5

which they could lose by burning and regain by the pro cess they called "revivification." "Hardness [in metals] is caused by the jeiunenese of the spirit and their imparity with the tangible parts," said Francis Bacon; while, according to Stahl, steel was merely iron possessing, in virtue of its phlogiston, the characteristics of a metal in a higher degree; and this view prevails in the writings of Henckel, Newmann, Cramer, Gellert, Rinman, and Macquer. This opinion survived with wonderful persistence, but it did not influence the teaching of Réaumur, who, in 1722, was, so far as I know, the first to suggest a physical theory which has been in any way justified by modern research. He assumed that when steel was heated "sulphurs and salts" were driven out from the molecules, which he represents diagrammatically, into the interstitial space between them. The quenching of the steel and its sudden cooling prevented the sulphurs and salts from returning into the molecules, which were thus firmly cemented by the matter between them, and hard rigid steel was the result. In tempering, the sulphurs and salts partially returned into the molecules, and the metal became proportionately soft. I have elsewhere shown that he used the Torricellian vacuum to demonstrate that the hardening of steel is not accompanied by the evolution of gas, and he concluded that since the hardening of steel is neither due to the intervention of a new substance nor to the expulsion of air, it only remains to seek its cause in the changes occurring in its structure." Notwithstanding this, the phlogistic school were not daunted, and this brings me to the work of Torbern Bergman, the great Professor at the University of Upsala, who in 1781 showed that steel mainly differs from iron by containing about per cent. of plumbago, while iron does not. Read in connection with modern research, his work seems wonderfully advanced. He was so forcibly impressed by the fact that the great difference in the mechanical properties of different specimens of iron is due to the presence of small quantities of impurity, and that the properties of iron do not vary, as he says, unless by chance the iron has gathered foreign matter, "nisi forte peregrinum paullo uberius inhærat metallum." We find, even, the dawn of the view that under the influence of small quantities of foreign matter iron is, as he calls it, polymorphous, and plays the part of many metals. "Adeo ut jure dici queat, polymorphum ferrum plurium simul metallorum vices sustinere." "G Unfortunately he confounded the plumbago or carbon he had Isolated with phlogiston, as did Rinman in 1782, which was strange, because, in 1774, the latter physicist had shown that a drop of nitric acid simply whitens wrought iron, but leaves a black stain on steel. Bergman tenaciously held to the phlogistic theory in relation to steel; it was inevitable that he should. The true nature of oxidation had been explained; no wonder that the defenders of the phlogistic theory should seek to support their case by appealing to the subtle and obscure changes produced in iron by such apparently slight causes. Bergman's view was, however, combated by Vandermonde, Berthollet, and Monge, who showed in a report communicated to the Académie des Sciences, in 1786, that the difference between the main varieties of iron is determined by variation in the amount of carbon, and further that steel must contain a certain quantity of carbon in order that it might possess definite qualities. Bergman died in 1784, and the report to which I have referred is full of respect for "this

"Sylva Sylvarum," 2nd editi n, 1628, p. 215.

Fundamenta Chemia," Part 3, p. 451, quoted by Guyton de Morveau in the article "Acier," Encyc. Méthodique," p. 421 (París, 1786). "L'art de convertir le fer forgé en acier, p. 321 et seq. (Paris, 1722). 4 Proc. Inst. Mech Engineers, October 1881, p. 706.

3 "Opuscula Physics et Chemica," vol. iii. "De Analysi Ferri" (Upsala, 783). A dissertation delivered June 9, 1781.

32.

De Analysi Ferri," p. 4.

"Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences," 1786 (printed 1788), p.

grand chemist," as its authors call him, "whom science had lost too soon."

Kirwan's essay on phlogiston, in which Bergman's views were defended, elicited a reply from Lavoisier himself, and brought down the French school in strength to contest almost the last position occupied by the believers in phlogiston.2

