Miscellaneous Intelligence. 353 



Changes in the constitution of the association were proposed 

 which would add Social science to the scope of the section of 

 Economic science and Statistics, and separate the section of Geol- 

 ogy from Geography, creating a separate section for the latter. 

 These will be acted upon next year. The Committee on Grants set 

 apart from the fund for research $100 for a table in the Biological 

 Laboratory, at Wood's Holl, Mass., $100 to Professors Morley and 

 Rogers for inferential comparisons, and $200 to Dr. Boas to con- 

 tinue and complete anthropometric measurements of Indians. 

 It is probable that the next meeting will be held in San Francisco. 



2. The British Association. — The sixty-fourth meeting of the 

 British Association was held at Oxford, beginning August 8th. 

 The inaugural address of the president, the Marquis of Salisbury, 

 was an admirable presentation of the limitations of human knowl- 

 edge in the field of the ultimate nature of matter, of motion and 

 of life, as indicated by the terms atom, ether and life. The open- 

 ing addresses before the several sections were by Prof. A. W. 

 Riicher, Mathematics and Physics, on " Terrestrial Magnetism "; 

 Prof. H. B. Dixon, Chemistry, "An Oxford School of Chemists"; 

 L. Fletcher, Geology, on Crystallography; Prof. L. B. Balfour, 

 Biology, on " Forests and Forestry "; Captain Wharton, Geog- 

 raphy, "The Sea"; Prof. A. B. W. Kennedy, Mechanical Science, 

 " The Critical side of Mechanical Training"; Sir W. H. Flower, 

 Anthropology; Prof. E. A. Schaefer, Physiology. The attendance 

 reached the total of 2321 members, of which 77 were foreigners; 

 and nearly 1100 pounds were awarded in aid of scientific research. 

 The Biology section was divided, and in the future there will be 

 separate sections of Zoology and of Botany. Section I is to 

 include Physiology, Experimental Pathology and Experimental 

 Psychology. The meeting next year will be held at Ipswich 

 under the presidency of Sir Douglas Galton. 



3. The University of Oxford, England, on the occasion of the 

 meeting of the British Association, conferred the degree of D.C.L. 

 honoris causa upon Professor S. P. Langley, secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. The same degree was conferred on the follow- 

 ing eminent scientific investigators : Prof. Edouard Van Beneden, 

 Prof. Ludwig Koltzmann, Dr. E. Chauveau, Prof. Cornu, Prof. 

 Theodor W. Engelmann, Prof. Wilhelm Forster, Prof. C. Friedel, 

 Prof. L. Hermann, Prof. Gosta Mittag-Leffler, Prof. G. Quincke 

 and Prof. E. Strasburger. 



OBITUARY. 



Josiah Parsons Cooke, for many years an associate editor 

 of this Journal, was born in Boston, Oct. 12, 1827, and died in 

 Newport, Sept. 3, 1894. When he was a student in Harvard 

 College, the chemical department was so thoroughly disorganized 

 that his teaching in this branch was confined to a few disjointed 

 lectures, and to these he added after graduation some months of 

 study with Regnault in Paris. With these meagre exceptions 



