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(nisi fallor) sectator quidam tractabat "echinos, ut melius, muria."

EDMOND PERRIER, DIRECTOR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, PARIS.-Sequitur deinceps Francogallorum Instituti celeberrimi et Academiae Medicae socius insignis, qui historiae naturalis Museum Parisiense tutelae suae creditum optime ordinavit. Olim, in philosophiae zoologicae incrementis enarrandis, populari suo, Stephano Godofredo Saint-Hilaire, inter Darwini nostri praenuntios locum praeclarum vindicavit. Ipse postea zoologiae universae describendae opus eximium consecravit. Quid dicam de animalium coloniis ab eodem accuratissime examinatis? quid de vermibus terrenis, quid de maris Mediterranei liliis dilucide descriptis? Illud unum dixerim: mari profundo penitus explorando plus quam semel peregre praefuit, interque rerum naturae interpretes optimos exstitit, qui patriae in gloriam numquam perituram

"referebant navibus altis

occulta spolia, et plures de pace triumphos."2 GUSTAV ALBERT SCHWALBE, PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AT STRASSBURG.-Anatomiae professor Argentoratensis, in Aegypto et in America Septentrionali orbis novi et orbis antiqui explorator, anthropologiae provinciam totam peragravit; sensuum humanorum rationem universam explicavit; hominum antiquissimorum capita et ossa hic et illic reperta accuratissime descripsit. Homo est; humani nil a se alienum putat. Stilo perquam lucido praeditus, non modo Hominem primigenium sed etiam Pithecanthropum erectum litterarum monumentis mandavit. Atqui, antiquas quoque litteras licet hodie recordari, non de hominis propinquo quodam paupere, non de simia quadam mentis sublimioris nescia, sed de homine ipso donis optimis divinitus donato poëtae antiqui verba illa dicta

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HERMANN GRAF ZU SOLMS-LAUBACH, PROFESSOR BOTANY AT STRASSBURG.-Salutamus etiam botanicae professorem Argentoratensem, virum genere antiquo, genere per annos prope octingentos nobili oriundum, qui arborum et plantarum reliquias antiquissimas saxorum in latebris conservatas opere in illo eximio descripsit, quod etiam in Britannia palaeophytologiae ad studium aditus faciliores plurimis patefecit. Idem, non modo Actis Botanicis edendis iam per annos viginti feliciter interfuit, sed etiam ipse de geographiae botanicae principiis, de floribus parasitis, de fungis et algis, de sinus Neapolitani corallinis, de fragaria, de tritico, de tulipa, de ficu, de aliis denique hortorum nostrorum plantis plurima non sine gloria conscripsit.

"Patriam obruit olim

gloria paucorum, et laudis titulique cupido
haesuri saxis cinerum custodibus, ad quae
discutienda valent sterilis mala robora ficus

haec autem generis nobilis progenies, vir iucundus, lepidus, modestus, titulo nostro dignissimus, tot rebus ingenio summo penitus exploratis, omnium bonorum in laude monumentum aere perennius "invenit.

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CLEMENT TIMIRIAZEFF, PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN Moscow.-Meministis fabulosum illum Collegiorum nostrorum unius alumnum, qui ad insulam Laputa peregrinatus, incolas eius omnes solis de salute cotidie sollicitos invenit, inque Academia celeberrima Lagadensi professorem quendam venerabilem vidit, qui solis radiis e cucumerum cellulis eliciendis annorum octo labores incassum impenderat. Consilium tam mirum non prorsus absurdum fuisse botanicae professor quidam Moscuensis coram Regia Societate nostra non sine lepore indicavit. Scilicet per longos labores ipse comprobavit non modo solis radios in cucumi esse inclusos, sed etiam fructuum frondiumque omnium partem viridem solis e lumine radios illos tremulos eligere, quorum auxilio carbonium (ut aiunt) in aëre toto diffusum in materiam quandam vivam permutat. Idem spectri (quod dicitur) e parte rubra radios illos exortos esse docuit, qui frondium in vitam mutati, omnium hominum, omnium animalium corpora per tot saecula aluerunt. Ergo de spectri illius exemplo pulcherrimo, de

