596 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 174. 



well known; his catalogue of scientific serials 

 -and his ' Nomenclatur Zoologicus ' are equally 

 well known and invaluable. 



All scientific men will agree that in this 

 award the Council of the Society has main- 

 tained its past high standard, and will join in 

 wishing Mr. Scudder many years of health and 

 "vigor for the continuance of his work. 



The National Academy of Sciences held its 

 annual stated meeting at Washington last week, 

 beginning on April 19th. A report of the meet- 

 will be published in the next issue of this 

 Journal. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the Council of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science was held in Washington on April 20th. 

 President Gibbs presided and the Permanent 

 Secretary and President-elect, Professor Put- 

 nam, reported on the arrangements for the 

 Boston anniversary meeting. Professor McMa- 

 hon, of Cornell University, was elected General 

 Secretary in the place of the late Professor Kel- 

 licott. A large number of new members were 

 elected, and routine business was transacted. 

 Committees were appointed to consider revis- 

 ions of the constitution and of the functions of 

 the nominating committee made necessary by 

 the amendments adopted at Detroit. 



The University of Pennsylvania's Marine 

 Biological Institute, on the shores of Ludlam's 

 Bay, at Sea Isle City, N. J. , is to be reopened 

 this summer after being closed for five years. 

 Dr. Milton J. Greenman, of the University, 

 will have charge of the laboratory. A large 

 floating house-boat is to be built for the use of 

 students. 



The French government has agreed to 

 recommend an appropriation of 1,500,000 fr. 

 for a building for the Paris Academy of Medi- 

 cine. The Academy is at present very inade- 

 quately installed in the Charity Hospital. The 

 new building will be on the rue Bonaparte. 



The Committee on Science and the Arts of the 

 Franklin Institute has recommended the award 

 of the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium 

 to Messrs. Blondel and Psaroudaki for their in- 

 vention of holophane globes. These secure dif- 



fusion of the light and an improved distri- 

 bution so that the light usually sent off 

 above the horizon is deflected downward to 

 points where it is needed. These results are 

 obtained by reflection and refraction, the globes 

 being transparent. 



The Gold Cothenius Medal, of the Leopoldin- 

 isch-Carolinische Akademie has been awarded 

 to Professor Emil Fischer, of Berlin. 



De. Nansen arrived in London from Christi- 

 ania on April 11th. The visit is in order that 

 he may complete the lectures which he was 

 obliged to postpone last February on account 

 of the illness of his infant son. After a week 

 or so in the country he leaves for Vienna and St. 

 Petersburg. 



De. Frederic Peterson has been elected 

 President of the New York Neurological Society. 



We regret to record the sudden death from 

 pneumonia of D. S. Kellicott, professor of zo- 

 ology at Ohio State University and at the time 

 of his death General Secretary of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Professor Ernst Stockhardt, formerly Director 

 of the Agricultural Institute of Jena, died at 

 Bautzen on March 27th. 



The Philadelphia Medical Journal states that 

 the Germans have been slower than others in 

 adopting the Bertillon system of personal recog- 

 nition by a series of measurements and the no- 

 tation and registration of any natural pigmen- 

 tary or hairy peculiarities. While the system 

 is in use in France and very generally in Bel- 

 gium, Switzerland, Kussia and Italy, only 

 isolated cities in Germany have adopted it. 

 Some recent work with it at the prison at 

 Moabit, in Berlin, has been encouraging, and 

 now it is announced that the police departments 

 of most of the South German towns are about 

 to adopt it, Munich, Niirnberg, Regensburg, 

 Augsburg and Wiirzburg having already made 

 the necessary arrangements for its introduction. 



It is against the etiquette of the medical pro- 

 fession to secure patents on medical discoveries 

 and in Germany men of science hesitate to 

 patronize the patent olHce. There does not 

 appear to be such a decided objection to patents 

 among British and American men of science. 

 Lord Kelvin has, according to a paper read by 



