286 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol, XXIV. No. 609. 



observed smoke issuing from the crater, and 

 was told that flames were sometimes visible at 

 nighL Fiimeroles were seen within the crater 

 by Stefano Pighio in 1582, by Braccini in 

 1612, by the physicians Magliocco and Nicola 

 de Rubeo, and by Padre Salimbeni, all in 

 1619. It will also be recalled that the year 

 1538 is memorable for the Monte Nuovo up- 

 heaval, one of the recorded features of which 

 was a violent radial blast, comparable in a 

 small way, no doubt, to the frightfully de- 

 structive agency which played such a tragic 

 part in the West Indian catastrophes, still 

 fresh in memory. Such being the condition 

 of things in the sixteenth century, we have 

 every reason to regard Leone as a credible eye- 

 witness of the eruption which he claims to 

 have observed from Nola in ' nostra vero 

 tempestate.' 



Finally it should be said that we owe to the 

 well-known editor of the ' Monumenta Nea- 

 politani Ducatus ' a valuable list of references 

 to mediaeval chronicles in which several early 

 eruptions are mentioned. Capasso's revision 

 of the dates makes some changes necessary in 

 the accepted catalogues. Thus, reckoning the 

 eruption of 685 as the fifth on record in his- 

 tory, the succeeding ones should be referred 

 in order to the following years : 968 or 969, 

 999, 1007, 1037, 1139, circa 1500, 1631. There 

 are no contemporary authorities for the erup- 

 tions sometimes quoted for the years 1024 

 (Capaccio), 1049 (Lyell, Phillips), and 1184 

 (Mallet). C. R. Eastmajt. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The University of Greifswald has, on the 

 occasion of the celebration of its four hun- 

 dred and fiftieth anniversary, conferred the 

 honorary degree of doctor of philosophy on 

 Professor William M. Davis, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity. 



At the meeting of the British Medical Asso- 

 ciation, held last week at Toronto, the degree 

 of doctor of laws was conferred by the Uni- 

 versity of Toronto as follows: Professor 

 Thomas Clifford AUbutt; A. H. Preeland 

 Barbour; Sir Thomas Barlow; Sir James 

 Barr; Sir William H. Broadbent; H. W. 



Langley Browne, M.D., chairman of the coun- 

 cil of the British Medical Association; George 

 Cooper Franklin, retiring president of the 

 association; Professor William Dobinson 

 Halliburton; Sir Victor Horsley; Dr. Donald 

 McAlister, president of the British Medical 

 Council; William Julius Mickle; M. Louis 

 Lapicque; Professor L. Aschoff, and Dr. W. J. 

 Mayo, M.D., president of the American Med- 

 ical Association. 



Dr. H. Davt, of Exeter, will be president 

 of the next meeting of the British Medical 

 Association to be held in that city. 



Dr. W. N. Shaw, director of the British 

 Meteorological Office, has been elected an 

 honorary member of the Austrian Society for 

 Meteorology. 



The Technological Institute of Munich has 

 conferred the degree of doctor of technical 

 sciences on Dr. W. H. Perkin, in connection 

 with the recent jubilee of the coal tar color 

 industry. 



Mr. W. Eagle Clarke has been appointed 

 keeper of the natural history collections of 

 the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh, 

 in succession to Dr. K H. Traquair, F.R.S. 



Professor F. Cavara, of Catania, has been 

 appointed director of the Naples Botanical 

 Garden. 



Dr. F. W. T. Hunger, of Utrecht, has been 

 appointed director of the experimental station 

 at Salapig, Java. 



Professor Pozzi has been presented with a 

 gold medallion portrait by the sculptor Chap- 

 lain and a memorial volume of researches by 

 his former students on the occasion of the 

 twentieth anniversary of his work at the Broca 

 Hospital. 



The Moxon medal of the Royal College of 

 Physicians of London has been awarded to 

 Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.S. 



We learn from Nature that at the con- 

 cluding meeting of the International Con- 

 ference on Hybridization and Plant Breeding 

 the Veitch gold memorial medals were pre- 

 sented to Mr. W. Bateson, F.R.S., the presi- 

 dent of the conference, Professor Johannsen, 

 Professor Wittmack and Professor Maurice 



