THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



9 1 



which can to advantage take place dur- 

 ing convocation week. Neither can the 

 societies singly exert the influence on 

 the public and on public affairs which 

 they can hope to gain by united effort. 

 The best solution of the problem would 

 probably be for the American Associa- 

 tion and all our scientific societies to 

 meet together in one of our larger cities 

 in the winter and to arrange for a 

 smaller and less technical meeting at 

 one of the university towns in the sum- 

 mer; and, so far as possible, for the 

 societies that wish to hold separate 

 meetings to call them at times that 

 will not interfere with the great con- 

 vocation week meetings. 



AWARD OF THE XOBEL PRIZES 

 Ox December 10, the anniversary of 

 the death of Alfred Nobel, the great 

 prizes established by his will were 

 awarded for the fifth time. The award 

 for the promotion of peace to the 

 Austrian Baroness von Suttner for her 

 novel, entitled ' Die Waffen nieder,' and 

 that to the great Polish novelist, 

 Henryk Sienckiewicz, for literary work 

 in an idealistic direction, do not fall 

 within the immediate scope of this 

 journal. The prize in physiology and 

 medicine goes to Professor Robert Koch, 

 that in physics to Professor Philipp 

 Lenard, and that in chemistry to Pro- 

 fessor Adolf von Baeyer. 



Each of the recipients has a world- 

 wide reputation for scientific research 

 and discovery. Dr. Koch has the great 

 distinction of having discovered the 

 bacilli of tuberculosis and of cholera. 

 His tuberculin has failed as a remedy, 

 but has proved of great value in diag- 

 nosis. His researches on malaria, 

 rinderpest and various tropical dis- 

 eases have been contributions of vast 

 importance for the study and cure of 

 disease. Dr. Koch does not hold a 

 university position, and like Dr. Behr- 

 ing, to whom a Nobel prize was awarded 

 in 1901, he earns money by his dis- 

 coveries. They have been criticized for 

 this, but it may be that the greatest 

 advances in science will come when in- 

 vestigators are paid directly for their 



work instead of indirectly as at present. 

 Dr. Koch was born in Clausthal in 

 1843; he studied at Gottingen and car- 

 ried on his researches for some years 

 as a practising physician in small 

 towns. In 1880 he became an officer of 

 the Imperial Bureau of Health at Ber- 

 lin, and in 1885 was appointed director 

 of the Berlin Laboratory of Hygiene 

 and professor in the university. He 

 has, however, been chiefly engaged in 

 expeditions to tropical countries under 

 the auspices of the German and other 

 governments, and is just now returning 

 to Berlin from South Africa. 



Professor Lenard, of Kiel, is distin- 

 guished for the discovery of the rays 

 that bear his name, which was an im- 

 portant step forward in the direction 

 of research which has become dominant 

 in recent physics, the phenomena of 

 radiation and the theories of the con- 

 stitution of matter, with which the 

 names of Rontgen, Becquerel and the 

 Curies, who have already received Nobel 

 prizes, are associated, and to which 

 Thomson, Rutherford and Crookes have 

 contributed in equal measure. Lenard 

 was born 1802, studied at Heidelberg 

 and at Berlin, and has filled teaching 

 positions in Bonn, Breslau Heidelberg 

 and Kiel. He has accomplished much 

 valuable work in addition to his release 

 of the cathode rays from the Crookes 

 tubes, but he is scarcely the peer of 

 Lord Kelvin or Professor J. J. Thom- 

 son, neither of whom has received a 

 Nobel prize. 



Baron von Baeyer, of Munich, has 

 made contributions of great importance 

 to organic and industrial chemistry. 

 His work on the carbon compounds is 

 of much theoretical interest, but he is 

 most widely celebrated for the discovery 

 of aniline dyes and the artificial pro- 

 duction of indigo. Professor von 

 Baeyer celebrated his seventieth birth- 

 day on October 31. Born in Berlin, he 

 studied there, and at Heidelberg and 

 Geneva. He qualified as Dozent at 

 Berlin in 18G0 and became full pro- 

 fessor of chemistry at the newly-organ- 

 ized University of Strasburg in 1872, 

 succeeding Liebig at Munich in 1S75. 



