December 7, 191 1] 



NATURE 



185 



afternoon (from 3 to 6 p.m.) and in the evening (from 7 to 

 .10 p.m.). The Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S., will give a 

 ; discourse at 4.30, and again at 8 p.m., on " Electric Dis- 

 charge and the Luminosity which survives it." .About 

 thirty firms will exhibit apparatus. 



We regret to see announced the death, on November 23, 

 of Mr. Arthur Cottam, at seventy-five years of age. 

 Employed as an official in a Government department 

 during a great part of his life, he was an enthusiastic 

 amateur astronomer. He was elected a fellow of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society so far back as 1862, and was 

 one of the original members of the British Astronomical 

 Association, being its secretary from its foundation in 1890 

 to 1892, when he resigned owing to increasing pressure 

 of official duties. In 1898 he became director of the Jupiter 

 section of the association, an office which he retained until 

 1903. Mr. Cottam is best known by an excellent star 

 atlas, " Charts of the Constellations," which he published 

 in 1889. These charts show all stars down to about the 

 6-5 magnitude, from the North Pole to between 35° and 

 40° of south declination, for the epoch 1890. Originally 

 projected as companions to Webb's " Celestial Objects " 

 and Smyth's " Bedford Catalogue," their scope was con- 

 siderably enlarged, and they show many original features. 

 Each map usually gives one constellation only with the 

 region around it, and the brighter stars have much larger 

 discs than usually given, so that the leading stars in the 

 maps are those which catch the eye by their brightness in 

 the heavens. 



In' Die-Woche of November 25 we find an article on the 

 Middle European earthquake of November 16. It describes 

 the districts which were most disturbed, the one most 

 strongly shaken being that of the northern Alps. The 

 central earthquake station in Strassburg places the origin 

 • to the south-east of Lake Constance. From time observa- 

 tions the epicentral area lies in 47 degrees north latitude 

 I and 10-30 east longitude. But before anything definite can 

 I ,be said as to this and other matters connected with earth- 

 quake, it is necessary to wait for reports from other 

 stations. In the article reference is made to the geological 

 character of the northern Alps and the Rhine Valley, the 

 numerous faults which occur, and the relationship of these 

 to tectonic earthquakes. 



I'l^OF. W. C. Brogger (Christiania), Geh. Rath Prof. 

 1 . Curtius (Berlin), Prof. P. A. Guye (Geneva), and Geh. 

 \ Regiersrung Rath Prof. H. Rubens (Berlin), have been 

 elected honorary members of the Royal Institution. Dr. 

 W. Bateson, F.R.S., has been appointed Fullerian pro- 

 fessor of physiology for a term of three years. At a meet- 

 ( ing of the managers of the institution on December 4 the 

 ; following resolution was passed unanimously : — " That the 

 1 managers offer their special thanks to the Fullerian pro- 

 fessor of chemistry for his munificent gift to the institution 

 in the decoration and furnishing of the lecture room, and 

 at the same time they wish to express their high apprecia- 

 } tion of the occasion upon which it has been made, namely, 

 < ommemoration of his having, on October 22, 1911, 

 iipied the chair of chemistry as long as it was held by 

 k'araday." 



I The following are among the lecture arrangements at 



1 the Royal Institution before Easter : — Dr. P. Chalmers 



? Mitchell, a Christmas course of six illustrated lectures on 



ihr childhood of animals, adapted to a juvenile auditory : 



'I "Introductory"; (2) "The Duration of Youth"; 



"Colours and Patterns of Young Animals"; (4) 



V'Hing Animals at Home "; (5) "The Feeding of Young 



iinals"; (6) "The Play of Y'oung Animals." Dr. W. 



xo. 2i()7. vol.. 88] 



Bateson, six lectures on the study of genetics ; Prof. E. G. 

 Coker, two lectures on optical determination of stress and 

 some applications to engineering problems ; Dr. T. Rice 

 Holmes, three lectures on ancient Britain ; Prof. A. W. 

 Bickerton, two lectures on the new astronomy ; Prof. A. M. 

 Worthington, two experimentally illustrated lectures on 

 the phenomena of splashes ; Mr. F. A. Dixey, two lectures 

 on dimorphism in butterflies: (i) " Seasonal Dimorphism," 

 (2) " Sexual Dimorphism " ; the Rev. John Roscoe, two 

 lectures on the Banyoro : a pastoral people of Uganda : 

 (i) "The Milk Customs," (2) "Birth and Death 

 Customs"; Sir J. J. Thomson, six lectures on molecular 

 physics. The Friday evening meetings will commence on 

 January 19, when Sir Jam.es Dewar will deliver a discourse 

 on heat problems. Succeeding discourses will probably be 

 given by Prof. Bertram Hopkinson, Dr. J. Mackenzie 

 Davidson, Dr. J. A. Harker, the Rt. Hon. Sir John H. A. 

 MacDonald, Mr. G. K. B. Elphlnstone, Dr. W. J. S. 

 Lockyer, Mr. F. Soddy, Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, Sir 

 J. J. Thomson, and other gentlemen. 



The Lord Mayor will preside at the sixth annual meet- 

 ing of the National League for Physical Education and 

 Improvement, to be held at the Mansion House to-morrow, 

 December 8, at 3.30 p.m. The meeting will be addressed 

 by Sir Archibald Geikie, president of the Royal Society ; 

 the Lady St. Davids; Dr. Christopher Addison, M.P. (on 

 legislation and public health) ; Prof. Bostock Hill, county 

 medical officer of health for Warwickshire (on the 

 organisation of a National Health Week) ; Mr. Henry 

 Jephson, and others. Among those who have promised to 

 attend are Sir Lauder Brunton, Sir John Tweedy, Sir 

 Wiliam Church, Sir Edward Brabrook, Muriel Viscountess 

 Helmsley, Lieut.-General Sir Robert , Baden-Powell, 

 Admiral the Hon. Sir E. Fremantle, and Archdeacon 

 Sinclair. 



A SPECIAL weights and measures committee of the 

 Central Chamber of Agriculture recommended recently that 

 agricultural produce should be sold by weight. It re- 

 ported that suitable weights were the lb., the cental 

 (100 lb.), and the short ton of 2000 lb. Dealing with, this 

 suggestion in a circular, which has been distributed, the 

 Decimal Association points out that advocates of the metric 

 system offer a solution of the difficulty by proposing that 

 farmers should urge the compulsory introduction of the 

 metric system into this country. Less disturbance would 

 result from the adoption of the metric system than would 

 follow the introduction of the cental and short ton, for the 

 reason that the larger measures of the metric system differ 

 but little from the cwt. and ton. The increase of the lb. 

 by about 10 per cent, to make it equal to the half-kilo 

 would lead to a metric cental of no lb. (loo metric 

 pounds), and a ton of 2000 metric pounds equal to 2204 

 present lbs. Our Consul at Copenhagen reports that the 

 Metric System Act, which will come into force next .April, 

 was passed by the Danish Upper and Lower Houses, in 

 both of which the majority are agriculturists. 



By the authority of the Dominion Government, the 

 director of the Canadian M« teorological Service has estab- 

 lished a department of physics in connection with the 

 Central Office at Toronto. Mr. John Patterson has been 

 placed in charge of this new department ; and it is pro- 

 posed to carry on research work in atmospheric electricity, 

 solar radiation, ionisation, and the exploration of the upper 

 atmosphere. A kite station has been equipped near the 

 magnetic observatory some fourteen miles from Toronto, 

 and good results arc being obtained. Since February last 

 registering balloons carrying the Dines meteorograph hnvi' 



