474 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 116. 



The Torrey Botanical Club and the College 

 of Pharmacy of the City of New York offer two 

 summer courses in botany : one on the general 

 morphology of plants by Dr. W. Arthur Bas- 

 tedo ; the other on cryptogamic botany by Dr. 

 Smith Ely Jelliffe. The courses will be given 

 at the College of Pharmacy, beginning March 

 25th and 26th, respectively, and in connection 

 with thena weekly field excursions have been 

 arranged, lasting from April 24th to June 12th. 



Four hundred Cossacks have been sent to 

 the Russo-Persian frontier to establish a mili- 

 tary cordon for the enforcement of quarantine 

 to prevent the introduction of the plague into 

 Asiatic Russia. 



A SECOND international Congress of Sanita- 

 tion and Hygiene of Railways and Navigation 

 will be held at Brussels during September, 

 1897. The preceding Congress at Amsterdam 

 was of scientific interest, and the next Congress 

 has the support of the Belgium government. 

 Those wishing to attend the Congress or obtain 

 information regarding it should apply to Dr. J. 

 de Lautsheere, rue de 1' Association 56, Brussels. 



The Council of the American Geographical 

 Society has adopted the report of a committee 

 consisting of Judge Charles P. Daly, Admiral 

 Gherardi and Mr. Chandler Bobbins, endorsing 

 the plan of Lieutenant R. E. Peary, proposing 

 to devote a number of years to complete the 

 exploration of the unknown region between 

 Greenland and the North Pole. The Council 

 recommends that the Society subscribe toward 

 the expense of his next expedition, provided 

 that such subscription is needed, and the full 

 amount to carry out the enterprise is subscribed. 



The Geographical Club, now the Geographical 

 Society of Philadelphia, during the month of 

 February, 1896, transferred all its books and 

 exchanges to a large room it had rented for a 

 library. But a few days later the building was 

 entirely destroyed by fire, and the Club lost all 

 its possessions. It has only now been possible 

 to make a fresh start, and all the books and 

 exchanges which have been received since the 

 fire and have been stored away have been 

 transferred to the new rooms at 1520 Chestnut 

 street. The Society would be glad to receive 

 publications bearing upon geography. 



Nature reports that Dr. Arthur Willey, who 

 woi'ked out the later development of Am- 

 phioxus when he was a pupil of Professor Ray 

 Lankester at University College, London, hasjust 

 made a most important discovery. He has suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining the ripe eggs of the Pearly 

 Nautilus, and is now at work on the develop- 

 ment of that most interesting animal. Two 

 and a half years ago Dr. Willey gave up a posi- 

 tion in Columbia University and accepted the 

 Balfour Studentship of the University of Cam- 

 bridge, in order to proceed to the coast of New 

 Guinea and neighboring islands in quest of the 

 embryological history of the Pearly Nautilus. 

 He has had great numbers of live nautilus, but, 

 in spite of all eflbrts, had, till December 5th last, 

 failed to obtain the eggs. Specimens which he 

 was keeping in a large cage, sunk in the sea at 

 a suitable spot in the Loyalty Islands, were 

 found by him on that day to have spawned. 

 Dr. Willey' s indomitable perseverance and devo- 

 tion to his task have thus been at last crowned 

 by success. Dr. Willey has been assisted in his 

 arduous and dangerous enterprise — amongst the 

 savage people of those remote islands — by grants 

 of money from the Government Grant Fund ad- 

 ministered by the Royal Society. 



Mr. Palmer, the New York Secretary of 

 State, has drawn up a report showing that the 

 total number of convictions in the New York 

 courts was 66,420 in 1896, as compared with 

 71,480 in 1895 and 68,146 in 1894. 



According to the British Medical Journal the 

 medical faculty of Montpellier is authorized to 

 accept the important legacy bequeathed to it 

 by the widow of Dr. Bouisson, which is as fol- 

 lows: The Grammont chateau and grounds t» 

 be devoted to the creation of a scientific and 

 humanitarian establishment; also the furniture 

 and linen belonging to the chateau; the interest 

 of $60,000 to be applied to defray the expenses 

 of the establishment; a chapel to be built under 

 the supervision of the executors ; the interest 

 of $9,000 to be given as a salary to the priest 

 attached to the establishment. All the instru- 

 ments, and the drawers containing them, like- 

 nesses, manuscripts belonging to the late Dr. 

 Bouisson and Dr. Bertrand, the husband and 

 father of Mme. Bouisson, and a marble bust of 



