580 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 119. 



tion of a bust to be executed by Mr. Thorny- 

 croft. Sir George Stokes has for nearly fifty 

 years been Lucasian professor of mathematics in 

 the University. 



The bust of Sir Henry Acland, formerly 

 Hegius professor of medicine at Oxford, has 

 been placed in the court of the University 

 Museum. 



Sir William Dawson the eminent geologist, 

 late principal of McGill University, and Lady 

 Dawson celebrated their golden wedding on 

 March 19th. 



The library of the German Astronomical So- 

 ciety has been purchased by a number of citi- 

 zens of Bamburg and presented to the observa- 

 tory. 



Mb. Hbnet M. Paul, assistant astronomer 

 at the U. S. Naval Observatory, and Mr. George 

 A. Hill, computer in the ofiice of the Nautical 

 Almanac, have been appointed professors of 

 mathematics in the navy. 



The members of the New York Zoological 

 Society have learned, with regret, of the death 

 of Dr. A. A. van Bemmelin, late director of the 

 Zoological Garden of Rotterdam. Besides the 

 loss to zoological science in general, his death 

 is a loss to the New York Zoological Park in 

 particular. From the inception of that enter- 

 prise Dr. van Bemmelin responded most 

 heartily to all calls made upon him for informa- 

 tion and advice, and forwarded to the Society 

 many closely-written pages of details regarding 

 the status of the garden that has been developed 

 so successfully under his direction. Although 

 the Rotterdam garden is not quite so large as 

 some of the other European gardens, it is very 

 beautiful and attractive, and the highest praise 

 that could be bestowed upon Dr. van Bemmelin 

 is found in the statement that for more than 

 twenty years he has been its director. The 

 first of the four great flying cages in Europe is 

 the one designed and constructed by him. The 

 most recent lion house in Europe is the one 

 erected by the Rotterdam society, under his 

 direction, in 1894. 



The funeral of Professor Sylvester took place 

 on March 19th at the cemetery of the West 

 London Synagogue of British Jews. The Royal 

 Society and the London Mathematical Society 



were represented by Professor Michael Foster, 

 Major Macmahon, Professor Forsyth, Professor 

 Elliott, Dr. Hobson, Professor Greenhill, Mr. 

 A. B. Kempe and Mr. A. H. Love. 



We regret to announce the deaths of Dr. 

 Joseph F. James, known for his writings in 

 paleontology, botany and geology, who died of 

 pneumonia at Hingham, Mass., on the 29th of 

 March; of M. Antoine T. d'Abbadie, sometime 

 President of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 known for his works on geographical explora- 

 tion and on geodesy; of Dr. Robert Hogg, the 

 horticulturalist; of Mr. John Biddulph Martin, 

 President of the Royal Statistical Society ; of 

 M. C. Contejean, of the Pasteur Institute, and 

 of C. F. Wiepken, for sixty years director of 

 the Oldenburg museum. 



We learn from Nature that a meeting of 

 presidents of various scientific societies in Lon- 

 don was recently convened by the President and 

 oflicers of the Royal Society to consider whether 

 any, and if so what, steps should be taken to 

 commemorate the sixtieth year of Queen Victo- 

 ria's reign. It was unanimously resolved ' ' That 

 a fund to be called the Victoria Research Fund 

 be established, to be administered by represent- 

 atives of the various scientific societies, for the 

 encouragement of research in all branches of 

 science." The President of the Royal Society 

 has communicated this resolution to the scien- 

 tific societies, with a letter asking whether sup- 

 port would be given to it. 



In addition to the nominations made by the 

 Council of the British Association for presidents 

 of the different sections at the forthcoming 

 meeting at Toronto, announced in the issue of 

 Science for February 12th (p. 251), Mr. J. 

 Scott Keltic has been nominated as president of 

 the geographical section. Evening lectures will 

 be given by Professor Roberts-Austin and Pro- 

 fessor John Milne. 



The Museums Association of Great Britain 

 meets this year at Oxford, from June 29th to 

 July 2d, under the presidency of Professor Ray 

 Lankester. Men of science wishing to attend 

 or present papers should apply to the secreta- 

 ries, H. M. Platnauer, the Museum, York, and 

 E. Howarth, the Museum, Sheffield. 



The eleventh annual meeting of the German 