1 Serm. ii. 8, 52 f. 2 Juvenal, viii. 106 f. 3 Terence, Heaut. 77.
4 Ovid, Met. i. 85 f.
5 Juvenal, x. 143 f.

arcu caelesti, verba olim divinitus dicta sacculo nostro sensu novo denuo commendata sunt-" Erit arcus in nubibus, et recordabor foederis sempiterni quod pactum est inter Deum et omnem animam viventem universae carnis, quae est super terram.

FRANTIŠEK VEJDOVSKÝ, PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN PRAGUE. Bohemorum in Universitate Pragensi zoologiae professor praeclarus, patriae inter flumina lacusque, spongillarum vermiumque in varietate maxima, studiorum suorum argumenta plurima invenit. Idem, bacteriorum in structura investiganda, etiam nucleum secundum ipsam normam invenisse dicitur. Deinde, de nucleorum natura in universum, deque ovi fecundi reddendi ratione omni, nunc maxime inquirit. Denique, ne laudationis nostrae in fine aculeum quendam desideretis, ne scorpionum quidem genus intactum reliquit.

MAX VERWORN, PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY AT GÖTTINGEN.-Goettingensis Universitas, vinculo antiquo cum Britannis coniuncta, legatum ad nos misit physiologiae professorem insignem, virum ingenio versatili et multiplici praeditum, qui non modo archaeologiae regionem antiquissimam, aevi medii artes, scientiam denique numismaticam temporis subsicivi in deliciis habuit, sed etiam ante omnia scientiae illi magnae quae vitam universam investigat vitam prope totam dedicavit. Peritis notum est (ne minora commemorem) opus illud ingens annorum quattuordecim in spatio iam quinquies in lucem editum, in quo a cellulis singulis exorsus physiologiae provinciam totam ita peragravit, ut non modo scientiae ipsius historiam, philosophiam, psychologiam ipse suo Marte tractaverit, sed etiam aliorum inventa praeclara ingenii sui lumine illustraverit.

HERMANN VON VÖCHTING, PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AT TÜBINGEN.-Florae in sacerdote celeberrimo Tuebingensi Darwini nostri discipulum praeclarum agnoscimus, qui plantarum in motibus accuratissime examinandis felicissimus, docet libramento quam exquisito nutet tremulae flos violae, caput aureolum exserat narcissus; quanta sollertia herba quacque viridis frondes suas ita explicet, ut solis lumen vitale quam plurimum accipiat. 66 Idem, polaritatis" secundum legem quandam, ostendit in arborum ramis amputatis quantum a parte summa pars ima discrepet; quot quaestiones subtilissimas sapientissimo cuique subiciat rusticus ille simplex, qui ex omni hominum memoria in perpetuum conservat,

"quos ipse via sibi repperit usus: hic plantas tenero abscindens de corpore matrum deposuit sulcis, hic stirpes obruit arvo."2

HUGO DE VRIES, PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AT AMSTERDAM. -Darwini nostri in memoriam decoramus hodie botanicae professorem Amstelodamensem, virum a Societate Regia numismate aureo Darwini in honorem instituto donatum. Quam pulchre ostendit, quam varium, quam mutabile sit florum genus illud pulchrum quod primula vespertina vel potius Oenothera nominatur ! Alii, inter quos honoris causa Raium nostrum nominamus, aiunt; Natura non facit saltus"; hic autem speciem unamquamque, non e fluctuatione tam tarda ut oculorum aciem effugiat, sed e mutatione subita censet exoriri. Natura saltus igitur nonnumquam facit.

