942 



8GIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 104. 



postponement, it being decided to await his 

 return. The organizing committee comprises 

 the following names : A. Hansen, Bergen, Nor- 

 way ; Robert Koch and O, Lassar, Berlin, and 

 Edward Ehlers, Copenhagen (secretary). 



At the 111th meeting of the American Insti- 

 tute of Electrical Engineers, held at New York 

 on December 16th, a discussion on the Rontgen 

 rays was opened by Prof. Rowland. 



The American Historical Association holds 

 its twelfth annual meeting at Columbia Univer- 

 sity, New York, December 29th-31st. 



It is proposed, says Nature, to hold an inter- 

 national electrical exhibition at Turin in 1898. 

 The Executive Committee and the Special 

 Commission invite exhibits from all parts of the 

 world, and the exhibition will comprise the 

 following classes : (1) Apparatus for teaching 

 electro-technics ; (2) materials for the conduc- 

 tion of electricity ; (3) instruments for electric 

 and magnetic measurements ; (4) telegraphs 

 and telephones ; (5) signalling apparatus and 

 safety appliances on railways, lighting and 

 heating of carriages ; (6) dynamos and motors ; 



(7) mechanical appliances and electric traction ; 



(8) electric lighting ; (9) electro-chemistry and 

 electro-metallurgy ; (10) miscellaneous ; (11) 

 apparatus of historic interest. Signor Galileo 

 Ferraris has been appointed President of the 

 Commission. 



The College of Physicians of Philadelphia 

 announces that the next award of the Alvarenga 

 Prize, being the income for one year of the be- 

 quest of the late Senor Alvarenga, and amount- 

 ing to about one hundred and eighty dollars, 

 will be made on July 14, 1897, provided that 

 an essay deemed by the Committee of Award to 

 be worthy of the prize shall have been offered. 

 Essays intended for competition may be upon 

 any subject in medicine, but cannot have been 

 published, and must be received by the secre- 

 tary of the College on or before May 1, 1897. 



The Walsingham gold medal, Cambridge 

 University, has been awarded to W. McDougall, 

 B. A., of St. John's College and St. Thomas's 

 Hospital, for original researches in physiology. 



We learn from Natural Science that a mem- 

 orial statute to Dr. H. Burmeister is being 

 erected by subscription in Buenos Ayres to 



commemorate his long and important services 

 to science, and especially to the National 

 Museum. The Argentine government is said 

 to have refused permission for it to be set up in 

 a public place, because Dr. Burmeister was a 

 foreigner, and it will occupy a position in the 

 hall of the University. 



It is reported that Mrs. H. M. Converse, of 

 New York City, will present to the State Re- 

 gents Department, Albany, her fine collection 

 of Indian relics. The State Legislature last 

 winter appropriated $5,000 to classify and 

 arrange the relics now in the State Museum. 



Col. Coleridge Grove has given the Royal 

 Institution, London, a bust of his father, the 

 late Sir William Grove. 



Nature quotes from the Daily Chronicle news 

 of a meteorological observatory to be placed by 

 Italian men of science on the summit of Monte 

 Rosa. Queen Margherita, herself an expert 

 mountaineer, supports the project by a donation 

 of 160Z., the Duke of the Abruzzi gives 200Z., 

 and the Italian Alpine Club, the Ministers in 

 their private capacity, and the physical faculty 

 of the University of Turin, figure among its chief 

 contributors. It is intended to utilize the hut 

 on the Gniflfetti peak, built three years ago as a 

 shelter for climbers. Situated at a height of 

 about 14,000 feet above sea-level, the observ- 

 atory will, as regards elevation, rank fourth 

 among the twenty-seven mountain observ- 

 atories of the world, being surpassed in altitude 

 only by those of Arequipa, Mont Blanc and 

 Pike's Peak. 



Cablegrams to the daily papers report earth- 

 quake shocks throughout Great Britain occur- 

 ring at 5:30 a. m. on December 17th. The 

 shocks lasted from 4 to 30 seconds and are said 

 to have been the most violent experienced in 

 England. 



The Association of American Steel Manu- 

 factures, at a meeting held in New York on 

 October 23d, adopted resolutions endorsing the 

 decimal system as the proper standard for 

 measuring all materials. The British Chamber 

 of Commerce of Alexandria are unanimously of 

 the opinion that it would be an advantage for 

 commerce with Great Britain, should the metric 

 system be adopted by that country. 