An entire lecture might be profitably devoted to Bergman's work. His was almost the first calorimetric research, and is specially interesting when taken in connection with the calorimetric investigations of Lavoisier and Laplace in 1780, and it is impossible to read it without feeling that in paying the just tribute to Lavoisier's genius Bergman has been overlooked. He desired to ascertain whether pure iron, steel, and cast iron contain the same amount of heat. He therefore attacked the materials with a solvent, and noted the heat evolved. He says the solvent breaks up the assemblage of the aggregation of molecules and forms other unions. If the new body demands more heat than the body which has been disunited, then the thermometer will fall. If, on the other hand, the degree of heat required is less, the environment will be heated, which will result in the rise of the thermometer. The modern development is that, when a chemical compound is formed, heat is evolved and energy is lost, but if one substance, say a metal, simply dissolves another, the solution is attended with absorption of heat, and the product when attacked by a suitable solvent should evolve practically the same amount of heat, but certainly not less than would be evolved by the individual metals present in solution. This is specially interesting from its relation to the calorimetric work of Lavoisier and Laplace in 1780 and of Lavoisier in 1782, which led the latter to explain the nature of oxidation, and to show that a metal could be as truly "calcined" or oxidized by the action of a solution as by the action of air at an elevated temperature. Now that the importance of thermochemistry is beginning to be recognized in relation to industrial chemistry and metallurgy, it is to be hoped that Bergman's merits will be more fully considered. We are, however, mainly concerned with the fact that he taught us that the difference between iron and steel consists in the to 1 per cent. of carbon which steel contains. It was only natural that Black, writing in 1796, should have attributed the hardening of steel to the "extrication of latent heat"; "the abatement of the hardness by the temper" being due, he says, "to the restoration of a part of that heat."+ Black failed to see that the work of Bergman had entirely changed the situation. The next step was made in France. It was considered necessary to establish the fact that carbon is really the element which gives steel its characteristic properties, and with this object in view, Clouet," in 1798, melted a little crucible of iron, weighing 578 grammes, containing a diamond, weighing 0907 gramme, and obtained a fused mass of steel (Fig. 1).

His experiment was repeated by many observers, but the results were open to doubt from the fact that furnace gases could always obtain access to the iron, and might, as well as the diamond, have yielded carbon to the metal. R. Kirwan, "Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids," p. 134 (1787). 2 Essai sur le Phlogistique," traduit de l'Anglois de M. Kirwan, avec des notes de MM. de Morveau, Lavois.er, de la Place, Monge, Berthollet, et de Fourcroy (Paris, 1788).

3 See French translation of Bergman's work (Paris, 1783), p. 72. The question is, however, so important that I append the original Latin text :Menstruo laxatur compages molecularum, et nova formantur cornubia, quæ, si majorem, quam diruta, figunt materiæ caloris quantitatem, in vicinia calor ad restituendum æquilibrium diminuatur oportet, et thermometri hydrargyrum ideo subsidet si minorem, differentia liberatur et viciniam calefacit, unde etiam adscendit thermometri liquor; si denique nova connubia eamdem præcise quantitatem postulant, quod raro accidit, nulla in thermometro videbitur variatio."-Torberni Bergman, "Opuscula Physica et Chemica," vol. iii. p. 58, 1783 (" De Analysi Ferri ").

4 Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry," vol. ii p. 505 (1803).

5 Experiment described by Guyt n de Morveau, Ann, de Chim., xxxi. 1799, p. 328.

The carbon might have been presented to the iron in the form of a gas capable of yielding carbon, and this element would as surely have found its way into the steel.

Margueritte, for instance, in 1865, repeated Clouet's experiment, and showed that, although carburization can be erected by simple contact of iron and carbon, it is nevertheless true that in the ordinary process of cementation the gas carbonic oxide plays an important part, which bad until then been overlooked. The discovery by Graham, in 18ce, of the occlusion of carbonic oxide by

sphere of gas, and employing the form of apparatus show in this diagram (Fig. 3. The carburized iron which was the result of the experiment was thrown upon the screen The diamond by union with iron has passed partially least to the other form of carbon, graphite, while treatmer with a solvent which removes the iron shows that carb has entered into intimate association with the iron, a fac: which leads us to the next step in the study of the relations between carbon and iren.

Hempel1 has shown that, in an atmosphere of nitroger. iron appears to assimilate the diamond form of carbon more readily than either the graphitic or the amorphous

forms, but direct carben is associated with molten iron it behaves like the protean element it is, and the state which this carben assumes s fuenced by the rate of cooling of the molter mass, or even by the thermal treatment to which the solidified mass is subjected. Let me repeat. al are familiar with carbon in the distinct forms of diamond, graphite, and scot: a" are alike carbon. It need not be considered strange, then, that carbon should be capable of being present a intimate association with trom, but in very vared terms.

