76 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 185. 



a ' Thesaurus positionum stellarum fixarum;' 

 1,000 Marks to Dr. Adolph Sauer, of Heidel- 

 berg, for the geological investigation of the 

 Aar region ; 1,000 Marks to Dr. Schellwien, of 

 Konigsberg, for an investigation of the Paleozoic 

 Eastern Alps. 



M. FouQ,UE, professor of ' the natural history 

 of inorganic bodies ' in the College de France, 

 has been elected a foreign member of the 

 Vienna Academy of Sciences. 



Oxford University has given the honorary 

 degree of D.C.L. to Sir John Kirk, F.E.S., 

 known for his administrative work in Central 

 Africa, and to F. C. Penrose, F.R.S., the archie- 

 ologist. 



A PORTRAIT of Robert Brown has been pre- 

 sented to Kew Gardens by the Bentham trustees. 



Professor Ferdinand Cohn, the eminent 

 botanist, died suddenly at Breslau, on June 

 25th, of heart disease. He was born in 1828, 

 and obtained a chair of botany at Breslau Uni- 

 versity in 1859. He was the author of a well- 

 known work entitled ' Die Pflanze.' He had 

 made important contributions to bacteriology, 

 and he wrote a book on ' The Development of 

 Microscopic Algte and Fungi.' 



The Akademische Bevue reports the suicide, in 

 Comfort, Texas, of Dr. A. -Bocking, formerly 

 privat-docent for zoology at Bonn, and known 

 for his explorations in South America. Dr. 

 Bocking had, however, for many years, given 

 up scientific investigation and appears to have 

 suffered many hardships during his life in the 

 "West. 



Dr. GtJMBEL, professor of geology, died at 

 Munich, on June 18th, aged seventy-five years. 



We called attention to the program of the 

 first Scientific Congress of South America, 

 which was opened at Buenos Ayres on April 

 11th. We have not received any account of 

 the proceedings of the Congress, but it appears 

 from a brief notice in the Lancet that it was 

 highly successful, being attended by some 600 

 delegates, representing all the countries of 

 South America. 



A conference of peers, members of Par- 

 liament and representatives of associations 

 interested was held in one of the committee- 



rooms of the House of Commons on June 23d, on 

 the initiative of Mr. Bryce and Mr. Boulnois, to 

 consider the desirability of making some per- 

 manent arrangement for concerted action upon 

 questions relating to : (a) the protection of rural 

 scenes and landscapes and town prospects from 

 such disfigurement orrepairment as is not justi- 

 fied by consideratians of public utility ; (6) the 

 provision and maintenance of commons, open 

 spaces, public parks and gardens ; (c) the 

 preservation of buildings and places which are 

 of peculiar interest by age, beauty or associa- 

 tion, whether historical or literary ; (d) the con- 

 servation of wild animals and plants ; and 

 generally for ' asserting the importance, on 

 broad grounds of public policy, of maintaining 

 beauty, simplicity, dignity and interest in the 

 aspect of out-of-doors Britain. ' 



The Italian government has receded from its 

 action of forbidding foreign physicians to prac- 

 tice in Italy unless they acquire a diploma from 

 an Italian university, to the extent of permitting 

 them to treat their own countrymen. 



Attention has been called to the fact that 

 plumes worn in the British army are a cause of 

 the destruction of birds. In answer to Sir J. 

 Lubbock, Mr. Brodrick said recently, in the 

 British House of Commons, that orders have 

 been given that plumes composed otherwise 

 than of so-called ' osprey ' feathers shall be pre- 

 pared with a view to obtaining the sanction of 

 Her Majesty to the abolition of the 'osprey' 

 plumes worn by the commissioned officers in 

 certain regiments. The selection of a satisfac- 

 tory substitute is difficult, and some delaj'^ may 

 occur in effecting the change. 



Mr. Edward Stanford, London, has pub- 

 lished a relief map, prepared by Mr. James B. 

 Jordan, representing an area of 320 square 

 miles with London as the center, in a horizontal 

 scale of one inch to a mile and a vertical scale 

 of one inch to 1,000 feet. The map is made of 

 a stamped steel plate, and is said to be the first 

 attempt to produce topographical models in this 

 manner. 



It is stated in the Auh that Mr. and Mrs. 

 Herbert H. Smith, well known as expert natu- 

 ral history collectors, through their labors in 

 Brazil, the West Indies and Mexico, are now in 



