May 25, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



837 



member of the faculty of the School of Agricul- 

 ture, at Vienna, and of Dr. Bernhart Noldeke. 

 assistant in the zoological laboratory of the 

 University of Strassburg. 



Lieutenant-Geneeal a. H. Lane-Fox 

 PiTT-KiVEES, F.E.S., died on May 4th, at the 

 age of 73 years. He had a distinguished mili- 

 tary career, but was best known for his work 

 in anthropology and archaeology. The London 

 Times states that he was only 25 when he began 

 to collect specimens of objects such as weapons, 

 articles of dress, ornament, etc., which were 

 brought to England from various savage coun- 

 tries. In choosing his specimens he was guided 

 by the principle of connection in form, his de" 

 sire being to illustrate the development of 

 specific ideas among savage peoples and their 

 transmission from one people to another. The 

 result of his patience and scientific enthusiasm 

 was the formation of a collection illustrative of 

 savage life and embryo civilization which is cer- 

 tainly unrivalled in England and probably 

 in Europe also. It was exhibited in 1874 and 

 1875, in the Bethnal-green Museum, and after- 

 wards General Pitt- Rivers presented it to the 

 University of Oxford, which gave it a home in 

 the new Museum-buildings, opposite Keble Col- 

 lege. In 1880 the General, who had up to that 

 time borne his father's name of Lane-Fox, suc- 

 ceeded to the Rivers estates under the will of 

 his great-uncle, the last Lord Rivers, by which 

 also it was provided that he should assume the 

 name and arms of Pitt-Rivers. From the point 

 of view of the interests of science it would have 

 been difficult to find a better heir for these 

 unique estates. Lying in Wiltshire, near the 

 Dorset border, they had remained, for the 

 most part forest land, containing numerous 

 herds of fallow deer, practically untouched 

 until the present century. They thus pre. 

 sented an unique field for excavation under 

 trained archseological guidance, and General 

 Pitt-Rivers made full use of the opportunity 

 which fortune had placed in his hands. His 

 excavations in the barrows, etc., round Rush- 

 more were extensive and continuous, and the 

 results of them he described in several large 

 volumes which are constantly cited by archaeol- 

 ogists. He has contributed a good deal of val- 

 uable material to the ' Reports ' of the British 



Association and to the Journal of the Anthro- 

 pological Institute, of which body he was presi- 

 dent. At the Oxford Encaenia of 1886 he re- 

 ceived the honorary degree of D.C.L. 



Dr. Feitz Shottky, professor of mathe- 

 matics at Marburg, has been elected a member 

 of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin. 



The Academy of Sciences of Madrid has 

 awarded its mathematical prizes to G. Loria of 

 Genoa, and F. G. Teixeira of Oporto. 



Dr. Karl E. Guthe of the department of 

 physics of the University of Michigan, sailed 

 on May 17th for Europe, where he will spend 

 the summer in special study of the coherer and 

 of polarization. He will read a paper on ' The 

 Theory of the Coherer ' at the meeting of the 

 International Congress of Physicists in Paris 

 August 6-llth. 



Mr. H. F. Sill of the chemical department 

 of Princeton University, has been given leave 

 of absence for two years and will study at 

 Heidelberg and Munich. 



We learn from Nature that a committee com- 

 posed of many eminent men of science in 

 France has been formed for the purpose of 

 obtaining funds for the erection of a modest 

 monument at Langres in honor of Auguste 

 Laurent, the renowned chemist. Laurent was 

 born at La Folic, near Langres, in 1808, and in 

 1831 became assistant to Dumas under whom 

 he acquired a special knowledge of organic 

 chemistry, and carried on his original researches 

 on naphthalene and carbolic acid, together with 

 their derivatives. After filling various posts, 

 the last of which was a chemical professorship 

 at Bordeaux, Laurent became Warden of the 

 Mint at Paris, where he remained in intimate 

 connection with Gerhardt until his death in 

 1853. Subscriptions for the proposed monu- 

 ment should be sent to the treasurer of the 

 Committee, M. Caublot, 45 rue de Belleville, 

 Paris. 



The German Society for Advancing the 

 Teaching of Mathematics and the Sciences 

 meets this year at Hamburg from June 4th 

 to 7th. 



The Society of Zoology and Botany at Vienna 

 proposes to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 

 its foundation in April, 1901, and to prepare 



