822 
‘putation of the Berlin Observatory, has been 
appointed to a professorship. 
THE death is announced of Mr. Augustus 
Doerflinger, a well-known engineer, at Brook- 
lyn, on November 24th, in his fifty-fifth year. 
He was a graduate of Cornell University, and 
in the service of the government had charge of 
the removal of Hell Gate in the Harbor of New 
York City, and other important engineering 
works. 
Dr. WILHELM ZENKER, the physicist, died 
jin Berlin, on October 21st, aged seventy years. 
THE botanist and philologist, Stephan Ladis- 
Jaus Endlicher, who died in 1849, was buried 
along with his wife Cecilia in the Matzlems- 
dorfer Cemetery in Vienna. Natural Science 
quotes from a Vienna journal the statement 
that on the 21st of June, the bodies were re- 
moved to a worthier resting place near the main 
entrance to the central Friedhof. The Rector 
of the University, Professor J. Wiesner, and 
the Director of the Botanical Gardens, delivered 
short orations in praise of Endlicher’s genius 
and the services which he rendered to botany, 
philology, and science in general. 
A MEMORIAL of Professor Heinrich van Bam- 
berger, formerly professor of medicine in the 
University of Vienna, was unveiled in the quad- 
rangle of the University on October 29th. An 
address was delivered by Professor Neusser. 
Dr. BERTHOLD LAUFER has returned to Yo- 
kohoma from his expedition to the Amoor 
river and Saghalin, undertaken for the Jesup 
North Pacific expedition of the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History, after an absence of 
nearly two years. 
PROFESSOR JOHN MILNE, of Newport, Isle of 
Wight, has reported as follows to the trustees 
of the Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund: On 
February 19, 1898, the trustees of the Elizabeth 
Thompson Science Fund assigned me a grant 
of $250 in aid of a seismic survey of the world. 
This was expended in purchasing a horizontal 
pendulum, which was shipped to the care of 
H. M.’s Consul-General, W. J. Kenny, in 
Hawaii. When Mr. Kenny left Honolulu in 
March, 1899, the instrument was handed to 
Professor Maxwell, who will work in conjunc- 
tion with Professor Alexander and Professor 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 257. 
Hosmer (principal of the government high 
school), and the latter, I understand, will kindly 
make arrangements for its installation. Pro- 
fessor George Davidson, chairman of a commit- 
tee appointed by the council of the University 
of California to undertake seismic investiga- 
tions, writes me that Mr. Bishop, of Honolulu, 
has promised a site for the instrument, and that 
Professor Alexander will see that it is placed in 
working order. It is hoped that by next year 
a series of records will have been obtained from 
this exceedingly important station. Copies of 
the report based upon these records should be 
sent to the secretary of the board of trustees of 
the Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund, Harvard 
Medical School, Boston, Mass., through the 
liberality of which body the Hawaiian station 
has been established. 
THE Botanical Gazette states that by the co- 
operation of a local mountain club, Dr. R. von 
Wettstein, the director of the Vienna Botanical 
Garden, has been enabled to establish a Bio- 
logical Experiment Station in the Tyrolese Cen- 
tral Alps, near the ‘ Bremer Hiitte’ in the Gesch- 
nitzthal, at an elevation of 2,300 m. A room 
in the college has been fitted up for a labora- 
tory. Research will be directed first to the 
production of species by direct adaptation. 
IT is reported in Natural Science that an As- 
sociation has been formed of collectors for the 
purpose of exploring the local lepidopterous 
fauna of Hildesheim and vicinity, under the 
title of Verein fiir Schmetterlingsfreunde. Pro- 
fessor A. Radcliffe Grote of the Roemer Mu- 
seum presides. 
THE first meeting of the 81st session of the 
Institution of Civil Engineers was held at its 
house, Great George-street, Westminster, Lon- 
don, on November 7th, when the new president, 
Sir Douglas Fox, took the chair and delivered 
his inaugural address. The speaker called at- 
tention to the fact that Great Britain is not 
holding its own in mechanical science, com- 
pared with the nations of the continent and 
with the United States, especially in the intro- 
duction of electricity for lighting, traction 
and transmission of power. 
THE first scientific meeting of the Zoological 
Society of London for the session 1899-1900 
