442 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 115. 



Henry Woodward, F. R. S.; Secretaries, Mr. 

 J. E. Marr, F. R. S., and Mr. R. S. Barries; 

 Foreign Secretary, Sir Jolin Evans, F. R. S.; 

 Treasurer, Dr. W. T. Blanford, F. R. S.. Tlie 

 following awards of medals and funds were 

 made : The Wollaston medal to Mr. W. H. 

 Hudleston, F. R. S. ; the Murohison medal and 

 part of the fund to Mr. Horace B. Woodward, 

 F. R. S. ; the Lyell medal and part of the fund 

 to Dr. G. J. Hinde, F. R. S. ; the Bigsby medal 

 to Mr. Clement Beid ; the balance of the pro- 

 ceeds of the Wollaston fund to Mr. F. A. 

 Bather ; the balance of the proceeds of the 

 Murchison fund to Mr. S. S. Buckman; the 

 balance of the proceeds of the Lyell fund to 

 Mr. W. J. Lewis Abbott and Mr. J. Lomas. 

 The President delivered his anniversary address, 

 which dealt with some recent evidence bearing 

 on the geological and biological history of 

 early Cambrian and pre- Cambrian times. 



The Council of the Royal Photographic 

 Society of Great Britain have awarded the 

 progress medal of the Society to Professor Ga- 

 briel Lippmann, of Paris, for his discovery of 

 the process of producing photographs iu natural 

 colors by the interference method. 



A SELECT committee of the British House of 

 Commons has been appointed to inquire into 

 and report upon the sufficiency of the law rela- 

 ting to the keeping, selling, using and convey- 

 ing of petroleum and other inflammable liquids, 

 and the precautions to be adopted for the pre- 

 vention of accidents with petroleum lamps. 



The Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin 

 has declared compulsory vaccination to be un- 

 constitutional on the grounds that it may be 

 objected to as a matter of conscience and its 

 enforcement would be an interference with re- 

 ligious liberty. 



The Council of the Sanitary Institute of Great 



Britain have accepted an invitation of the City 



f Council of Leeds to hold a sanitary congress 



and health exhibition in that city in September. 



The Senate has passed a joint resolution re- 

 citing the alarming spread of the bubonic 

 plague now prevalent in India, and directing 

 the Secretary of the Treasury to establish such 

 national quarantine regulations as may become 

 necessary to prevent the introduction and 



spread of infectious or contagious diseases. 

 The resolution provides for the appointment of 

 inspectors by the Secretary of the Treasury, on 

 the advice of the surgeon-general of the Marine 

 Hospital service, and for the inspection of ves- 

 sels, persons, etc., pending the existence of the 

 emergency. 



The British Medical Journal states that a care- 

 ful and comprehensive report on the progress of 

 public hygiene in Prussia during the years 1889, 

 1890 and 1891 is being circulated by the Medical 

 Board of the Prussian Cultus-Ministerium (Min- 

 istry of Education, etc.). It is a book of more 

 than 600 pages, comprising chapters on every 

 branch of public health and on epidemics in 

 man and beast, besides a large number of sta- 

 tistical tables. The latter include general mor- 

 tality, mortality at different ages, mortality from 

 different specified diseases, and disease and 

 mortality in different trades. The problems of 

 water supply and drainage, police supervision 

 of food and drink, supervision of factories and 

 schools, etc. , are fully discussed, and there are 

 chapters on workmen's dwellings, working col- 

 onies, poorhouses, almshouses, hospitals, etc. 



Professor W. M. Spaulding writes us of 

 the death of Lorenzo N. Johnson, formerly in- 

 structor of botany in the University of Michigan, 

 which occurred at Boulder, Colorado, Saturday, 

 February 27th. "Mr. Johnson was an enthu- 

 siastic student of algse and fungi and had de- 

 voted much time to systemmatic work on the 

 Desmidiacese. He was the author of various 

 papers on this group and had much extended 

 their known range in the United States." 



We regret also to record the death of Mr. 

 John Pierce, formerly professor of chemistry 

 in Brown University, and of Professor Edward 

 Thomson Nelson, of the chair of science in 

 Ohio Wesleyau University, on February 28th. 



At the instance of the Commission on Bird 

 Protection of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, the Lighthouse Board at Washington 

 has issued a decree forbidding the sale of eggs 

 of the sea birds of Farrallones Islands, Cali- 

 fornia. It is said that as many as 20,000 dozen 

 eggs were annually sold. 



According to the Electrical World, on June 

 26th next an exhibition will be opened in the 



