Skptemrer 3, 1896] 



NA TURE 



423 



KiEK has been selected as the place of meeting of the tenth 

 conference of Russian Naturalists and Physicians. The con- 

 ference will last from August 21 to August 30, 1897. A grant 

 of over £i,<X> has been contributed by the University of St. 

 \ladimar in Kief towards the expenses. 



Good progress is being made by the Russian National Health 

 Society in the matter of the Jenner Commemoration of October 

 next. The centenary work, containing a life of Jenner and 

 translations of all his works, as well as an historical notice of the 

 development of vaccination in Russia and other European 

 countries, is likely to be a volume of much interest and value. 

 It will be illustrated by over a hundred figures, including many 

 reproductions of Jenner's original drawings, portraits of Jenner, 

 and views of the Berkeley neighbourhood. The Society, under 

 whose auspices the commemoration is to take place, is already 

 in receipt of a large number of loans and gifts for the exhibition 

 ■which it is proposed to hold in connection with the celebration, 

 and these have come from well-nigh every, part of the world. 

 England, it is said, is not too well represented by exhibits. 



News comes from Russia of another medical society having 

 received the, in that country, necessary Imperial approval of 

 foundation. It is to be known as " The Society for Combating 

 Infectious Diseases," and will be under the patronage of the 

 I'rincess of Oldenburg. The society will resemble the Russian 

 National Health Society, in that it will admit both lay and 

 medical members. 



According to Srience, an observatory for terrestrial magnetism 

 has been established in connection with the astronomical 

 observatory at Munich, and Dr. Franz von Schwarz has been 

 appointed director. Scu-iice also states that the Observatory of 

 the School of Technology at Karlsruhe is to be removed to 

 Heidelberg. The Director of the Observatory, Dr. Valentiner, 

 has been made a Professor in the University of Heidelberg. 



A MAGNETIC survey of Maryland is being made by Dr. 

 Bauer, the editor of Terrestrial Magnetism ^ under the auspices 

 of the State Geological Survey. 



The Engineer states that Colonel Home, C.S.I., Royal 

 Engineers, has been engaged by the New South Wales Govern- 

 ment as an expert to advise on the subject of water conservation. 



The British Medical Journal \taxn% from Amoy, China, that 

 Dr. Yersin has been experimenting with his plague serum. Up 

 to date he is reported to have cured more than twenty plague 

 patients. The cures are reported to be marvellous, as many of 

 the patients were in high fever, the buboes fully developed, and 

 the sufferers in a comatose slate. In Canton Dr. Yersin, on 

 |uly I, 1896, according to Bishop Chausse, effected a remark- 

 able cure on a very unmistakable and severe case of plague. 

 After showing the Amoy doctor his methods of injection, he 

 returned to Saigon. It is stated in the newspapers in China 

 that it takes six months to prepare the serum ; that Dr. Yersin 

 first inoculates rats and then horses, from which sources he 

 obtains his fluid. 



The subject of the Uaumgartner Prize for 1899, awarded by 

 the Vienna Academy of Science, is " the extension of our 

 knowledge of ultra-violet rays." 



The Leopolinisch-Carolinische Academic of Halle is, it is 

 stated, about to publish Cuvier"s first work, which is on the 

 ediljle crabs of the French coast. It dates from the year 17S8. 

 A number of letters of Cuvier are in the possession of the 

 Academy, and these also it is intended to publish. 



The University of Moscow has been presented with a portion 

 of the collection of butterflies of the late Prof. A. M. Butljero, 

 NO. 1 40 1, VOL. 54] 



and the Museum of Natural History, Berlin, has had bequeathed 

 to it, by the- late Julius Flohr, that gentleman's collection of 

 Mexican insects. 



Some one once rather unkindly said that one half of the 

 British population was always endeavouring to shut up the 

 other half in asylums of one kind or another. Though this 

 remark may be a trifle exaggerated, it may be applied with 

 some truth if societies or associations be read for asylums. The 

 latest association which has appealed for our support is for the 

 Harmonious Development of Faculties. The Association aims 

 at bringing about a clearer apprehension of the co-relationships 

 of physical, moral and intellectual faculties. Anything that 

 contributes to the harmonious development of these is good ; 

 anything that hinders this development is evil ; these are briefly 

 the ethical rules of the Association. The Committee believe 

 that they are spreading a philosophical truth which will have an 

 elevating influence over men's minds. They therefore wish us 

 to draw attention to the existence of the Association, and this 

 we have now done, leaving to our readers the contemplation of 

 the doctrine to which we have referred. The Hon. Secretary 

 of the Association is Prof. M. Deshumbert, Camberley, Surrey. 



Dr. W. L. Abbott, of Philadelphia, has been well employed 

 during the past eight years in exploring various parts of the Old 

 World, and sending his collections to the National Museum at 

 Washington. Mount Kilima-njaro and the adjoining districts of 

 East Africa were the scenes of his first investigations, after which 

 he visited the Seychelles, and the neighbouring islands of the 

 Indian Ocean. He then proceeded to Northern India, and 

 passed two years in Cashmere, Ladak, and Turkestan. From 

 all these localities numerous collections of natural history and 

 ethnology have been transmitted to Washington, where the 

 members of the staff of the National Museum are busy in work- 

 ing out the results. Two of their reports on the birds collected 

 by Dr. Abbott have just reached us. One of them, by Mr. 

 Ridgway, describes the specimens obtained 'in the Seychelles, 

 .'Vmirantes, Gloriosa, Aldabra, and other adjacent islands, many 

 of which had not been previously visited by a naturalist. In 

 Aldabra, generally known as the home of gigantic tortoises, Dr. 

 Abbott met with forty-five species of birds, several of which are 

 representative forms peculiar to that island. In a second memoir 

 Mr. Richmond gives us an account of 746 "well-prepared 

 specimens " which Dr. Abbott has accumulated in Kashmir, 

 Ladak, and Baltistan, and refers them to iSS species. Most 

 of these are, of course, well known to Indian ornithologists, 

 but Mr. Richmond ventures to describe as new a Blue-throat 

 from Ladak, under the name Cyanecula abbotti. 



Dr. Nicola Terracciano has contributed to the Transac- 

 tions of the R. Accademia delle Scienze fisiche e matematiche, 

 of Naples, an important memoir on the flora of Monte Pollino 

 and the surrounding district. This group of mountains, 

 situated between Calabria and the Basilicate, has for some time 

 attracted the attention of Neapolitan botanists, and the number 

 of species in its flora now amounts to 1468, exclusive of varieties. 

 Dr. Terracciano notes as new to the Italian flora, Gagea minima 

 and G. aiiiplyopctala, and he describes four altogether new 

 species, namely Fritillaria follinensis, F. interiiiedia, Orni- 

 thogalum ambigiium and Narcissus pollinensis, together with 

 many other forms which he considers varietal. 



The estimation in which certain gramineous species are held 

 varies much in different countries. For instance, Hokus lanatiis, 

 which in Britain is universally regarded as a weed, though it 

 intrudes abundantly upon many of our pastures, is deliberately 

 sown in mixtures of meadow-grass seeds in France. The 

 Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales (vii. 5) cites another 

 example in the tufted hair grass {Deschampsiaccespitosa, Beauv., 



