134 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The meeting of the British Association at 

 Liverpool, just concluded, seems to have been an 

 unqualified success. Some 3,000 people became 

 ticket-holders on the occasion. 



Liverpool was fortunate in having so important 

 a personage as the Earl of Derby for its Lord 

 ZNIayor for the year of the British Association 

 meeting. His wealth and position in themselves 

 lend aid to both the City and Association. 



The subject of the inaugural address by Sir 

 Joseph Lister, Bart., P.R.S., was happily chosen 

 from the popular point of view. He discussed the 

 benefits conferred upon the human race by some 

 applications of science, and pointed out how 

 suffering humanity had been alleviated by such 

 discoveries. 



The greatest among scientific discoveries which 

 have aided the medical faculty have been the work 

 of men of science apart from the professions of 

 surgery and physic. For instance, the discoverers 

 of anaesthetics, bacteriology and its bearing upon 

 human suffering, also, most recently, the Rontgen 

 rays, the application of which will mark an epoch 

 in surgery. In one of these subjects the President 

 of the Association is an authority ; his own work 

 in the investigation of the behaviour of wounds, 

 and the influence of bacteria on such behaviour, is 

 world-wide in its reputation. 



Very different to our British Association 

 Meetings have been those of the kindred American 

 Association for the Advancement of Sciences. 

 The meeting held last August, in Buffalo, could 

 muster no more than 330 attending members. 

 This must have been discouraging, for at the 

 meeting in iSSo, at Boston, we notice there were 997 

 members. Since then, we learn from " Science," 

 the numbers have gradually decreased, though a 

 weak spurt has occasionally shown itself. 



The highest attendance at the meetings of the 

 American Association has been in the older and 

 more cultured cities, Boston, Philadelphia and 

 Montreal leading the way with each over goo 

 members. Curiously, there was a deep descent in 

 the numbers at New York, whilst Brooklyn could 

 only muster 4SS members. 



There appears to be something wrong about the 

 American Association, perhaps it is its social side 

 that wants looking after. Maybe science has 

 not got hold of the "people" of the States as it 

 has in this country, who may imagine that there 

 " is no money in it " for them indi\'idually. If that 

 is so, not even the social entertainments will 

 command an attendance of 3,000 five-dollar ticket- 

 holders in any American city, as at Liverpool this 

 week. 



In the September number of " Symons' Monthly 

 Meteorological Magazine," Mr. Symons illustrates 

 what he claims to have been the first daily weather 

 map issued. It was sold at the great exhibition of 

 1S51, from August Sth to October nth of that 

 year. 



A BRILLIANT mctcor was observed on Saturday 

 night, September 12th, at about 10.23. Notes of 

 its occurrence come from places as far apart as 

 North Devon and South Yorkshire. 



The " Journal of the Marine Biological Station 

 of the United Kingdom," for the August quarter, 

 contains several important articles and the Annual 

 Report of the Council for 1S95-96. The laboratory 

 at Plymouth continues to afford excellent scientific 

 results. 



We are pleased to hear that Mr. A. J. R. 

 Trendall has been appointed Assistant Secretary 

 in the Department of Science and Art, in succession 

 to ]\Ir. G. F. Duncombe who has retired. Mr. 

 Trendall has been well known in the department 

 for many years. 



The Entomologist and Zoologist to the Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station of New ^Mexico, 

 U.S.A., Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, has forwarded Part 

 i. of his Report in his first capacity, dated April, 

 i8g6. It possesses many items of interest to others 

 than the people of New Mexico. 



The science of "flying" by mechanical aid 

 progresses slowly and not without its toll on its 

 votaries, whom we every now and then hear of 

 being killed. There are rumours of wonderful 

 machines yet " in the dark," so we must wait whilst 

 more enthusiasts are slain or maimed. 



This seems to have been an exceptionally good 

 mushroom year, but there have been more deaths 

 than should have occurred through mistakes with 

 poisonous fungi. It is quite time some means 

 were organized for teaching people the difference 

 between Agaricus campestris and some of its deadly 

 allies. 



Several important gifts are announced as having 

 been accepted by the Lick Observatory. They 

 include funds for photometric apparatus for the 

 equatoreal from ]\Iiss Caroline Bruce, of New 

 York, and for the publication of a new lunar 

 atlas, by Mr. Walter W. Law, of Scarborough-on- 

 Hudson. 



We receive from time to time the exceedingly 

 well-arranged programmes of the field meetings of 

 the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. These circulars 

 could be taken as a model by some other field 

 clubs. That now before us relates to a fungus 

 foray in the neighbourhood of Selbj', from the 19th 

 to the 22nd of September. 



The publications of the Field Columbian Museum 

 of Chicago have been divided to suit the conveni- 

 ence of scientific workers. The following series 

 have been established : Historical, Geological, 

 Botanical, Zoological, Ornithological and Anthro- 

 pological. We have received the Zoological 

 Series, vol i., Nos. 4 and 5 being on fishes of the 

 Kankakee and Illinois Rivers ; and on Foxschelys 

 latiremis. 



Senator Palmieri, better known as Professor 

 Luigi Palmieri " The Custodian of Vesuvius," died 

 on September loth, at the age of eighty-nine. Since 

 1S54 he has been Director of the Vesuvius Meteoro- 

 logical Observatory. Among his inventions of 

 scientific instruments is one "which has been 

 invaluable to Seismologists for detecting earth 

 tremblings. After holding several minor professor- 

 ships he occupied the chair of Ph3'sics at the 

 Royal Naval School at Naples and also at the 

 Naples Uni\-ersity. 



