June 29, 191 i| 



NATURE 



591 



The German Emperor has conferred the Order of the 

 Crown, Second Class, upon Sir Ernest Shackleton. 



Dr. Sven Heuin has been elected a correspondant of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences in the section of geography 

 and navigation. 



The death is announced, in his fifty-fifth year, of Dr. 



E. B. Voorhees, the director since 1896 of the New Jersey 

 Agricultural College experiment station, and the president, 

 since 1901, of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture. 

 He had written and lectured extensively on agricultural 

 chemistry and allied subjects. 



At the meeting of the Association Internationale de 

 rinstitut Marey held on June 6th, the resignation of Prof. 

 Kronecker as president was received. The members of the 

 association elected Prof. Charles Richet as president, and 

 Dr. Augustus D. Waller as vice-president. The Institut 

 Marey is under the patronage of the Associated Academies. 

 It is situated in the Pare des Princes, Boulogne-sur-Seine, 

 Paris, and contains laboratories, library, and living rooms 

 for the accommodation of workers. The acting director is 

 Dr. Lucien Bull. 



The Royal Institute of British Architects has awarded 

 the King's gold medal for the promotion of architecture 

 to Dr. W. Dorpfeld, director of the German Archaeological 

 Institute, Athens. Owing to Dr. Dorpfeld 's serious ill- 

 ness, he was unable to receive the medal in person at the 

 meeting of the institute on June 26, and he has had to 

 abandon his projected visit to this country, in the course 

 of which he was to receive an honorary degree at Cam- 

 bridge, and speak at a special meeting of the Hellenic 

 Society on July 4. 



The President of the Local Government Board has 

 authorised the following special researches to be paid for 

 out of the annual grant voted by Parliament in aid of 

 scientific investigations concerning the causes and processes 

 of disease : — (i) A research into the causes of premature 

 arterial degeneration in man, by Dr. F. W. Andrewes ; 

 (2) an inquiry by Dr. J. H. Thursfield into the causes of 

 death in measles ; (3) a comparison by Prof. Nuttall, 

 F.R.S., of the number and kind of fleas found on rats ; 

 (4) a continuation by Dr. C. J. Lewis of his investigation 

 into the degree of prevalence and the characteristics of 

 micro-organisms known as non-lactose fermenters in the 

 alimentary canal of infants ; (5) an investigation into the 

 same subject by Dr. D. M. Alexander ; (6) an inquiry by 

 Dr. Graham Smith into the incidence of non-lactose fer- 

 menters in flies in normal surroimdings and in surroundings 

 associated with epidemic diarrhoea ; (7) a study by Dr. 



F. A. Bainhridge of the an:t>robic bacteria in the alimentary 

 canal of infants ; (8) an investigation by Dr. Graham Smith 

 into the possibility of pathogenic micro-organisms being 

 taken up by the larva and subsequently distributed by 

 the fly. 



The council of the Royal Society of Arts has decided to 

 make the following awards in connection with the prize 

 offered for the best portable apparatus or appliance for 

 enabling men to undertake rescue work in mines or other 

 places where the air is noxious : — a gold medal to Mr. 

 H. A. Fleuss, for the apparatus submitted by Messrs. 

 Siebe, Gorman and Co. ; a gold medal to Mr. W. E. Gar- 

 forth, in recognition of his efforts to perfect and to secure 

 the adoption of rescue apparatus in mines ; a silver medal 

 for the " Draeger " apparatus submitted by Mr. Richard 

 Jacobson ; a silver medal for the " Meco " apparatus sub- 

 mitted by the Mining Engineering Company. Of the 



NO. 2174, VOL. 86] 



apparatus submitted to the committee appointed to report 

 upon the subject, four depended on the supply of com- 

 pressed oxygen, one on the provision of air evaporated from 

 liquid air, and one on the production of oxygen from 

 "oxylith." The principal points of difference, apart from 

 the fundamental principles on which the apparatus are 

 constructed, appear in the comparative lightness and con- 

 venience of carriage, and in the arrangements for enabling 

 the wearer to breathe either by the use of a helmet or by 

 means of mouthpieces of various construction. The com- 

 mittee does not consider that the liquid-air apparatus sent 

 in is as yet sufficiently perfect to justify its adoption in 

 preference to the older systems, under which oxygen is 

 supplied from a receptacle containing the gas in a state of 

 compression. 



The annual report of the committee of the Research 

 Defence Society is a record of good work accomplished 

 during the past year. The total number of members and 

 associates, which was about 3360 a year ago, is now 

 about 4600, showing an increase of 1240, as against an 

 increase of 840 in the previous year. There are now 

 twenty-five branches, and this number is expected to be 

 increased in the autumn. Since June of last year more 

 than ninety addresses or lantern-lectures connected with 

 the society have been given in different parts of the 

 kingdom. The following pamphlets and leaflets have also- 

 been published : — (i) report of annual general meeting, 

 19 10; (2) Malta fever; (3) sleeping sickness; (4) experi- 

 ments on dogs ; (5) In Memoriam, Louis Pasteur ; (6) the 

 facts of the case ; (7) experiments during 1909 ; 

 (8) humanity and science, by the Bishop of Ely ; (9) plague 

 in India, by Colonel Bannerman ; (10) friends of animals, 

 by Major Marjoribanks ; (11) a question of ethics, by 

 Major Marjoribanks; (12) the case presented by the anti- 

 vivisectionists, by Prof. Schafer. The quantity of litera- 

 ture distributed has greatly increased during the year. 

 Five hundred copies of Colonel Bannerman 's pamphlet 

 have just been supplied to the Government of Eastern 

 Bengal and Assam. The total number of pamphlets and 

 leaflets distributed during the year was more than 150,000. 

 A book is in the press giving a full account of the evidence 

 before the Royal Commission. Of course, with all this 

 increase of work, there has been a considerable increase 

 of expenditure, and " the committee earnestly appeals 

 to all members and associates of the society to enlist their 

 friends, and thus to extend still further the society's useful 

 work. The honorary secretary, to whom in great measure 

 the success of the society is due, is Mr. Stephen Paget, 

 21 Ladbroke Square, VV. 



In No. 5 of vol. v. of The American Museums' Journal, 

 Prof. rf. F. Osborn gives an account of an important 

 extension of the American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York, which is to be undertaken shortly. This is 

 nothing less than the erection of a new eastern facade, 

 similar in general character to the southern faijade, but 

 somewhat simpler in design. It will contain a second main 

 entrance to the building. When this addition is completed, 

 it will permit of the installation of an extensive ethno- 

 graphical and also a zoological series arranged geographic- 

 ally. It is also contemplated to arrange a gallery 

 illustrative of the sequence of human evolution ; while 

 eventually it is intended that astronomy, geography, and 

 oceanography should be included in the exhibition series. 



The Museo Nacional of Buenos Ayres publishes in 

 vol. XX. of its Annales two papers by M. Florentine 

 .Ameghino. one entitled " Observations au sujet des notes 



