188 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 214. 



that appeals to the whole world of science ; it 

 will have to be supported by money ; it will re- 

 quire the ardent cooperation of numerous in- 

 dividuals. To say the very least, it is not wise 

 of the Royal Society to put on its usual airs of 

 superiority and indifference in a matter of this 

 kind. We have excellent reason for believing 

 that the eminent and courteous Secretaries of 

 the Koyal Society are not responsible for this 

 darkness where there should be light. Who, 

 then, is the culprit?" 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



Mrs. Esther Herkman has given $10,000 to 

 the building fund of the Scientific Alliance of 

 New York City. It will be remembered that 

 about a year ago we gave an account of the 

 plans for erecting a building for the different 

 scientific societies of New York. Such a scien- 

 tific center is greatly needed, and it is to be 

 hoped that Mrs. Esther Herrman's generous 

 gift will be followed by others. 



Mr. Edward E. Ayer has resigned the presi- 

 dency of the Field Columbian Museum, Chi- 

 cago. A successor has not yet been elected. 



Professor A. E. Tornebohm has been 

 elected President of the Swedish Geological So- 

 ciety for 1899. 



Mr. W. Anderson, of the Geological Survey 

 of India, has been appointed director of a sur- 

 vey of Natal about to be undertaken by the 

 Colony. 



The Academy of Science of St. Petersbui'g 

 has elected as honorary members the King of 

 Sweden, the Queen of Eoumania, Fridjof Nan- 

 sen and M. Emile Seuart, member of the Insti- 

 tute of France. 



M.A. LoREAU, President in 1898 of the French 

 Society of Civil Engineers, and Count A. de Dax, 

 Secretary of the Society, have been made by the 

 Emperor of Russia a commander and a knight, 

 respectively, of the order of St. Stanislas. 



Mr. E. T. Baker has been made Curator of 

 the Technological Museum of Sydney, N. S. W. 



The death is announced of Dr. Dumontpallier, 

 an eminent Paris physician and an author of 

 contributions to pathology, especially of the 

 nervous system, at the age of 74 years ; and of 



Lieut.-Col. Robert Pringle, M.D., of the British 

 army, the author of numerous papers on the 

 hygiene and diseases of India. 



We learn from the Botanical Gazette of the 

 deaths of three foreign botanists, M. F. Gay, of 

 the University of Montpellier, at the age of 40 

 years, a student of the green algte. Pastor 

 Christian Kaurin, of Sande Jarlsberg, Norway, 

 at the age of 66, a well-known student of Scan- 

 dinavian bryology, and Professor T. Camel, 

 professor of botany and director of the botanic 

 garden at Florence. 



The London Times gives the following details 

 concerning the Rev. Bartholomew Price, F.R.S., 

 whose death we recently recorded : Born at 

 Cole St. Dennis, Gloucestershire, in 1818, Mr. 

 Price was educated privately and at Pembroke 

 College, whence he obtained a first class in 

 mathematics in 1840. He gained the Univer- 

 sity Mathematical Scholarship in 1842, and two 

 years later was elected Fellow of his College. 

 In 1844 he became tutor and ten years after- 

 wards Sedleian professor of natural philosophy. 

 In 1852 appeared the first volume of his elabo- 

 rate work on the infinitesimal calculus ; the last 

 of the four was not published till ten years later. 

 This book obtained for him a considerable repu- 

 tation in the mathematical world ; but his prin- 

 cipal work in life was practical, and he will be 

 remembered rather as the active Secretary of 

 the Univei'sity Press during the years of its first 

 great activities after the death of Dean Gaisford, 

 than as a mathematical professor. Bartholo- 

 mew Price was a keen yet cautious man of busi- 

 ness, and in his best days did much for the in- 

 terests of the University both at the Press and 

 as member of the Hebdomadal Council. Prob- 

 ably nobody of his time filled the latter post 

 during so many years as he, or was so often 

 called upon to be the spokesman of the Council 

 in proposing new statutes and decrees to Con- 

 gregation. 



We learn from Natural Science that at a meet- 

 ing in Edinburgh, on November 8th, a com- 

 mittee was appointed to consider the feasibility 

 of establishing a Scottish Zoological Garden. 

 ' ' The idea of a ' Zoological Society' was mooted, 

 but did not, we are pleased to learn, find sup- 

 port. There are already three or four societies 