Now the mode of existence of carbon n soft annealed steel is very & ferent from that in which it occurs in hard steel. I believe that Karsten was the first to isolate, in 1837, fom soft steel a tme compered of iron and carbon. Berthier also separired from sort steel a carbide of iron, to which be assigned the formula FeC; but to attempt to trace the story of the work in this direction would Jemand an entire lecture. I will only add that within the last few years S: F. Abel has given much experimental evidence in favour of the existence in seft cold rol ed steel of a carbide. Fe, C. walch de solated by the slow solvent acon of a carom and selenica. His work has been Sonera accepted as conc's, sive, and has been the startingpoint of much that has füo ved

It w secur to you that the microscope should reveal wide & manences between the structure at various kinds of ren and steel, and I am bacc. to be able to give you enrge durims mile to the drawings of Mr. Sorby, the eminent microscopist, which flustrated his very de cute test CNGS into the strutture of stee

A study of the above diagram and of the admirable work of Ledebur will show how complex the relations of carbon and iron really are, but, for the purposes of the present inquiry it may fairly be asked, Does a change in the "mode of existence" of carbon in iron sufficiently explain the main facts of hardening and tempering? It does not. It is possible to obtain by rapid cooling from a certain temperature steel which is perfectly soft, although analysis proves that the carbon is present in the form which we have recognized as hardening carbon." No doubt in the hardening of steel the carbon changes its mole of existence, but we must seek some other theory to explain all the facts, and in order to do this we will turn to the behaviour of the iron

itself.

In approaching this portion of the subject a few elementary facts relative to the constitution of matter must be recalled, and in doing so I must again appeal briefly to history. It is universally accepted that metals, like all elements, are composed of atoms of definite weights and volumes grouped in molecules. In order actually to transmute one metal into another it would be necessary to discover a method of attacking not the molecule but the atom, and of changing it, and this, so far as is known, has not yet been done; but it is possible, by influences which often appear to be very slight, to change the relations of the molecules to each other, and to alter the arrangements or distribution of the atoms within the molecules, and by varying in this sense the molecular arrangement of certain elements, they may be made to pass into forms which are very different from those in which we ordinarily know them. Carbon, for instance, when free, or when associated with iron, may readily be changed from the diamond to the graphitic Stahl und Eisen, vol. viii,, 1888, p. 742

Sulphur, again, with which you are familiar as a hard, brittle, yellow solid, may be prepared and maintained for a little time in the form of this brown viscous mass, but this latter form of sulphur soon passes spontaneously and slowly at the ordinary temperature, and instantaneously at 100, to the solid octahedral yellow modification with evolution of heat. The viscous form of sulphur is an allotropic modification of that element. A few cases of allotropy in metals have already been established, and when they do occur they give rise to problems of vast industrial importance. Such molecular changes in metals are usually produced by the addition of a small quantity of foreign matter, and I have elsewhere tried to show that the molecular change produced by the action of traces upon masses is a wide-spread principle of nature, and one which was recognized at the dawn of the science of chemistry, even in the seventh century, although distorted explanations were given of well-known facts, and gave rise to entirely false hopes. But it is the same story now as in medieval times the single grain of powder which Raymond Lully said would transmute millions of its weight of lead into gold-the single grain of stone that Solomon Trismosin thought would secure perpetual youth-had their analogues in the small amount of plumbago which, to Bergman's astonishment in the eighteenth century, converted iron into steel. By his time it was recognized that the right use of alchemy consisted in the application of its methods to industry, and we still wonder at the minuteness of the quantity of certain elements which can profoundly affect the properties of metals. The statements are true, and are not derived from poetical literature, early or late. Even in the moral world the significance of the action of traces upon masses has been recognized, and the method of the alchemist survives in the administration of the small quantity of powder which, in the imagination of Robert Louis Stevenson, will produce the malevolent Hyde modification of the benevolent Dr. Jekyll. In thus borrowing an illustration from one of the most refined and subtle writers of our time, I do not fear the taunt of Francis Bacon,' that "sottishly do the chymics appropriate the fancies and delights of poets in the transformaalthough it may not be possible to transmute metals, it is tion of bodies to the experiments of their furnaces; " for, easy so to transform them, by very slight influences, that as regards special service required from them they may behave either usefully or entirely prejudicially.

In attempting to illustrate this part of the subject I demonstrate them in the time at my disposal. The cannot take the most striking cases, as it is difficult to following experiment, which does not, however, depend upon the action of a trace upon a miss, will enable me to lead up to the point I wish to insist upon. It consists in the release of goll from its alloy with potassium. When the alloy is treated with water, the gold comes down in a finely divided, dark brown, chemically active state. [Experiment shown on the screen.]

