Jamuaky 1, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



39 



A CABLEGEAM to the daily papers states that 

 Dr. Alexander Graham Bell arrived at Genoa 

 on December 27. He will convey to the 

 Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D. C, 

 the remains of James Smithson, founder of 

 the institution, who died in Genoa in 1829. 



We learn from the Botanical Gazette that 

 the large herbarium of the late Professor C. 

 Haussknecht will be maintained by his family 

 under the auspices of the Thuringian Botan- 

 ical Society. 



It is announced that Dr. Oscar Guttmann 

 has presented to the London Chemical Society 

 a photograph of the portrait of Roger Bacon in 

 possession of Lord Sackville at Knole House, 

 Sevenoaks. 



Dr. Friedrich Goll, professor of pharma- 

 cology at Zurich, has died at the age of 

 seventy-three years. 



We regret to record the death of M. Proust, 

 professor of hygiene of the University of Paris 

 and inspector general of the Sanitary Service; 

 of Dr. Eugene Askenasy, honorary professor 

 of plant physiology at the University of 

 Heidelberg; and of Dr. Ottmar Schmidt, pro- 

 fessor of chemistry in the Institute of Tech- 

 nology at Stuttgart. 



Dr. p. Chalmers Mitchell, secretary of 

 the London Zoological Society, writes to the 

 London Times: The recent death of the Polar 

 bear, a popular favorite at the Zoological 

 Gardens since 1895, has caused some interest 

 and has been the occasion of many published 

 comments based on inaccurate information. 

 Perhaps you will allow me space to state the 

 facts. The bear was in good health and 

 spirits and fed well until the afternoon of 

 Sunday, November 1, when, soon after taking 

 food, it fell backwards and died almost in- 

 stantaneously. The post-mortem changes were 

 unusually rapid, and next day an examination 

 was made in the presence of Mr. Beddard, the 

 society's prosector," and myself, and a prelim- 

 inary diagnosis was arrived at. Subsequently 

 Dr. Salaman, pathologist to the London Hos- 

 pital, a fellow of the society, who has very 

 kindly placed his services at the disposal of 

 the society until the return from abroad of 



the special pathologist recently appointed by 

 the council, made a careful examination of the 

 material that we had reserved, and established 

 the correctness of the preliminary diagnosis 

 that the cause of death was an aortic aneurism. 

 The case was of great scientific interest, and 

 Dr. Salaman will communicate to a future 

 scientific meeting of the society a detailed ac- 

 count of it. I may say now, however, that, 

 except for the local lesion, the organs and 

 tissues were healthy, and it is extremely im- 

 probable that the creature suffered. It would 

 have been impossible to make the diagnosis 

 during life, or, had we known of the existence 

 of the disease, to have taken any steps for its 

 treatment. I may add that, while in the past 

 very considerable additions to anatomical 

 knowledge have been made at the prosectorium 

 attached to the gardens, the council of the 

 society, by increasing the accommodation for 

 pathological work and by appointing a special 

 pathologist, hope that additions to knowledge 

 of the treatment of animals will be made. 



Baron Edmund de Eothschild has placed in 

 the hands of M. Albert Gaudry, president of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences the sum of 

 10,000 francs to enable him to secure for the 

 Paris Museum of Natural History the more 

 valuable specimens in the Eilhol paleontolog- 

 ical collection. 



According to Eeuter's Agency, Mr. Bruce, 

 the leader of the Scottish Antarctic Expedi- 

 tion which was sent out last year on board the 

 Scotia, has arrived at Montevideo from the 

 FaUdand Islands. He reports that all is well 

 in the Scotia, which is on the way to Buenos 

 Ayres. Six men have been left behind in 

 charge of a meteorological station. The news 

 of the safe return of the Scottish Antarctic 

 Expedition has come some two or three 

 months earlier than was expected. It was 

 not originally Mr. Bruce's intention to winter 

 in the Antarctic, but it was understood that if 

 he did so nothing would be heard of the ex- 

 pedition after its departure from Port Stanley, 

 Falkland Islands, until March of next year. 

 The meteorological station referred to by the 

 explorer at which six of his men have been 

 left appears to be the station set up by Mr. 

 Bruce at Cape Pembroke, Falkland Islands, 