3

CHARLES DOOLITTLE WALCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON.-Trans aequor Atlanticum alter ad nos venit legatus insignis, Instituti celeberrimi Washingtonensis administrator indefessus, Americanorum in Republica maxima explorationi geologicae universae quondam praepositus. Zonae Olenelli, rupium illarum antiquissimarum, in quibus vitae formae fossiles (ut aiunt) repertae sunt, de incolis extinctis praeclare disputavit. Idem Cambriae in saxis, non modo Brachiopoda subtilissime examinavit, sed etiam Trilobites illos, quorum in oculo uno saxi in caligine aeterna clauso radiorum lucidorum sex milia olim scintillabant. Rerum natura, in magnis magna, in minimis quam immensa !

EDMUND BEECHER WILSON, PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK.-Populari suo proximus adsurgit Novi Eboraci in Universitate Colum2 Virg. Georg. ii. 22 f.

1 Genesis, ix. 16.

John Ray, Historia Plantarum, i. (1686) 50, "Cum enim Natura (ut dici solet) non faciat saltus, nec ab extremo ad extremum transeat, nisi per medium . . . ; cp. Linnaeus, Philosophia Botanica (1770), p. 27,

$77.

biana zoologiae professor, qui saltationes illas karyokinesis nomine nuncupatas descripsit, quas ovorum in cellulis dividendis nucleorum fragmenta certatim exercent. In insectis autem nonnullis, docente doctore nostro novo, determinatur sexus, prout nucleorum fragmentum unum

aut adest aut abest. Genus femininum tot fragmenta

efficiunt; fragmenta uno tantum minora masculinum. Videtis, Academici, discrimine quam tenui genus masculinum a genere feminino separetur, ne dicam superetur.

CHARLES RENÉ ZEILLER, PROFESSOR OF PALEOBOTANY IN PARIS.-E tot doctoribus supremus adest Francogallorum Instituti celeberrimi socius, palaeobotanicae professor praeclarus Parisiensis, qui iam per annos triginta plantas fossiles (ut aiunt) accuratissime examinavit; Africae, Americae, Indiae, Asiae Minoris flores extinctos non sine summo iudicio, non sine summo ingenio, investigavit. Viri huius auxilio, Florae antiquae e monumentis non iam unum alterumve capitulum perbreve, non iam paginae cuiusque lineae paucissimae, sed novae paginae plurimae, orbis terrarum quasi vitae perpetuae ad catenam continuam anulos novos addiderunt.

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A NEW ANALYTICAL ENGINE.

THE April number of the Scientific Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society contains an interesting and very original paper by Mr. Percy E. Ludgate on a proposed analytical machine. Of all calculating machines, the analytical machine or engine is the most comprehensive in its powers. Cash till reckoners and adding machines merely add or add and print results. Arithmometers are used for multiplying and dividing, which they really only accomplish by rapidly repeated addition or subtraction, with the exception alone, perhaps, of the arithmometer of Bollée, which, in a way, works by means of a mechanical multiplication table. Difference engines originated by Babbage produce and print tables of figures of almost any variety, but the process is one of addition of successive differences. The analytical engine proposed by Babbage was intended to have powers of calculation so extensive as to seem a long way outside the capacity of mere mechanism, but this was to be brought about by the use of operation cards supplied by the director or user, which, like the cards determining the pattern in a Jacquard loom, should direct the successive operations of the machine, much as the timing cam of an automatic lathe directs the successive movements of the different tools and feeding and chucking devices. However elaborate the mechanism of Babbage, if completed, might have been, the individual elements of operation would, so far as the writer has been able to understand it, have been actually operations of addition or subtraction only, and, with the exception of the method of multiplication created by Bollée, the writer does not recall any case in which mechanism has been used to compute numerical results except by the use of the processes of addition or subtraction, simple or cumulative. Of course, harmonic analysers and other instruments depending on geometry are not included in the category of machines which operate on numbers.

