SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



Professor H. J. Todd, having given up the 

 directorship of the United States " Nautical Al- 

 manac," has been succeeded for the time being by 

 Professor S. J. Brown, of the Naval Observatory, 

 Washington. 



We observe, in the list of papers to be read before 

 the Eoyal Geographical Society during the coming 

 session, there will be one by Mr. Vaughan Cornish, 

 giving a further account of his important studies 

 in " wave forms." 



We regret to hear that the eminent lepidopterist, 

 Dr. Staudinger, has died suddenly while visiting 

 Lxicerne, in his seventy-second year. Dr. Stau- 

 dinger had been in feeble health for some time 

 past, which has been the reason for the delay of 

 the long-promised revision of his standard syno- 

 nymic list of Palaearctic Lepidoptera. We are not 

 aware that this important work has been com- 

 pleted. 



The official journal of the Khedival Govern- 

 ment has announced that from 1st September last 

 universal time was adopted in Egypt, and that 

 mean noon of the 30th meridian east of Greenwich 

 is given as noonday signal. There are now eight 

 meteorological stations daily communicating 

 weather reports to the central office, and others are 

 being fitted with automatic registering instru- 

 ments for early observations. These will probably 

 constitute links of a chain of observatories extend- 

 ing from the North of Europe to Capetown. 



Writing to our contemporary, " Nature," Mr. 

 E. Paulson draws attention to a destructive fungus 

 attack on birch-trees in woodlands around London. 

 The fatal effects have become especially apparent 

 during the past year, when, he states, many healthy 

 trees have died in Epping Forest, on Chislehurst, 

 Hayes, and Keston Commons, where no signs of 

 the disease were evident last spring. Mr. Paulson 

 thinks the trouble is the result of a micro-fungus, 

 Melanconis stilbostoma Tul. Have any of our readers 

 noted the same fatality in other parts of the 

 country ? 



Through the energy of its Committee and 

 Secretary and the help of a public benefactor, the 

 Essex Field Club has arrived within at least one 

 goal of its ambition. On October 18 there was 

 opened the Passmore Edwards Museum at Strat- 

 ford, which houses the biological and other collec- 

 tions of the Essex Club. The building, which has 

 cost about £4,000, presented to the "borough by 

 Mr. Edwards, has been erected in connection with 

 the West Ham Municipal Technical Institute. 

 Thus the students at the Institute have the advan- 

 tage of the contents of the adjoining museum for 

 reference and study. A feature of importance 

 about these collections is that they are chiefly 

 from the County of Essex, so not only arousing 

 interest among the visitors with regard to their 

 surroundings, but placing on record examples for 

 future comparison. 



The Moss Exchange Club, whose reports we 

 notice under " Books to Read," has distributed a 

 list of the British Sphagna, accompanied by one of 

 those mosses occurring in Europe, after Warnstorf, 

 and corrected up to April of this year. 



The Geological Survey of Western Australia 

 sends us its fourth bulletin. It is a voluminous 

 essay on the mineral wealth of Western Australia 

 by Mr. A. Gibb Maitland, F.G.S., the Government 

 geologist, occupying 150 closely-printed pages, 

 illustrated by maps. 



We have received from the Division of Biological 

 Survey, U.S. American Department of Agriculture, 

 number 18 of the North American Fauna. This 

 is devoted to a revision by Mr. Wilfred H. Osgood 

 of the pocket mice of the genus Perognathus. 

 Also a report upon the food of three kinds of birds 

 — namely, the bobolink, blackbirds, and grakles, 

 all more or less destructive of agricultural crops. 



Some of our readers will be glad to have their 

 attention called to the bargains in a number of 

 standard scientific books offered by Mr. H. J. 

 Glaisher, of 57 Wigmore Street, London. Mr. 

 Glaisher purchases the majority of the remaining 

 copies of such works from the publishers, and is 

 thus enabled to dispose of them at an exception- 

 ally cheap rate, although they are quite new 

 copies. 



Under title of " The South-Eastern Naturalist " 

 are now published the "Transactions of the South- 

 Eastern Union of Scientific Societies for 1900," 

 under the honorary editorial care of Mr. J. W. 

 Tutt, F.E.S. The first thirty-two pages are devoted 

 to the business and official notices of the Union. 

 The remainder consists of the presidential address, 

 and papers read before the last congress. Several 

 of these are of considerable importance. 



Mr. John Nimmo announces a new and revised 

 edition of a Handbook of British Birds by Mr. 

 J. E. Harting, F.L.S., F.Z.S., with 35 coloured 

 plates from original drawings by the late Professor 

 Schlegel. The price will be two guineas net. It. 

 will be remembered that Mr. Harting edited the 

 " Zoologist " for twenty years, and for a still longer 

 period was connected with the natural history 

 columns of the " Field " newspaper. 



A new monograph of the Homopterous insects 

 included in the group Membracidasis in preparation 

 by Mr. George Bowdler Buckton, F.R.S., F.L.S., 

 F.E.S. The author appeals to entomologists and 

 others who have specimens, to confer with him, as 

 there must be many species still unknown to 

 science. The work will be published by Messrs. 

 Lovell Reeve & Co., Limited. Mr. Buckton's ad- 

 dress is Weycombe, Haslemere, Surrey. 



The admirable Society for the Protection of 

 Birds, whose offices are 3 Hanover Square, London, 

 is offering two prizes, the particulars of which may 

 be obtained from the Honorary Secretary. The 

 prizes are for £10 and £5 respectively, for the best 

 papers on the protection of British birds. The 

 mode of dealing with the subject is left entirely to 

 competitors, but among the points suggested for 

 treatment are the utilisation and enforcement of 

 the present Acts and County Council Orders ; the 

 modification or improvement of the law ; educa- 

 tional methods ; and the best means of influencing 

 landowners and gamekeepers, agriculturists and 

 gardeners, collectors, birdcatchers and birdnesters. 

 Essays are to sent in by November 30th next. 



