April 17, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



593 



matological and Geological Congress will be 

 held at Clermont-Ferraud at tlie end of Sep- 

 tember, 1896. 



A LETTER signed by Prof. John Caird, Prin- 

 cipal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of 

 Glasgow and Sir James Bell, Lord Provost of 

 Glasgow, has been sent to various universities 

 and learned and scientific societies, inviting 

 them to send representatives to the jubilee of 

 Lord Kelvin, which Avill be held at Glasgow on 

 the 15th and 16th of June next. 



At a meeting of the fellows of the Royal 

 Botanic Society, in London, on March 28th, it 

 was stated that since the gardens have been 

 open to the public on Mondays and Saturdays 

 there has been a good attendance, a total of 

 6,000 persons having attended on eleven of 

 the Mondays. It had been claimed that fellows 

 would resign if the grounds were open to the 

 public, but instead of that the roll of fellows had 

 been greatly increased. The plan of having 

 promenade concerts in the garden has not been 

 favored by the Council, but will be again 

 considered. 



It is stated that Huxley's library is now 

 offered for sale. 



Eexjter's Agency states that the Windward, 

 of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition will 

 leave again for the Arctic seas early in June. 

 The Windward will carry a budget of letters 

 for Dr. Nansen, on the chance of falling in with 

 him north of Franz Josef Land. More mem- 

 bers will be sent out to recruit the Jackson- 

 Harmsworth expedition. The Windward will 

 call at Archangel. The organizers of the ex- 

 pedition are in communication with Mr. An- 

 dree, the projector of the balloon voyage towards 

 the Pole, who, in view of the possibility of his 

 balloon drifting in a southeasterly direction, is 

 receiving full particulars of the depots which 

 have been established by Mr. Jackson. 



At a recent meeting of the British Astronom- 

 ical Society, a number of papers were read 

 under the title of ' Eclipse Suggestions.' Ac- 

 cording to the report in the London Times Mr. 

 J. Lunt suggested a method of determining the 

 general brightness of the corona. The principle 

 of the method was to photograph a small ' win- 

 dow ' through which the coronal light was 



streaming, and the squares of which varied from 

 clear glass through various degrees of opacity, 

 such that the coronal light was able to pene- 

 trate with actinic effect through a square of 

 medium opacity in the time at the observer's 

 'disposal during totality. Mr. A. C. D. Crom- 

 melin read a note on ' Some of the attendant 

 phenomena of total solar eclipses.' The Presi- 

 dent also contributed some suggestions, his sub- 

 ject being 'Camerawork.' He said that two 

 lessons were suggested by the Californiau ex- 

 periences — namely, the need for mounting 

 the camera very solidly, and the unwisdom of 

 attempting too many photographs. Mr. A. 

 Fowler read a paper and showed twelve lantern 

 slides illustrative of the observations that might 

 be made with a pocket eclipse spectroscope. 



D. Appleton & Co.'s spring announcements 

 include The Warfare of Science With Theology in 

 Christendom, in two volumes, by Andrew D. 

 White ; Genius and Degeneration, by Dr. Wil- 

 liam Hirsch ; Our Juvenile Offenders, a new 

 volume in the Criminology Series, by W. Doug- 

 las Morrison ; The Intellectual and Moral De- 

 velopment of the Child, by Gabriel Compayre, and 

 A B C of Sense-Perception, by William J. Eckoff, 

 new volumes in the International Educational 

 Series ; Ice Work, Present and Fast, by T. G. 

 Bonney, a new volume in the International 

 Scientific Series ; and Familiar Trees, by F. 

 Schuyler Mathews. 



Henry Holt & Co.'s announcements of 

 scientific works include Electricity, by Prof 

 Charles A. Perkine, of the University of Tennes- 

 see, and A Problem Book in Elementary Chem- 

 istry, by E. Dana Pierce, of the Hotchkiss 

 School, Lakeville, Connecticut. The same 

 publishers will add at once to their German Texts 

 Eckstein's Preisgekrbnt, edited by Prof. Charles 

 Bundy Wilson, of the University of Iowa. 



The experiment about to be made at London 

 of using sea water for watering the streets, 

 flushing the sewers and other purposes will be 

 watched with much interest in America. The 

 Croton system supplying New York City is now 

 being enlarged at much expense, and the addi- 

 tional supply is needed only for a short time 

 during the year when sea water would be of 

 course available. In addition to the possible 