The simplicity of the logarithmic method of multiplying must have made many inventors regret the inherent incommensurability of the function to any simple base, or, if commensurability is attained for any particular number and its powers by the use of

1 Lucretius, v. ad finem.

an incommensurable base, the incommensurability of the corresponding logarithms of numbers prime to those first selected. On this account the writer has always imagined that the logarithmic method was only be so applied at the expense of complication unsuited to mechanism, or, if applied at all, coul which would more than compensate for the directness of the process of logarithmic multiplication.

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Mr. Ludgate, however, in effect, uses for each of the prime numbers below ten a logarithmic system with a different incommensurable base, which fact never appears, and is able to take advantage of the additive principle, or, rather, it is so applied that the machine may use it. These mixed or Irish log. arithms, or index numbers, as the author calls them are very surprising at first, but, if the index numbers of zero be excepted, it is not difficult to follow the mode by which they have been selected. The indes i numbers of the ten digits are as follows:

Digit...

I 2 3 4 56 7 8 9

Index number. 50 0 I 7 2 23 8 33 3 14 When two numbers are to be multiplied, the index numbers of the several digits are mechanically added to the index numbers of each of the digits of the other, and, the process of carrying the tens being carried on simultaneously, the time required is very small. For instance, the author gives as an example the multiplication of two numbers of 20 digits each, which will require 40 of these additions, which he shows will require 93 time units if a time unit is one-tenth of the time of revolution of a figure wheel.

Unfortunately, while the principle on which the proposed machine is to work is described, only the barest idea of the mechanical construction is given, so that it is difficult to judge of the practicability of the intended construction. Whatever this may be, the originality of the method of mixed commensurable logarithms to incommensurable bases seems to the writer so great and the conception so bold as to be worthy of special attention.

Division has hitherto always been effected by the process of rapid but repeated subtraction, following in this respect the method practised with pencil and } paper. Having discovered how to harness the logarithm to mechanism, Mr. Ludgate would, it would be expected, have managed to effect division by a logarithmic method, and possibly he could have done so, but here again he has left the beaten track, and by his ingenuity has made division a direct, and not, as hitherto, an indirect or trial-and-error process. Starting with a table of reciprocals of all numbers from 100 to 999, which in a mechanical form is intended to be stored in the machine, he imagines both numerator and denominator of the required fraction p/q to be multiplied by the reciprocal A of the first three digits of q so as to become Ap/Aq. must, then, in every case begin with the digits 100, and it may be written 1+x, where x is a small fraction. Then p/q-Ap( 1 − x)(1+x2)(1+x®)(1+x) . . a highly convergent series of which five terms will give a result correct to twenty figures at least, and so division is intended to be effected by a process of direct multiplication.

Aq

Until more detail as to the proposed construction and drawings are available it is not possible to form any opinion as to the practicability or utility of the machine as a whole, but it is to be hoped that if the author receives, as he deserves, encouragement to proceed with his task, he will not allow himself to become swamped in the complexity which must be necessary if he aims at the wide generality of a complete analytical engine. If he will, in the first instance, produce his design for a machine of restricted

capacity, even if it does no more than an arithmometer, he will, by demonstrating its practicability and advantages, be more likely to be enabled to proceed step by step to the more perfect instrument than he will if, as Babbage did, he imagines his whole machine at once. In the writer's opinion, the ingenuity required to arrange a complete analytical engine is really in great part misplaced. Such a machine can only be used and kept in order by someone who really understands it, and it would seem to the writer of this notice more practicable to allow the user's attention to replace the action of operation cards, and leave to the machine the more direct numerical evaluations. C. V. Boys.

PROF. D. J. CUNNINGHAM,

THE

F.R.S.

'HE death of this eminent anatomist occurred on Wednesday of last week, June 23. It was known that Prof. Cunningham had been ill for several months, but the fatal nature of the illness was not at first recognised, and the news of his untimely death in the full vigour of his powers will have come as a shock to many of his friends, and their name is legion.

