August 12, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



183 



Dk. Kriechbaumek has been made a curator 

 of the State zoological collections at Munich. 



Sir George Stokes gave the presidential ad- 

 dress before the Victoria Institute, London, on 

 July 18th, his subject being ' The Perception of 

 Color.' 



The Royal Society has appointed a com- 

 mittee which it is expected will cooperate with 

 a committee appointed by the British Colonial 

 Office in investigating the causes of malaria, 

 more especially the relation of the mosquito to 

 the malarial parasite. It is expected that 

 grants of money will be made by the Boyal 

 Society and the Colonial Office for the pur- 

 pose of sending a commission to India and 

 Africa. 



The directors of the Ben Nevis Observatories 

 announce that the high- and the low -level 

 observatories at Ben Nevis will cease to exist 

 in October owing to want of funds. The 

 directors state that by the establishment of 

 these observatories a great experiment has been 

 carried out with signal success. A series of 

 hourly observations has been obtained by night 

 and by day without a break over a period of 15 

 years. 



The Berlin Academy of Sciences held on 

 June 30th a public meeting to celebrate the 

 birthday of Leibnitz. Professor Waldeyer, who 

 presided, spoke on the scientific work of the 

 Academy, and the newly elected members. 

 Professor Engelmann and Kekule von Strado- 

 nitz, made inaugural addresses. 



Plans are being made for the foundation of 

 a French Association des Anatomistes to include 

 those interested not only in human and com- 

 parative anatomy, but also students of histol- 

 ogy, embryology and anthropology. The As. 

 sociation will meet annually in some university 

 center, Paris having been chosen for the place 

 of the first meeting, to be held next year. 



The Archseological and Historical Society of 

 Belgium held its annual meeting at Enghien 

 from the 7th to the 10th of the present month. 



The sulphate of ammonia committee, con- 

 cerning the functions of which we are not in- 

 formed, advertises a prize of 500 guineas for the 

 best essay on the utility of sulphate of ammonia 

 in agriculture ; the essays must be received no* 



later than November 15th, by W. G. Blagden^ 

 Esq., 4 Fenchurch Ave., London, E. C. 



The British Medical Journal reports that a 

 department for the treatment of hydrophobia 

 by Pasteur's method and for scientific research 

 on the subject of hydrophobia has just been 

 opened in the Berlin Institute for Infectious 

 Diseases (Koch Institute). This establishment 

 is the first of its kind in Germany. Apparently 

 rabies is becoming more frequent in Germany, 

 In spite of the stringent legislation on muzzling,, 

 five persons died of hydrophobia in Prussia dur- 

 ing the year 1897. 



The British House of Commons devoted its- 

 session of July 25th to a somewhat desultory 

 discussion of the Vaccination bill. A clause 

 has been inserted to the effect that no parent or 

 other person should be liable to any penalty 

 under Section 29 or Section 31 of the Vac- 

 cination Act of 1867, if within four months 

 from the birth of the child he satisfied two 

 Justices in petty sessions that he conscientiously 

 believed that vaccination would be prejudicial 

 to the health of the child, and within seven 

 days thereafter delivered to the vaccination 

 officer for the district a certificate of such 

 conscientious objection. 



Nature states that Professor Max Weber, of 

 the University of Amsterdam, will leave Europe 

 in October next, for Sourabaya, Java, to take 

 command of a scientific expedition, projected 

 by the Society for the Biological Investigation 

 of the Netherlands Colonies, for the zoological, 

 botanical and oceanographical exploration of 

 the seas of the Indian Archipelago. The course 

 of the expedition, which will last about a year, 

 is divided into two sections. The first, starting 

 from Sourabaya, will pass through the Timor 

 and Tenimber groups of islands to the Arooa 

 and Ke Islands and thence to Banda or Am- 

 boina, a total distance by the route selected of 

 about 2,500 English miles. The second section, 

 starting from Banda or Amboina, will pass be- 

 tween Halmaheira and Celebes through the 

 chain of islands leading up to the Philippines, 

 and return to Java by the channel between 

 Celebes and Borneo, making a traject of some 

 3,000 miles. 



A DISPATCH from Vancouver, B. C. , says that 



