598 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 225. 



Laccadive Islands, to study the formation of 

 coral reefs, with special reference to to the depth 

 at which the reef-building coral organisms live, 

 the food of the coral polyps, the influence of 

 currents upon coral formations and upon the 

 distribution of life near them, and the inter- 

 relationship existing between the various or- 

 ganisms which occur on a coral reef. It is also 

 proposed to survey the Maldive Islands, with a 

 view to obtaining information as to their mode 

 of formation. Mr. C. F. Cooper will join the 

 expedition during the summer. 



Peofessoe T. E. Thoepe has been elected to 

 succeed Professor Dewar as President of the 

 Chemical Society, London, while Professor W. 

 A. Tilden succeeds Professor Thorpe as treas- 

 urer. Dr. A. Scott has been elected one of the 

 secretaries. 



The Seventh Dutch Scientific and Medical 

 Congress opened its sessions at Harlem on 

 April 7th. Professor Ramsay made an address 

 before the Section of Chemistry on ' The New 

 Elements.' 



The first conversazione of the Roj'al Society 

 will be held at Burlington House on Wednes- 

 day, May 3d, at 9 p. m. 



It is proposed to erect a memorial statue of 

 Sir Thomas Browne in Norwich, where the 

 author of the Religio Medici practised as a 

 physician for forty-six years. It is estimated 

 that the statue will cost about £2,000, towards 

 which the sum of £200 has been subscribed. 



A PLAN has been proposed for erecting a 

 monument to Dr. Jean Hemeau, of La Test, 

 who is said to have discovered and applied the 

 principles of microbic disease forty years before 

 Pasteur. 



The death is announced of Dr. Franz von 

 Hauer, formerly head of the Austrian Geological 

 Survey, at Vienna, aged seventy-three years; 

 of Dr. Max Durand-Fardel, President of the 

 French Society of Hydrology, and of the Hon. 

 F. F. Thompson, of New York, who gave Wil- 

 liams College scientific laboratories costing 

 $180,000, and generous gifts to other educa- 

 tional institutions. 



Y»'e regret also to record the death of Dr. 

 George Henry Rohe, of Maryland, at New 



Albany, La., while in attendance at the recent 

 National Prison Congress. Dr. Rohe was at 

 the time of his death President of the American 

 Public Health Association. 



The death, at the age of 81 years, occurred on 

 April 7th, of Mr. Joseph Stevens, the well- 

 known geologist and antiquarian. Though a 

 practising physician, he found time to make dis- 

 coveries of neolithic and paleolithic implements 

 and fossils, many of which are deposited in the 

 Reading Museum, of which he was long hono- 

 rary curator. He was the author of numerous 

 publications on anthropological and archaeo- 

 logical subjects. 



Miss E. Beown, to whose death we recently 

 referred, has bequeathed one of her observa- 

 tories with all the contents, and, in addition, 

 £1,000, to the British Astronomical Association. 

 Miss Brown was Director of the Solar Section of 

 the Association. 



The Barnard Botanical Club will give an ex- 

 hibit of the work of the department of botany 

 on the afternoon of April 28th. It is hoped 

 that at that time the bronze tablet, given by the 

 Club in memory of the late Dr. Gregory, will be 

 in place. It bears the following inscription : 

 ' ' This laboratory, for the study of physiolog- 

 ical botany, is dedicated to the memory of 

 Emily L. Gregory, Ph.D., first professor of 

 botany in Barnard College, from its opening, in 

 1889, until her death, in 1897." 



Me. W. S. Lean has bequeathed £50,000 to 

 the British Museum for the extension of the 

 library and reading room. 



By the will of the late Sir William Jenner, 

 £10,000 is bequeathed to the Royal College of 

 Physicians of London. 



The Hon. Stevens Salisbury has presented to 

 the Worcester Natural History Society the col- 

 lection of minerals and fossils made by Mr. 

 John Gilman. 



Aerangements have been made for the es- 

 tablishment of an anthropological museum at 

 the University of Aberdeen. Several collec- 

 tions have already been presented to the Uni- 

 versity. 



A SUBSCEIPTION has been opened in Scotland 

 for erecting a stone over the tomb of Professor 



