Decembee 16, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



.867 



partly in France, he joined the staff of the 

 Koyal Observatory at Greenwich in 1838, and 

 remained there for 46 years, being promoted 

 successively to be First-class Assistant and Chief 

 Assistant. During this period he represented 

 the Astronomer Eoyal in several important ex- 

 peditions, notably the observations of the total 

 solar eclipse at Christiania in July, 1851, and the 

 determination of the telegraphic diiferences of 

 longitude between the Royal Observatory and 

 the observatories in Brussels, Paris and Valen- 

 cia, in Ireland. Mr. Dunkin had the sole charge 

 of the Astronomer Royal's pendulum experi- 

 ments, undertaken to determine the mean den- 

 sity of the earth, at the Harton coalpit, near 

 South Shields, in 1854. Elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society in 1854, he served 

 as Honorary Secretary from 1871 to 1877, and 

 in 1884 he was chosen President. He was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1876, 

 and from 1879 to 1881 was a member of the 

 Council of the Society. Mr. Dunkin published 

 a number of works on astronomy, including 

 ' On the Probable Error of Transit Observa- 

 tions,' 'The Midnight Sky,' 'Familiar Notes 

 on the Stars and Planets,' 'Obituary Notices of 

 Astronomers,' and a work on the movement 

 of the solar system in space determined from 

 the proper motions of 1,167 stars. In addition 

 he contributed from time to time to various 

 scientific and other periodicals. 



We take also from the London Times the fol- 

 lowing particulars in regard to the work of 

 Professor George James Allman, whose death 

 we were compelled to record last week: He 

 devoted the greater part of his life to investi- 

 gating the lower organisms of the animal king- 

 dom. For his researches in this branch of 

 biology he received in 1872 the Brisbane prize 

 from the Royal Society of Edinburgh; in the 

 following year a Royal medal was awarded to 

 him by the Royal Society of London, and in 

 1878 he received the Cunningham gold medal 

 from the Royal Irish Academy. He was ap- 

 pointed by the government in 1876 one of the 

 Commissioners to inquire into the condition of 

 the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, and soon after 

 his election to his professorship in Edinburgh 

 he was appointed one of the Commissioners of 

 Scottish Fisheries. The latter post he held 



until the abolition of the Board in 1881. When 

 Mr. Bentham resigned the presidency of the 

 Linnsean Society Professor Allman was elected, 

 and he retained the position until 1883, when 

 he resigned in favor of Sir John Lubbock. He 

 He was President of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science in 1879. The 

 large collection of Hydroida made during the 

 exploring voyage of the Challenger was as- 

 signed to Professor Allman for determination 

 and description. He had previously dealt in a 

 similar manner with the Hydroida collected 

 during the exploration of the Gulf Stream by 

 the United States government. Professor All- 

 man has served on the Councils of the Royal 

 Societies of London and Edinburgh, and of the 

 Royal Irish Academy, and has filled the post of 

 Examiner in Natural History for the Queen's 

 University of Ireland, the University of London, 

 the Army and Navy and Indian Medical Ser- 

 vices, and for the Indian Civil Service. He has 

 published the results of his original investi- 

 gations in the Philosophical Transactions, the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 of the Royal Irish Academy, and of the Lin- 

 nsean and Zoological Societies of London. Other 

 of his original contributions took the form of re- 

 ports to the British Association, to the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 

 and to the Commission of the Challenger Ex- 

 ploration, and of communications to the Annals 

 of Natural History, the Quarterly Journal of Mi- 

 croscopic Science and other scientific publica- 

 tions. His larger works were : ' A Monograph 

 of the Fresh-water Polyzoa,' 1856, and 'A Mon- 

 ograph of the Gymnoblastic Hydroids,' 1871- 

 72, both published by the Ray Society. 



Me. C. B. Ceampton has been appointed As. 

 sistant Keeper in the Geological Department of 

 the Manchester Museum. 



De. Kael Feeiheeb yon Tubeuf, Privatdo- 

 cent at Munich, has been called to the newly 

 established Division for Agriculture and Fores- 

 try in the Royal Department of Health, Berlin. 



The Alvarenga prize of the Philadelphia Col- 

 lege of Physicians, of the value of about $180, 

 has been awarded to Dr. S. A. Knopf, of New 

 York City, for an essay on pulmonary tubercu- 

 losis. 



