it was formerly. It may be that in its earlier history, there was more opportunity for striking discoveries. The condition may also he explained by an inversion of the proverb "The forest can not be seen for the trees." There are now so many scientific men doing work of importance that it is impossible to remember even their names. "The trees can not be seen for the forest." Still, if we write the names! of the leading scientific men of the last generation, beginning with Darwin in England, Pasteur in Frame and Helmholtz in Germany, beside those; who have recently died or are still living at an advanced age, there seems 'o be a decline in distinction, and the same holds if this group is compared; with scientific men who are now active. It is not easy to decide whether this:s appearance or reality.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the death of Dr. Morris Longstreth, formerly professor of pathological anatomy at Jefferson Medical College; of Dr. James Ellis Gow, professor of botany in Coe College; of Overton Westfield Price, at one time associate forester of the U. S. Forest Service; of Dr. W. H. Gaskell, university lecturer in physiology at Cambridge University and of Dr. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, professor of economies in the University of Vienna, formerly minister of finance, president of the Vienna Academy of Sciences.
An international committee has been formed to establish a foundation in memory of Henry Poincaré. A medal will be struck in his honor, and a fund will be established under the Paris Academy of Sciences to encourage or reward young scholars engaged in work in the directions in which Poincaré led, namely, mathematical analysis, celestial mechanics, mathematical physics and scientific philosophy.
Dr. A. Penck, professor of geography at Berlin; Dr. P. von Luschan, professor of anthropology in the same university, and Dr. J. Walther, professor of geology and paleontology at Halle, aie among the German men of science who attended the Australasian meeting of the British Association. It is said that there is some anxiety as to how they shall return home. If press despatches are to be believed, several German astronomers, including Professors Kempff and Ludendorf, who had gone to the Crimea to observe the eclipse of the sun, have been taken prisoners and their scientific instruments confiscated.—Among the German scientific men who have affixed their names to a manifesto renouncing the honors conferred upon them by English universities and other learned institutions are Professors Paid Ehrlich, Emil von Behring, Ernst Haeckel, August Weismann and Wilhelm Wundt.
Sir Ernest Shackleton and the members of his Transantarctic Expedition left London on September 18 for the South Polar regions. The explorers departed in two sections, the portion for the Ross Sea or New Zealand side of the Antarctic leaving in the morning via Tilbury for Tasmania, and the Weddell Sea section, including Sir Ernest Shackleton, leaving for South America later in the day. The Endurance, the ship of the Weddell Sea party, left Plymouth on August 8. The Ross Sea ship Aurora is to leave some Australian port about the beginning of December.
