Decembeb 6, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



807 



specimens, of which the British examples num- 

 ber about 1,300. The latter represent espe- 

 cially the rocks of Cornwall, Charnwood, the 

 Wrekin, the Bunter pebbles. North Wales, 

 Scotland, and the Channel Islands. The 

 European collection contains some 450 speci- 

 mens collected from different parts of the 

 Alps, Brittany, and the Ardennes. There is 

 also a large collection of specimens from the 

 Himalayas, Novaya Zemlya, Ararat, Canada, 

 Eocky Mountains, Andes, Ecuador, Bolivia, 

 Aconcagua district, Socotra, and the diaman- 

 tiferous district of South Africa. 



The sixth annual meeting of the South 

 African Association for the Advancement of 

 Science will be held at Grahamstown during 

 the week ending July 11, 1908, under the presi- 

 dency of the Hon. Sir Walter Hely-Hutchin- 

 son. 



The Fourth Congress of the Bohemian Men 

 of Science and Physicians wiU be held in 

 Prague in the summer of next year. 



The foundation of the Royal Society of 

 Medicine was celebrated by an inaugural 

 dinner at the Hotel Cecil, London, on Tues- 

 day, December 3. 



The dinner of the fellows and associates of 

 the British Institute of Chemistry, to celebrate 

 the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of 

 the institute, took place on November 22 at 

 the Hotel Metropole, London, Professor Percy 

 F. Frankland, the president, being in the 

 chair. The company, which numbered about 

 200, included the presidents of the Chemical 

 Society, the Iron and Steel Institute, the In- 

 stitution of Civil Engineers, the Eoyal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons, the Society of Chemical In- 

 dustry, the Institute of Actuaries, the Insti- 

 tution of Mining and Metallurgy, the Society 

 of Public Analysts, and the chairman of the 

 Board of Inland Eevenue. 



An Italian Society of Eadiology was 

 founded on the occasion of the Second Con- 

 gress of Physiotherapy recently held in Eome. 



The fourth volume of " Die Karcinomliter- 

 atur " (edited by Dr. Sticker, Berlin) shows 

 that during the last five years there appeared 

 3,395 publications dealing with cancer. Six 

 hundred and seven of these were in English. 



Free lectures maintained by the Lowell In- 

 stitute in the Teachers' School of Science, 

 mainly under the auspices of the Boston So- 

 ciety of Natural History, will be given dur- 

 ing the season as follows: 



" Field Lessons in Botany," by Mr. Hollis Web- 

 ster. 



" Field Lessons in Zoology," by Mr. Albert P. 

 Morse. 



" Field Lessons in Geology," by Professor George 

 H. Barton. 



" Laboratory Lessons in Botany," by Mr. Hollis 

 Webster. 



" Laboratory Lessons in Zoology," by Mr. Albert 

 P. Morse. 



" Laboratory Lessons in Geology," by Professor 

 George H. Barton. 



" Laboratory Lessons in Geography," by Pro- 

 fessor Douglas W. Johnson. 



" Lectures and Demonstrations in Physical 

 Chemistry," by Professor G. N. Iiewis. 



The British Medical Journal says : " It was 

 stated in this column of the British Medical 

 Journal of October 26 that there is a proba- 

 bility of the Index Medicus being discon- 

 tinued, and that in view of this contingency 

 it has been suggested that the card system of 

 the Concilium Bibliographicum might be ex- 

 tended so as to cover the ground of medical 

 literature. Eeference was made to the fact 

 that a similar plan was tried in Paris some 

 time ago, but did not find adequate support. 

 Dr. Marcel Baudoin writes to point out that 

 during the period of occultation of the Index 

 Medicus, which lasted from 1900 to 1903, its 

 place was supplied by the Bihliographia Med- 

 ico,, published in Paris under the auspices of 

 the Institut de Bibliographic, of which our 

 correspondent was the directing spirit. On 

 the reappearance of the Index Medicus, the 

 Bihliographia Medica, finding its occupation 

 gone, joined the snows of yesteryear. In 1906 

 it was followed by the Institut de Biblio- 

 graphic, which, as Dr. Baudoin reminds us, 

 was the first effort in that direction. The 

 failure of two such meritorious enterprises is 

 not encouraging to further adventures of the 

 same kind. Tet the value of a general index 

 to current medical literature is beyond ques- 

 tion, and the need of such a guide through a 

 labyrinth ever growing in vastness and in 



