July 17, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



75 



ing its plan and purpose, lectures are proposed 

 on Assyria, Syria, Tyre and Sidon, Greece, 

 Eome, Constantinople, Venice and Florence and 

 Paris. 



The British Medical Journal states that a geo- 

 logical excursion from Aberdeen to Penrith, 

 Cumberland, will take place next month. The 

 party will leave Aberdeen on Monday, July 

 20th, and under the guidance of Prof. Alleyne 

 Nicholson (natural history), University of Aber- 

 deen, visit the most interesting localities in the 

 Lake District, returning on Saturday, July 25th. 



After October of this year a new review, 

 The Journal of Physical Chemistry^ will be pub- 

 lished from Cornell University, edited by Wilder 

 D. Bancroft and Joseph E. Trevor, assistant 

 professoi's of physical chemistry in the Uni- 

 versity. The journal will be issued on the first 

 of each month, except July, August and Sep- 

 tember. 



The army worm is reported to be doing seri- 

 ous damage in New York, Khode Island, Mary- 

 land and elsewhere. 



A CABLEGRAM to the daily papers states that 

 Larnica (island of Cyprus) has been suffering 

 from earthquake shocks since July 1. The 

 disturbances have been increasing in violence, 

 and extend to Limesol. A panic prevails at 

 Larnica, and the government and military au- 

 thorities have been providing tents for the 

 frightened people. The town is deserted and 

 the government offices, banks and telegraph of- 

 fices were under canvas. 



In the absence of Mr. G. F. Becker, who is 

 making a study of the origin and mode of oc- 

 currence of gold in South Africa, the investiga- 

 tions in Alaska, under the U, S. Geological 

 Survey, will be continued by Mr. J. E. Spurr, 

 who has by this time reached his field of work 

 in the Upper Yukon. 



The President of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, has written to 

 Secretary Hoke Smith : "I have the honor 

 to inform you that the members of the forestry 

 commission, a^Dpointed at your request by the 

 President of the National Academy of Sciences, 

 will leave for the West on or before July 2d, and 

 will at once enter on their duties. I have every 

 reason to believe that the work of the commis- 



sion will be of an inestimable benefit to the 

 country, and that it will justify the opinion 

 which the public has, from the inception of the 

 plan, entertained of the wise foresight and 

 patriotic spirit which you have shown in its 

 conception and advancement." 



The Russian Society of the Red Cross has es- 

 tablished ten scholarships in the Warsaw School 

 of Dentistry for the widows of officers in the 

 army. It seems that the widows of officers who 

 have not been long in the service do not receive 

 pensions, and it is hoped by this means to give 

 them an opening to support themselves. 



At the meeting of the British Astronomical 

 Society on June 24th, Dr. Downing, Secretary 

 of the committee having charge of the arrange- 

 ments for the approaching solar eclipse expedi- 

 tion, announced that information had reached 

 him that several excellent sites for observation 

 in the neighborhood of Vadso were available, 

 two quite close to the landing place. There 

 appeared to be a prospect of plenty of room be- 

 ing found for all observers. The President, 

 Mr. E. W. Maunder, gave an outline of the work 

 proposed to be undertaken by members of the 

 eclipse expedition, showing that the ground 

 would be covered pretty thoroughly in respect 

 of the different classes of observation. It ap- 

 peared from this statement that drawings of 

 the corona would be made not only with the 

 naked eye, but also with the aid of binoculars 

 and telescopes. A large number of cameras 

 would be taken out, both wet and dry plate 

 photography being brought into requisition. 

 There would be polariscopic and spectroscopic 

 observations, and other sections would under- 

 take time determinations, photographic deter- 

 minations of the general brightness of the cor- 

 ona and meteorological observations. 



Of recent deaths we note that of Dr. William 

 Cholmeley, a distinguished London j)hysician 

 and for ten years editor of the Medical Times 

 and Gazette, on June 18th, at the age of 73; of 

 Dr. Leloir, professor at the Lille School of 

 Medicine and the author of treatises on skin 

 diseases and other maladies, at the age of 40; 

 on June 13th, of Prof John Henry Middleton, 

 director of art at the South Kensington Museum 

 and formerly Slade professor of the fine arts at 



