SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



19 



The conversazione of the Society of Arts is to 

 be held this year, on June 28th, at the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, London. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie's magnificent bene- 

 ficence, in doubling his subscription to the sum of 

 £13,000 to the Iron and Steel Institute Research 

 Fund, has been eclipsed by his unprecedented offer 

 of £ 2,000,000 sterling for Scotch University educa- 

 tion. 



The Admiralty are proceeding energetically with 

 the fitting of " wireless telegraphy " to the ships 

 of the British Navy. They have adopted the 

 " Apps-Newton " coils as the standard pattern, and 

 have placed a large order with Messrs. Newton & 

 Co., of 3 Fleet Street, for coils and transmitters. 



It is greatly to be regretted that the Corpora- 

 tion of London, in advertising for a Public 

 Analyst, should offer terms altogether inadequate 

 for the work required. Considering the responsi- 

 bility of the post, it is false economy to fix the 

 remuneration at a sum which might prevent the 

 best men from applying. 



Without expressing any opinion on the ques- 

 tion of vivisection, we feel that, in justice to our 

 readers, whatever opinions they may hold, we 

 ought to call their attention to the inaccuracies 

 that were stated at the annual meeting of the 

 Anti-Vivisection Society recently held at St. 

 James' Hall. Those who take serious interest in the 

 actual facts are referred to the issue of May 16th 

 of our contemporary "Nature." 



At the meeting of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society on May 15th Mr. Rupert T. Smith read a 

 paper on " The Periodicity of Cyclonic Winds," the 

 result of his own observations made in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Birmingham during the twenty-six 

 years, 1874-1899. The equinoxes do not appear to 

 be very stormy periods, but from the author's 

 tables it is shown that the greatest frequency and 

 force of cyclonic wind, occurs some two weeks 

 before the spring equinox, and some three weeks 

 after the autumn equinox. 



By his will Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., bequeathed 

 to the Royal Meteorological Society his Cross of 

 the Legion of Honour, the gold Albert Medal 

 awarded to him by the' Society of Arts, the testi- 

 monial album presented to him in 1879 by the 

 Fellows of the Royal Meteorological Society, and 

 the sum of £200, as well as such of his books, 

 pamphlets, maps, and photographs, of which there 

 was no copy in the Society's library. Mr. Marriott, 

 the secretary, stated that from Mr. Symons's valu- 

 able collection he had selected for the Society 

 over 5,000 books and pamphlets and about 900 

 photographs. A large number of the books were 

 old and rare works, 750 bearing dates previous to 

 1800, while eight were as early as the fifteenth cen- 

 tury. By this noble bequest the Royal Meteoro- 

 logical Society now possesses the most complete 

 and extensive meteorological library in existence. 



Dr. R. F. Scharpp records in the " Irish 

 Naturalist" for May a woodlouse (Armadillidium 

 pidchelluiii) new to British fauna. It is a northern 

 form, ranging from Scandinavia to Belgium. 



The number of visitors to the London Zoological 

 Gardens during 1900 was 697,178, being rather 

 more than in the previous year. The captive 

 denizens at the end of December numbered 2,865. 



The " Journal of the Society of Arts " of May 17th 

 contains a reprint of the paper read before the 

 Society on May 15th by M. Marconi, the subject 

 being " Syntonic Wireless Telegraphy." There is 

 also a supplement, consisting of seventeen diagrams, 

 illustrating M. Marconi's method. 



We regTet to notice the death of Professor 

 Henry A. Rowland, LL.D., Professor of Physics in 

 the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore, who 

 died in that city on April 16th last at the age of 

 fifty-two. He was a foreign member of the Royal 

 Society, and was especially devoted to the investi- 

 gation of spectroscopic phenomena. 



The Wellington College Natural Science Society 

 has publisheel its report of the last year's work. 

 The society is evidently prosperous and doing 

 serious work ; this applies especially to the meteoro- 

 logical department, in which there are copious 

 reports. In some of the others, however, com- 

 parison shows weakness. 



Mr. Alexander Ramsay has in the " Scientific 

 Roll " commenced a systematised bibliography of 

 bacteria. The literature on this subject is so 

 diffused in various languages that the work under- 

 taken is most onerous. He commences in Part I. 

 as early as 1680, and brings the titles of books or 

 scattered papers up to beyond the middle of the 

 nineteenth century. 



A rosin-cored solder introduceel by the Patent 

 Solder Company, Limited, has been submitted to 

 us. It is in small sticks of from one-sixteenth to 

 one-quarter inch diameter. The advantage in 

 the association of the rosin with the solder, form- 

 ing the necessary flux, is its cleanliness and con- 

 venience. It is admirably suited for the amateur, 

 making or repairing his own instruments. 



The Committee of the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine proposes to erect brasses in 

 University College, Liverpool, and in the Birming- 

 ham University, to the memory of Dr. Walter 

 Myers, who died at Para, on January 20th, from 

 yellow fever, caught while investigating that 

 malady for the School. It was also resolved to 

 found as a permanency at the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine the Walter Myers Chair of 

 Tropical Meelicine, besides a scholarship for the 

 next five years, to be called the " Walter Myers 

 Fellowship of Tropical Medicine." 



The Ealing Natural Science Society might well 

 be copied by r similar societies in other districts 

 where men eminent in science have been born. It 

 has formed a committee for the purpose of erecting 

 a memorial in Ealing to the late Professor Huxley. 

 Our readers will remember that Huxley was born 

 in Ealing. The Rev. Professor G. Henslow is the 

 chairman, and the honorary secretary is Mr. B. B. 

 Woodward, 120 The Grove, Ealing. Subscriptions 

 are not confined to the residents of that town. It 

 is expected that a bronze medallion portrait or 

 simple mural tablet will form the monument, ac- 

 corrling to the amount of funds received. 



