754 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 99. 



Major J. W. Powell will give at the Catho- 

 lic University a course of six special lectures, 

 reviewing the scope of anthropology and taking 

 up savagery, barbarism, primitive civilization 

 and modern civilization. 



Further details regarding the Nansen re- 

 search fund now being raised in Norway, are 

 quoted by Nature from the Times. Its object 

 is to commemorate the remarkable Arctic ex- 

 pedition of this explorer by the foundation of a 

 fund called ' The Fridtjof Nansen Fund ' for 

 scientific research. It isjntended that, by this 

 means, research in various departments of 

 science shall be promoted, and the results pub- 

 lished. Dr. Nansen himself may be appointed 

 director, but there will be no salary attached 

 to the oflfice, as the whole of the yearly products 

 of the fund will be devoted to the objects stated. 

 Up to the present no less than 300,000 kroner 

 have been subscribed. Consul A. Herberg, 

 Dr. Nansen' s friend, has contributed 50,000 

 kroner ; while others, besides numerous Nor- 

 wegians, are Baron Oscar Dickson, 25,000 

 kroner ; and Prof. Frankland, 1,000 kroner. 

 It is stated that the fund will probably be 

 placed under the care of the Christiania Uni- 

 versity, the Norwegian Society of Science, and 

 the Bergen Museum. If any who are ad- 

 mirers of Dr. Nansen care to contribute they 

 should communicate with the Committee of the 

 ' Fridtjof Nansens fond, University of Christi- 

 ania. ' 



The London Daily Chronicle published, on 

 November 3, 4 and 5, a detailed and elaborately 

 illustrated series of articles by Dr. Nansen, de- 

 scribing his adventures in the extreme north. 

 The articles have been extensively copied in 

 the daily papers and are of dramatic rather 

 than of scientific interest. Dr. Nansen received 

 about $20,000 for these articles, and will re- 

 ceive about $50,000 for his book. The scientific 

 results of the expedition will be presented be- 

 fore the Eoyal Geographical Society, and doubt- 

 less will be published in a suitable form and 

 place. 



The Associated Press reports that Messrs. 

 D. G. Elliott and C E. Aikley, of the Chicago 

 Field Columbian Museum, left Southampton on 

 November 14th, on their return to the United 



States, after a very successful expedition into 

 Somaliland. Mr. Elliott states that the collec- 

 tions are of great value, 58 cases having been 

 shipped from Aden to Chicago. 



Mr. R. p. Currie, of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum, left New York on November 

 14th, ult., for Hamburg, on his way to Liberia, 

 where he will spend several months collecting 

 zoological specimens. He will devote especial 

 attention to insects showing protective mimicry. 



Nature quotes from the British Central African 

 Gazette news of the return of Mr. Alexander 

 Whyte, Sir Harry Johnston's scientific assistant 

 in British Central Africa, from a successful ex- 

 pedition into the Nyika plateau, on the north- 

 eastern shores of Lake Nyasa, where he has 

 made a large collection. The flora of this dis- 

 trict proved to be most interesting, resembling 

 that of Mount Milanji, in the south of Nyasa- 

 land, but differing from it in many respects. 

 Mr. Whyte failed to find any trace of a conifer, 

 but the range is richer in heaths than Milanji. 

 He obtained 6,000 specimens of plants and a 

 large zoological collection. 



Prof. Koch has been sent to South Africa by 

 the German government to investigate the 

 causes of the Rinderpest. 



Dr. L. a. Bauer, who, as we have already 

 announced, is undertaking a magnetic survey 

 of Maryland, under the recently established 

 State Geological Survey, has taken observations 

 at about 40 stations, or one for about every 250 

 square miles, which gives Maryland the most 

 detailed magnetic survey yet undertaken in 

 America. 



Houghton, Mifflin & Co. have in press 

 ' The Life and Letters of Dr. William Martin 

 Rogers,' prepared by Mrs. Rogers, with the as- 

 sistance of Prof. W. T. Sedgwick. 



Lotze's Medicinische Physiologie, published 

 in 1852, may be regarded as the pioneer work 

 in modern physiological and experimental psy- 

 chology. It has long been out of print, but a 

 reprint is now announced by the Diedrischen 

 Buchandlung, Gottingen. 



Among the large number of books announced 

 by the Clarenden Press, Oxford, as in active 

 preparation there is apparently only one in the 



