418 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 15. 



of Dr. John Murray, have now been pub- 

 lished by Eyre & Spottiswoode, London. 

 The completed work fills 50 large quarto 

 volumes containing about 29,500 pages and 

 illustrated by over 3,000 plates. These two 

 concluding volumes ai'e mainly occupied by 

 a general summary of the scientific results 

 of the voyage. 



Db. a. R. Foesyth, of Trinity College, 

 has been elected to the Sadlerian Professor- 

 ship of Mathematics in the University of 

 Cambridge, succeeding the late Pi-ofessor 

 Cayley. 



AccoEDiNG to the American Geologist, ef- 

 forts are being made looking towards a geo- 

 logical survey of the State of Maine. 



Db. John P. Lotsy, now Associate in 

 Botany at Johns Hopkins University, has 

 accepted the Directorship of the Botanical 

 Gardens on the Island of Java. 



The Lake Superior Mining Institute 

 made an excursion on March 6th, 7th and 

 8th, from Duluth to the Mesabi iron range. 

 The mines were visited and in the evenings 

 meetings were held, at which papers were 

 presented by Dr. L. L. Hubbard, Dr. U. S. 

 Grant, Mr. F. W. Denton, Mr. F. F. Sharp- 

 less and Mr. E. F. Brown. 



The tenth annual meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of 

 Physical Education will be held at the 

 Teachers' College, New York, on AprQ 25th, 

 26th and 27th. 



The Journal of Mental Science gives, in 

 the last number, a retrospect of l^ormal 

 Psychology, prepared by Mr. Havelock 

 Ellis, and proposes to give regular sum- 

 maries of the progress of psychology. 



The Chemical Society has conferred its 

 Faraday medal upon Lord Eayleigh in re- 

 cognition of the investigation which has led 

 to the discovery of Argon. Dumas, Caniz- 

 zaro, Wurtz, Helmholtz, and Mendeleefi" 

 have been the previous recipients of the 

 medal. 



Rev. Heebeet A. James, principal of 

 Cheltenham College, has been elected head 

 master of Rugby, succeeding the Rev. Dr. 

 Percival. 



The Woods Holl Biological Lectures for 

 1894, in the press of Ginn & Co., include : 

 I. Life from a Physical Standpoint. — A. E. 

 DoLBEAE. II. A Dynamical Hypothesis of In- 

 heritance. — John A. Rydee. III. On the 

 Limits of Divisibility of Living Matter. — 

 Jacques Loeb. IV. Tlie Differentiation of 

 Species on the Galapagos Islands and the Origin 

 of the Group). — G. Batjb. V. Search for the 

 Unknoivn Factors of Evolution. — H. F. Os- 

 boen. VI. The Emhryological Criterion of 

 Homology.— E. B. Wilson. VII. Cell-Di- 

 vision and Development. — J. P. McMtjeeich. 

 VIII. The Problems, Methods and Scope of De- 

 velopmental Mechanics. — W. M. Wheeler 

 (Roux's). IX. The Organization of Botanical 

 Museums for Schools, Colleges and Universities. 

 — J. M. Macfaelane. X. The Centrosome. 

 — S. Watase. XI. Evolution and Epigen- 

 esis. — C. O. Whitman. XII. BonneVs 

 Theory of Evolution. — C. 0. Whitman. XIII. 

 Bonnet on Palingenesis and Germs. — C. 0. 

 Whitman. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADESIIES. 



biological society of WASHINGTON, 



MAECH 23. 



Me. Chaeles T. Simpson read a paper on 

 the ' Respective Values of the Shell and 

 Soft Parts in Xaiad Classification.' Mr. 

 Simpson deprecated the fashion of many con- 

 chologists of late in basing classification 

 wholly on the soft parts and stated that 

 his studies of the Xaiads, or fresh water 

 mussels, go to show that among them, at 

 least, he has found the characters of the 

 soft' parts of the animal more variable and 

 less reliable for the purposes of classification 

 than those of the shell. That, while in 

 some cases the soft parts give us the key to 

 true afl&nities, in others they are worthless, 

 and we must rely on the shell for a knowl- 



