350 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol XII. No. 296. 



John Percival, of the Southeastern Agricultu- 

 ral College of Wye, England, intended for 

 practical farmers who have made no system- 

 atic study of botany ; ' The Anatomy of the 

 Cat,' by Professor Jacob E. Reighard and Dr. 

 Herbert S. Jennings, both of the University of 

 Michigan ; ' A Manual of the Flora of the 

 Northern States and Canada,' by Professor N. 

 L. Britton, director of the New York Botanical 

 Garden ; ' Schenok and Giirber's Human Phys- 

 iology,' translated by W. D. Zoethout, with a 

 preface by Professor Jaques Loeb, of the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago. The same publishers report that 

 Professor James's ' Talks to Teachers on Psy- 

 chology ' has gone to press for the eighth time. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Koj'al 

 Botanic Society, London, the chairman, in 

 moving the adoption of the 61st annual report 

 of the council, referred to the death of the 

 Duke of Teck, who had been president of the 

 Society for more than 30 yeai's. The presidency 

 had since been offered by the council to the 

 Duke of York, who had been obliged to decline. 

 It has been offered to the present Duke of Teck, 

 who is now in South Africa. The report stated 

 that the number of new Fellows and members 

 elected during the year had been 203, and there 

 was now a total of 2205 fellows and members. 

 The Royal Botanic Gardens Club had pro- 

 gressed in a very satisfactory manner, and the 

 number of members was now 570. The School 

 of Practical Gardening had been increased in 

 number by the addition of ten more scholars 

 from the London County Council Technical 

 Education Board, and the Middlesex County 

 Council had signified their intention of giving 

 three scholarships. The Earl of Aberdeen and 

 Viscount Curzon, M.P., were elected into the 

 council. 



The Annual Congress of the British Royal 

 Institution of Public Health opened in Aber- 

 deen on August 2d, with about 800 members in 

 attendance. In the course of his presidential ad- 

 dress. Lord Aberdeen reviewed the progress of 

 sanitation, especially as represented by legisla- 

 tion upon the subject. He remarked, according 

 to the report in the London Times, that it was ex- 

 actly 100 years ago since the first enactments 

 were passed which could be described as the 



direct ancestry of modern sanitary legislation. 

 The earlier Factory Acts, designed especially 

 for the protection of the children, who were 

 often herded together promiscuously within 

 the actual factory buildings, might come under 

 this category. Another kind of legislation 

 which advanced concurrently took its origin in 

 the necessity which had to be faced in crowded 

 communities for an organized supply of water 

 as distinguished from independent and casual 

 pumps and wells. So, too, with sewerage. 

 The measures dealing with these elementary 

 needs were the parents of our local sanitary 

 Acts as distinguished from the factory class of 

 legislation which had throughout been adminis- 

 tered under the authority of the Home Oflice. 

 It would be difficult to over-estimate the im- 

 portance of the new kind of administration as 

 a whole, not merely in regard to its direct 

 remedial operations, but as to its indirect and 

 suggestive influence in education and enlight- 

 enment as to health arrangements. There had 

 been a great and growing advance in sanita- 

 tion, but, reviewing the whole position, there 

 was no cause for complacency. Contemplation 

 of what had been accomplished, however, often 

 in spite of prejudice and many obstacles, might 

 assuredly give ground for encouragement and 

 confidence as to future progress and attainment 

 resulting from careful and persevering effort in 

 dealing with the problems which still con- 

 fronted sanitarians. Amongst these was over- 

 crowding, and from every point of view — re- 

 ligious, moral, and humanitarian — there was 

 crying need for the alleviation of that evil. 

 Happily, public attention was being increas- 

 ingly drawn to the subject, and a certain amount 

 of reform had been attempted, but they must 

 feel that the subject had yet to be grappled 

 with in all its complexity and magnitude. 

 Another field of sanitary reform was in relation 

 to consumption, regarding which they seemed 

 to have reached an epochal stage. That it was 

 a subject for prevention and control was a 

 revelation, and the main course of action would 

 have to be that of educative regulation. 



It is announced in the British Medical Jour- 

 nal that the Liverpool School of Ti'opical Med- 

 icine recently heard from the expedition it has 

 sent to West Africa and America. Drs. Annett, 



