704 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 203. 



Fortification, on November 10th, it was decided 

 to institute an investigation of the possibilities 

 of flying machines for reconnoitering purposes 

 and as engines of destruction in time of war, 

 and $25,000 of the fund at the disposal of the 

 Board was appropriated for the purpose. The 

 experiments will be carried out under the direc- 

 tion of General A. "W. Greely, of the Signal 

 Service, who will have the advantage of the 

 advice of Professor Langley. 



Professor J. K. Eees, of the Columbia 

 University Observatory, has received recently, 

 from Miss Catherine W. Bruce, of New York 

 City, means for building a special photographic 

 telescope. This instrument will be mounted at 

 Helsingfors, and will be employed by Dr. Don- 

 ner to make polar trail-plates for Dr. Jacoby, 

 in accordance with the plan suggested by him 

 lately at the Astronomical Conference in Bos- 

 ton (See Science No. 197, page 451). Miss 

 Bruce also sent Professor Rees funds for carry- 

 ing on the computing work of the Observatory. 

 Dr. H. S. Davis, in his work on the re-reduc- 

 tion of Piazzi's star catalogue, has been gener- 

 ously aided by the same liberal giver. Most 

 assuredly does Miss Bruce deserve the title of 

 Patroness of Astronomy, for she has scattered 

 her gifts far and wide, but always wisely. 



Db. Calmette, Director of the Pasteur 

 Institute of Lille, has given to that institution 

 a donation of 250,000 francs. The money is 

 to be applied provisionally to the defraying 

 of building expenses till the municipal coun- 

 cil is in a position to vote the sums, and is then 

 to be employed in the purchase of material 

 for new researches, or for the maintenance 

 of students making original researches in the 

 laboratory. Dr. Calmette states that his gift 

 represents the profits accruing" to him from the 

 application of one of his discoveries in a large 

 distillery at Secliu. 



A BRONZE tablet, with a bust in relief, in 

 memory of the eminent physicist Neumann, 

 who died in 1895, has been unveiled in the Hall 

 of the University of Konigsberg, in commemoi-a- 

 tion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth. 



Sir W. H. "White, Chief Constructor of the 

 British Navy, has been nominated as President 

 of the British Institute of Mechanical Engineers. 



Dr. John William Toorb has been elected 

 President and Dr. W. J. Smyly Vice-President 

 of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland 

 for the ensuing year. 



The following is a list of those who have 

 been recommedded by the President and Council 

 of the Royal Society for election into the Coun- 

 cil for the year 1899 at the anniversary meeting 

 on November 30th : President, Lord Lister ^ 

 Treasurer, Mr. A. B. Kempe : Secretaries, Pro- 

 fessor Michael Foster and Professor A. W. 

 Riicker ; Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Frank- 

 land ; other members of the Council, Professor 

 T. G. Bonney, Captain E. W. Creak, R.N., 

 Professor D. J. Cunningham, Professor James 

 Dewar, Professor W. D. Halliburton, Professor 

 W. A. Herdman, Mr. Victor A. H. Horsley, 

 Dr. J. Larmor, Professor N. S. Maskelyne, Sir 

 Andrew Noble, Professor E. B. Poulton, Dr. 

 W. S. Russell, Professor Arthur Schuster, Mr. 

 D. H. Scott, Dr. Stoney and Professor J. J. 

 Thomson. 



A statue of Volney was unveiled on Octo- 

 ber 31st in the French village of Craon, where 

 he was born in 1757. It will be remembered 

 that Volney was a traveler and geographer, 

 though he is doubtless better known for his 

 quasi-philosophical publications and political 

 activity. 



The death is announced of Professor Michele 

 Stefano de Rossi, Director of the Seismographic 

 Observatory at Rome. 



Mr. Latimer Clark, known for his contri- 

 butions to applied electricity, died on October 

 28th. We learn from a notice in the London 

 Times that he was born in 1822 at Great Mar- 

 low, and gained his first practical experience 

 in railway engineering in 1847, as resident as- 

 sistant engineer under Robert Stephenson at 

 the building of the Britannia and Conway 

 tubular bridges. Of these he published a de- 

 scription a few years later. He next entered 

 the employment of the Electric Telegraph Com- 

 pany, and from assistant engineer rose to be 

 engineer in-chief. In this capacity he superin- 

 tended the construction of much of the tele- 

 graphic system of Great Britain, and in 1854 

 introduced the device of pneumatic despatch 

 tubes for the transmission of messages, which 



