SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



2 45 



The Royal Meteorological Society remove their 

 headquarters on January 2nd, from the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers, to Prince's Mansions, 70, Vic- 

 toria Street, Westminster. 



The death is announced, at Grasse, of M. Jacques 

 Passy, whose interesting researches on the 

 chemistry of perfumes attracted much attention, 

 especially as regards the physiological action of 

 scents. 



The ninth annual announcement of the Garden 

 scholarships to be awarded at the Missouri Botani- 

 cal Garden has been issued. These scholarships 

 are worthy of greater imitation in this country. 



A series of lectures, to commence on January 

 nth, will be given at University College, London, 

 on the Morphology and Histology of the vascular 

 system. Each lecture will be followed by practical 

 work or demonstration. 



The Technical Education Board of the London 

 County Council have drawn up a report for presen- 

 tation to the Council, dealing with the advisability 

 of the Board assuming responsibility for all science 

 and art instruction within the County of London. 



The Official Journal of France published a 

 decree on December ist, prohibiting the importa- 

 tion into France of trees, shrubs, etc., from the 

 United States. The object is to prevent the intro- 

 duction of Aypidiotus pemiciosus the San Jose scale- 

 insect, well known on account of its ravages in 

 America. 



Professor F. Jeffery Bell will give a short 

 course of lectures, suitable to children, at the 

 Society of Arts, on January 4th and nth, at 

 7 o'clock, the first subject being " Hands and 

 Feet " ; the second lecture will be on " How some 

 Animals Breathe." 



Miss Catherine Bruce has placed in the hands 

 of Prof. J. K. Rees, of Columbia University, the 

 funds necessary for the purchase of a special photo- 

 graphic telescope to be mounted at Helsingfors, 

 Finland, to be employed in making polar trail 

 plates for Dr. Jacoby, under the direction of Prof. 

 A. S. Donner. 



At the meeting of the Royal Society, on 

 December 15th, Professor Dewar gave an account 

 of some of his recent experiments in liquid 

 hydrogen, especially its use as a rapid condenser. 

 He found that if a tube of air were immersed in 

 liquid hydrogen, the contents would quickly 

 become solid. 



The Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna 

 has issued a comprehensive work on the bubonic 

 plague. It consists of the reports of the Austrian 

 Medical Commission despatched to Bombay in 

 January, 1897, and contains, in the first part, a 

 general account of the work, the second being 

 occupied by a scientific report by the ill-fated Dr. 

 Hermann Miiller, who himself recently fell a victim 

 to this terrible disease. 



The Seventh Annual Exhibition of the North 

 London Natural History Society will be held on 

 December 31st, 1898, and January 2nd, 1899, at the 

 Sigdon Road School, adjoining Hackney Downs 

 Junction station. 



The newspapers are recording the slaughter in 

 Tor Bay, in Devonshire, of a man-eating shark, 

 three feet nine inches in length. There was not 

 much room inside that shark for the man. 



Messrs. R. & J. Beck & Co., Ltd., have made 

 a feature for the coming microscopical season 

 of their "British Students'" microscope. The 

 stand only is supplied in mahogany case for 51s. 6d. 

 The eye-pieces and object-glasses being extra, ac- 

 cording to requirements or means of purchasers. 



We understand that the very beautiful micro- 

 photograph of a bee-louse, which appeared on 

 page 176, was the work of Mr. Edward Horsnaill, 

 of Dover, and formed one of a series by that 

 gentleman. We hope on a future occasion to have 

 the pleasure of showing to our readers others of 

 them, as he has sent us an interesting packet of 

 examples. 



The seventh International Geographical Con- 

 gress will be held at Berlin, from September 28th, 

 to October 4th, 1899. The Council of the Society 

 at Berlin has issued a circular inviting the friends 

 and promoters of geography in all countries to 

 attend. Correspondence should be addressed to 

 the office of the Seventh International Geograph- 

 ical Congress, 90 Zimmerstrasse, Berlin. 



Many of our readers who have admired Mr. 

 Richard Kearton's works, so beautifully illustrated 

 from life, will regret to know that he has, acting 

 on medical advice, been obliged to retire from his 

 business occupations. We trust that the throat 

 affection from which he is suffering is of a tem- 

 porary character, and that he may soon be able to 

 continue his Nature studies. 



Messrs. Longmans, Green & Company's 

 " Notes on Books," dated November 30th, being 

 No. 175, is the most literary of all the publishers' 

 catalogues. Unfortunately the firm has not issued 

 many scientific books this autumn ; the most im- 

 portant being Mr. Beddard's " Structure and 

 Classification of Birds," which we have already 

 noticed in " Books to Read." There are a number 

 of others to be obtained for general reading. 



A memorial has been prepared for presentation 

 to the Duke of Devonshire, Lord President of the 

 Council, and to Mr. Ritchie, President of the 

 Board of Trade, protesting against the proposed 

 removal and distribution of the Buckland Fish 

 Museum, at South Kensington, a collection which 

 was brought together by the late Mr. Frank 

 Buckland. The protest has already been signed 

 by the chairmen of the leading fishery boards 

 and other associations throughout the country, 

 and by individuals interested in fisheries. 



We regret to notice the death of Prof. George 

 James Allman, M.D., F.R.S., formerly Regius 

 Professor of Natural Science in the Edinburgh 

 University. He died at Parkstone on November 

 24th. His special work was the investigation of- 

 the lower organisms of animal life. The large 

 collections of Hydroida made during the voyage of 

 the " Challenger " were handed to Dr. Allman for 

 determination and description. His name was one 

 well known to naturalists about the middle of this 

 century, by whom he was held in great respect not 

 only for his ability, but also his kind-heartedness. 



