April 21, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



599 



Macgillivray, the ornithologist, in the New 

 Calton cemetery, Edinburgh, and for founding 

 a Macgillivray gold medal in Aberdeen Uni- 

 versity as a prize to the best student iu zoology, 

 botany or geology. 



It is stated in Nature that some recognition 

 VFill shortly be made of the services rendered to 

 geological science by the Rev. Thomas Wilt- 

 shire, professor emeritus of geology in King's 

 College, London. Of late years Mr. Wiltshire's 

 labors have not been of a nature to bring his 

 name prominently before the public, but he has 

 been toiling quietly as the honorary Secretary 

 and Editor of the Paleontographical Society. 

 That Society has now published fifty-two quarto 

 annual volumes, and some thirty of these have 

 been edited by Mr. Wiltshire. These volumes 

 each contain forty or fifty plates of fossils, and 

 two hundred or more pages of letter press, deal- 

 ing with organic remains of all classes. Great 

 credit is due to Mr. Wiltshire, and the members 

 of the Paleontographical Society (of which Dr. 

 Henry Woodward, F.R.S., is President, and 

 Mr. E. Etheridge, F.R.S., Treasurer) have de- 

 cided to present him with a testimonial, towards 

 which subscriptions (not limited to members of 

 the Society) are now being received. 



It is stated that the French authorities are so 

 gratified with the success of the wireless teleg- 

 raphy demonstrations between Boulogne and 

 the South Foreland that an attempt to tele- 

 graph from Paris is proposed, and that the Eiffel 

 Tower will be the French terminal. The Eng- 

 lish terminal will remain at the South Fore- 

 land. The direct distance between the two 

 points is about 230 miles. 



We have received the first part of the first 

 volume of the Proceedings of the Washington 

 Academy of Sciences issued on April 14, 1899. 

 It consists of the first annual report of the Sec- 

 retary, Mr. G. K. Gilbert. This is an interesting 

 account of the foundation of the Academy, in- 

 cluding the events antecedent to its formation, 

 most of which have been recorded in this Jour- 

 nal. It is said that the Proceedings will be con- 

 tinued with the publication of scientific papers. 



The Geological Society of Washington has 

 issued the address of the retiring President, 

 Mr. Arnold Hague, on ' Early Tertiary Vol- 



canoes of the Absaroka Range,' originally pub- 

 lished in this Journal, together with an ab- 

 stract of the minutes of the Society for the 

 years 1897 and 1898. In 189S forty-one papers 

 were presented, the average attendance at the 

 meetings being thirty-five. The present ofli- 

 cers of the Society are : President, Whitman 

 Cross; Vice-Presidents, J. S. Diller, C. W. 

 Hayes ; Treasurer, M. R. Campbell; Secretaries, 

 T. W. Stanton, David White ; Members-at- 

 Large of the Council, S. F. Emmons, Geo. P. 

 Merrill, Bailey Willis, K. H. Darton, A. H. 

 Brooks. 



Lord Kelvin has just prepared a report on 

 some interesting investigations made by Pro- 

 fessor Archibald Barr and himself in Edinburgh, 

 Bradford and Oldham on the subject of the 

 destruction of town refuse. According to the 

 London Times the report is not only of 

 great interest to local authorities, but to the 

 general public. In one instance he experi- 

 mented on damp ashpit refuse containing a 

 large proportion of night soil and vegetable 

 matter from markets and shops. This was con- 

 sumed without the slightest trace of smoke. In 

 addition to this solution of the smoke diflSculty 

 the residual products proved to be of great com- 

 mercial value. In another case the steam pro- 

 duced by the process of destruction was utilized 

 for the driving of electric lighting machinery 

 and other power purposes. No coal or coke 

 whatever was employed, and in this instance 

 also there was an entire absence of smoke. 

 Lord Kelvin's report demonstrates that pub- 

 lic bodies have no longer any excuse for re- 

 ferring to 'waste products,' but have within 

 their reach the means of turning the most un- 

 promising kinds of refuse to a highly profitable 

 account. 



The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the 

 American Public Health As-sociation will be 

 held at Minneapolis, Minn., beginning October 

 31st, and continuing until November 4, 1899. 

 The Executive Committee has selected the fol- 

 lowing topics for consideration : (1) The Pollu- 

 tion of Water Supplies ; (2) The Disposal of 

 Garbage and Refuse ; (3) Animal Diseases and 

 Animal Food ; (4) Car Sanitation ; (5) Steam- 

 ship and Steamboat Sanitation ; (6) The Eti- 



