62 



NA TURE 



[May i6, 1907 



annum to be issued for several successive years if the 

 funds of the society will permit. The officers and council 

 for the ensuing year were elected, Lord Avebury being 

 le-elected president ; Dr. F. DuCane Godman, F.R.S., 

 treasurer ; and Mr. John Hopkinson, secretary. The new 

 members of the council elected were Sir Charles Eliot, 

 K.C.M.G., and Mr. C. D. Soar. 



Mr. G. R. Du.s'eli., whose death on Sunday last, at 

 fifty-nine years of af;i-, wp regret to have to rec(^, was 

 the author of many articles and reports on engineering 

 subjects in the columns of X.iture. For the past 

 twenty-five years or so, Mr. Dunell's life was devoted 

 almost entirely to literary work connected with engineer- 

 ing and industry : and his wide knowledge and lucid style 

 gave his articles a distinctive character unusual in technical 

 description. Formerly he was a frequent contributor of 

 articles to the Times, but in recent years most of his work 

 was done for Engineering. His last contribution to our 

 columns appeared on April ii, and dealt with the gyro- 

 scopic apparatus for steadying ships described at the recent 

 meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects. Mr. 

 Dunell was a familiar figure in the engineering world, 

 and his death will be sincerely deplored by all who knew 

 him. 



The Catania Observatory states that at 7.40 p.m. on 

 May 10 Stromboli burst into violent eruption, throwing 

 masses of stone, ashes, and lava towards the eastern 

 portion of the island, which is inhabited, and causing 

 fires in several vineyards. The eruption was preceded by 

 loud rumblings. Mount Etna is also in a state of activity. 

 Large columns of thick vapour have issued from the cone 

 of the volcano and spread over the surrounding country. 

 On the evening of May 10 slight earthquake shocks were 

 reported at Belpasso, Nicolosi, and Viagrande. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the proprietors of the London 

 Institution, Finsbury Circus, was held on May 8 to con- 

 sider a proposed scheme of re-building, having for its 

 objects " such an increase of revenue as would enable the 

 committee to carry out the objects of the charter on a 

 wider basis than at present, and at the same time to give 

 improved accommodation to the proprietors." The scheme 

 provides for the removal of the present lecture theatre and 

 smoking room, thus rendering vacant 10,612 superficial 

 feet of land, to be let on a building lease for eighty or 

 ninety years. The alterations would include a new theatre, 

 a storage room for 200,000 volumes, refreshment and other 

 rooms, and the dividing of the present reference library 

 into a reading room, small lecture room, and a committee 

 room. The cost is estimated to be about 15,600?. Strong 

 criticism of the scheme led to the adjournment of the meet- 

 ing for four weeks. 



The ninetieth annual meeting of the Soci^t^ Helvt^tique 

 des Sciences Naturelles will be held at Fribourg on 

 July 28-31. The first day will be devoted to preliminary 

 matters and to a social gathering of visitors. The 

 inaugural address will be delivered on" July 29 by Prof. 

 .Musy, and afterwards Prof. Miihlberg will lecture on the 

 subject of the supposed condition of Switzerland and 

 neighbouring regions during the five Ice ages, inter- 

 glacial periods, and the return of the last glaciation. Dr. 

 John Briquet and Prof. Zchokke will speak on the post- 

 Glacial immigration respectively of flora and fauna into 

 Switzerland. The subject of the utility of an international 

 atlas of erosion will be discussed by Prof. E. Chaix, and 

 a lecture will be delivered by Prof. Jean Brunhes on 

 NO. 1959, VOL. 76J 



glacial action. The following day will be devoted to 

 sectional meetings, and a joint meeting of the geological, 

 botanical, and zoological sections. The centenary of 

 Agassiz will be celebrated on the concluding day, when 

 discourses will be delivered by Profs, de Girard and Th. 

 Studer. The Swiss Geological, Botanical, Zoological, and 

 Chemical Societies, and the Physical Society of Zurich, will 

 hold their annual meetings at Fribourg on the same days. 



The twelfth annual congress of the South-Eastern Union 

 of Scientific Societies will be held at Woolwich on 

 June 12-15 under the presidency of Prof. Silvanus P. 

 Thompson, F.R.S. The following papers will be read : — 

 Goethe as a naturalist, Dr. Treutler ; geology of Woolwich 

 and district, W. Whitaker, F.R.S. ; an experiment in 

 cooperative field-work In botany, Prof. Oliver ; the 

 antiquity of E. cabalhis in Europe, with special reference 

 to remains found in Kent, W. H. Griffin; xerophytes, 

 Mrs. \\'. Plomer Young ; concretionary types, forces, and 

 evolution, G. Abbott ; the storage and use of rain-water 

 for domestic purposes, G. F. Chambers ; how- to make 

 our local societies more efficient, H. Norman Gray ; and 

 local archeology, W. T. Vincent. Excursions, weather 

 permitting, are planned to Well Hall, Elthani Palace, 

 and .-\very Park ; Charlton Camp and Pits and Greenwich 

 Park ; the Royal Arsenal, R..\. Institution and Rotunda ; 

 Lessness Abbey, and Crayford Pits. There will be a re- 

 ception by the Mayor (.Alderman Squires, J. P.) and a 

 congress museum. These meetings, &c., are open to 

 members and associates of the South-Eastern Union. Mr. 

 B. C. Polkinghorne, Woolwich Polytechnic, is the local 

 secretary, and the hon. general secretary is the Rev. R. 

 Ashington Builen, Englenioor, Woking, from either of 

 whom programmes and tickets can be obtained. 



M.\DREroRi.\N corals from the coast of French Somali- 

 land form the subject of a paper by Mr. T. W. Vaughan 

 published as No. 1526 of the Proceedings of the U.S. 

 Nat. Museuin (pp. 249-266). .As the collection was 

 obtained just outside the mouth of the Red Sea, it is of 

 special interest for comparison with the coral-fauna of 

 that sea on the one hand, and of the East .\frican coast 

 on the other. 



" Convergence " in animals is Illustrated in an article 

 contributed by Dr. O. Rabes, of Magdeburg, to the April 

 number of Himmel tind Erde. An interesting figure of a 

 rorqual-embryo with teeth is reproduced from a paper by 

 Dr. W. KCikenthal. .Among the other* illustrations, ex- 

 ception may be taken lo one which revives the myth of 

 the flying frog, and to a second in which the Ganges 

 dolphin is represented with a relatively huge eye. 



A REVISION of the genus Spilanthes, prepared by Mr. 

 .A. H. Moore, is printed as vol. xlii.. No. 20, of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the American .Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

 The genus belonging to the order Composita; is chiefly dis- 

 tributed over the .American continent, but also occurs in 

 the tropical regions of the old world. The author 

 identifies about forty species, of which twelve are new to 

 science. 



According to a paper by Mr. J. Henderson, of which 

 the first portion appears in vol. iv.. No. 2, of the Uni- 

 versity of Colorado Studies, the land and fresh-water 

 molluscs of Colorado have been greatly neglected by 

 naturalists. .Although the land-snails are for the most 

 part small, water-snails and pond-mussels abound in 

 almost every stream and piece of water, even at high 

 elevations. 



