April 6, 191 ij 



NATURE 



187 



in the south. The Fram is going to Buenos Aires, and 

 will return to the Barrier in 1912. 



The Prehistoric Society of France will hold its seventh 

 meeting at Nimes on August 6—12. 



Two lectures to engineers, on steel, will be given at 

 the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on Tuesdays. 

 April II and 25, by Dr. Walter Rosenhain, of the National 

 Pliysical Laboratory. 



The Selborne Society has just issued a new prospectus 

 which is well illustrated from photographs by members of 

 the society, and includes pictures by several of the pioneers 

 in nature photography. The prospectus contains a long 

 list of branches and junior branches, with the rules of the 

 -oriety; copies can be obtained by prospective members on 

 application to the honorary secretary at 42 Bloomsburv 

 .Square, W.C. 



iiiE death is announced from Rotterdam of Pieter 

 (urnelius Tobias Snellen, the distinguished entomologist, 



seventy-seven years of age. A notice in The Times 



^Pi"'! 5 gives the following particulars of his work : — 

 .^ii'llen devoted his attention almost exclusively to the 

 Lrpidoptera, and was one of the founders of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of the Netherlands, in the Transactions of 

 which he published a valuable series of articles both on 

 Dutch and foreign Lepidoptera from 1857 onwards. His 

 work on the Lepidoptera of Holland, published in three 

 v(>kimes in 1867 and 1882, under the title of " Vlinders 

 van Nederland," is the standard work on the subject, and 

 i^ a model of completeness and accuracy. In addition to 

 liis European collection, Snellen brought together a verv 

 \:iluable foreign collection with the assistance of his friend 

 M. C. Piepers, and other Dutch Colonial officials, and on 

 materials thus acquired he based valuable papers on the 

 1. pidoptera of West Africa, Java, Celebes, &c., and he 



> contributed a long paper on Lepidoptera to Veth's 



ridden-Sumatra." 



[R Caspar Purdon Clarke, formerly director of the 

 ■ dth Kensington Museum, and afterwards director of 

 thi' Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, died after 

 a long illness on March 29. Sir Caspar acquired a con- 

 siderable reputation by his knowledge of Eastern art, of 

 wliich he was an enthusiastic and earnest student. On 

 behalf of the South Kensington Museum he made several 

 expeditions to the East for the collection of objects of 

 Indian and Persian art, and the very remarkable display 

 of Indian art and Indian architecture, which was one of 

 the most attractive features of the Indian and Colonial 

 Exhibition, 1886, was almost entirely due to the result of 

 the journey which he made the previous year for the 

 collection of suitable examples. After serving at South 

 Kensington in various capacities, he followed Sir Phiii]) 

 Cunliffe-Owen as director of the museum in 1896. Nine 

 years later— in 1905— he was attracted by the liberal offers 

 of the authorities of that museum to the Metropolitan 

 Museum of Art in New York. Illness compelled his 

 abandonment of this post last year, and since his return 

 to England he had been in very failing health. 



The Loischbcrg Tunnel through the IVrnese AIjjs was 

 pierced early in the morning of March 31. It has taken 

 four and a half years to bore the tunnel, and it will be 

 another two years before it is open for traffic. The length 

 is rather more than q\ miles, and the tunnel ranks third 

 among the great Alpine tunnels. The Simplon is 3;^ miles 

 longer, and the St. (iothard only about a quarter of a mile. 

 One end of the new tunnel, which derives its name from 

 the L6t«chen Pass under which it runs, comes out at 

 NO. 2162, VOL. 86] 



Kandersteg, in the Bernese Oberland, the other at 

 Goppenstein, 173 miles from Brigue.. The Lotschberg 

 Tunnel differs from the other Alpine tunnels in not being 

 straight, there being three curved lengths of 872 yards, 

 1222 yards, and 350 yards respectively, amounting in all 

 to about one and one-third miles. This curved course 

 was not part of the original plan, but was necessitated by 

 the accident of July 24, 1908, when the Kander River was 

 tapped and the water rushed into the workings, carrying 

 with it a mass of rock, and killing twenty-five workmen. 

 In consequence of this catastrophe, the total length of ihe 

 tunnel was increased from 13,735 metres to 14,536 metres, 

 or nearly half a mile. On the approach lines nearly one 

 and a half millions sterling are being spent, while the 

 funnel itself was to cost 2,000,000/. To this sum, how- 

 e%'er, must be added the extra expenditure, amounting to 

 80,000/., involved in lengthening the tunnel in the manner 

 described. The chief difficulties encountered have been 

 the hardness of the granite during a great part of the 

 tunnel's course, which has involved heavy expenditure for 

 blasting material, and the high temperature on the south 

 side, which sometimes rose to more than 90° F. 



The Corrosion Research Committee of the Institute of 

 Metals is now actively engaged in preparing for an 

 elaborate series of investigations into the causes of the 

 corrosion of brass condenser tubes. A special condenser is 

 being constructed, which will contain forty-eight tubes, 

 twenty-four of these being made of commercially pure 

 brass, the remaining twenty-four tubes being made from 

 brass containing a single selection from the following : — 

 lead, tin, aluminium, manganese, or other materials at 

 the discretion of the committee. PZxperiments will be made 

 with various water speeds in the ratio of 0:1:2:3:4, 

 speed 2 being an average speed used in practice. The 

 circulating water to be used will be obtained from deep 

 water at Formby, off Liverpool, in the first instance, and 

 the plant for the corrosion research will be installed in 

 the University of Liverpool, where the experiments will 

 be under the direct supervision of Mr. G. D. Bengough. 

 It is expected by the committee that the research will 

 occupy many months before any definite conclusions can 

 be reached, and it will undoubtedly be costly. An appeal 

 was recently made by the committee for funds to carry 

 on the research, and in respcr.se to it the total amount 

 received was 242/. This is sufficient to enable the research 

 to be commenced ; but if the work is to be carried on 

 properly the expenses will probably amount to not less 

 than 300/. per annum. It is therefore hoped that addi- 

 tional donations to the Corrosion Research Fund will be 

 speedily forthcoming. Donations should be sent to Mr. 

 G. Shaw Scott, secretary of the Institute of Metals, at 

 Caxton House, Westminster, S.W. 



The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will 

 be held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George 

 Street, Westminster, on Thursday and Friday, May 1 1 

 and 12, commencing each day at 10.30 o'clock a.m. On 

 the Thursday morning, the Bessemer gold medal for 1911 

 will be presented to Prof. H. Le Chatelier, and the Andrew 

 Carnegie g<»ld medal for 1910 will be presented to Mr. 

 F61ix Robin (Paris). The awards of the Andrew Carnegie 

 research scholarships for 191 1 will be announced, and a 

 selection of papers will be read and discussed. The annual 

 dinner of the institute will be held in the evening in the 

 Connaught Rooms, Great Queen Street, W.C. On Friday, 

 May 12, a further selection of papers will be read and 

 discussed. The autumn meeting of the institute this year 

 will, by the invitation of the Associazione fra gli Indus- 



