spite of the pride of ownership, the safe keeping of Thus far of the protection of the larger of the ancient monuments in their respective localities. The smaller objects of antiquarian interest ought to find their safe keeping in a museum, but to meet this want less progress has been made. It is now some ten years since the trustees adopted a memorandum to the effect that the Manx Museum should consist of local objects to illustrate fully the archæology and natural history of the island, and the buildings requisite for the purpose should have a minimum area (including galleries) of 5000 square feet, and cost no less than 5000l. They also agreed that such an institution, being purely national, not municipal, should be provided partly by public subscription, partly by a grant from the revenue, and partly by the rates of the town in which the museum was to be estab lished. The town, they thought, should be Douglas, So for the present Castle Rushen, a famous mediæval fortress, is the insular museum, and it is curious to read that the banqueting hall, that had witnessed scenes" of revelry by night," has the fine and very perfect example of the " Irish elk " from Poortown standing in the middle of the floor-it is, if I am not mistaken, not the only "Irish elk" found in the island; I have heard it said that one was presented by one of the Scottish kings of Man to Edinburgh. Among contents on a less colossal stage are the valuable casts of the early sculptured stones and inscribed monuments found in the island, a hundred and twelve in all-and the casts are already too few, for at least two more cross slabs have been discovered In fact, this is one since the drafting of the report. of the most encouraging aspects of the whole busi ness. The collection is steadily increasing as the result of gifts, purchases, or loans, as the catalogue testifies. But here comes the difficulty, for, as the trustees point out, even for the purposes of a local archæological collection making any approach to com pleteness the space is insufficient for the methodical exhibition of it to the best advantage. This leaves out of consideration other aspects of the museum ques tion, for the trustees are forced to add that though they are very willing to receive and store geological and local natural history objects, they are at present unable to exhibit them. Manx archæologists are only just in time to save the crosses of the island, but every year much is being lost for ever for the want of a museum, and the loss is not only that of Man, but of the archæology of the British archipelago as a whol But how is the museum to be provided? There seems to be no prospect of the island setting one up. even at the modest expense of 5000l., and as to that figure I should guess that the bare building required would cost that sum, not to mention the furnishing, which would probably cost another 5000l. Before all I ought to have mentioned the site, for which, if it is to be at Douglas, I would rather not indicate any sum. Suffice it to say that the money difficulties are such that I can only make one suggestion, and that is, that the Imperial Government should take the matter in hand. What it has done for the island of late besides affording it and its herring fleet general protection I know not; but it is understood that the island, besides paying the expenses of its own Govern ment, pays direct to the imperial exchequer 10,000l. annually, besides a very large income from royalties and other sources of revenue which discharge perennially into the coffers of the Crown. Having alluded to these disbursements, it is needless to point the moral. All lovers of fair play will agree with me that it would be but reasonable for the central Government to come to the help of the Manx people in the matter of its antiquities and natural history, and the sooner the better. JOHN RHYS. THE SOUTH AFRICAN MEDAL OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. WHEN the members of the British Association were in South Africa last August and September, it occurred to someone of the party that it would be well to commemorate our visit by founding a medal for South African students. I am sorry that I cannot remember to whom the credit of this admirable suggestion is due, but the officers at once adopted it with enthusiasm. Papers explaining the proposal were first circulated through the special trains on our way from Durban to Johannesburg, and a substantial sum was promised in a very short time. The proposal was subsequently laid before those who did not happen to be travelling in the special trains, and ultimately before all the members of the British Association. balance will come to about 500l. It is clear that this balance ought to be returned to South Africa in some way, and a resolution has been passed by the council of the association that the unexpended balance shall be devoted to the augmentation of the medal fund. The expenses attendant on the design of the medal have amounted to about 100l., and it is hoped that more than 1200l. will remain for transmission to South Africa. As a higher rate of interest on safe investments is obtainable there than here, a substantial annual sum will be provided in aid of research. The cordiality of our reception in South Africa surpassed all that could possibly have been foreseen, and we in England are glad to be able to establish this small foundation as a memorial of the most remarkable of the many annual meetings of the British Association. G. H. DARWIN. Mr. Frank Bowcher's Designs or the South African Medal of the British Association. tration of the fund, and to undertake the annual and throughout the greater part of the west and southaward of the medal which was to be struck. The income of the fund was to be in aid of scientific research among South African students, and it was thought that the medal would