Daniel John Cunningham was born in April, 1850, at Crieff, where his distinguished father, who was later to become principal of St. Andrew's University, was then the minister. His school days were passed at Crieff Academy. At the age of seventeen he was sent to Edinburgh University, and began the study of medicine. Here he had a brilliant career as a student, and in 1874 took his M.B. degree with firstclass honours. In 1876 he proceeded to the M.D. degree, the subject of his thesis being "The Anatomy of the Cetacea"; for this he was awarded a gold medal. His work on this subject was performed in the anatomical department of the university, where he was acting as assistant demonstrator to Prof. Turner; the influence of the master is apparent in the work of the pupil.

In 1876 Cunningham became principal demonstrator of anatomy, a position of much responsibility, as well as of great advantage to the holder from the experience in anatomical work and in teaching which it offers. Of this experience he took full advantage, and his high qualifications were recognised when he was appointed in 1882 to the chair of anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. This appointment was not long held by him, for in the following year his services were transferred to the much more important chair of anatomy in Trinity College. Here he remained until 1903, when, on the retirement of Sir William Turner from the professorship of anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, it was felt that there was only one man worthy to succeed him, and the invitation which was tendered to him by the Curators of Patronage was, not without some hesitancy, accepted by him.

The hesitancy-even in view of the higher emolument and larger sphere of usefulness which the appointment to his Alma Mater involved is not difficult to understand. For Cunningham had endeared himself to Dublin by many close ties; he was the centre of a large circle of intimate friends, and his influence and interests were in no way confined within the walls of the university, but extended to all circles of society. For several years he acted as secretary, and for some time as president, to the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, and the effect of his work is apparent in the splendid condition of their menagerie, which is, for its size, probably the most successful in Europe. He was a constant attendant at the famous Saturday morning breakfasts of the council, and on leaving

Dublin for Edinburgh was the recipient of a silver bowl engraved with the signatures of his fellowmembers, a testimonial which he prized with pleasurable pride. During four years he was honorary secretary to the Royal Dublin Society. He was frequently consulted on scientific questions by the Viceregal Government, who in 1900 appointed him a member of the commission to inquiry into the condition of the inland fisheries of Ireland. In the same year he was sent out to South Africa as a member of the Royal Commission to inquire into the care of the sick and wounded in the war. He also served on a War Office committee to report on the physical standards required for candidates for commissions and recruits.

But the performance of these public duties was not allowed to interfere with his scientific work. Both before and after his appointment to Dublin his communications on anatomical subjects were numerous and important. His text-books on "Practical Anatomy" and on "Systematic Anatomy "—the latter edited and in part written by himself-have a large circulation. His " Memoir on Cornelius McGrath, the Irish Giant," which was published by the Royal Irish Academy in 1891, is a model of exact anatomical description, and was influential in pointing to the analogies between the conditions of gigantism and those met with in acromegaly, a disease to which attention had shortly before been directed by Marie, who was the first to associate it with tumour of the pituitary body. No less important is his "Memoir on the Surface Anatomy of the Cerebral Hemispheres," which was published in 1892. In 1902 he delivered the Huxley memorial lecture before the Anthropological Institute, the subject of the lecture being "Righthandedness and Left-brainedness.'

On his transference to Edinburgh in 1903, Cunningham's activities were in no way diminished, and his influence was immediately felt both in the university and in scientific and medical circles of the city. His genial personality at once won the hearts of the students, who were no less attracted by his powers of exposition. The confidence of his colleagues was manifested by his early election to fill the position of dean of the faculty of medicine. This confidence proved well-merited, for, under his auspices, the scheme of reform of the medical curriculum which had been for years in a condition of suspended animation was re-invigorated, and before long passed through all its stages, which in a Scotch university are more complex and difficult than those of a Bill in Parliament. As a member of the council and as secretary of the meetings, he took an active part in the work of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was instrumental in improving the form and character of its published Proceedings. He effected a similar change in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, of which he became acting editor, and to which he had always, either personally or through his pupils, been in the habit of contributing articles. He continued to take a keen interest in the public services, and was prominent in the movement for the establishment of a medical equipment of the Territorial Force in the East of Scotland.