I have chosen this experiment because it was a similar in more than one form. one that first roused suspicion that pure iron could exist

in a similar manner: is an allotropic form of iron known? The question at once suggests itself, Can iron behave Joule afforded experimental evidence for an affirmative answer to this question nearly forty years ago by communicating to the British Association in 1850 a paper on some amalgams. The result of his experiments, published in detail later, in a paper which has been amalgam with mercury is chemically active, as it comsadly neglected, showed that iron released from its

Preface to the "Wisdom of the Ancients."

2 "Oa son: Anilgani," Men. Lit. Pal. Soc. Minchester, vol. ii. [3]

p. 115.

bines readily with the oxygen of the air at the ordinary temperature, and he claims that the iron so set free is allotropic; but Joule did much more than this. Magnus had shown (1851) that the thermo-electric properties of hard and soft steel and iron differ. Joule, in a paper on some thermo-electric properties of solids, incidentally shows that the generation of a thermo-electric current affords a method of ascertaining the degree of carburization of iron, and he appeals to the "thermo-electricity of iron in different states "as presenting a "fresh illustration of the extraordinary physical changes produced in iron by its conversion into steel," and he adds the expression of the belief that the excellence of the latter metal might be tested by ascertaining the amount of change in thermo-electric condition which can be produced by the process of hardening." It is by a thermo-electric method that the views as to the existence of iron in allotropic forms has been confirmed. Jullien seems to have inclined to the view that iron is allotropic in his "Théorie de la Trempe," published in 1865, but he cannot be said to have added much to our knowledge, although he certainly directed attention to the importance of hardening and

tempering steel.

The next step was made in Russia, in 1868. Chernoff, who has found an admirable exponent to English readers in Mr. W. Anderson, President of Section G, showed that steel could not be hardened by rapid cooling until it had been heated to a definite temperature- to a degree of redness which he called a. Then in 1873, Prof. Tait 3 used this expression in a Rede Lecture delivered at Cambridge: "It seems as if iron becomes, as it were, a different metal on being raised above a certain temperature; this may possibly have some connection with the ferricum and ferrosum of the chemists." He also published his now well-known "first approximation to a thermo-electric diagram,” which is of great interest in view of recent work. At about this time those specially interested in this question remembered that Gore had shown that a curious molecular change could be produced by heating an iron wire, which sustains a momentary elongation on cooling. Barrett repeated Gore's experiment, and discovered that as an iron wire cools down it suddenly glows, a phenomenon to which he gave the name recalescence, and these investigations have been pursued and developed in other directions by many skilful experimenters. In 1879, Wrightson called attention to the abnormal expansion of carburized iron at high temperatures.

The next point of special importance seems to me to be that recorded by Barus, who, by a thermo-electric method, showed, in an elaborate paper published in 1879,7 that "the hardness of steel does not increase continuously with its temperature at the moment of sudden cooling, but at a point lying in the dark-red heat the glass-hard state' may suddenly be attained by rapid cooling. I shall have again to refer to the remarkable series of papers published by Barus and Strouhal, embodying the results of laborious 1 Phil. Trans., cxlix., 1859, p. 91.

2 "Annexe au traité de la Métallurgie du Fer," 1865.

ON A NEW APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY TO THE DEMONSTRATION OF CERTAIN PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN PLANTS.

MR. WALTER GARDINER, Lecturer on Botany in the University of Cambridge, who delivered the evening address at Newcastle on "How Plants maintain themselves in the Struggle for Existence," has discovered a new method of printing photographic negatives, employing living leaves in place of sensitive paper. Mr. Gardiner read a paper on the subject before the British Association. Before dealing with the immediate subject of his paper, the author described how prints may be obtained from Protococci, or the free-swimming swarm-spores of many green Algæ. It is possible to take advantage of their sensitiveness to light. Into one end of a water tight box, a thin glass plate is securely fitted. The negative to be printed is then placed next the glass, film side nearest. The box is filled with water containing a fairly large quantity of swarm-spores. The lid is shut down, and the whole is exposed to diffused light. In the case of a strong and well-developed negative, the swarm-spores swim towards the most highly-illuminated parts, and there in the greatest numbers come to rest, and settle upon the glass, so that, after some four or six hours, on pouring out the water and removing the negative, a print in green swarm-spores can be obtained. The print may be dried, fixed with albumen, stained, and varnished. The author then dwelt upon the well-known fact that the whole of the animal life upon the globe depends directly or indirectly upon the wonderful synthetic formation of proteid and protoplasm which takes place in the living tissue of plants containing chlorophyll, .e. green plants, or, to be more exact, in the green chlorophyll corpuscles. stated that, whatever is the exact chemical nature of the process, this is at least clear, that the first visible product of the assimilatory activity is starch, which, moreover, is found in the chlorophyll grains. The presence of this starch can be made manifest by treating a decolorized leaf with a water solution of iodine dissolved in potassic iodide. This formation of starch only takes place under the influence of light; the radiant energy of the sun pro

