I50 



NATURE 



[March 30, 1 9 1 1 



Graff, the president of the congress, has ascertained 

 that no gfuarantee has been given for the maintenancf 

 of the station by any Government or academy, and 

 that, by the terms of an agreement with the city of 

 Naples, no special ri|(hts can be obtained in it by 

 any such body during the period of agreement. Prof. 

 Rfinhard Dohrn has assumed the entire responsibility 

 ol continuing the work of the station, with the pro- 

 vision that, in the event of his death, the responsibility 

 shall pass to another member of the Dohrn family, 

 and subject to the understanding that the station shall 

 remain a completely international institution, in the 

 benefits of which all countries have the right of par- 

 ticipating. 



The memorial is to take the form of a portrait in 

 bas-relief, to be placed in the zoological station, and 

 of a fund for promoting the efliciency of the station 

 as an international institution for carrying on research 

 in biology. 



The amount collected will be reported in 1913 to 

 the ninth International Congress, which will be asked 

 to formulate the conditions under which the fund 

 shall be handed over to the zoological station. The 

 biologists resident in this country who had signified 

 their svmpathy with the proposal to establish the 

 memorial fund, and whose names appear in the in- 

 ternational list submitted to the Graz meeting, were 

 invited to attend a meeting which was held in the 

 Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, S.W., on 

 February 3. As a result of this meeting a number 

 of zoologists, representing the principal centres of 

 research in the British Islands, have been asked to 

 form a sub-committee for the British Empire, in 

 order to assist in the work of the international com- 

 mittee, and of this subcommittee Dr. Sidney F. 

 Harmer, F.R.S., was appointed chairman. 



Contributions varying in amount froni 5L 55. to 

 \os. 6d. have already been paid or promised, and it 

 is hoped that the result of the appeal for subscrip- 

 tions which is being issued will show that Anton 

 Dohrn 's great achievement, the establishment and 

 management of the Stazione Zoologica at Naples, is 

 as fully appreciated here as it is in other parts of the 

 world. 



Additional subscriptions may be paid to Prof. S. J. 

 Hickson, F.R.S., of the University of Manchester, 

 who is acting as secretary and treasurer of the British 

 subcommittee. Prof. Hickson will be glad to send 

 a copv of the circular which has been issued to any 

 subscriber whose name has been accidentally omitted 

 in drawing up the list of addresses. 



liOTES. 



We are asked to state that the annual meeting of the 

 British Science Guild, to be held on Friday, April 7, at 

 the Mansion House, will be opened at 5.0 p.m. instead of 

 4.0 p.m., as previously announced. The speakers will 

 be : — The Lord Mayor, Viscount Haldane, Sir William 

 White, K.C.B., F.R.S., Sir Albert Spicer, Prof. J. Perry, 

 F.R.S., Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, C.B., F.R.S., Prof. A. D. 

 Waller, F.R.S., and Sir Philip Magnus, M.P. 



The Bakerian lecture of the Royal Society will be 

 delivered by the Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S., on Thursday 

 next, April 6, on the subject of "A Chemically Active 

 Modification of Nitrogen produced by the Electric Dis- 

 charge." The lecture will be illustrated by experiments. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Irish Academy 

 on March 16 the following were elected honorary members 

 in the section of science :^Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, 

 Berlin ; Max Planck, Berlin ; Right Hon. Sir Henry Enfield 

 Roscoe, London ; and Charles Sprague Sargent, Cambridge, 

 Mass., U.S.A. 



NO. 2 161, VOL. 86] 



The proposal to establish a museum for London com<-.H 

 at a moment when the subject is better understood than 

 at any other time. Museum work has taken its place in 

 educational requirements, and local history has been shown 

 to be of supreme importance in the development of good 

 citizf-nship. Of all localities, London is the outstanding city 

 in Britain possessing a history of unique importance. The 

 site of London has been occupied by man since Pala-olithic 

 times, through Neolithic times to the historic period when, 

 as a Celtic stronghold, it first became the settlement of 

 a community. As a Roman city, it possesses the finest 

 remains of Roman antiquities in all Britain. Anglo- 

 Saxon, Danish, and later periods are represented by fine 

 series of objects. Remains of beautiful Tudor architecture 

 have been excavated and preserved by the London County 

 Council, which has also preserved and stored every object 

 of interest discovered during its numerous works ; the 

 City Corporation has assiduously collected for many years 

 objects discovered in the city, and there are many local 

 collections of considerable interest, both public and private. 

 All this means that there exists already the materials for 

 a London museum from prehistoric to modern times, and 

 it is matter for intense gratification that Mr. Harcourt, 

 when First Commissioner of Works, should have set his 

 hand to this great project and should have carried it 

 through with the aid of a munificent private benefactor. 

 That London should have its own museum of material 

 history as well as its published records is all to the good, 

 though it is late in the day. It is fortunate that the delay 

 in the accomplishment is accompanied by a goodly store- 

 house of objects awaiting exhibition in a properly organised 

 museum. 



Lord Curzon of Kedleston has consented to allow him- 

 self to be nominated by the council of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society as president of the society in succession 

 to Major Leonard Darwin, who will retire at the 

 anniversary meeting on May 22, after occupying the presi- 

 dential chair for three years. The annual dinner of the 

 society will be held this year in the Great Hall of the 

 Hotel Cecil on May 26. 



A Reuter message from Paris on March 25 states that 

 M. Sommer, the aviator, has made a flight at Mouzon in 

 a biplane with twelve passengers on board, the total weight 

 being 1439 lb. 



By direction of the London County Council, a tablet has 

 been aflixed to No. 32 Soho Square (the National Hospital 

 for Diseases of the Heart), where for many years lived Sir 

 Joseph Banks, who for forty-one years — from 1778 to 

 1820 — was president of the Royal Society. 



The meetings of the Institution of Naval Architects will 

 be held at the Royal Society of Arts on .April 5-7. In 

 consequence of the death of the late president of the institu- 

 tion. Earl Cawdor, the annual dinner will not be held 

 this year. On April 5 the presentation of the institution 

 premium to Mr. T. B. Abell will be made. 



A brass tablet to the memory of the late Mr. Cox has 

 been placed in the Hackney Town Hall. The tablet, which 

 was provided by residents in Hackney, bears the words : — 

 " In honour of Harry William Charles Cox, consulting 

 electrician, who died at Hackney July 9, 1910. He con- 

 tracted a malignant disease while perfecting apparatus for 

 adapting the X-rays to the relief of human suffering." 



The Bessemer gold medal of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 will this year be awarded to Prof. Henri Le Chatelier, 

 the eminent French metallurgist, in recognition of his 



