Harcourt said it may, 
possibly, be asked why the Government does 
itself find the necessary funds. The keepers of the 
national purse, he pointed out, have not been 
niggardly in their practical assistance to the work. 
The Treasury has contributed, and is contributing, 
for the last five years 1oool. per annum to the Sleep- 
not 
ing Sickness Bureau; for five years, 1oool. per 
annum to the Entomological Research Fund; for 
three years, 5oool. per annum to Sir D. Bruce’s ex- | 
pedition to Nyasaland to inquire into sleeping sick- 
ness; and from 1904-7, 5ool. per annum; and from 
NO. 2210, VOL. 89| 
1908 onwards, tooo]. per annum to the Tropical 
Diseases Research Fund; this amounts to Soool. 
a year, in addition to capital donations. In 
addition, approximately 50,o00l. has been spent 
during the last five years in investigation and sup- 
pression of sleeping sickness in Uganda. 
Tue Committee on Science and the Arts of the 
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, made 
the following awards of the Elliott Cresson medal on 
February 7:—Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, Washing- 
ton, D.C., in recognition of the value of his solution 
of the problem of the electrical transmission of articu- 
late speech; Dr. S. W. Stratton, Washington, D.C., 
in recognition of his distinguished and directive work 
in physical science and metrology, and its application 
in the arts and industries; Dr. A. A. Michelson, 
Chicago, Ill., in recognition of his original and fruit- 
ful investigations in the field of physical optics; Dr. 
A. Noble, New York, in recognition of his dis- 
tinguished achievements in the field of civil engineer- 
ing; Dr. Elihu Thomson, Swampscott, Mass., in 
recognition of his leading and distinguished work in 
the industrial applications of electricity; Dr. E. W. 
Morley, West Hartford, Conn., in recognition of his 
important contributions to chemical science, and par- 
ticularly of his accurate determinations of fundamental 
magnitudes; Dr. J. F. A. Von Baeyer, Munich, in 
recognition of the many important results of his 
extended research in organic chemistry and of his 
discovery of synthetic processes of great industrial 
value; Sir William Crookes, O.M., F.R.S., in recog- 
nition of his important discoveries in inorganic and 
analytical chemistry, and of his pioneer work on the 
discharge of electricity through gases; and Sir Henry 
E. Roscoe, F.R.S., in recognition of his extended 
and important researches in the domains of inorganic, 
physical, and industrial chemistry. 
Dr. Kwyicur Duntar contributes to the current 
number of The Psychological Review an account of 
some interesting experiments upon the sensibility of 
the human subject to differences in the rate of 
succession of stimuli in two regular series of stimuli. 
One of these regular series is constant, the other is 
varied, and the two series are presented successively, 
the subject having to judge which has the faster rate. 
The rate-threshold thus reached is compared by Dr. 
Dunlap with the time-threshold, i.e. the subject’s 
sensibility to differences in the length of a single 
interval of time. As might be expected, he finds that 
the sensibility for rate differences is considerably 
more acute than that for time differences, at least 
under the conditions of his experiments. The writer 
concludes that the rate judgment is not essentially 
based upon a judgment of individual time intervals. 
His paper is especially valuable as a record of experi- 
mental methods and for careful details of the instru- 
ments employed. 
From Mr. W. Junk, of Berlin, we have received 
a ‘Bibliographica Coleopterologica,’’ containing 
nearly 4000 entries of works and papers devoted solely 
or partially to beetles. The actual catalogue is pre- 
ceded by a useful introduction on the faunistic litera- 
ture of the subject. 