Cunningham's eminence in science has been recognised on many occasions. He was elected in 1891 to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, and in 1898 served on its council. The Universities of Dublin, Oxford, St. Andrews, and Glasgow conferred upon him their honorary degrees. He was president of the Anatomical Society and of the anthropological section of the British Association, and at various times was examiner in most of the universities of the United Kingdom.

Of Cunningham's personal character it is impossible

to speak too highly. Of his fine, manly figure; his frank, open countenance; his clear, honest, kindly eyes; his disposition, genial but firm; his humour, devoid of cynicism; his loyalty to his friends; his gentleness even to opponents, all who had the privilege of knowing him will for ever retain a bright remembrance. As a writer in the Scotsman truly says:—“To the University and to science his death is nothing short of a calamity, while to his friends it has brought a sense of desolation."

He was interred on Saturday afternoon at Edinburgh. His remains were escorted from the Church of St. Cuthbert by a long line of students, colleagues, representatives of learned societies, and personal friends, the melancholy procession offering a strong contrast to the gaiety of the city, the traffic of which was arrested by its passage. He lies in the beautiful Dean Cemetery, than which few places contain more distinguished dust. Requiescat in pace.

THE

DR. G. F. DEACON.

HE death of Mr. G. F. Deacon, a member of the council of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and eminent for his scientific work in engineering, was announced in last week's NATURE, Mr. Deacon, during his comparatively short life-he died at the age of sixty-six-obtained a considerable reputation as a water-works engineer, and is best known by his connection with the Vyrnwy Reservoir for the supply of Liverpool. In 1876 the need had arisen for an additional supply of water, and Mr. Deacon, who was then acting as municipal and water engineer, was instructed by the corporation to make an investigation as to the locality from which an additional supply could be obtained. After a survey of several sources he finally advised that this could be best obtained from the River Vyrnwy, a tributary of the Severn, situated in North Wales. Mr. Deacon's recommendation was submitted to Mr. Thomas Hawksley and Mr. Bateman, who approved this choice. The Bill promoted by the corporation having received the sanction of Parliament, Mr. Deacon was appointed joint engineer with Mr. Hawksley to prepare the plans and carry out the work. When the works were about half finished, Mr. Hawksley retired, and Mr. Deacon was left in sole charge.

The Vyrnwy works are remarkable as having the largest reservoir in England, and the first to have a high water-tight masonry dam. This dam was formed with blocks of clay slate from the Caradoc beds of the lower Silurian formation, some of which weighed 10 tons. These were set in mortar composed of Portland cement and slate stone crushed fine enough to pass through meshes of one-eighth of an inch. The dam is 1350 feet long, 136 feet high, and impounds the water in a reservoir 5 miles long and covering 1121 . acres. The cost of these works was 23 million pounds, and they were carried out under Mr. Deacon's superwision without the aid of a contractor. A full account of the Vyrnwy works is given in a paper read by Mr. Deacon at the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1896, and contained in vol. cxxvi. of the Minutes of Proceedings.

Mr. Deacon was educated at the Glasgow Uniwersity, which subsequently conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. He served his time in Napier's shipyard, which led to his becoming one of 'Lord Kelvin's assistants on the Great Eastern when an attempt was made to lay an Atlantic cable. At the age of twenty-two he commenced practice as an engineer at Liverpool, and six years afterwards was appointed municipal and water engineer of that borough. One of the most important services he ren

dered during this time was the invention of the waste. water meter, by means of which it became possible to locate the place where leakage and waste were going on in the mains or from the service pipes, and thus a very great saving was effected in the quantity of water required. He also devised considerable improvements in the instruments used for measuring the velocity of the flow of water in rivers, and applied the use of electrical mechanism to current meters. He took keen interest in devising and improving the means of making the meteorological observations necessary for determining the yield of rain water.

