MAY 13, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



675 



Pharmaceutical Institute at Dorpat, in Russia. 

 Dr. Dragendorff was born in Rostock in 1836. 

 After qualifying as an 'apotheker,' he studied 

 chemistry in the Heidelberg University, which 

 he left in 1860 to become assistant to Professor 

 F. Schultze in the chemical laboratories of the 

 Rostock University. In the same year he 

 graduated as Ph.D., his thesis being on the ac- 

 tion of phosphorus upon some carbonates and 

 borates. In 1862 he went to St. Petersburg to 

 take charge of the Pharmaceutischen Zeitschrift 

 Jixr Bussland, as editor, and of the laboratories 

 of the Pharmaceutical Society there. While 

 acting in that capacity his reputation grew, and 

 his appointment as professor of pharmacy and 

 Director of the Pharmaceutical Institute at 

 Dorpat in 1864 was the beginning of thirty 

 years' work which made the Dorpat Institute 

 famous all over the world, for Dragendorft's 

 skill as a teacher and discoverer of talent 

 brought students to him from all quarters. He 

 retired to his native town in 1894, and devoted 

 his leisure to a monumental work on medicinal 

 plants, of which at least one part has been pub- 

 lished. He was best known to English phar- 

 macists through his ' Plant Analysis,' a transla- 

 tion of which, by his former pupil, Henry G. 

 Greenish, was published in 1883. His work on 

 alkaloids was, however, that by which he is 

 most entitled to fame. The mydriatic alkaloids 

 were his special field, and his syntheses of co- 

 nine and atropine are amongst the most brill- 

 iant achievements of modern chemistry. In 

 1885 the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Brit- 

 ain conferred the third Hanbury medal upon 

 him. 



Sufficient advance subscriptions have been 

 guaranteed to encourage The Open Court 

 Publishing Company in proceeding with its 

 plan of publishing the series of large-sized 

 portraits of philosophers and psychologists, 

 to which we called attention some time since. 

 The first instalment of the portraits, containing 

 the names of Thomas Aquinas, Bacon, Hobbes, 

 Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Leibnitz, 

 Wolff, Kant, Schopenhauer, Spencer and others, 

 is now nearly ready. 



The Smithsonian Institution has issued a list, 

 compiled by Mr. W. J. Rhees, of its publications 



available for distribution. These publications 

 are in many cases of great scientific value and 

 are sold at very low prices. This list of publi- 

 cations, for example, extends to 29 pages and 

 may be secured for two cents. The publications 

 of the Smithsonian Institution consist of: 1, 

 Contributions to Knowledge ; 2, Miscellaneous 

 Collections ; 3, Annual Reports ; 4, Special 

 Papers. The publications include 1,091 sepa- 

 rate titles, but many of these can no longer be 

 supplied. 



The work on determination of sex, by Dr. 

 Leopold Schenck, Director of the Embryo- 

 logical Institute of Vienna, of which the news- 

 papers have had so much to say, is announced 

 for immediate publication by Messrs. Schal- 

 layin and Wollbruok, Vienna and Leipzig. The 

 title of the book is Einjluss auf das Geschlecht- 

 verhdltniss, and the price will be 3 Marks. 



The museum at Nantes has been enlarged 

 by the addition of a new hall, and special efforts 

 are being made to represent as completely as 

 possible the fauna, flora and geology of western 

 France. 



Efforts are being made to collect £2,500 to 

 repair the museum building at Barras Bridge, 

 Newcastle, and several subscriptions have been 

 received, including £500 from Lord Armstrong, 

 President of the Natural History Society of 

 Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle, un- 

 der the auspices of which the museum is con- 

 ducted. 



The Royal Photographic Society has opened 

 the international exhibition at the Crystal Pal- 

 ace, London, the arrangements for which we 

 have already announced. 



The third annual Congress of the Southeast- 

 ern Union of Scientific Societies, whose Presi- 

 dent is the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, will be held 

 at Croydon, England, on June 2d, 3d and 4th. 

 Professor G. S. Boulger will deliver the annual 

 address as President-elect. 



A MEETING of the Fellows of the Royal Bo- 

 tanic Society, London, was held on April 23d in 

 the Museum at the Society's gardens. Regent's 

 Park, Mr. G. W. Bell presiding. Dr. Coode 

 Adams delivered a lecture on ' Some Remark- 

 able Cacti,' illustrated by lantern slides and 



