Septkmbkb 30, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



443 



The Welby prize of £50, offered for the best 

 essay on ' The Causes of the Present Obscurity 

 and Confusion in Psychological and Philosoph- 

 ical Terminology and the Directions in -which 

 we may hope for Efficient Practical Bemedy,' 

 has been awarded to Dr. Ferdinand Tonnies, 

 of Hamburg. A translation of the successful 

 essay will appear in Mind shortly. 



The new cable between Brest and Cape Cod 

 was completed on August 16th. This cable, 

 6,000 km. in length, is said to be the longest in 

 the world and affords the most direct connec- 

 tion between Europe and America. 



The Marshall Museum of the University of 

 Chicago is about to receive further valuable 

 collections from the Egyptian excavations of 

 Dr. Flinders Petrie and Mr. Quibell. 



The observatory established on Mount Blanc 

 at an altitude of 4,400 m., by M. Vallot, is be- 

 ing moved to a position where the drifting snow 

 will not interfere so seriously. The woodwork 

 for the new building, which is larger and better 

 arranged than its predecessor, is being carried 

 up the mountain by some forty men, work hav- 

 ing been begun on July 16th. 



The City of Hamburg has established a sta- 

 tion for the protection of plants which has been 

 placed under the direction of Dr. Brick, of the 

 Hamburg Botanical Museum. It will be the 

 duty of the station to supervise imported plants 

 and to study diseases of plants, with special 

 reference to their occurrence in the neighbor- 

 hood of Hamburg. 



The Second International Sea Fisheries Con- 

 gress met at Dieppe on August 3d, under the 

 presidency of M. E. Perrier, professor of zool- 

 ogy at the Paris Museum of Natural History. 

 After listening to an address by the President, 

 the Congress was divided into four sections for 

 the discussion of special topics, viz.: (1) Scien- 

 tific researches, under the presidency of M. 

 Mathias Duval, director of the fishery school at 

 Boulogne ; (2) fishery apparatus, preparation 

 and transport, under the presidency of M. De- 

 lamare-Debouteville ; (3) technical education, 

 under the presidency of M. Jacques Le Seigneur, 

 Commissioner of Marine at Granville ; and (4) 

 fishery regulations, under the presidency of M. 

 Boche, Inspector- General of Fisheries. About 



forty papers were presented before these sec- 

 tions, which were, however, in many cases of 

 local rather than of international importance. 

 The present, like the first Congress, was organ- 

 ized by the French Society for the Promotion 

 of Technical Instruction in matters relating to 

 Sea Fisheries, but an international committee 

 has been named for the organization of future 

 congresses. 



The Press Association states that Mr. Stan- 

 ley Spencer and Dr. Berson ascended on Sep- 

 tember 5th from the Crystal Palace in a balloon 

 inflated with pure hydrogen gas, and attained 

 the remarkable altitude of 27,500 ft. Numer- 

 ous scientific instruments, including a self-re- 

 cording aneroid barometer, were carried, and 

 compressed oxygen gas for inhaling at the 

 greatest height. The descent was near Rom- 

 ford. It is expected that this will far surpass 

 the results of simultaneous ascents at St. Pe- 

 tersburg, Moscow and Berlin, being only 1,500 

 ft. less than Coxwell and Glaisher's highest in 

 1862. The atmosphere was clear and the coast 

 range visible. At 25,000 ft. the air became so 

 rarefied that both explorers had to breathe 

 compressed oxygen from tubes. The balloon 

 had a capacity of 56,500 feet. 



The steamer Antarctic, with the members of 

 the Swedish Arctic Expedition under Herr 

 Nathorst, arrived at Tromsoe on September 7th. 

 The expedition had thoroughly explored King 

 Charles Land and circumnavigated West Spitz- 

 bergen and North-East Land. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer is about to issue the 

 first volume of the revised and greatly enlarged 

 edition of his 'Principles of Biology.' 



Professor A. H. Keane's work on eth- 

 nology, dealing with fundamental ethnical 

 problems and primary ethnical groups, will be 

 followed by a volume entitled ' Man, Past and 

 Present,' which will be issued by the Cam- 

 bridge University Press. 



Messes. C. Arthur Pearson's announce- 

 ments for the autumn season include two 

 books of travel. Captain Guy Burrows, of the 

 Congo State military force, will, in 'The Land of 

 the Pigmies,' describe his exploration of a region 

 into which very few white men have ever pene- 

 trated. It is known as the district of the Upper 



