176 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Aug. 24, 18 



The Congress originated in 1876, at the Buffalo meeting 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, and meetings have since been held at Paris, 

 Bologna, and Berlin. It is expected that the London 

 meeting will much exceed in numbers any previously 

 held, as over 200 foreign and colonial geologists from 

 twenty-one countries have already notified their intention 

 of being present, while the number of British geologists 

 will be at least as large. The meeting will be held at 

 the London University, Burlington Gardens, and among 

 the questions to be discussed will be the geological map 

 of Europe ; the classification of the Cambrian and 

 Silurian rocks, and of the tertiary strata, and the 

 Organising Committee propose to devote a special 

 sitting to a discussion of the crystalline schists. The 

 excursions at present suggested are — (1) The Isle of 

 Wight — cretaceous, eocene, oligocene. (2) North Wales 

 — pre-Gambrian and the older palceozoic rocks. (3) East 

 Yorkshire — Jurassic and cretaceous. (4) Norfolk and 

 Suffolk — pliocene (crag) and glacial beds. (5) To the 

 Jurassic rocks of central England. (6) West Yorkshire 

 — silurian and carboniferous limestone. The short ex- 

 cursions during the week of the Congress will probably 

 be to Windsor and Eton, St. Albans, Watford, Brighton, 

 Erith, and Crayford, etc., and the Royal Gardens at Kew. 



The Late J. C. Houzeau. — The funeral of this eminent 

 savant took place on July 15th at three p.m. The usual 

 discourses were pronounced on the occasion by Lieut.- 

 General Liagre on behalf of the Belgian Academy of 

 Sciences, by M. F. Folie in the name of the Observatory, 

 and by M. Ch. Ruelens on behalf of the Royal Belgian 

 Geographical Society. Jean Charles Houzeau de Lehaie 

 was born at Mons in 1820. He studied first at the 

 college of his native town and afterwards at the Uni- 

 • versity of Brussels. His career of research in physics, 

 astronomy, meteorology, and climatology opened in 1843. 

 In 1846 he became an assistant at the Observatory. Here, 

 however, his political tendencies became incompatible 

 with the discharge of his duties, and he resigned in 1849. 

 In 1857 he emigrated to America, spending several years 

 in Texas, Mexico, and Jamaica, and making a number of 

 valuable observations in natural history. The first of 

 his labours appeared in his " Etudes sur les faculles 

 mentales des animaux comparees a celles de f/wmme," a 

 work published in 1872 at Kingston, in Jamaica. Here 

 he distinctly declared that man differs from the lower 

 animals not qualitatively, but quantitatively, and rejects 

 the assumed distinction between " reason and instinct." 

 In 1870 he returned to Belgium as Director of the Ob- 

 servatory. Space does not permit us to enumerate the 

 researches of the departed, but we do not hesitate to say 

 that if he had eschewed politics, and especially Socialism, 

 he would have been a second Humboldt. 



The Public Health. — The Registrar-General's return 

 for the week ending August nth shows that the deaths 

 registered last week in twenty-eight great towns of Eng- 

 land and Wales corresponded to an annual rate of 17-6 

 per 1,000 of their aggregate population, which is esti- 

 mated at 9,398,273 persons in the middle of this year. 

 The six healthiest places were Derby, Huddersfield, 

 Portsmouth, Hull, Sunderland, and Bristol. In London 

 2,228 births and 1,476 deaths were registered. Allow- 

 ance made for increase of population, the births were 454 

 and the deaths 203 below the average numbers in 



the corresponding weeks of the last ten years. The 

 annual death-rate per 1,000 from all causes, which had 

 been 1 5 '9 in each of the two preceding weeks, rose last 

 week to i8'o, and exceeded the rate recorded in any week 

 since April last. During the first six weeks of the current 

 quarter the death-rate averaged i6 - o per 1,000, and was 

 5-4 below the mean rate in the corresponding periods of 

 the ten years 1878-87. The 1,476 deaths included 51 

 from measles, 17 from scarlet fever, 25 from diphtheria, 

 27 from whooping-cough, six from enteric fever, one 

 from ill-defined form of continued fever, 138 from diar- 

 rhoea and dysentery, five from cholera and choleraic 

 diarrhoea, and not one from small-pox or typhus; thus 

 270 deaths were referred to these diseases, being 164 

 below the corrected average weekly number. In Greater 

 London 2,929 births and 1,791 deaths were registered, 

 corresponding to annual rates of 27-6 and 16 '9 per 1,000 

 of the estimated population. In the outer ring 21 deaths 

 from diarrhoea, four from measles, and four from diph- 

 theria were registered. The fatal cases of diarrhoea in- 

 cluded four in Mortlake and five in Walthamstow sub- 

 districts. 



The Archaeological Institute, — The excursion last 

 Tuesday week commenced with a visit to Hatton, where 

 the fine old church in which the celebrated Dr. Parr minis- 

 tered has given place to a modern edifice. The building 

 was inspected, and Baddesley Clinton Hall, with its 

 moat, were examined. The party next proceeded to 

 Knowle, and made an examination of the church, a de- 

 scription of which was read by the Rev. Canon Howe. 

 Solihull was the next place visited, where the party 

 were received by the Rev. M. Hartwright, the curate, 

 who opened the registers, which date back to the time 

 of Henry VIII., and which contain curious entries of 

 persons who had died unbaptized or excommunicated, 

 and had been buried in wool. The company then paid 

 flying visits to Meriden and Berkswell, the churches at 

 these places being explained by Mr. W. G. Fretton, F.S.A. 

 At the evening meeting, Sir T. Baker presided, and pro- 

 posed a vote of thanks to the Mayor and Corporation of 

 Leamington for the hearty reception and hospitality ex- 

 tended to the Institute on the occasion of its present 

 visit to the Royal borough. This was unanimously 

 adopted. Wednesday, the concluding day of the con- 

 gress, was spent in a journey by train to Melton Mow- 

 bray, where the noble parish church was inspected under 

 the guidance of the vicar, the Rev. Mr. Collins, and its 

 restoration by Sir Gilbert Scott was admired, as was also 

 the architecture of the western entrance, which forms a 

 sort of " Galilee." After luncheon, the first halt was at 

 Burton Lazars, where the church was inspected. A drive 

 of some three miles took the party on to Burrow or 

 Burgh Hill, where Colonel Bellairs read a paper mainly 

 based on Nichol's " Leicestershire," in which it is asserted 

 to be an undoubted Roman encampment, and such ap- 

 peared to be the opinion of the party, though many 

 thought it to be Roman work imposed on the British 

 fortification. The other churches visited in the afternoon 

 were Ashby Folville and Gaddesby, both very interest- 

 ing in their several ways, and the last named being re- 

 markable for its fine, pure, and external carved decora- 

 tions, and for its wooden seats of the 15 th century. At 

 half-past five the party reached Ratcliffe College, over 

 which they were conducted by Father Hirst. After in- 

 specting the college chapel and library, they returned to 

 Leicester. 



