446 



NA TURE 



[Septkmher io, i8y6 



expected, had a narrative of the highest interest to relate ; but 

 as this has been very fully reported by the daily press, we need 

 do no more than report that Mr. Jackson has been able to 

 confirm some of the more important discoveries of last year, and 

 to produce a map of Franz Josef Land, which for the first time 

 lays down with approximate accuracy its geographical outline, 

 and at the same time entirely alters the previous records. Valu- 

 able botanical discoveries are reported to have been made, and 

 numerous photographs taken of birds and beasts of the country 

 in their native habitat and under ordinary conditions. 



After an absence of rather more than two years. Dr. For- 

 syth Major has returned to England from his scientific mission 

 to Madagascar. His task was a very difficult one to perform, 

 in consequence of the unsettled state of the country at the time 

 of his visit, but Dr. Major seems to have succeeded in doing 

 some solid scientific work. The explorer's collections have 

 been deposited in the Natural History Museum, and include 

 many specimens ol .'Epyomis bones from the marshes at Sirabe, 

 and an extensive series of skins representing the recent fauna 

 of the island. A fine collection of specimens of the flora of Mada- 

 gascar, including four orchids reported to be new to science, 

 has also been made. 



Dr. W. R. Gowers will deliver the Bradshaw Lecture at the 

 Royal College of Physicians on November 5. The title of the 

 lecture will be " Subjective Sensations of Sound." The Lumleian 

 lecturer for next year is to be Dr. Bastian, and Dr. LuflFwill be 

 the Gulstonian lecturer. Prof. Sidney Martin is to deliver the 

 Croonian Lecture in 1898. 



According to information brought by the steamer Quiraing, 

 a severe earthquake (the severest since 1784, it is said) oc- 

 curred in Iceland on the evening of August 26 and the follow- 

 ing morning. Many farms at Hrepp, on the east coast of 

 Iceland, two churches, and nearly all the farms in HoUum, 

 Laudi, Kangaullum, HoUkrapp and Fgolshlid were destroyed, 

 and sheep and cattle killed. Reykjavik, Bargarfjord and 

 Hrulafjord suffered slightly. No lives seem to have been lost. 

 The centre of the disturbance was apparently Hecla, where an 

 eruption appeared imminent. 



A Reuter telegram of September 2, from Yokohama, 

 reported a disastrous earthquake in the north-east provinces 

 of Japan on the evening of August 31. The town of Rokugo 

 was entirely destroyed, and other towns were severely damaged. 

 Many lives were lost. On the same day extensive damage was 

 done in the southern parts of Japan by a typhoon. 



The death is announced of Mr, R. \V. R. Birch, a hydraulic 

 and sanitary engineer of repute. Mr. Birch had been for many 

 years a member of the Council of the Sanitary Institute, and of 

 the Royal Meteorological Society. 



News has come from Annemasse (Haute Savoie) of the death 

 ofM. Henri Aim^ Resal, the mining engineer. M. Resal, 

 who was the author of numerous books on mining mechanics, 

 was a member of the Academy of Sciences, editor of the 

 Journal des Mathilmatiqiies Piires el ApplujiiL'es, and President 

 of the SocietiJ Malhematique de France. He was born in 

 1828. 



The death is recorded, at the age of seventy-three, of Prof. 

 Egli, the geographer, who is perhaps best known for the 

 " Nomina Geographica" which he edited. 



The new Gatty Marine Laboratory at St. Andrews, intended 

 to replace the wooden structure in which Prof. Mcintosh has 

 worked for the past ten years, is to be formally opened on 

 October 8. Its more noticeable features will be a tank-room 

 30 feet square, and a research-room of the same dimensions. 

 The latter is being fitted tu accommodate six workers. 



NO. 1402, VOL. 54] 



The fungus foray of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, which 

 has now been for several years an annual event, is to take place 

 this year at Selby, from which as a centre excursions are to be 

 made to various woods in the East and West Ridings, on Septem- 

 ber 19, 20, 21, and 22 ; the members of the party meeting each 

 evening at the " Londesborough Arms," to compare notes and 

 arrange the fungi gathered. On Monday evening, September 21, 

 a conference will be held, at which papers will be read by Rev. 

 Canon Du Port, Mr. George Massee, Mr. Carleton Rea, and 

 Mr. Harold Wager, and in illustration of their remarks a lantern 

 will be provided by Mr. W. Norwood Cheesman. Mr. A. 

 Clarke will exhibit a number of stereoscopic photographs of 

 fungi, and microscopes will also be provided. Mycologists 

 who may wish to attend will be heartily welcomed, and 

 circulars will be sent on application to Mr. W. Denison Roe- 

 buck, Sunnybank, Leeds, or to. Mr. W. Norwood Cheesman, 

 The Crescent, Selby. 



A BLOCK of granite bearing the following inscription has, says 

 the Aicuic'iny, been recently placed on the southern shore of the 

 Lake of Sils in the Engadine : — "In memory of the illustrious 

 English writer and naturalist, Thomas Henry Huxley, who 

 spent many summers at the Kursaal Hotel, Maloja." 



It is announced that the Royal Society of Canada has resolved 

 to commemorate the five-hundredth anniversary of the first 

 landing of Cabot in North America by holding a meeting at 

 Halifax from June 20 to 26 of next year, and to erect, at a cost 

 of not less than .^200, a monument at Sydney in Cape Breton. 



Notice is given in the current number of \.he Journal of the 

 Society of Arts of two prizes offered by the Society. One 

 is the " Fothergill " of ;^25 and a silver medal, for a paper on 

 "the best means of effectually preventing the leakage of current 

 to earth in electrical installations from generating heat and 

 setting buildings on fire." The paper should consist of about 

 eight thousand words, and be written with a view to being 

 read and discussed at an ordinary meeting of the Society. 

 Papers submitted for the prize must reach the Secretary by 

 October I of this year. Each paper must be type-written, and 

 bear a motto, the name of the writer being enclosed in a 

 sealed envelope with a similar motto. The other prize an- 

 nounced is a gold medal and the sum of ;^20, and is to be 

 bestowed, under the terms of the Benjamin Shaw Trust, "for 

 any discovery, invention, or newly-devised method for obviating 

 or materially diminishing any risk to life, limb, or health, 

 incidental to any industrial occupation, and not previously 

 capable of being so obviated or diminished by any known and 

 practically available means." Descriptions of the inventions 

 of intending competitors must reach the Secretary of the 

 Society of Arts not later than December 31, 1896. 



The Sanitary Institute has just issued a list of its twenty- 

 second course of lectures and demonstrations for sanitary officers 

 and students. The course, which is to be commenced on 

 Monday, September 28, by a lecture, by Mr. Wynter BIyth, on 

 " The Education, Status, and Emoluments of Sanitary 

 Inspectors," has been arranged for the special instruction of 

 those desirous of obtaining knowledge of the duties of sanitary 

 officers, and of others desirous of obtaining a practical know- 

 ledge of sanitary requirements and regulations. The lectures 

 will be delivered at the Sanitary Institute, London, and the 

 introductory lecture is to be free. 



Cai'tain Robertson, of the Dundee whaling vessel Active, 

 which has just returned from a voyage to the Arctic regions, has, 

 says the Times, forwarded to Mr. Dickson, of Oxford, the result 

 of certain observations made, at the request of the latter, during 

 the cruise, together with samples of the water through which the 

 Active s.iiled. The observations were taken with a view to 