commemorate appropriately the fact that the recipient of the award was of such promise as to have been deemed worthy of the confidence placed in him. The South African Association has cordially accepted the duties in question, and a medal, shown in the illustration, and to be struck in bronze, has been designed by Mr. Frank Bowcher. The total sum subscribed by the members of the British Association amounts to 859l., but the fund will receive a further substantial augmentation, as I shall now explain. Before the meeting of last year, the several South African colonies subscribed a large sum in aid of the expenses of the members intending to come out to South Africa, and this sum was supplemented, although on a less liberal scale, by a subscription in England. The total of this special South African fund was a little more than 9000l. It is expected that, when all the accounts are settled, the unexpended west of England. Judging from the accounts which I have already received, the disturbed area must extend some distance to the north of Liverpool; towards the east it includes Northampton and Maidenhead, and approaches to within about twenty miles of London, while the southern boundary lies in the English Channel to the south of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. I have not yet obtained any observations from Ireland, but there can be little doubt that the shock was sensible over most of the counties of Wicklow and Wexford. A first rough estimate makes the disturbed area nearly circular in form, about 280 miles in diameter, and about 60,000 square miles in area. The shock, which affected a region greater than the combined areas of England and Wales, was naturally of considerable strength within the central district. It is too early to make any estimate of the total damage to buildings, but the first reports show that a very large number of chimneys were thrown down, especially in Swansea, where the number is said to amount to several hundred. From Kidwelly on the west to beyond Neath on the east, and from Glanamman on the north to beyond Swansea on the south, it will probably be found that few towns and villages have escaped some injury. The isoseismal line of intensity 8, or the curve which bounds the area of slight damage to buildings, seems to be roughly elliptical in form, about twenty-eight miles from east to west and eighteen to twenty miles from north to south, or a little more than 100 square miles in area. Nearly all the strongest British earthquakes belong to the class which have been called "twin" earthquakes. They originate within two foci, which are nearly or quite detached, with their centres, as a rule, about eight or ten miles apart. But the chief peculiarity about them is that the two impulses which cause them take place almost simultaneously, or, if not quite so, that the second impulse occurs before the vibrations from the first focus have time to reach the other, the two impulses being thus due to a single generative effort. From the descriptions which have been given there can, I think, be no doubt that the recent shock was a typical twin earthquake. Many hundreds of observations will be required to determine the positions of the twin foci, and to ascertain which focus was first in action. But, so far as the evidence already collected allows us to judge, the foci appear to have been situated along a nearly east and west line, and are probably coincident with an east and west fault, passing close to Llanelly, Swansea, and Neath. It would be useless at present to attempt a more exact definition of the originating fault, but it is clearly connected with the great Armorican system of crust-movements, which attain their maximum in Brittany and midDevon, and, as they enter South Wales, begin to die away. In this district, as Mr. Aubrey Strahan remarked in his address at the Cambridge meeting of the British Association, the chief disturbances are of post-Carboniferous age. That they are still occasionally continued, though on a much smaller scale, the recent shock bears ample testimony. It is evident from the above account that the earthquake presents several features of considerable interest to geologists. The district is also one that affords unusual opportunities for the study of the nature and effects of the shock in deep mines, and it is to be hoped that our somewhat scanty knowledge will be advanced in this respect. I take this opportunity of stating how greatly my investigation of the earthquake would be assisted by the contribution of records from different places, and especially from the workings in the mining districts. The points on which I wish to obtain information will be found in many local newspapers, but I shall be glad to send forms on which descriptions may be conveniently entered if application is made to me at 16 Manor Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. CHARLES DAVISON. PROFS. N. S. SHALER AND I. C. RUSSELL. also professor of palæontology in Harvard University. While retaining this professorship, he was in 1873 appointed director of the second Kentucky Geological Survey, a post he held until 1880; and in 1887 he became professor of geology in Harvard University, and occupied the chair until his death this year at the age of sixty-five. When little more than twenty years of age he discussed the age of the rocks in Anticosti, in a paper read before the Boston Society of Natural History, and in 1865 and following years he brought before the same society his views on the elevation of continental masses, arguing that seabottoms on which sedimentation was taking place were areas of depression, and that prominent lands undergoing denudation were areas of uplift. He discussed the formation of mountain chains (1866), and maintained that while the continental folds were corrugations of the mass of the earth's crust, the mountain