46 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 184. 



ure of this post he carried out many important 

 engineering works, both at home and abroad, 

 such as the Wolf, Lougships, Great and Little 

 Basses, Eddystone, and Muricoy lighthouses, 

 and he effected numerous technical improve- 

 ments connected with lighthouses and their il- 

 luminating apparatus, as well as in buoys and 

 beacons. He was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal 

 Society in 1883, and retired from his post at the 

 Trinity House in 1892. 



The New York Aquarium has received by 

 the. steamship Orinoco an interesting collection 

 of tropical fish, sent by Professor Bristol, of 

 New York University, from the Bermudas. 



The tables at the Naples Zoological Station, 

 supported by the University of Cambridge, 

 have been given to Mr. C. H. Hadfleld, of 

 Trinity College, and Mr. R. C. Punnett, of 

 Gonville and Caius College. 



Busts of Skoda and Rokitansky were un- 

 veiled in the Arcades of the University of 

 Vienna at the beginning of June. The Philadel- 

 phia Medical Journal states that Professor 

 Nothnagel and Professor Weichselbaum deliv- 

 ered the memorial addresses on the occasion 

 for the respective representatives of their spe- 

 cialties. Of Skoda, Nothnagel said : " He was 

 the Lessing of clinical medicine ; at once an 

 originator and a critic, of wonderful clearness 

 of comprehension, of untrammeled devotion to 

 truth for its own sake, and of judicial mental 

 acuity. He was the introducer into clinical 

 medicine of exact scientific methods." 



A PRIZE of £2,000 is offered by the North of 

 Scotland malt distillers to chemists residing in 

 any country who will devise a successful method 

 for the purification of their waste products. The 

 distillers have been forbidden to empty these 

 into the streams. 



The United States Civil Service Commission 

 announces that it is desired to establish an 

 eligible register from which a selection may be 

 made to fill the grade of Assistant, Division of 

 Entomology, Department of Agriculture, at a 

 salary of $1,000 per annum. No educational 

 test will be given, but applicants will be graded 

 upon the subjects of drawing of insects and w'ood 

 engraving of insects, together with their tech- 

 nical knowledge of the order Heteroptera. Ap- 



plicants will be required to furnish samples of 

 their work covered by the first two subjects, 

 and they will submit on a special form prepared 

 by the Commission a statement showing their 

 technical knowledge of the last-named subject. 

 They will also be required to submit a state- 

 ment in the form of an affidavit that the work 

 has been performed by them without aid from 

 any one. Application must be made not later 

 than July 21st. 



In connection with a notice of Professor Hale's 

 address on ' The Function of Large Telescopes ' 

 (Science, May 13, 1898) Nature quotes from 

 the Observer the statement that in the number 

 of refractors exceeding 13.4 inches America 

 comes first, France second, England third and 

 Germany fourth. 



The yacht Windiuard sailed from New York 

 on July 2d and will be met by Lieutenant 

 Peary at Cape Breton. The steamship Hope 

 with supplies and coal had previously sailed, 

 and will join the Windward at North Baffin's 

 Bay. 



The Norwegia,n Geographical Society gave a 

 banquet on June 21st to the expedition under 

 Captain Sverdrup, which was on the point of leav- 

 ing for exploration along the north and north- 

 west coast of Greenland. The London Times 

 says that several of the Norwegian Ministers 

 were present, as well as the Presidents of the 

 two Houses of Parliament, and Dr. Nansen and 

 other distinguished men. Professor Mohn, the 

 eminent meteorologist, made an interesting 

 speech in proposing success to the expedition. 

 Captain Sverdrup, in his reply, said that he 

 would do his best, with the aid of his able staff, 

 to bring back varied and valuable scientific re- 

 sults and to put some color on the great white 

 space to the north of Greenland. The speech 

 of the evening was, of course, that by Dr. 

 Nansen, who was listened to with intense inter- 

 est as he dwelt on the strange feelings which ani- 

 mated him on seeing the Fram go out once 

 more under his trusty and brave comrade 

 Sverdrup. He dwelt on Sverdrup's gallant 

 exploits, both on the expedition across Green- 

 land and on that in the Fram, in the success 

 of which Sverdrup had so large a share. The 

 Fram was now better fitted out in every way 



