268 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 87. 



Prof. A. A. Tichomirow has been appointed 

 director of the zoological museum of the Uni- 

 versity of Moscow, in place of the late Prof. 

 Bogdanov. 



The biological station at P15n was closed 

 during the month of July, and has during this 

 period been thoroughly renovated. It is open 

 during August, a month especially favorable 

 for a study of the fauna of the lake. The 

 charge is 10 M. a week for the use of a table. 



The committee appointed by the Kazan Phy- 

 sico, Mathematical Society to collect funds for 

 the Lobatchefsky memorial have received 9072 

 roubles ($7165). Nature states that a circular 

 issued by Prof. Vassilief contains the information 

 that the fund has been utilized in the following 

 manner : A capital sum of 6000 roubles has 

 been used to found a prize of 500 roubles to 

 be awarded every three years for a geometrical 

 work, and especially one on non-Euclidian 

 geometry, printed in Eussian, French, German, 

 English, Italian or Latin. The first prize will 

 be awarded on November 3, 1897 (the centenary 

 of Lobatchefsky 's birth took place on November 

 3, 1893), and mathematicians competing for it 

 must send in their works not later than Novem- 

 ber 3d (October 22d). The sum remaining after 

 the foundation of this prize has been devoted 

 to the erection of a bust of Lobatchefsky, in 

 front of Kazan University. The bust will be 

 inaugurated on September 13th of this year, 

 and it is hoped that as many foreign men of 

 science as are able will be present to witness 

 the ceremony. 



There will be held at Turin in 1898 a Na- 

 tional Exposition at which special arrangements 

 will be made for meetings on medicine and hy- 

 giene. 



Dr. Geo. Bruce Halsted, professor of 

 mathematics in the University of Texas, is 

 spending the summer in Austro-Hungary and 

 Russia, where he is engaged in mathematical 

 research. His address is Kazan, Russia. 



The British Commissioners for the Exhibition 

 of 1851 have made twenty appointments to 

 science research scholarships, for the year 1896, 

 on the recommendation of the authorities of the 

 universities and colleges in which this right is 

 vested. The scholarships are of the value of 



£150 a year, and are ordinarily tenable for two 

 years in any institution approved by the Com- 

 missioners. The scholars are to devote them- 

 selves exclusively to study and research in some 

 branch of science, the extension of which is im- 

 portant to the industries of the country. 



The University of the Pacific, at its last 

 commencement, conferred the honorary degree 

 of Doctor of Science upon Prof. Edward S. Hol- 

 den. Director of the Lick Observatory. 



Henry C. Ford, President of the Pennsyl- 

 vania State Fish Commission, died at Phila- 

 delphia on the night of August 17th, at the age 

 of sixty. 



Since the outbreak of cholera in Egypt this 

 year to August 15th there have been 14,755 

 deaths. 



The agricultural experiment station of the 

 University of Wyoming has issued a first report 

 on the flora of Wyoming by Prof. Aven Nelson, 

 botanist of the station. There are enumerated 

 from the material in the herbarium 1,118 species 

 and varieties of phanerogams representing 393 

 genera, and 170 more have been reported by 

 other observers. Though the northeast and 

 southwest floras are quite distinct from each 

 other and from those portions of the State which 

 have been the most carefully examined, 1,295 

 species and varieties have thus far been reported 

 from the State, as compared with 1,460 from 

 Nebraska and 1309 from West Virginia, two of 

 the States that have been most carefully worked 

 over. 



The 119th part of the Flora Brasiliensis, con- 

 taining Orchidacese III., by A. Cogniaux, has 

 been published in Leipzig. The cost of this ex- 

 tensive work, which was begun in 1840, now 

 amounts to nearly $1,000. 



The last number of the Transactions of the 

 American Institute of Electrical Engineers con- 

 tains a report on standards of light by a sub- 

 committee of the Institute consisting of Edward 

 L. Nichols, Clayton H. Sharp and Charles P. 

 Mathews. The committee concludes that of 

 all standards thus far used candles are the least 

 reliable. It seems likely that many of the 

 difficulties that are unavoidable with flame 

 standards may be overcome by the adoption of 

 a standard consisting of some surface electrically 



