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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 166. 



nearly thirty years was professor of chemistry 

 at Bonn. Contributions may be sent either to 

 the Treasurer of the German Chemical Society, 

 Dr. J. F. Holtz, Miillerstrasse, Berlin, N. 



The will of the late Dr. Harrison Allen be- 

 queathes his valuable collection of mammals to 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia. 



De. B. C. Seguin, the pathologist and neu- 

 rologist, who died recently in New Yorli, has, 

 by his will, given his instruments and books to 

 Columbia University and the New York Acad- 

 emy of Medicine. 



We learn from Nature that the German Em- 

 peror, as King of Prussia, has conferred upon 

 Dr. John Murray, Director of the Scottish 

 Marine Station, and formerly of the Challenger 

 expedition, the rare distinction of knighthood 

 in the Order Pour le Merits, founded by Freder- 

 ick the Great. This is generally allowed to be 

 the highest honor which a man of science can 

 receive, and is limited to thirty German and 

 twenty-five foreign knights. Lord Kelvin, 

 Lord Lister and Sir G. G. Stokes are the only 

 other British men of science now alive who 

 have received the Order. Dr. Murray has also 

 been elected a Foreign Member of the Imperial 

 Russian Academy of Sciences. 



M. Feanchet has been elected President of 

 the Botanical Society of France. 



In connection with the completion of his 25th 

 year of office as Woodwardian professor of 

 geology at Cambridge, it was proposed to pre- 

 sent Professor T. M' Kenny Hughes with an il- 

 luminated address, to be presented at a public 

 dinner held in London on the 26th of February. 

 Sir Archibald Geikie has consented to preside. 



Peofessoe O. Mattieolot has been ap- 

 pointed Director of the Botanical Garden and 

 Museum of Florence. 



The tenth Congress of Russian Men of Sci- 

 ence and Physicians will be held at Kieff from 

 August 21st to 30th, under the presidency of 

 Professor J. Rachmaninow. 



The third Congress of the Italian Geograph- 

 ical Association will meet at Florence, beginning 

 on April 12th. The quarter centenary of the 

 discoverers Toscanelli and Vespucci will be 



celebrated as part of the proceedings of the 

 Congress. 



The twenty-seventh Congress of the German 

 Surgical Society will be held in Berlin, from 

 April 13th to 16th, under the presidency of 

 Professor Trendelenburg, of Leipzig. In con- 

 nection with the Congress there will be an ex- 

 hibition of preparations, instruments, etc., and 

 a display of Rontgen photographs. 



An International Congress on Commercial 

 Education will be held at Antwerp on April 

 14th-16th, with the Belgian Ministers of Foreign 

 Affairs and Industry as Honorary Presidents. 

 The Congress is especially designed to give to 

 business men, to teachers of commercial sub- 

 jects, and to representatives of central and 

 local educational authorities, an opportunity of 

 discussing the curriculum and methods which 

 should be adopted in commercial schools of dif- 

 ferent grades. Further information can be ob- 

 tained from the Secretary of the Congress, 

 Monsieur Emile Roost, 120 Boulevard Leopold, 

 Antwerp. 



Peesident McKinley has appointed and 

 commissioned J. W. Collins, of Massachusetts, 

 to represent the United States at the Interna- 

 tional Fisheries Exposition, to be held in Bergen, 

 Norway, from May to September of this year. 



The 51st annual meeting of the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers was held recently in the 

 hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great 

 George Street, Westminster. The chair was 

 occupied during the earlier portions of the pro- 

 ceedings by Mr. E. W. Richards, the retiring 

 President, who introduced Mr. Edgar Worth- 

 ington, the newly-elected Secretary, to the 

 meeting. The report stated that at the end of 

 last year the number of names on the roll was 

 2,496, as compared with 2,359 at the end of the 

 previous year. During 1897 227 names were 

 added, the loss by death being 30, and by resig- 

 nation or removal 60. The receipts during the 

 year were £7,656, and the expenditure £6,202. 

 The total investments and other assets amounted 

 to £72,329, and after deducting therefrom £25,- 

 000, due on debentures and other sums, the cap- 

 ital amounted to £44,229. It was proposed to 

 hold this year's summer meeting of the Institu- 

 tion at Derby. The result of the ballot for the 



