Aveust 20, 1897. ] 
office of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and 
several vacancies in the position of fish cultur- 
ist. Details can be obtained by application to 
the Commission. 
PROFESSOR LANGLEY was present at the 
meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences on 
August 2d, and was welcomed by the Presi- 
dent and M. Berthelot. Professor Langley 
gave an account of the results of his experi- 
ments with the aérodrome. 
Lorp KELVIN arrived in New. York last 
Friday on the ‘Campania.’ He will return 
to New York on his way home after the meet- 
ing of the British Association and a visit to 
Nova Scotia. 
THE second International Bibliographical 
Conference opened its proceedings, under the 
presidency of M. le Chevalier Deseamps David 
and M. Lafontaine, at Brussels on August 2d. 
At the opening session the delegates gave an 
account of bibliographical progress in their re- 
spective countries. 
THE conference of South African States on 
the rinderpest was opened at Pretoria on 
August 2d, with Mr. Schutte as chairman. 
Rinderpest is reported to have destroyed the 
buffalo in North Matabeleland. The natives 
state that since the disappearance of the buffalo 
the tsetse fly has been unknown in the fly belt. 
Tue British Institute of Mechanical Engi- 
neers celebrated, beginning on July 29th, the 
fiftieth anniversary of its foundation. The 
meeting was at Birmingham, where the Insti- 
tute was founded and where it had its head- 
quarters until 1877, when it was removed to 
London. The President, Mr. E. Windsor 
Richards, gave an account of the history of the 
Institute, with special reference to the presi- 
dents, beginning with George Stevenson. A 
gift of £3,000 was voted to the retiring Secre- 
tary, Mr. Bache, in recognition of his services 
which have contributed so greatly to the suc- 
cess of the Institute. 
THE Third International Congress of Soci- 
ology met at the Sorbonne, Paris, during the 
last week in July, under the presidency of M. 
Paul de Lilienfeld, Senator of the Russian 
Empire. 
SCIENCE. 
289 
WE learn from the Revue Scientifique that M. 
Louis Adrien Levat, President of the Ligue 
Frangaise ornithophile, having its headquarters 
in Aix-en-Provenge, is engaged in organizing 
an international congress for the protection of 
insectiverous birds. It is proposed to hold the 
congress in October next and foreign societies 
are invited to send delegates. 
THE Sixteenth Congress of the Sanitary In- 
stitute of Great Britain will be held at Leeds 
from the 14th to the 18th of September, under 
the presidency of Dr. Robert Farquharson, M. P. 
An exhibition will be held in connection with 
the Congress. 
THE commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 
have made appointments to Science Research 
Scholarships for the year 1897, on the recom- 
mendation of the authorities of the respective 
universities and colleges. The scholarships are 
of the value of £150 a year, and are ordinarily 
tenable for two years in any university at 
home or abroad. The scholars are to de- 
vote themselves exclusively to study and re- 
search in some branch of science, the extension 
of which is important to the industries of the 
country. A limited number of the scholarships 
are renewed for a third year where it appears 
that the renewal is likely to result directly in 
work of scientific importance. This year three 
scholars have been reappointed for a third term, 
fourteen have been reappointed for a second 
term, and nineteen new appointments have been 
made. The Scholarships Committee consisted 
of Sir Henry Roscoe, chairman, Lord Rayleigh, 
Lord Kelvin, Lord Playfair, the late Mr. Mun- 
della, Dr. William Garnett and Sir J. Norman 
Lockyer. 
Tue John Lucas Walker studentship of pa- 
thology at Cambridge is vacant and candidates 
are invited to send applications to Dr. A. A. 
Kanthack, Cambridge, not later than October 
15th. The scholarship is for original research 
in pathology and is of the annual value of £250, 
tenable for three years. It is open to women as 
well as men. 
Ir is well known that before the success of 
the Atlantic Cable a company was formed to 
establish communication with Europe by an 
overland telegraph line via Alaska and Siberia, 
