834 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S- Vol. VIII. No. 206. 



have come to the coDclusion that June 1 and 2, 

 1899, will be the most convenient. The Coun- 

 cil recommend that a sum of £400 be placed at 

 their disposal for the celebration. 



Me. Eich.\ed Bannister, late Deputy-Prin- 

 cipal of the Government Laboratory, says the 

 London Times, was presented, on November 

 21st, in the hall of the Civil Service Volunteers 

 at Somerset House, with a testimonial which 

 had been subscribed for by his colleagues and 

 friends in the department from which he has 

 recently retired after a service of 42 years. In 

 making the presentation Dr. Thorpe, F.R.S., 

 the Principal Government Chemist, after re- 

 ferrring to Mr. Bannister's long and varied ex- 

 perience in the Government Laboratory, spoke 

 of his work outside the department, with 

 which the public were perhaps better ac- 

 quainted. His administration of the Food and 

 Drugs Act and his numerous appearances be- 

 fore Royal Commissions and Parliamentary 

 Committees, as well as his selection as a juror 

 at several of the South Kensington Exhibitions, 

 were evidences of the value in which his vast 

 and unrivalled experience, not only in chemis- 

 try, but in the trading and comercial interests 

 connected with it, were held. Mr. Steele, late 

 Chief Inspector of Excise, and others also bore 

 witness to the value of Mr. Bannister's services 

 both to the department and the public gener- 

 ally. 



The death is announced of Professor George 

 T. Allman, F.R.S. He was born in Ireland in 

 1812, and was appointed professor of botany 

 in Dublin in 1844. In 1855 he was called to 

 Edinburgh, and was there professor of natural 

 history till 1870. He described the hydroids 

 collected by the Challenger Expedition, and 

 published a number o monographs treating of 

 the invertebrates. 



We regret also to announce the deaths of 

 M. J. N. Raffard, a French inventor ; of Herr 

 A. Hubner, the historian. General Secretary of 

 the Vienna Academy of Science, and of Sir 

 George Baden-Powell, who has in many ways 

 promoted scientific undertakings in Great Brit- 

 tain. 



A Civil Service examination will be held on 

 December 15th for the position of Assistant in 



Entomology, Office of Experiment Stations 

 (Department of Agriculture). The examina- 

 tion will consist of the subjects mentioned be- 

 low, which will be weighed as follows : 



Biology and entomology 50 



French or German (translation of scientific 



literature ) 10 



Editing and abstracting 10 



Essay 15 



Training and e.Kperience 5 



Additional modern languages, or veterinary 



science 10 



Total 100 



Lieutenant A. P. Hayne, an instructor in 

 the agricultural department of the University 

 of California, now stationed with one of the 

 California regiments at Manila, has been de- 

 tailed to conduct an official investigation into 

 the agricultural resources of the Philippines, 

 and to make a report of the results to Wash- 

 ington. 



The Secretary of State has received a cable 

 message from United States Consul Gibbs at 

 Tamatave, Madagascar, saying that the bu- 

 bonic plague has broken out at that place. 



The Valentine Museum at Richmond, Va., 

 was formally opened to the public on Novem- 

 ber 21st. It is a gift to Richmond by the late 

 Mann S. Valentine, and includes, housed in his 

 recent mansion, his valuable collection of books, 

 oil-paintings, manuscripts and casts, supple- 

 mented by scientific collections of anthropo- 

 logical specimens. The will of Mr. Valentine 

 expresses his desire that the Museum be closely 

 associated with and an aid to the educational 

 institutions of the State ; that it publish literary 

 and scientific papers and preserve objects of 

 antiquity compatible with the amount of en- 

 dowment of the Museum. 



The University of Michigan Museum has 

 been enriched by a gift of the collection of 

 musical instruments brought together by Fred- 

 erick Stearns. In presenting this collection, of 

 nearly 1,000 pieces, Mr. Stearns turned over the 

 results of fifteen years' research and over $25,- 

 000 expenditure. The present value of the 

 collection is much greater than its original cost. 

 Among other things, it illustrates the evolution 

 of several musical instruments from primitive 

 times down to the present. 



