March ii, 1880] 



NATURE 



45* 



siliceous skeleton is secreted, which forms, as in the dif- 

 ferent groups of the typical Radiolaria, very varied and 

 delicate structures, usually radiating outwards in hollow 

 siliceous tubes. N. M. 



NOTES 

 The German Chemical Society in entering upon its thirteenth 

 year has elected as president Prof. H. Kopp, of Heidelberg, who 

 for some time past has devoted himself almost exclusively to the 

 chronicling of the history of chemistry. At the same time Prof. 

 Roscoe, of Manchester, and Prof. Marignac, of Geneva, who 

 was compelled a year since by advanced age to relinquish active 

 professorial duties, were elected to honorary membership. The 

 Society now numbers 2,oS6, of whom 14 are honorary members 

 and about 200 resident at Berlin. The Berichte of the Society, 

 now certainly the most important chemical periodical of the day, 

 forms for the past year a volume of over 2,550 pages containing 

 over 6co communications. An exhaustive index of the first ten 

 years is now in the press, and will soon be ready. The already 

 bulky dimensions of the Berichte, with its constant yearly increase 

 in size, have forced the council of the Society to propose an 

 increase in the membership fee, which instead of 15?. shall be 

 raised to 2ar. annually. The fact that the Society can cover its 

 ordinary expenses and send post free to its members in all parts 

 of the world a periodical of the size above mentioned for so 

 modest an annual fee, affords an interesting glimpse into the 

 comparative cost of scientific association and activity in Germany 

 and in our own country, where the expenses of membership in 

 most of the scientific societies often exclude those in limited 

 circumstances. 



Dr. Joseph Leidy, Professor of Anatomy in tLe University 

 of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, has just been awarded by the 

 Council of the Society of Natural History, Boston, Mass., the 

 great Walker prize, for the value of his researches in natural 

 history. This prize is given once in five years, at the discretion 

 of the Council, to the naturalist whom it shall decide to have 

 performed the most elaborate and original work during that time- 

 This prize has been awarded but once previously — five years ago 

 — to Prof. Alexander Agassiz, of Cambridge. It is usually the 

 sum of §500, but on account of the extraordinary merit of Dr. 

 Leidy's researches the Council increased the sum to §1,000. Dr. 

 Leidy w as for a long time connected with the Geological Survey 

 of the Territories, and one of his most important memoirs, 

 vol. xii. of the final Reports, has just been issued by the Govern- 

 ment. In collecting the materials for the volume. Dr. Leidy 

 spent two seasens in the Western Territories under the auspices 

 of the Survey. 



The following arrangements have just been made at the Royal 

 Institution for the lectures after Easter. Tuesdays : — Prof. 

 Huxley — Two Lectures on Dogs, and the Problems connected 

 with them ; Mr. Robert II. Scott, F.R.S. — Four Lectures on 

 Wind and Weather; Mr. John Fiske — Three Lectures on 

 American Political Ideas from the Standpoint of Universal 

 History. Thursdays : — Prof. Tyndall— Six Lectures on Li»ht 

 as a Mode of Motion ; Mr. T. W. Rhys Davids — Three Lectures 



on the Sacred Books of the Early Buddhists. Saturdays : Mr. 



James Sully — Three Lectures on Art and Vision; Prof. Henry 

 Morley — Five Lectures on the Dramatists before Shakespeare, 

 from the Origin of the English Drama, to the year of the Death 

 of Marlowe (1593). The Friday Evening Meetings will be 

 resumed on April 9 — Prof. Huxley on the Coming of Age of the 

 "Origin of Species." Succeeding discourses will probably be 

 given by M. Ernest Renan, Mr. W. H. Pollock, Mr. W. 

 Spottiswoode, Mr. G. J. Romanes, Lord Reay, Mr. H. II. 

 Statham, and Mr. Francis Hueffer. 



Dr. C. W. Siemens was elected last month a Foreign Member 

 of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm. 



We are glad to see that a movement has been set on foot for 

 a testimonial to Dr. Farr as a mark of appreciation of the value 

 of his statistical labours. The preliminary list of the committee 

 is headed by the name of the Earl of Derby. 



The death is announced, on February 3, of Chintamanay Ragoo- 

 nathaCbarry, F.R.A.S., Head Assistant in the Madras Observa- 

 tory for the last seventeen years. Attached to that institution for a 

 period of over thirty-five years, he served in succession, in every 

 grade, under the late Major W. S.Jacob, Col. W. K. Worster, 

 Col. J. F. Tennant, R.E., and the present astronomer, and won 

 the esteem and regard of each, by his intelligence, assiduity, and 

 attachment to the pursuit he had adopted. His strict honesty 

 and ready skill as an observer, combined with accuracy and speed 

 in computation, and a fair and useful amount of self-acquired 

 mathematical knowledge, rendered him, until disabled by 

 impaired health, invaluable in the observatory ; and the chief 

 share in the Catalogue of Stars in hand, with the Transit Circle, 

 since 1S62, comprising already over 38,000 separate observations, 

 is due to his personal exertions ; besides many other special 

 researches of a nature not often undertaken by ordinary assistants 

 in observatories. He contributed several papers to the Royal 

 Astronomical Society of London, and was elected a Fellow in 

 January, 1872. He was twice successfully engaged in observa- 

 tions of total eclipses of the sun; on the first occasion in August, 

 1868, at Vunpurthy, in the Nizcm's Dominions, in independent 

 charge of a branch expedition for the purpose ; and on the 

 second, in December, 1871, at Avena hy, in the Coimbatore 

 district. He was the first and only native of India who has yet 

 entered the lists as a discoverer of new celestial objects, having 

 detected two new variable stars, viz., R. Reticuli in 1S67, and 

 V. Cephei in 1S7S. He latterly took great interest in delivering 

 public lectures on astronomy, with a view to enlighten his 

 countrymen upon the subject, and to convince them of the 

 absurdity of their notions in regard to celestial phenomena, by 

 familiar explanations, in simple terms, of the true principles of 

 the science, as opposed to the ignorant superstitions and rough 

 predictions of Hindoo astrologers and empirics of the old 

 school. 



The French papers, the Gauleiters' Chronicle informs us, \y 

 announce the death of Dr. Boisduval, to w hose labours we owe 

 one of the best treatises on the insects which affect garden 

 plants. Dr. Boisduval was an ardent horticulturist, and a 

 leading man for some time at the Central Horticultural Society 

 of France. He died in his eighty-second year. 



The death is announced of Dr. Wilibald Artus, Professor of L^ 

 Philosophy at Jena, on February 7 last, aged seventy )ears. 

 Also of Dr. Franz Xaver von Hlubek, Professor of Agriculture 

 at the Graz Joanneum, on February to, aged seventy eight years. 

 In the third week of February also died Herr Adolf M idler, one 

 of the directors of the well-known Geographical Institute of 

 Justus Perthes at Gotha. 



A MONUMENT to Dr. August Pelermann, the well-known 

 geographer, has just been erected at Gotha. The design, which 

 is very tasteful, is by Herr Eelbo, and the work was executed by 

 the eminent sculptor, Herr Deutschmann. 



A numuer of former pupils of Bernhard von Cotta propose 

 to erect a monument in memory of the deceased geologist, and 

 invite subscriptions for this purpose. The Royal Berg-Acadamie 

 at Freiberg will receive contributions. 



During Napoleon's rule the number of French astronomical 

 observatories was increased to four, viz., Pari-', Toulouse, Mar- 

 seilles, and the Meudon Physical Observatory of Astronomy. The 