chains were folds only of the outer portion of the crust caused by contraction of its underlying part, and that the formation of mountain chains would be promoted by the subsidence of the ocean's floors, fractures and dislocations being thereby produced along their borders (see G. P. Merrill's "Contributions to the History of American Geology,” 1906). In a subsequent paper (1875) Shaler suggested that the transfer of weight to the land by the accumu lation of an ice-sheet would influence terrestrial movements. He also discussed the possibility of the Japan current flowing at the close of the Glacial period over what is now land about Bering's Strait, and thus modifying the climatic conditions. He issued memoirs and reports on the geology of Kentucky (1876, &c.), and in later years dealt with a great variety of subjects, scientific and practical, including the classifi cation of lavas, the fossil brachiopods of the Ohio valley, soils, the geological history of harbours, peatdeposits, road-stones, the features of the earth and moon, &c. He was author of important reports on the geology of Cape Cod district (1898); (with J. B. Woodworth) geology of the Richmond Basin, Virginia (1899); and (with A. F. Foerste) geology of the Narragansett Basin (1899). He wrote also "Outlines of the Earth's History " (1898); "Sea and Land: Features of Coasts and Oceans, with Special Reference to the Life of Man (1895); Study of Life and Death" (1900), and other works of a more or less popular character. Prof. Israel Cook Russell, whose death occurred at the age of fifty-three, was born at Garrattsville, in New York State, on December 10, 1852. He graduated at the University of New York in 1872, and after further study at the School of Mines, Columbia, was appointed a member of the U.S. expedition to New Zealand (1874-5) to observe the transit of Venus. His attention, however, was given mainly to the study of physical geology. On his return from New Zealand he became assistant professor of geology at the Columbia School of Mines, and in 1878 was appointed assistant geologist on the U.S. geographical and geological survey west of the one hundredth meridian. GEOLOGICAL science, and America in particular, From 1880 to 1892 he served as geologist on the U.S. has suffered a severe loss in the deaths of two university professors, N. S. Shaler, of Harvard, and I. C. Russell, of Michigan. Prof. Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, who was born in Newport, Kentucky, on February 20, 1841, graduated at Harvard University, and served two years as an artillery officer in the Union Army during | the Civil War. Subsequently he pursued the study of natural science, to which he had been attracted at the Lawrence Scientific School in Cambridge, took the degree of Sc.D. in 1865, and became in 1868 instructor in zoology and geology in that school, and Geological Survey, and in 1892 he became professor of geology in the University of Michigan. His earlier papers (1878) dealt with the physical history of the Trias in New Jersey, and with the intrusive nature of the eruptive rocks, in which he recorded the presence of a solid hydrocarbon. One of his more important works was a sketch of the geological history of the former Lake Lahontan, which in Quaternary times occupied an area of nearly 8500 square miles in N.W. Nevada (1883); he wrote also on the glaciers of Mount Rainier (1898), and on the geology of the Cascade Mountains (1900). Of later papers mention may be made of his observations on the Snake River plains, on the water-bearing strata of Idaho and Oregon, and on the volcanic eruptions of Martinique and St. Vincent. He was author of separate and more popular works on the lakes, glaciers, volcanoes, and rivers of North America. NOTES. ONLY a few names familiar in the scientific world occur in the long list of honours announced on Friday last in celebration of the King's birthday. 'Lieut.-Colonel D. Prain, F.R.S., director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, and late director of the Botanical Survey of India, has been appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. Sir Christopher Nixon, ex-president of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland, and the author of various papers on diseases of the heart and nervous system, has received the honour of a baronetcy. Among the thirty new knights are Mr. T. Digby Pigott, Emeritus Prof. A. R. Simpson, and Dr. A. E. Wright. Sir John Brunner, a member of the great firm of alkali manufacturers, Brunner, Mond and Co., has been made a privy councillor. BRITISH merchants and manufacturers anticipated a great development of our trade in the Far East at the close of the Russo-Japanese War last year; but it appears from a special inquiry instituted by the Daily Mail that their expectations have not been realised. There has been a noteworthy expansion of trade since peace was concluded last August, but the Japanese have taken care that the chief advantages of it shall be to themselves. They have not only secured the Far Eastern market, but, according to our contemporary, the Japanese Government is laying plans for becoming our rivals as an exporter of goods to India. "The fault," we read, "is chiefly our own. Our Government neither knows what is going on nor takes any measures to protect our interests. It is quite natural that Japan should seek to take the current when it serves, but we, too, ought to have our share of the flood that leads on to fortune, and if the Far Eastern department of the Foreign Office will kindly wake up we may secure it yet." It is evident that the Japanese, with their scientific knowledge and methods, will be as strong in peace as they have proved themselves in war. This is an age when science and system are essential to progress, and the ration that realises it is best equipped for survival in the struggle for