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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 170. 



and Mr. R. F. Stupart, Chief of the Weather 

 Bureau, Toronto, are members of the National 

 Committee, and subscriptions may be sent in 

 their care. 



Professor Felix Klein has been presented, 

 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his 

 professorship, with an album containing photo- 

 graphs of the present and former members of 

 the Gottingen Mathematical Society. 



Sir Henry Bessemer, the eminent metal- 

 lurgist and engineer, who died in London on 

 March 15th, at the advanced age of eighty-five 

 years, should be regarded as a man of science 

 as well as a great inventor. It is interesting to 

 remember that his process for converting cast 

 iron into cast steel was first presented before 

 the- British Association in 1856. The essence 

 of Sir Henry's process was simply to blow a 

 blast of air through the molten metal until it 

 was sufficiently decarbonized, and this has been 

 said by a competent, authority to be one of the 

 five great inventions of the century. The re- 

 duction in the price of steel that has resulted 

 has had an immense effect on modern civiliza- 

 tion, it being needful only to refer to the use of 

 steel rails and the consequent reduction in the 

 cost of transportation and to the possibility of 

 erecting buildings twenty stories high. Sir 

 Henry Bessemer could not persuade any manu- 

 facturer to use his process and was compelled 

 himself to show its value, fortunately making 

 many million dollars as a result. Sir Henry 

 Bessemer made many other inventions, and 

 spent the last years of his life in devising a 

 reflecting telescope. 



The death is announced of Professor Kirk, 

 of New Zealand, the author of important works 

 on the forests and flora of the colony, and of 

 Dr. F. Hurter, a Liverpool chemist, who had 

 made investigations in chemistry and physics, 

 and of Dr. Jean Valentin, of Buenos Ayres, 

 the geologist. 



The Senate of the University of Glasgow has 

 resolved to confer the degree of LL.D. on 

 . Alexander Duncan, B.A., Secretary and Libra- 

 rian to the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 Glasgow ; John Inglis, formerly President of 

 the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in 

 Scotland, President- elect of the Institution of 



Marine Engineers, London ; Dr. Elie van 

 Eijckevorsel, of the Batavian Society of Experi- 

 mental Philosophy, Rotterdam, and John Millar 

 Thomson, F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in 

 King's College, London. 



Mr. Alexander Agassiz gave a lecture in 

 Saunders Theater, Harvard University, on 

 March 24th, entitled ' The present state of 

 theories of the formation of coral reefs,' giving 

 an account of the important results of his recent 

 investigations of the Fiji Islands. 



The Michigan Academy of Sciences holds its 

 annual meeting at Ann Arbor on March 31st 

 and April 1st and 2d. The address of the Presi- 

 dent, Professor V. M. Spaulding, was on a ' State 

 Natural History Survey. ' The Michigan School- 

 masters' Club holds its annual meeting at the 

 same time and place, scientific subjects occu- 

 pying a prominent place in the program. 



At a recent meeting of the Boston Scientific 

 Society officers were chosen for the ensuing 

 year as follows : President, H. Helm Clayton ; 

 Vice-President, Otto B. Cole ; Secretary, Frank 

 A. Bates ; Corresponding Secretary, John 

 Ritchie, Jr., and Treasurer, S. N. Norton. 



The anthropological expedition from Cam- 

 bridge University to Torres Straits, New Guinea 

 and Borneo, to which we have already called 

 attention, left England on March 10th, to be ab- 

 sent fifteen months. Very important results 

 may be expected from the expedition, which is 

 under the charge of Dr. A. C. Haddon, accom- 

 panied by six other men of science, peculiarly 

 competent to investigate the natives — their 

 physical characteristics, their mental condition, 

 their folklore, their customs, their amusements, 

 their songs, their language and their condition 

 generally, as affected by their geographical en- 

 vironment. 



In addition to the plans of the Geological 

 Survey for explorations in Alaska, the Treasury 

 Department are about starting five or six expe- 

 ditions to explore the Yukon river. Copper 

 river and other water routes of the Territory, 

 Congress having appropriated $100,000 for the 

 purpose. 



Beuter's Agency is informed that Mr. H. S. 

 H. Cavendish's proposed expedition to Lake 

 Rudolph and the Nile has been postpones, for 



