eset 
AIRS 
THe funds now available for the joint Committee 
on Arctic exploration amount to upwards of ninety 
thousand pounds. 
WE have received a copy of the American journal, 
** Popular Science,” which contains, among others, an 
illustrated article by Professor H. L. Osborn on 
Land Snails and Slugs. 
AMONG recent additions to the Natural History 
Department of the Dublin Museum is a collection of 
Irish land and freshwater shells, and also one of 
Pyrenean land-shells. 
WE have received from Messrs. Williams and 
Norgate, Oxford, the English agents, a copy of the 
catalogue of second-hand Mathematical and Astro- 
nomical books offered by F. Pietzcker, of Titbingen. 
AMONG the arrangements for the eighth winter 
session of the Limerick Field Club is a series of six 
lectures on the ‘* Elements of Geology,” by Mr. 
George H. Carpenter, B.Sc., on Tuesdays and Wed- 
nesdays, commencing 13th March. 
THe Field Columbian Museum has issued an 
illustrated description of some new plants of the 
familiar Dioscoreaceae and Amarthaceae, including a 
hew genus of the former, named Aiginbothamia. 
These interesting plants are from Dr. C. F. Mill- 
spank’s recent Yucatan and West Indian collections. 
THE second ‘‘ National Photographic and Allied 
Trades” Exhibition will be held in the Portman 
Rooms, London, from April 27th to May 5th next. 
Applications for space and particulars are to be made 
to Arthur C. Brookes, Harp Alley, Farringdon 
Street, E.C. 
Tue Essex County Council has issued the pros- 
pectus and time tables for the autumn, winter, and 
spring sessions of the County School of Horticulture 
at Chelmsford. The classes will meet daily for 
demonstrations and practice. Particulars may be 
obtained from J. If. Nicholas, County Offices, 
Chelmsford. 
THE Quekett Club has lost an interesting member 
by the sadly sudden deathof John W. Reed, F.R.M.S., 
F.R.G.S., of Colebrooke Row, London, N. Mr. 
Reed was an ardent microscopist and a field botanist, 
studying both the British and Continental Flora. 
Among other papers read by him was an excellent one 
on “* Plants Collected in the Pyrenees.” Mr. Reed 
was about 50 years of age. 
Mr. E. A. MARTIN informs us that a petition 
Was recently presented to the Croydon County 
Council from 7,500 inhabitants of Croydon, praying 
that the Hurst might be purchased at a cost of 
£20,000, to be covered by a rate of a farthing in 
the pound for fifty years. A resolution embodying 
the request of the petitioners was defeated by eighteen 
votes to seventeen. In view of the narrowness of the 
division, the subject will be again revived, the rate- 
payers being largely in favour of the retention of the 
charming woodland as a public reserve. We trust 
that no stone will be left unturned to secure this 
laudable object. 
SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 213 
A course of five popular elementary lectures on 
astronomy will be given on successive Monday 
evenings at 8.30, commencing on 20th November, 
at the Hampstead Library, Prince Arthur Road, by 
Mr. P. Ee. Vizard. The series is under the auspices 
of the Hampstead Astronomical and Scientific 
Society. Particulars may be obtained from Mr. 
H. W. Woodman, ITon. Astronomical Seeretary, 31, 
Carlingford Road, Hampstead, N.W. 
THE annual course of Christmas lectures, specially 
adapted for young people, at the Royal Institution, 
will this year be delivered by Mr. Charles Vernon 
Boys, F.R.S. The subject will be ‘ Fluids in 
Motion and at Rest.” The lectures (which will be 
six in number) will commence on Thursday, Decem- 
ber 28th, at three o'clock. The remaining lectures 
will be delivered on December 3oth and on January 
2nd, 4th, 6th and gth, 1900. 
Witn Her Majesty the (Queen’s approval, the 
Copley medal of the Royal Society has this year been 
awarded to the Right Hon, Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., 
for his contributions to physical science. Royal 
medals go to Prof. George Francis Fitzgerald, F.R.S., 
for physical science, especially optics and electricity ; 
and to Prof. W. Carmichael McIntosh, F°.R.S., for his 
monograph on British Marine Zoology applied to 
fisheries industries, and his connection with the 
Marine Biological Laboratory at St. Andrew's. The 
Davy medalisawardedto Mr. Edward Schunch, I’. R.S., 
for investigations on madder, indigo and chlorophyll. 
Mr. JOHN Hl. Werks, in a letter to the ‘‘ Times” 
of November 16th, gives a curious account of the 
introduction into the Congo region of the troublesome 
little insect, the chigoe. He states that on his arrival 
at San Salvador in 1882, he found many boys ot ten 
or twelve, who well remembered the time when they 
were not known, but they are supposed to have been 
imported in the following manner :—A barque trading 
between Brazil and St. Paulo de Loando arrived at 
the latter place in ballast, but as cargo was to be taken 
on board the master wished to throw the ballast into 
the sea. This Portuguese officialism would not permit. 
It was, therefore, thrown on to a spit of sand forming 
part of the harbour. The ballast was impregnated 
withchigoes, which have gradually spreadacross Africa. 
We have received for notice a large and useful 
teapot, constructed on scientific principles. The 
object is to avoid too long infusion of the tea, with 
the consequent extraction of the tannin and other 
deleterious substances. The inner side of the teapot 
is carried round beneath the lid, so as to form a deep 
flange which, being air-tight, does not permit the 
water to rise within its space. Beneath the lid is a 
drainer to contain the tea leaves. When the pot is 
filled up with water and the tea has stood the re- 
quisite time in the drainer, according to taste, a little 
metal valve connected with the space within the 
flange is turned, to allow escape of the air imprisoned 
therein. The water on the tea sinks into the pot to 
replace the escaped air, leaving the tea without 
further infusion. The name given is ‘* The Geisha.” 
The Geisha teapot will be found useful by medical 
men and dispensing chemists for making medicinal 
infusions; as the exact time, necessary for extracting 
the required properties from the leaves or roots, can 
be regulated by the small valve mentioned. 
We would remind the readers of SciENCK-Gossip 
that there is a standing invitation for them to visit its 
offices on Thursday afternoon, between four and six 
o'clock. On those oceasions they will have oppor- 
tunity of lesting the scientifically-brewed tea, from 
the Geisha teapot. 