He

1873. P. 125.

4 Proc Roy. Sɔc, xvii., 1869, p. 263.

5 G. Forbes, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., viii., 1874, 363; Norris, Proc. Roy. Soc., xxvi., 1877, 127: Tomlinson, Phil. Mag., xxiv., 1887, 256; xxv., PP. 45, 103, and 372; xxvi. p. 18; Newall, Phil. Mag.. xxiv., 1837, 435 XXV, 1888,,

p. 510.

Journ. Iron and Steel Inst., No. ii. 1873; No. i. 1880.

7 Barus, Phil. Mag, viii., 1879. p. 341.

8 "Hardness (Temper), its Electrical and other Characteristics," Barus, Phil. Mag., vi p. 341, 1879: Wied. Ann.. vii. p. 383, 1579: Strouhal and Barus, Wied. A., xi. p. 930. 1880; ibid, xx. p. 525, 1883. "Hardness and Magnetization,' "Wied. Ann., xx. pp. 537, 662. 1883. **Density and (Internal) S.ructure of Hard Steel and of Quenched Glass," Barus and Strouhal, American Journ., xxxi. p. 386, 1886; ibid., p. 439; ibid., xxxi. p. 181, 1886. "Temper and Chemical Composition," Am. Journ., xxxii. p. 276, 1886 Temper and Viscosity," Am. Journ., xxxii P. 444, 1886; ibid., xxxiii. p. 20, 1887; Barus, ibid., xxxiv. p. 1, 1887; ibid., xxxiv. p. 175, 1887. These paper, systematically discussed and enlarged, are embodied with new matter in the Bulletins of the United States Geological Survey, viz. :-Bull., No. 14. pp. 1-226, 1885; Bull, No. 27. pp. 30-61, 1886; Bull., No. 35, pp. 11-60, 1836; Bull., No.42, pp. 93-131, 1887.

"

chemical change, and building up proteid from the carbonic acid of the air which is taken up by the leaves and the salts and water of the soil absorbed by the roots. If a plant (and preferably a plant with thin leaves) be placed in the dark over-night, and then brought out into the light next morning, the desired leaves being covered with a sharp and well-developed negative, starch is formed

Comptes rendus, cii., 1886, pp 675 and 1454, cii. p. 1123.

2 Ibid., cu p 819.

3 The reader will find the principal part of Osmond's work in the following papers: Osmond et Werth, "The rie Cellulaire des Propriétés de l'Acier." Ann, des Mines, vii., 1885. p. 5: "Transformations du Fer et du Carbone." Paris, Baudoin et Cie., 1888; Etudes Métallurgiques," Ann. des Ninus, Juillet-Août, 1888. There is als a very interesting paper. Sur les Nouveaux Procédés de Trempe," which he communicated to the Mining and Metallurgical Congress, Paris, 1889.

when light is transmitted, and in greatest quantity in the brightest areas. Thus a positive in starch is produced which can be developed by suitable treatment with iodine. [A leaf was then developed, and handed round to the audience for inspection.] The author showed that it might be possible to obtain a permanent print by suitable washing and treatment with a soluble silver salt, silver iodide being formed. The author regards this discovery as a most striking illustration of the way in which plants are working for themselves, and so for all living things, and points out that the extraordinary manner in which the green parts of plants (so to speak) catch the radiant energy of the sun, and employ it for analytical and synthetical chemical processes, may be easily and clearly demonstrated.

NOTES.

We understand that the late Mr. John Ball, F.R. S., has bequeathed his botanical library and herbarium to Sir Joseph Hooker, to the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew for the time being, and to the President of the Royal Society for the time being, requesting them to give the same to such person or persons or public institution in this country, the British colonies, or elsewhere in the world, as they or any two of them may select, with the sole object of promoting the knowledge of natural science. Right is, however, reserved for Kew to select previously such specimens or books as it may want.

