SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



r 45 



SCIENCE GOSSIP 



-^57? 



^^^A-Mz& m 



A hke broke out on September 12th, at the 

 National Exhibition at Arnheim, in Holland. The 

 main building and all the annexes, including the 

 Physical Science Museum, were destroyed. 



The English Arboricuhural Society held its 

 annual meeting this year at Lynn, in Norfolk. 

 Among other arrangements, the members visited 

 the Sandringhara estate of the Prince of Wales. 



Acetylene gas, which we relerred to in Science - 



(vol. i.. p. - -. N.S I. appears to be gaining 



favour as an illuminant. There are commercial 



demonstrations of it in London at the present time. 



Field naturalists will be glad to learn that 

 the unpublished journals of the great naturalist, 

 Audubon, are being translated into English, and 

 prepared for publication by his granddaughter. 



The ninth annual meeting of the Association of 

 Economic Entomologists took place in August last, 

 at Detroit, Michigan. Among the visitors were 

 Pr C A Dohrn and I'rofessor E. 13. Poulton. 



In his address. Professor Webster, the retiring 

 President of the American Association of Economic 

 Entomologists, severely criticised those people 

 who multiply descriptions of "species" without 

 sufficient care and material for examination. 



DURING the opening service of the Hereford 

 Musical Festival on Sunday, September tzth, a 

 robin, undeterred by the loud rolling music of 

 Mr Elgar's Te Deum, warbled plaintively and 

 repeatedly (rom its perch on a rafter in the roof of 

 the cathedral. 



Tilt " American Association for the Advance- 

 ment "f Science." the equivalent of our British 

 ition, met this year, in August, at Detroit, 

 the attendance was only J'ji and some foreign 

 is to be the place of meeting 

 next 



da is well to the fore this season. Without 



mentioning Klondyke, wbicfa is its ^reat popular 



.1 , the I tominion I1.1 . ■ ei ti Iwo ol the 



year . thai 



of the lint. ation and also that ol llic 



Medical Association 



Thk Columbia dition 



1 terrible accident through 

 only an: all their apparatu 



. Ill 



'I ;.■ membt 1 ol 



engers, wen: only 



►.parcl alter seventeen hou. 1 in the lost 



Somi I irti tli.it by payment • ,[ a 



guinea or more they can 



bat lately 



'I li>: 



only di 'it the in 



, ;«rar to be bleb I ■ 



entitled t". ;rew 



Dr. R. Blanchard, the Secretary of the Zoo- 

 logical Society of France, has been appointed 

 Professor of Natural History to the Faculty of 

 Medicine of the University of Paris. 



We have received from Mr. Wilfred Mark 

 Webb, F.L.S., the Editor of the "Journal of 

 Malacology," a reprint of his article on "The 

 Non-Marine Molluscs of Essex," which will be 

 useful to students of the group. 



Wireless telegraphy is receiving a careful trial 

 at Dover in connection with developing a plan of 

 communicating with lightships. The results so 

 far are satisfactory ; messages from Fort Burgoyne 

 were read at the South Foreland lighthouse. The 

 call was made by agitating an electric bell at the 

 lighthouse with the wireless current. An induction- 

 coil used produces a spark about thirty inches long. 



Dr. S. H. Scudder, the eminent American 

 entomologist, has issued a new " Guide to the 

 Genera and Classification of the North American 

 Orthoptera," at the price of one dollar. It is a 

 series of tables of the seven families into which the 

 Orthoptera of North America is divided. Added are 

 biographical notes and a list of books on the Orthop- 

 tera of that section of the American continent. 



The leading newspapers announce the return of 

 the Duke of the Abruzzi (Prince Louis of Savoy) 

 and his companions from their successful ascent of 

 Mount St. Elias, on the Canadian border of 

 Alaska. The mountain is found to be not volcanic 

 in origin, but elevated sedimentary strata of 

 fossiliferous character. The party passed fifty 

 days among its ice and snow. The height of 

 Mount St. Elias was found by Prince Louis to be 

 lb, 060 feet. This makes it, according to present 

 measurements, the second highest mountain in 

 North America ; the Peak of Orizaba, in Mexico, 

 being said to be about 100 feet higher. 



Sik Joseph Hooker, F.R.S., has just completed 

 the gigantic work, entitled "The Flora of British 

 India," upon which he has been closely engaged 

 for upwards of a quarter of a century. Our readers 

 will remember that as far back as 1848, Sir Joseph 

 (then Dr.) Hooker undertook a lengthy journey to 

 the Himalayas for the purpose of making botanical 

 investigations. On his return to England he 

 published two volumes of " Himalayan Journals," 

 and also a larger work, entitled " Flora Indica." 

 The work which he has just finished, however, is 

 of an immensely more important character, as will 

 l«- understood by the general index containing no 

 fewer than 42,000 references. 



Dk. I'm:. Braxton Hicks, M.D., F.R.C.P., 



1 ond., I' R S , I I..S., etc., who recently died, was 

 eminent alike as a medical man and a lover ol 

 natural science. Porn at Milfoid, Hants, in [823, 



bis father was a banker and county magistrate ol 

 Hampshire, where the family bad In 111 land- 

 owners 1 "i generations. Dr. Hicks was a frequenl 

 in in- dical and aalui ;ii bistot y subjci ts, 

 often illustrating his papei a with hi:. ov> n drawings. 



of hi ol tginal research has been published 

 by the Royal Society in its" Proceedings." Among 

 other papers are " Eyes oi thi Invertebrata." He 

 also 1 "nil ibuted in the " 'i 1 ansat lions " "I the 

 1 .inn., an Socletj papei 1 a botany and zooli igy, 



pai tii ularlj final noti s on in bens, mi «i 1 ■■ and 



unicellulat algae. To the " Microscopical |ournal" 

 ... on " Vol (f/i ball 1 ,' " .'on'" boid 



.I,!, Bodies ' and " < lonidia ol Lit bens " 

 1 [e pi 1 rablc lime in il» m 1 ;h 



bourhi oi -I 1 otti nham, Middlesex. 