commercial supremacy. Only by insisting that the scientific spirit which permeates Japanese education and policy shall be possessed by our own statesmen can our commercial position be made secure against attack.or progress be assured, either now or in the future. Ix the House of Lords last week, Lord Onslow asked whether His Majesty's Government proposed to continue to take part, after next year, in the international investigations of North Sea fisheries, and made some observations by way of criticism of the methods of investigation which the International Council has adopted. The gravamen of Lord Onslow's objection to the scheme appears to be that, whilst in his opinion the most promising method of attacking fishery problems is by the collection of statistical information from the commercial fishing vessels and at the ports of landing, in the international scheme the carrying out of accurate investigations at sea by men of scientific education and training on board specially equipped research steamers is regarded as essential to an adequate study of the very complicated problems which present themselves to those responsible for the regulation of the fisheries. The value of such collections of statistical data as Lord Onslow suggests, as an adjunct to work carried out by special research steamers, cannot be doubted, and, judging from the reports already published, appears to be fully recognised by the International Council. But no one with experience of the fundamental necessity of accurate observation and scientific method in dealing with practical problems of this character will, we imagine, for a moment be able to agree with the suggestion that such collections of miscellaneous information, the trustworthiness of which must necessarily vary greatly in different cases, can adequately supersede the observations and experiments of skilled investigators. The results already foreshadowed by the International Council seem to be of a promising character, and Lord Carrington, who replied for the Government, was well advised in postponing the consideration of the question of the continued participation of this country in the investigations until after the full reports have been received. A MEETING was held on June 27 in support of the National Association for the Establishment of Sanatoria for Workers suffering from Tuberculosis. The secretary announced that the association is receiving the active At the present time cooperation of friendly societies. twenty-eight beds have been bespoken for the General Post Office, fifteen for the Hospital Saturday Fund, and five for the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society. Donations have been received from representatives of the participating classes, and this willingness of the ordinary public to assist men of science in their endeavours to eliminate a dreadful disease will greatly lighten their task. Mr. Chamberlain, in a speech supporting the scheme, pointed out that science has already done a good deal, and, without being too optimistic, it is likely that, from further discoveries and continued exertions of distinguished men engaged in medical research, perhaps in the near future the discovery of some definite specific remedy for the disease will be made. Cholera, diphtheria, and other diseases no longer have their terrors, and consumption may cease to be what it is at the present time. Mr. Chamberlain went on to say that he wished he could make his voice reach some of those who have, not merely too much wealth, but wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, which the possessors themselves recognise they cannot make any possible use of. He urged upon the men of great wealth that there is no possible thing they can do which will bring greater benefit to humanity at large, and give them greater satisfaction, than to endow further great schemes for medical research. While sympathising with the desire to see our millionaires emulating the example of American men of wealth in their support of scientific research, our statesmen should not lose sight of the fact that it is as much their duty to see to the protection of the people from disease as from foreign foes. The endowment of scientific and medical research is as necessary a form of national defence as a battleship, and to postpone the organisation of a State-aided campaign against a scourge like consumption until the generosity of millionaires has been developed is unstatesmanlike and a dereliction of duty on the part of Governments. THE death of Señor Manuel Garcia in London on Sunday has deprived the worlds of science and music of a man whose work will be remembered so long as the human voice is used and studied. While the throat is capable of emitting musical sounds, and is liable to disease, the laryngoscope invented by Manuel Garcia wi its unique place among vocalists and laryngologists. Garcia was born in Madrid on March 17, 1805, and the enthusiastic celebration of his centenary last year was described in NATURE at the time (March 23, 1905, vol. 1xxi., p. 491). | The King invested him with the insignia of Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, and many other tributes to his great services to mankind were presented to him. While a teacher of singing in Paris, about 1840, Garcia devoted attention to the scientific study of the problems of his art, including the anatomy and physiology of the larynx. The epoch-making paper in which he laid the foundation of the experimental study of the voice was read before our Royal Society in 1855, after he had settled in London and invented the laryngoscope. Intra-laryngeal medication and surgery, says the Times, soon followed the discovery of the diagnostic properties of this instrument, and its principles were extended to the elucidation and treatment of diseases of the parts situated between the nose and throat. The