084 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
TuHeE following is the list of subscriptions sent to 
the editor of Science for a memorial tablet inscribed 
with the name of JOACHIM BARRANDE, to be placed 
on the side of a cliff at Kuchelbad, near Prague, 
Bohemia: Professor Alpheus Hyatt, Boston, $10; 
Dr. Carl Rominger, Ann Arbor, $10; John Collett, 
state geologist, Indianapolis, $2; Professor Jules 
Marcou, Cambridge, $4; S. H. Scudder, Cambridge, 
$10; and the following from gentlemen connected 
with the U.S. geological survey: Major J. W. Pow- 
ell, $5; C. D. Walcott, $5; Dr. C. A. White, $5; Dr. 
A. C. Peale, $1; G. K. Gilbert, $3; Capt. C. E. Dut- 
ton, $1; Prof. T. C. Chamberlin, $8; W. J. McGee, 
$2; J. B. Marcou, $2; Prof. H.S. Williams, $5; Prof. 
S. G. Williams, $2; S. F. Emmons, $2: total, $72. 
A draft for 175.60 Austrian florins was forwarded, 
on Monday last, to Dr. Anton Fritsch of the Prag 
museum. 
— The first number of the Bulletin of Massachu- 
setis natural history has appeared. The contents, 
unfortunately, show no justification for its existence, 
either for the interests of the natural history of Mas- 
sachusetts, or as a record of work in the State agri- 
cultural college, which its circular declared to be it 
two special objects. 
— The Kolnische zeitung of April 10 states that 
Dr. Koch, the head of the German scientific commis- 
sion for the investigation of the cholera, has sub- 
mitted a seventh report, dated Calcutta, March 4. 
It mentions the important discovery that the storage- 
basins called tanks have proved the locally limited 
seat of cholera infection and communication. Little 
ponds or swamps, scattered over all Bengal in large 
numbers, surrounded by cottages, furnish to the 
dwellers near them their water-supply, and are used 
for various purposes, — as for bathing, clothes-wash- 
ing, for cleaning domestic utensils, and also for 
drinking-water. After the commission had in vain 
sought for the cholera bacillus in numerous trials of 
tank, sewage, and river water, they are discovered 
for the first time in a tank in the midst of the chol- 
era district. Since the last report, the bodies of 
twenty cholera victims, and the excrements of eleven 
patients, have been examined. The whole number 
of cases examined in India now amounts to forty- 
two dead bodies and twenty-eight patients. The last 
cases have not, to be sure, yielded new results. They 
resemble the others in every particular, especially in 
reterence to the behavior of the bacilli. In addition, 
there are still in progress investigations concerning 
the influence of various substances—as sublimate, 
carbolic acid, and other disinfectants — on the devel- 
opment of the cholera bacilli in culture-fluids; also 
concerning their behavior in carbonic acid, and 
deprived of air. Attempts to discover a lasting form 
of the bacillus were also continually made. Up to 
the present time, nothing of the kind has been dis- 
covered. The only possibility of getting bacilli capa- 
ble of living a longer time is to keep them from 
drying. In liquids they remain for weeks capable of 
SCIENCE. 
[Von. It, Mom 
development, and every thing seems to indicate that — 
only in a moist condition can they be preserved, and 
then made to act on human bodies. Unfortunately, 
on account of the warm weather, which this year 
begins early, further investigations on this subject 
must be abandoned. Dr. Koch is returning to Europe. 
— The first general meeting of the British asso- 
ciation at Montreal will be held on Wednesday, 
Aug. 27, at 8 P.M. precisely, when Professor Cayley 
will resign the chair, and Professor the Right Hon. 
Lord Rayleigh, president-elect, will assume the presi- 
dency, and deliver an address. On Thursday even- 
ing, Aug. 28, at 8 p.M., there will be given a soirée; 
on Friday evening, Aug. 29, at 8.380 P.M., a discourse, 
by Prof. W. G. Adams; on Monday evening, Sept. 
1, at 8.80 P.M., a discourse on ‘The modern micro- 
scope in researches on the least and lowest forms 
of life,’ by the Rev. W. H. Dallinger; on Tuesday 
evening, Sept. 2, at 8 P.M., a soirée; on Wednesday, 
Sept. 3, the concluding general meeting will be held 
at 2.30 p.m.; Saturday evening, Aug. 30, a lecture 
on ‘Comets,’ by Prof. R. S. Ball, of Dublin univer- 
sity, and astronomer royal for Ireland (this does not 
appear in the association circular, as it is intended 
for the citizens of Montreal). 
—An informal meeting was held April 12, in 
Philadelphia, to discuss the plans of the proposed de- 
partment of biology at the University of Pennsylva- 
nia. A fund of a hundred thousand dollars is to be 
raised to allow of an expenditure of fifteen thousand 
dollars for a building, the balance to be invested for 
the support of the institution. Twenty thousand dol- 
lars have already been subscribed, and the contracts 
for the building will soon be given out. A com- 
mittee consisting of Hon. John Welsh, Dr. Leidy, 
Dr. Alice Bennett, Mrs. 8. A. Crozer, Dr. Horace F. 
Jayne, Miss Ida Wood, and Miss Mary Thorn Lewis, 
was appointed to carry out the purposes of the 
meeting. 
— At the meeting of the French academy on March 
31, Mr. Charles Brongniart announced the discovery, 
in the rich carboniferous deposits of Commentry, of 
new gigantic forms of insects, of the type of Dictyo- 
neura, in which the expanse of wings was nearly 
twenty-eight inches. 
— Among recent deaths, we note that of Abbé 
Brugnone, the paleontologist, at Palermo, on the 3d 
of February, in his seventieth year ; that of Dr. E. 
Behm, editor-in-chief of Petermann’s Geographische 
mittheilungen, already noticed, occurred at Gotha, on 
the 15th of March ; Capt. Niels Hoffmeyer, the di- 
rector of the meteorological institute at Copenhagen, 
died at that place, the 16th of February. 
—Itis proposed to collect as complete aset of books 
on electricity as possible, to be shown at the Interna- 
tional electrical exhibition in Philadelphia this au- 
tumn. After the exhibition the collection will be 
placed in charge of the Franklin institute, and will 
form the nucleus of a reference-library. j 
—E.and F. N. Spon announce as in preparation — 
‘The electric light,’ by E. Alglave and J. Boulard, ~ 
translated from the French by T. O’Connor Sloane. _ 
