340 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 218. 



ing, Superintendent of Normal Schools, New 

 York City, has been elected President. 



Officers for the International Association 

 for Promoting the Study of Quaternions and 

 Allied Systems of Mathematics for the years 

 1889 and 1900 have been elected as follows : 

 President, Sir Eobert Ball, of Cambridge Uni- 

 versity ; General Secretary, Dr. Alexander Mac- 

 farlane, lecturer on mathematical physics in 

 Lehigh University. The Secretary of the United 

 States is Professor Arthur S. Hathaway, of the 

 Rose Polytechnic Institute. 



The Association of Polish Men of Science 

 and Physicians will meet at Cracow in 1900. 

 It will be remembered that the meeting in 

 Posen last year was forbidden by the Prussian 

 government for political reasons which scarcely 

 appeared to be sufficient. 



The British Board of Agriculture have ap- 

 pointed a Departmental Committee to inquire 

 into and report upon the working of the Diseases 

 of Animal Acts in so far as they relate to glan- 

 ders, and to consider whether any more effective 

 measures can, with advantage, be taken to pre- 

 vent the spread of that disease. Lord Stanley 

 is chairman of the committee. 



A MEETING of the Fellows of the Royal Bo- 

 tanic Society was held on February 11th, at the 

 Gardens, Regent's-park, Mr. C. Brinsley Mar- 

 lay presiding. Mrs. Ernest Hart exhibited a 

 collection of Japanese dwarfed plants grown 

 under certain secret methods much in vogue in 

 the cultivation of trees in Japan. Each speci- 

 men was said to be upwards of one hundred 

 years old, and the tallest was less than 18 in. 

 in height, although possessing all the charac- 

 teristics of perfect plants in miniature. They 

 were pronounced to be the finest specimens of 

 this peculiar art ever seen in England. There 

 was also shown a seed incubator inj:actiou in- 

 tended for use in connection with the ' Seed 

 Control ' lectures now being given in these 

 Gardens every Monday. 



The first ordinary meeting of the [British So- 

 ciety of Engineers for the present year was held 

 on February 6th. Mr. W. W. Beaumont, the 

 President for 1898, occupied the chair and pre- 

 sented the premiums awarded for papers read 

 during the year, viz., the President's gold medal 



to Mr. W. Fox, the Bessemer premium to Mr. 

 S. O. Cowper-Coles, the Rawlinson premium to 

 Dr. J. C. Thresh and a Society's premium to 

 Mr. G. Thudichum. Mr. Beaumont introduced 

 the President for the ensuing year, Mr. John 

 Corry Fell, who delivered his inaugural ad- 

 dress. He said, as reported in the London 

 Times, that the financial position of the Society 

 was very satisfactory, and it had increased its 

 numbers during 1898. During the past year 

 they had lost six of their honorary members — 

 Sir William Anderson, Sir Henry Bessemer, Sir 

 James N. Douglas, Sir John Fowler, Lord Play- 

 fair and Sir Robert Rawlinson. The vacancies 

 thus created had been filled by Sir J. Wolfe 

 Barry, Sir A. J. Durston, Sir David L. Salo- 

 mons, Professor A. B. W. Kennedy, Mr. W. H. 

 Preece and Mr. A. Siemens. It was a curious 

 fact that civil engineers availed themselves less 

 than any other members of the profession of the 

 privileges accorded to inventors by patent, 

 designs or copyright protection. It had been 

 said that the British nation was less inventive 

 than the American, and prior to 1883 that view 

 appeared to be supported by the number of 

 patent applicants in the United States as com- 

 pared with those in Great Britain, but upon a 

 reduction of the fees in 1883 the applications 

 had reached over 30,000 per annum, and Great 

 Britain now took a foremost place in the inven- 

 tive world. With regard to successful inven- 

 tion the conditions should be the result of 

 analysis or synthesis, not mere chance dashes 

 into an unknown field. Mr. Fell pointed out 

 the necessity of having a special Court for the 

 trial of patent actions. He had for long past 

 been of opinion that such a Court should be 

 established, and of late the Lord Chancellor and 

 other Judges had expressed the same views. 

 They had publicly attributed the block in the 

 Law Courts to the increasing number of patent 

 cases and the inordinate time many of them 

 occupied. The President then gave a short 

 summary of the advances made of late years in 

 various departments of engineering. A hearty 

 vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Fell. 



The annual meeting of the British Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers was held on February 

 9th at the new building in Storey's-gate, St. 

 James's-park. Mr. S. W. Johnson, the re- 



