JAJJITAEY21, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



93 



on behalf of the American Association for 

 Teaching Speech to the Deaf; Dr. B. L. Whit- 

 man, on behalf of the Columbian University ; 

 Dr. Marcus Benjamin, on behalf of the Society 

 ■of Colonial Wars ; W. L. Wilson, on behalf of 

 the Smithsonian Institution ; Mr. A. R. Spof- 

 ford, Assistant Librarian of Congress, on behalf 

 of the Columbia Historical Society ; Major J. 

 W. Powell, of the Bureau of Ethnology, and 

 probably Commissioner Ross, representing the 

 District. General A. W. Greely will close the 

 meeting with a review of the ten years' work 

 of the Geographic Society, representing the 

 labors of Mr. Hubbard, its late President, dur- 

 ing the latter years of his life. 



The British Institute of Public Health will 

 in future be styled the Royal Institute of Public 

 Heath. Queen Victoria has accepted the oflBce 

 of Patron of the Institute, and has conferred 

 the Jubilee Medal upon the President, Professor 

 W. R. Smith, M. D. The Council of the Insti- 

 tute has conferred the Harben Gold Medal for 

 1898 upon Lord Playfair, and has appointed 

 Professor W. R. Smith, Harben Lecturer for 

 the year 1899, and Mr. Henry C. Jones, Solic- 

 itor, Secretary to the Institute. 



Me. David Hunt, of Boston, has arranged 

 to give four lectures on the ' History of Medi- 

 cine,' at the Harvard Medical School, on 

 Thursday evenings. The first of the series was 

 igiven on January 11th, the subject being 

 'Hippocrates to the Sixteenth Century.' 



At a meeting of the Zoolgical Club of Spring- 

 field, Mass., on January 5th, Mr. W. W. Col- 

 burn was elected President, and Miss M. A. 

 Young, Secretary. Dr. George Dimmock made 

 a report on the card catalogue of the fauna of 

 the region being prepared under the auspices of 

 the Club. 1,940 species have been listed, the 

 most complete portion being that on birds. 



A Lincolnshire Science Society with sev- 

 eral sections has been organized, with a view 

 to advancing the interests of natural history 

 ^nd founding a museum in the county. 



The Nominating Committee of the Appala- 

 chian Mountain Club, Boston, has named Pro- 

 fessor William H. Niles for President, Mr. Rest 

 jF. Curtis for Vice-President, Mr. R. B. Lawrence 



for Recording Secretary and Mr. John Richard, 

 Jr. , for Corresponding Secretary. 



Mr. Victor Horsley, the President-elect of 

 the Neurological Society, London, gave his in- 

 augural address at the annual meeting of the 

 Society on January 13th. The subject of the 

 the address was ' The Degree of Discharge of 

 Dilferent Nerve Centers. ' 



Queen Victoria has decided to convert the 

 old palace at Kew, near the Botanic Gardens, 

 into a pviblic museum. 



M. HoERST has applied to the city of Paris 

 for permission to begin the construction of the 

 colossal terrestrial globe to be erected under 

 the direction of M. Elise Recluse for the Paris 

 Exposition of 1900. 



Professor Nordenskjold, the Arctic ex- 

 plorer, has informed the Swedish Academy of 

 Sciences that the Foreign Office has received 

 intelligence that several persons worthy of 

 credence saw Herr Andree's balloon early in 

 August, in British Columbia, seven miles north 

 of Quesnelle Lake, in the district of Cariboa. 



The statements contained in the daily and 

 other papers regarding the will of the late 

 Alfred Nobel appear to be only partially cor- 

 rect. His personal estate in Great Britain has 

 been valued at £434,093, but the amount set 

 aside for the foundation of the five great prizes 

 is not yet known. It will be remembered that 

 according to the terms of the will the interest 

 of the fund is to be divided into five equal 

 parts, of which one part is to devolve upon him 

 who, within the department of natural philos- 

 ophy, has made the most important discovery 

 or invention ; one other part to him who has 

 made the most important discovery or improve- 

 ment in chemistry ; one other part to him who 

 has made the most important discovery within 

 the department of physiology or medicine ; one 

 other part to him who in literature has pro- 

 duced the most excellent work in an idealistic 

 direction ; and one part to him who has worked 

 most or best for the fraternization of the na- 

 tions and for the abolition or diminution of 

 standing armies, as also for the promotion and 

 propagation of peace. The prizes in physics 

 and chemistry are to be awarded by the 

 Swedish Academy of Sciences, for physiological 



