406 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



treating of the importance of encouraging chemical research and 

 education, the latter half, of chemical action. An abstract of 

 Professor Judcl's address before the Geological Section is given 

 on page 392. Francis Galton, F.R.S., before the section of 

 Anthropology, gave a "lecture," as he termed it, on "types" and 

 their " inheritance " — " gathered from family records entrusted to 

 him by persons living in all parts of the country." Professor W. 

 C. Mcintosh's address before the Biological Section, reviewed the 

 subject of the phosphorescence of marine animals. 



The work of the association is reported quite fully in Nature, 

 commencing with the number for September 10th (No. 828). 

 The several addresses of the Vice-Presidents are given in full. 

 Birmingham is to be the next place of meeting for 1886, and Sir 

 William Dawson the President of the meeting. 



3. Louis Agassiz, his Life and Character; edited by Elizabeth 

 Caeey Agassiz. 2 vols., 794 pp. 12mo. Boston, 1885. Hough- 

 ton, Mifflin & Co.). — The very general admiration for Professor 

 Agassiz will be sustained and enhanced by the story of his life, 

 prepared with excellent taste and judgment by Mrs. Agassiz. It 

 sets forth by a skillful interweaving of letters and narratives, in 

 language as vivid and simple as Agassiz's own style, the early 

 surroundings of the young naturalist, his development under an 

 ardent devotion to Nature as his chief teacher, and his accom- 

 plished work by which he became a lasting power in the world. 

 The work is hence of interest to the philosopher for its illustra- 

 tion of the type of man, under one of its phases, to which science 

 owes its recent progress. At the same time the biologist, paleon- 

 tologist, and geologist, here learn of the successive stages in the 

 establishment of the new views, which were the outcome of his 

 study of nature; for example, how in 1837, the idea of a northern 

 ice-period was struck out in Agassiz's intercourse with the Alps 

 and Juras ; the Alps giving the actual glacial phenomena to his 

 mind, the Juras as well as Alps affording the same kind of glacial 

 records on rocks and heights miles outside of and thousands of 

 feet above modern ice-limits—a view which later he corroborated 

 in the Scottish Highlands and in America. 



Agassiz's part in the progress of science was so important that 

 the volumes have great value for their contributions to the his- 

 tory of science. But, after all, the attractiveness of the man at 

 his work and among men gives the pages their chief charm. 



Americans have reason for holding Agassiz in high honor, in 

 view of his devotion, almost from the day of his arrival in this 

 country, to the interests and exaltation of American science. He 

 sent none of his various memoirs to foreign journals or academies 

 for publication, because, as he told the writer, he was now an 

 American. J. d. d. 



4. Ilawaian or Sandwich Island Survey. — The survey of the 

 Hawaian Islands has been in progress for some years, under 

 Professor W. D. Alexander as Surveyor General. In 1881, a de- 

 tailed map of Oahu was published, measuring nearly five feet by 