THE following is the list of names recommended by the President and Council of the Royal Society for election into the Council for the year 1890, at the forthcoming anniversary meet. ing on the 30th inst. :-President: Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Bart. Treasurer: Dr. John Evans. Secretaries: Prof. Michael Foster, the Lord Rayleigh. Foreign Secretary: Dr. Archibald Geikie. Other Members of the Council: Prof. Henry Edward Armstrong, Prof. William Edward Ayrton, Charles Baron Clarke, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, Dr. Edward Emanuel Klein, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, Dr. Hugo Müller, Prof. Alfred Newton, Captain Andrew Noble, C. B., Rev. Stephen Joseph

Perry, Sir Henry E. Roscoe, Dr. Edward John Routh, William Scovell Savory, Prof. Joseph John Thomson, Prof. Alexander William Williamson, Colonel Sir Charles William Wilson, R.E.

THE following botanical appointments are announced :-The Directorship of the Botanic Garden at Berlin, vacant by the death of Dr. Eichler, having been conferred on Prof. Engler, of Breslau, Prof. Urban becomes Second Director of the Berlin Botanic Garden; and Prof. Prantl, of Aschaffenburg, succeeds. Prof. Engler as Director of the Botanic Garden at Breslau. Prof. Sadebeck, of Hamburg, is appointed Director of the Botanic Garden in that town, in the place of the late Dr. Reichenbach. Dr. G. von Lagerheim vacates the Professorship at Lisbon, to which he was lately appointed, and goes to Ecuador as Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanic Garden at Quito. Dr. H. Molisch, of Vienna, takes the Chair of the late Dr. Leitgeb in the Polytechnic at Gratz. Dr. F. Hueppe is appointed Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Prague, and is succeeded in the same Chair at Wiesbaden by Dr. G. Frank, of Berlin. The venerable Professor von Naegeli retires from the Directorship of the Botanic Garden at Munich. Mr. F. S. Earle, Prof. E. S. Goff, and Prof. L. R. Taft have been appointed special agents in the Section of Vegetable Pathology of the United States Department of Agriculture. Mr. H. H. Rusby has been appointed Professor of Botany and Materia Medica in the New York College of Pharmacy.

THE Economic Museum, Calcutta, has completed and despatched the first instalment of important Indian fibres required by the India Office for presentation to the Museums of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh, and to the Chambers of Commerce at Dundee and Manchester.

A PRIZE of about £20 is offered by the Geographical Societies of Dresden and Leipzig, for "a physico-geographical description of the course of the Elbe between Bodenbach and its entrance on the flat country, with special reference to depth, quantity of water and its variations, ice, and changes in the form of the banks." The date is the end of 1890.

IN his address at the opening of the winter session of the University of Toronto, Sir Daniel Wilson, the President of the University, referred to the recent Toronto meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"Everything available for the special requirements of the Association," he said, "was placed at the disposal of the Sections; and we are gratified by the assurance that, at the close of a highly successful meeting, our visitors carried away with them pleasant memories of their reception here." The meeting of the

The

THE Naturforschende Gesellschaft at Emden is to celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary on December 29 next. The Society was founded in 1814 by twenty-four burgesses of Emden. festivities in December will consist of a general meeting of the Society and the Society's correspondents at noon in the Museum, and a Festessen at four o'clock.

A REPORT of the proceedings of the International Zoological Congress, held in Paris two months ago, will be published shortly.

A FRENCH translation of Dr. Wallace's "Darwini-m" will be published next year.

THE greater part of the ethnographical collection sent to the Paris Exhibition is to remain in Paris, in the Colonial Museum.

peculiarly opportune. "The long-felt need of adequately furnished and equipped laboratories and lecture-rooms for our scientific staff was anew brought into prominence by the restoration to the University of its Medical Faculty; and we now enter on the work of another year provided with buildings admirably adapted for biological and physiological study and research. Plans, moreover, have been approved of, which, when carried out to their full extent, will furnish equally satisfactory accom modation for the departments of botany, chemistry, geology, and paleontology, along with laboratories, work-rooms, museum, and other requisites for efficient instruction in the various branches of science."

THE thirty-fourth general meeting of the Society for Psychical Research was held on Friday afternoon, October 25, at the Westminster Town Hall. The President (Prof. Sidgwick) gave an account of the International Congress of Experimental Psychology held in Paris last August. The Congress had adopted the scheme of a census of hallucinations, already set on foot by the Society for Psychical Research in England, France, and the United States, and it was hoped that the collection of statistics might gradually be extended to other European countries. Much matter valuable to psychologists was