November 30, 191 1] 



NATURE 



151 



It is desirable that the calculations made by any one 

 of the bureaux should be communicated to other bureaux, 

 which have to use them at least three years in advance. 



The above conventions will be put in force in such a 

 way as to be complete in 1917. 



It is understood that the above arrangements are pro- 

 visional, subject to approval by the Governments con- 

 cerned. 



THE SOLAR PHYSICS OBSERVATORY. 



WE take the following from Wednesday's Times 

 (November 29) : — 



At the Congregation on Thursday, December 7, the 

 following Graces will be offered to the Senate : — " That 

 the recommendations contained in the report, dated 

 November 13, 1911, of the Council of the Senate on the 

 proposed transference of the Solar Physics Observatory to 

 Cambridge — namely, (i) that the University accept the 

 charge of the Solar Physics Observatory, subject to the 

 conditions laid down in the letter from the President of 

 the Board of Education ; (2) that steps be taken to obtain 

 the powers requisite for the suspension of the election to 

 the Plumian professorship of astronomy and experimental 

 philosophy when it next becomes vacant, for a time 

 sufficient to enable the University, if necessary, to obtain 

 changes in the statutes which define the title of the pro- 

 fessorship and the duties of the professor — be approved." 



The proposal to transfer the Solar Physics Observatory 

 to Cambridge was discussed in the Senate last Thursday. 

 The proposal was warmly welcomed by Prof. Newall, 

 Prof. Sir George Darwin, Prof. Sir Robert Ball, and Dr. 

 Glaisher. The arrangements for organising the work of 

 the department and for the provision of the necessary site 

 were fully explained. 



Nothing seems to have been said about the financial 

 arrangements necessary to secure permanence. In the 

 report of the so-called Departmental Committee the 

 following passage occurs : — 



With a view to securing the permanence of any 

 arrangement that may now be made, the committee desire 

 to point out the importance of attaching the directorship 

 of the Solar Observatory, if established at Cambridge, to 

 a professorship which is not merely of a temporary 

 character. The University may not be in a position, at 

 present, to give any definite assurance that the professor- 

 ship will be renewed at the expiration of the present 

 tenure ; but we consider it highly desirable that the 

 Government should ascertain, before coming to a final 

 decision, whether the University is willing at an early 

 opportunity to consider favourably the establishment of a 

 professorship of astrophysics on a permanent foundation. 



The "permanence" contemplated by the Council of 

 th" Senate only becomes operative on the death or 



-ignation of the present Plumian professor. It is 

 n for granted that the unpaid professorship of 

 asirophysics will not be vacated for any cause in the 

 interval. What is to happen during a vacancy is not 

 stated. Is this the kind of "permanence" contem- 

 plated by the Government? Is the next vacation of 

 thi! Plumian professorship, which everybody hopes 

 will not occur for many years, the "early oppor- 

 t'Hiity" referred to in the report of the committee? 



NOTES. 



'•'oLLovviNG on the announcement last week of the 

 ointment of an expert committee of investigation into 

 ic etiology, &c., of foot-and-mouth disease comes the 

 interesting and, if it should be confirmed, important 

 announcement of the discovery of the causal organism of 

 this serious animal scourge. This claim has been put for- 

 ward by a German bacteriologist, Dr. Siegel, in a paper 

 I read at the annual Congress of Prussian Veterinary 

 Surgeons in Berlin. Dr. Siegel claims to have found the 



NO. 2196, VOL. 881 



organism in the blood stream and in the local lesions in 

 affected animals, to have cultivated it in artificial media, 

 and that in experimenting with his organism it has satisfied 

 the postulates of Koch. Moreover, he claims to be able to 

 produce some degree of immunity to the disease. Details 

 of this interesting paper are not yet to hand ; and in the 

 meantime the claim must be accepted with the reserve 

 which must obviously be accorded to the statement of the 

 discovery of an organism that has up to the present eluded 

 vigorous and systematic research by other experts of almost 

 all nationalities. In the meantime, the full details of 

 experiments will be anxiously awaited ; and if they warrant 

 it, it will be one of the first duties of the British expert 

 committee to investigate them carefully, and either to con- 

 firm or refute the claims of Dr. Siegel. Should the dis- 

 covery be confirmed, it will indeed be an enormous boon to 

 the whole agricultural world. 



The Bradshaw lecture is to be delivered at the Royal 

 College of Surgeons on December 6 by Mr. R. Clement 

 Lucas, who has chosen for his subject " Some Points in 

 Heredity." 



The Paris correspondent of The Times reports that 

 Prince Roland Bonaparte has placed at the disposal of the 

 French Academy of Sciences a sum of lo.oooZ., which is 

 to serve as a fund in aid of those of its members who are 

 engaged in research work. 



The superintendent of the Indian Museum informs us 

 that Mr. J. Coggin Brown, curator of the museum of the 

 Geological Survey of India, accompanies the Abor expedi- 

 tion as geologist The botanical work is in the hands of 

 Mr. I. H. Burkill, reporter on economic products to the 

 Government of India, while Mr. Stanley Kemp, assistant 

 superintendent in the Indian Museum, is in charge of 

 both zoology and anthropology, with Mr. R. Hodgart as 

 taxidermist and assistant. 



The ringing of birds in order to study their movements 

 has been referred to frequently in these columns. About 

 twenty thousand birds have been ringed by correspondents 

 of British Birds, the rings bearing the name of the editor 

 of that journal, Mr. Witherby. One of these birds, a 

 sea snipe, or redshank, was shot recently at Wesport, 

 County Mayo, and it was assumed to be a bird escaped 

 from captivity in London. A report in The Times of 

 November 29 says : — " The incident has caused much local 

 interest, since nobody in Connaught has ever heard of a 

 tame redshank. It has among seabirds the reputation of 

 being remarkably shy." Local opinion in Connaught as 

 to the difficulty of taming a redshank need not be dis- 

 turbed. The bird referred to was probably ringed by one 

 of Mr. Witherby 's correspondents far away from London, 

 and it is unlikely that it was ever in a cage. 



Lieut. -Colonel Edgar A. Mearns, U.S.A., retired, 

 associate zoologist of the United States National Museum, 

 who accompanied the Smithsonian Expedition to Africa, 

 under the direction of Colonel Theo. Roosevelt, will be 

 attached as naturalist to the Childs Frick Abyssinian Ex- 

 pedition, which will sail from London shortly to make 

 natural history collections in the Abyssinian region. It is 

 proposed to make as complete a collection of the animals 

 of the Abyssinian region as possible. The journey will be 

 primarily through Abyssinia, but will extend into British 

 East Africa as well, and cover a portion of that country 

 north of the field gone over by Colonel Roosevelt in 

 1909-10. One of the most important regions to be visited 

 is in the neighbourhood of Lake Rudolf, and along the 

 shores of the lake itself. It is expected that the opera- 