importance of the invention was not recognised until two years later, when the attention of the whole world was directed to the laryngoscope. Compensation for the indifference first shown by the medical profession to Garcia's discovery was amply afforded by the centenary celebration last year, when public institutions and societies from every quarter of the globe united to honour the great teacher and investigator. THE Longstaff medal of the Chemical Society has been awarded to Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., in recognition of his spectrochemical investigations; the presentation will be made at the first meeting of next session, October 18. THE death is announced of M. Rayet, director of the Observatory of Bordeaux-Floirac. M. Rayet was also professor of astronomical physics at the University of Bordeaux. THE council of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has appointed the president of the institution, Mr. E. P. Martin, as one of its representatives upon the main committee of the Engineering Standards Committee in succession to Mr. E. Windsor Richards, past-president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, who has retired. MR. G. MONTEFIORE-LEVI, of Brussels, formerly a member of the Belgian Senate, and president of the Association of Engineers, has bequeathed a portion, probably exceeding 100,000l. in value, of his residuary estate, to be applied for the prevention of consumption. THE Geologists' Association has arranged a long excursion to the Yorkshire coast, extending from July 21 to July 28. The object of the excursion is to visit the Lias and Oolite sections from Robin Hood's Bay to Saltburn. Members wishing to take part should communicate at once with Mr. H. Kidner, 78 Gladstone Road, Watford. The party leaves King's Cross at 11.30 a.m. on July 21. Ar the annual general meeting held on June 28, the following were elected Fellows of the British Academy: :the Rev. R. H. Charles, Mr. W. J. Courthope, C.B., Mr. J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Mr. Andrew Lang, Prof. A. A. Macdonell, Dr. J. E. McTaggart, Canon Edward Moore, and Dr. G. F. Warner. The number of fellows is thus brought up to ninety-four, out of a maximum of 100 allowed by Order of Council. AFTER the ceremony on June 25, when Mr. Haldane opened the electrical laboratory of the National Physical Laboratory, Sir John Brunner very generously placed the sum of 5000l. at the disposal of the committee toward the completion and equipment of the additional buildings for engineering, metrology, and metallurgy, now in course of erection. to 1 THE past week will long be remembered by electrical engineers on account of the international meeting referre to in our last number (p. 207). We have had among us representatives of the electrical industries of France, the United States, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Canada, and have been enabled return in some part the hospitality they have in past years extended to us. good and varied programme was arranged, and our leading firms assisted by giving free access to their works and in entertaining the visitors. We trust that our guests will look back upon their visit here as no less delightful than those which many of our own electrical engineer still remember with gratitude to their respective countries. A RAINSTORM of exceptional severity was experienced over the whole of the south-east of England during the night of Thursday, June 28, and the morning of the following day. The rainfall in and around London was as heavy as any where. The downpour commenced shortly after midnight, and continued without intermission for eight or nine hours. At Kew the measurement amounted to 2.36 inches, at Camden Town to 2.27 inches, and at the observing station of the Meteorological Office, in St. James's Park, to 2.07 inches. At Greenwich the measurement was 18 inches. Other stations reporting heavy falls were Canbridge, with an aggregate measurement of 23 inches Rothamsted, 2.2 inches; Hiclington, in Norfolk, and Epsom, 1-8 inches; and Oxford, 1.7 inches. Previous records only show so heavy a fall in twenty-four hours for London on three occasions during the last fifty years. This severe rainstorm was due to the passage of a shallow cyclonic disturbance across the southern portion of England. and in places the force of a moderate to fresh gale was experienced. At Greenwich the pressure of the wind was 10 lb. on the square foot, at 9 a.m., on June 29. The type of weather was peculiarly characteristic of thunderstorms, but it was only in a few isolated places that thunder and lightning occurred. of a commodious laboratory for the study of marine biolog ARRANGEMENTS have now been completed for the erection at Cullercoats, on the Northumberland coast. A much smaller laboratory, which had been provided by the munificence of Alderman Dent, the chairman of the County Council's fisheries committee, was accidentally burnt down some few years ago, and the proposed building is designed to carry out, not only fishery research, but also general biological studies. The gift of the site and the cost erection of the building will be borne in a very generou way by Mr. Wilfrid Hudleston, F.R.S., the managemen being under the control of the Armstrong College at New castle. It is hoped that the new building will be read for use at an early period of the next collegiate session. and that students will in this way obtain a further means of valuable training in practical biology. Cullercoats is, d course, classical ground to the marine biologist, hav been the source of much of the material upon which Alder and Hancock's great work on the nudibranchiate mollus? was based. A CORRESPONDENT writes asking for information as t self-recording instruments of the variations in the direction of the wind, and suggests that no such self-registerin |