126 
Astrophysicists will be held at the Yerkes 
Observatory on Wednesday, September 6th, 
and the two following days. 
A MONUMENT to Gauss and Weber was un- 
veiled at Gottingen on June 17th, the chief 
address being made by Professor Voigt, Weber’s 
successor. As part of the ceremonies the 
honorary doctorate was conferred on Profes- 
sor Moore, of Chicago; Professor Darwin, of 
Cambridge; Professor Hadamard, of Paris ; 
Professor Lorenz, of Leiden ; Professor Righi, 
of Bologno, and Professor von Sterne, of 
Vienna. 
THE Volta Exhibition at Como has been com- 
pletely destroyed by fire, attributed to the 
fusing of electric wires. Many precious relics 
of the great electrician were lost in the flames, 
notwithstanding the precaution taken to pre- 
serve the objects by placing them in a receptacle 
of solid masonry. The committee has decided 
that the féfes in honor of Volta shall be con- 
tinued. The International Congress of Elec- 
tricians will also be held, as previously ar- 
ranged. 
Ir is reported that Mr. R. T. Glazebrook, 
Principal of University College, Liverpool, has 
been appointed Director of the recently estab- 
lished National Physical Laboratory of Great 
Britain. 
Str WILLIAM MacCorMac has been for the 
fourth time elected President of the Royal Col- 
lege of Surgeons, London. 
Dr. J. WIESNER, professor of plant physi- 
ology, of the University of Vienna, has been 
elected a member of the Berlin Academy of 
Sciences. 
Dr. F. WAHNER, privatdocent in geology 
in Vienna, has been elected a member of the 
Leopoldinisch-Carolinisch Academy at Halle. 
A DINNER was given to Sir John Burdon- 
Saunderson, Bart, and Professor Michael Foster, 
K.C.B., by British physiologists on July 25th, 
to congratulate them on the honors recently 
conferred on them by the Queen. 
Ir is reported that Professor Sanarelli is 
about to visit the United States to study the 
effects of his serum in the treatment of yellow 
fever. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Vos. X. No. 239. 
THE British Cancer Society has commissioned 
Mr. Arthur C. Buffey, M.B., B.Ch., to go to 
the United States to report generally on matters 
affecting the objects of the Society, and es- 
pecially as to the operations of the State Lab- 
oratory for the study of cancer at Buffalo, 
ING ANG 
WE learn from Nature that Mr. H. H. Howell, 
who joined the British Geological Survey under 
De la Beche in 1850, has retired from the 
service. Mr. Howell, after surveying some 
portions of Wales and the south of Scotland, 
and large areas in the midland counties of Eng- 
land, became District Surveyor of the north- 
eastern counties of England in 1872; he was 
appointed Director for Scotland in 1882 (when 
Sir Archibald Geikie became Director-General), 
and he was further promoted to be Director for 
Great Britain in 1888. Mr. Ernest E. L. Dixon, 
who has for the past two years acted as assist- 
ant to Professor Judd at the Royal College of 
Science, has been appointed Assistant Geologist 
on the Geological Survey of England. 
A MARBLE bust of the late William Ruther- 
ford, professor of physiology at Edinburgh, 
given by his recent students, was unveiled on 
July 8th. After the bust, which is by Mr. 
John Hutchinson, had been unveiled, a speech 
was made by Sir William Turner. 
WE regret to learn of the death of Mrs. 
Elizabeth Thompson, of Stamford, Conn., who 
made many gifts for benevolent and scientific 
purposes. She contributed towards the tele- 
scope for Vassar College, was one of three 
‘patrons’ of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, and endowed the 
Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund, the in- 
come of which is now being so advantageously 
used for the promotion of scientific research. 
W. P. JoHnson, LL.D., President of Tulane 
University, New Orleans, and a Regent of the 
Smithsonian Institution, died on July 16th. 
Mr. CHARLES M. FAUNCE, formerly instruc- 
tor in descriptive geometry at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, has died at the age of 
32 years. : 
ProFressor H. R. GEIGER, from 1846 to 1882, 
professor of science in Wittenberg College, and 