In 1879 Mr. Deacon resigned his appointment as municipal engineer in order to devote his whole time to the Vyrnwy works. On the completion of these he commenced to practise at Westminster as a consulting engineer, and was connected with many important schemes of water supply, and frequently was engaged in giving evidence before parliamentary committees. In addition to his work as a water-works engineer, Mr. Deacon applied a considerable amount of attention! to the application of scientific principles to the solution of problems arising out of the practical work of the engineer.

Mr. Deacon was president of the engineering section of the British Association at the meeting held_at Toronto in 1897, also of the Municipal and County Engineers at their meeting in 1878. He was a Fellow of the Meteorological Society, and a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

NOTES.

THE list of honours announced on the occasion of the celebration of the King's birthday on Friday last includes the names of five Fellows of the Royal Society. Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., Prof. J. Larmor, F.R.S., Mr. R. H. I. Palgrave, F.R.S., and Prof. T. E. Thorpe, F.R.S., have received the honour of knighthood, and Dr. W. Schlich, F.R.S., has been appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (K.C.I.E.). Other men of distinction in the scientific world included in the list are:-Mr. Edgar Thurston, superintendent of the Government Central Museum, Madras, appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (C.I.E.); Prof. W. J. R. Simpson, a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.); Sir Dyce Duckworth and Mr. Henry Morris, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, have had baronetcies of the United Kingdom conferred upon them; and Mr. James Stuart, who founded the system of university extension and the mechanical workshops at Cambridge, has been made a privy councillor.

ON Monday evening Mr. E. H. Shackleton delivered his first lecture since his return home on the results of his South Polar expedition at a special meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in the Royal Albert Hall. The main facts of the expedition have already been recorded in our own columns and elsewhere, but a large and brilliant audience assembled to hear from the explorer's own lips an account of the experiences of his companions and himself during their fourteen months' sojourn within the Antarctic circle. It is not always easy to realise the meaning of distances between places the position of which is only known in terms of latitude and longitude, and Major Leonard Darwin, who presided over the meeting, performed a useful service for his audience by indicating the extent of ground which would have to be covered by a party starting from London northwards on a journey of the same length as that which took Mr. Shackleton

from his winter quarters to within 100 geographical miles of the South Pole. The party would have to march so far as Edinburgh before reaching Captain Scott's record, and onwards to a point 240 miles beyond John o' Groats before reaching the limit of the journey. Mr. Shackleton told his story in a simple and graphic manner, which revealed, without unduly emphasising, the hardships and dangers experienced by his companions and himself on the great southern journey, and by the party under Prof. David which reached the South Magnetic Pole. The Lloyd-Creak dip-circle, he mentioned, worked remarkably well under the severe climatic conditions. The lecture was illustrated by a number of very interesting photographs, while at the close there was a display of "living pictures' -the first ever taken in the Antarctic regions-which afforded a very good idea of the movements of penguins and seals. One scene, which Mr. Shackleton will be well advised to omit in future, illustrated the death of a seal shot by the explorers. After the lecture the Prince of Wales, on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society, presented to Mr. Shackleton a special gold medal, and to a number of other members of the expedition replicas of the medal in silver.

THE next meeting of the French Association for the Advancement of Science will be held at Lille from

August 2-7. The secretary of the association should be addressed at 28, rue Serpente, Paris.

THE annual meeting of the Association for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb will be held at the Portman Rooms, Baker Street, W., on Tuesday, July 13. Lord Avebury will preside.

MR. F. MUIR and Mr. J. C. Kershaw send home, under date March 12, a description of a Peripatus which they have recently found in Ceram. This is the first time that Peripatus has been found in the Moluccas. The specimens, sixty-three in number, were all females. "In the size of its eggs (0.05 mm.) and in its mode of development and birth it approaches the neotropical group." In its other characters it appears to resemble Melano-Peripatus (the New Britain species found by Dr. Willey). The authors name the species Peripatus ceramensis. A description of it, with illustrations, will be published in the forthcoming number of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.

