DECEMBER 3, 1897. ] 
by his experiments shown that petroleum 
ean be thus formed. 
Frnatty, Moissan, in the Comptes Rendus, 
states it as his opinion that according to 
its geological relations the formation of 
petroleum is to be ascribed to three differ- 
ent causes: (1) the decomposition of or- 
ganic substances under the influence of 
pressure and heat; (2) the purely inor- 
ganic reaction between water and the metal- 
lie carbids; (8) voleanie processes. In 
many localities it is possible that all three 
of these factors may have contributed to 
the formation of petroleum. 
J. L. H. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
In accordance with plans that we have 
already announced, the General Committee of 
the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science has decided that the next meeting will 
be at Bristol, under the presidency of Sir Wil- 
liam Crookes. 
Sir JoHN LUBBOCK has accepted the presi- 
dency of the International Congress of Zoology, 
which meets at Cambridge in August of next 
year. Sir William Flower was, as we regret to 
learn, compelled to resign the office, in view of 
the other pressing demands on his time and of 
medical advice. 
Proressor C. A. YounG, Professor A. A. 
Michelson and Professor E. 8. Dana have been 
elected honorary members of the Philosophical 
Society of Cambridge University. 
THE medals of the Royal Society will this 
year be awarded as follows: The Copley Medal 
to Professor Albert von Kolliker; a Royal 
Medal to Professor A. R. Forsyth; a Royal 
Medal to Sir Richard Strachey; the Davy 
Medal to J. H. Gladstone; and the Bu- 
chanan Medal to Sir John Simon. 
Sir ROBERT BALL, President of the Royal 
Astronomical Society, has been presented with 
the Jubilee Medal. 
Dr. GEORGE H. Horn, the eminent entomolo- 
gist, died at Philadelphia on November 25th. 
He was one of the Secretaries of the Philosoph- 
SCIENCE. 
839 
ical Society and was formerly Corresponding 
Secretary of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 
He had been until recently professor in the 
University of Pennsylvania, though his connec- 
tion with that institution was chiefly honorary. 
Dr. Horn was only fifty-eight years of age, and 
his death, following those of Cope and Allen, is 
a further severe loss to the city of Philadelphia 
and to science in America. 
THE Rey. Dr. Samuel Houghton, from 1851 
to 1881 professor of geology in Trinity College, 
Dublin, died on October 31st, aged seventy-six 
years. He wasan original and versatile writer, 
having made many contributions not only to 
zoology and physiography, but also on medical 
subjects, including an elaborate work on the 
Principles of Animal Mechanics. 
By a private letter from Dr. J. Buttikofer we 
are informed that, although by the necessities 
of his recent appointment as Director of the 
Rotterdam Zoological Garden he has been 
obliged to leave Leyden Museum, where he has 
spent so many happy years, and which contains 
nearly all the zoological collections made by 
him in different countries of the world, he 
hopes, that as Leyden is distant but three- 
quarters of an hour from Rotterdam, to be able 
to do some ornithological work there. He is 
now engaged in finishing his report on the 
ornithological results of the Borneo Expedition, 
which he accompanied as zoologist, and of 
which some account was printed in SCIENCE of 
April 23, 1897. 
PROFESSOR R. A. PHILIPPI, who, for forty- 
three years, has been Director of the National 
Museum in Santiago, Chile, having reached the 
age of ninety years, has resigned, and is suc- 
ceeded by his son. 
A MONUMENT to the eminent surgeon, the 
late Professor Billroth, was unveiled in Vienna 
on November 7th. Professor Gussenbaur, for- 
merly assistant to Professor Billroth, made the 
principal address. 
A Bust of Michael Faraday was unveiled at 
the Michael Faraday Board School, London, on 
November 15th. The bust, which is of white 
marble, was presented to the School by the 
managers of the Royal Institution of Great 
Britain, and is a copy of the original bust exe- 
