August 5, 1S9S.] 



SCIENCE. 



157 



tions of the State in the interest of iuvestiga- 

 tion. 



The State Geological Survey, in cooperation 

 ■with the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture and State Experiment Station, has been 

 making a special study of the distribution of 

 soil types while the geological survey has been 

 in progress. Mr. C. W. Dorsey has been in 

 charge of this phase of the worlv. The con- 

 nection between the soils and the indigenous 

 plant life is readily apparent, and the Survey is 

 paying some attention to the distribution of the 

 flora of the State. Messrs. B. W. Barton and 

 Basil Sollers are devoting a portion of the sum- 

 mer to this study. 



GENERAL. 



Professor J. R. Eastman, of the United 

 States Naval Observatory, was retired from 

 active service on July 29th. Professor Eastman 

 has been continuously connected with the Ob- 

 servatory since 1862. 



The University of Edinburgh has conferred 

 its honorary LL.D. on several of those who 

 attended the recent meeting of the British 

 Medical Association, including Professor H. P. 

 Bowditch, of Harvard University, and Professor 

 Wm. Osier, of Johns Hopkins University. 



Professor Virchow, of Berlin, will deliver 

 ■ the nest Huxley lecture at the Charing-cross 

 Hospital, on Wednesday, October 3d. The 

 subject of the lecture, to be delivered by Profes- 

 sor Virchow in English, is ' Eecent Advances 

 in Science and their Bearing on Medicine and 

 Surgery.' 



Sir William McCormac has been elected 

 President of the Royal College of Surgeons of 

 England for the third year ; Mr. T. Pickering 

 Pick and Mr. Howard Marsh have been elected 

 Vice-Presidents for the ensuing collegiate year. 



The British Order of the Bath has been con- 

 ferred on Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson. 



Dr. p. Kuckuck has been appointed cus- 

 todian for botany at the Heligoland Biological 

 Institute. 



Dr. William Pepper, of Philadelphia, died 

 of heart disease in San Francisco on the night 

 of July 28th. Dr. Pepper belonged to a promi- 

 nent Philadelphia family and was born in that 



city in 1843. He was connected with the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania in many capacities from 

 the time he entered as a student, being provost 

 from 1881 until 1894, and at the time of his 

 death professor of the thfeory and practice of 

 medicine. Dr. Pepper was the author of many 

 works on medical and other subjects, the most 

 important of which was his ' System of Medicine 

 by American Authors.' He also founded the 

 Philadelphia Medical Times. Dr. Pepper was 

 prominent in many of the public institutions of 

 Philadelphia, and to his initiative, ability and 

 untiring energy the recent scientific, educa- 

 tional and medical progress of the city is in 

 great measure due. From a medical school 

 and an unimportant college, the University of 

 Pennsylvania under his administration de- 

 veloped into a great university. He was 

 largely or chiefly instrumental in founding the 

 University Hospital, the Pennsylvania Museum 

 and School of Industrial Art and other institu- 

 tions. He was, at the time of his death, Vice- 

 President and the real executive of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society and President of the 

 Philadelphia Museums. 



The French Society of Hygiene will award 

 next year fifteen prizes for the best essays on 

 the means of improving the condition of crews 

 of fishing boats. The essays are to be sent in 

 before January 1st to M. M. E. Cacheux, 25, 

 Quai Saint Michel. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal 

 that the Instituto Veneto di Lettere, Scienze ed 

 Arti has awarded the three Balbi-Valier prizes, 

 which are of the value of £120 each, respect- 

 ively, to Senator Durante, professor of surgery 

 in the University of Rome, for his treatise on 

 General Special Surgical Pathology and Treat- 

 ment ; to Professor Bosehetti for his work on 

 ' Tremulotherapy ;' and to Professor Emilio Cav- 

 azzani, lecturer on physiology and pharma- 

 cology in the University of Ferrara, for his 

 researches on the Thermogenesis, Glycogenesis 

 and Circulation of the Fostus. 



The fund collected by international subscrip- 

 tions for memorials to Sir John Pender has now 

 been closed. The marble bust of Sir John Pen- 

 der by Mr. E. Onslow Ford, to be placed tem- 

 porarily in the Board room of the Eastern Tele- 