THE issues of the British Journal of Photography for June 18 and 25 contain a detailed account of a noteworthy collection of apparatus intended for the easy demonstration of certain optical and visual phenomena specially interesting to photographers. The apparatus, which was designed by Dr. E. Goldberg, of Leipzig, and is now on view at the International Exhibition of Photography at Dresden, is arranged in forty-four small cabinets. Each cabinet is fitted with the requisites for a single experiment, and is accompanied by printed instructions briefly stating the result to be looked for, and indicating the necessary manipulation, which is in every case so simple that the merest tyro can hardly fail of success. The points illustrated include defects of the eye, such as irradiation, chromatic aberration, the blind spot, and Purkinjé's figures; various subjective phenomena of colour; some effects of intermittent illumination; elementary examples of reflection, refraction, dispersion, diffraction, and absorption; colour mixture, with special regard to the devices employed in the modern processes of colour photography. DURING the course of the discussion on cable rates and Press intercommunication in connection with the Imperial Press Conference, Mr. Marconi gave some interesting

information. He remarked it would be injudicious for the Governments concerned to enter into a scheme of Stateowned cables without first having investigated the capabilities of a wireless connection between the two countries. In discussing these connections, he said, we should refer to electric communication instead of cable communication. The cost of two stations capable of communicating over distances which have proved practicable3000 miles-would be about 50,000l. for each station. This estimate, of course, is subject to variation. He is, he continued, certainly of opinion that it may be possible in the near future to communicate over greater distances, perhaps 6000 miles, or even more. There is a very interesting theoretical point about communicating a distance of 6000 miles, which is that when the equator is passed the wireless waves may begin to converge again, and it may occur that at the Antipodes messages can be received much easier than half-way to the Antipodes. That remains to be proved. At present the Marconi Company is prepared to take a limited amount of Press messages across the Atlantic at 2d. per word. When the stations are completed it is hoped to take a large amount-15,000 or 20,000 words a day. If the amount is considerable the company would be prepared to give a service at 2d. a word from Canada to England.

THE new buildings of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, were opened in State by the King on June 26. Mr. Runciman, President of the Board of Education, read an address, in which, on behalf of the Board, he thanked the King and Queen for consenting to open the new buildings, and explained the numerous uses of the museum. The address showed that the first object of the founders of the museum was to encourage a high standard of excellence among the craftsmen, manufacturers, and designers of this country. For many years lack of space prohibited a systematic arrangement and classification of the collections. The completion of the new buildings now makes it possible to display the collections in a manner worthy of the ambition which prompted their formation. With this object in view the Board of Education has formulated a scheme for the future organisation and management of the museum. The collections are classified in eight departments. Each department will have its own expert staff, while a separate staff will have charge of the supplementary collections intended for loans to provincial museums and schools of art. In the course of his reply the King said :-" The placing of an expert staff in charge of each section of the museum will have the double advantage of maintaining and developing the more scientific arrangement which has now become possible, and also of bringing about a more accurate knowledge of thehistory and beauty of the individual exhibits, and of their educational value.'

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THERE has, so far, been an entire absence of summer weather, and June has proved wet, cold, and almost sunless over the United Kingdom. In England the weather has been especially bad, and the aggregate rainfall is largely in excess of the average. In London the total measurement of rain, not including yesterday, June 30, was 4.29 inches, whilst the average for the month is 2.21 inches. The duration of bright sunshine is only eighty-seven hours, the average for the month being 167 hours, and in some recent years June has had 240 hours of sunshine; in May the sun was shining brightly in London for 297 hours. At Greenwich there have only been three days with the shade temperature above 70°, and there is only one year, 1860, with so few warm days in June during the last sixty-eight years. In June last year

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