December 14, 191 1] 



NATURE 



2.21 



journal The Photogram and his annual " Photograms of 

 the Year." Of late years Mr. Snowden Ward, while con- 

 tinuing his journalistic work, studied the life and writings 

 of Charles Dickens, with special reference to the actual 

 places and circumstances referred to by the novelist. He 

 was giving lectures on this subject in the United States 

 when he was taken ill. He was only forty-six years of 

 age. 



The death is announced, at fifty-two years of age, of 

 Dr. E. F. Trevelyan, formerly professor of therapeutics at 

 the University of Leeds, and professor of pathology at the 

 Yorkshire College, then a constituent of the Victoria 

 University. 



Prof. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., professor of anatomy 

 in the University of Manchester, has been awarded by the 

 Paris Anthropological Society the Prix Fauvelle, of one 

 thousand francs, for his researches in the anatomy and 

 physiology of the nervous system. 



Prof. F. B. Loomis, who left Amherst College, Mass., 

 in July at the head of an exploring expedition to Pata- 

 gonia, has written to a colleague an outline of his progress 

 up to the beginning of October. He had not been able to 

 secure many fossils, but could already see that the expedi- 

 tion would be able to revise the geology of the country 

 traversed. Many of the beds previously described as land 

 deposits were, in his judgment, marine. 



The death is announced, on December 5 at Gloucester, 

 in his seventy-eighth year, of Dr. Francis T. Bond, for 

 thirty-eight years medical officer to the Gloucestershire 

 combined sanitary district. Dr. Bond was formerly pro- 

 fessor of clinical medicine at Queen's Hospital, Birming- 

 ham. From 1862 to 1873 he was principal of the Hartley 

 Institute, Southampton. He translated Radicke's work on 

 " Medical Statistics," and was a frequent contributor to 

 medical and sanitary journals. Dr. Bond was an early 

 worker in bacteriological research and was interested in 

 scientific agriculture ; he elaborated a method of cheese 

 manufacture, and invented a filter and other hygienic 

 devices. 



The presentation of the testimonial to Mr. Henry 

 Keeping on his retirement from the post of curator of the 

 Geological Museum, Cambridge, took place in the Sedg- 

 wick Museum on Saturday, December 2, when Prof. T. 

 McKcnny Hughes handed him a purse subscribed by old 

 friends and students in recognition of his long and valuable 

 services. Mr. Keeping entered upon his duties as curator 

 fifty years ago under Prof. Sedgwick in the old Wood- 

 wardian Museum, where the geological department was 

 located until its removal into the Sedgwick Museum in 

 1904. In collecting fossils in the field Mr. Keeping has 

 displayed exceptional ability and skill ; and amongst the 

 mass of specimens which he has thus added to the rnuscum 

 special mention should be made of the remarkably rich 

 series of Tertiary fossils from the Hampshire basin which 

 his keen eye and intimate knowledge of the beds of that 

 area have enabled him to obtain. 



An interesting discovery is reported from Western 

 Canada. During the summer Mr. Andrew Gordon French 

 discovered what is claimed to be one of the largest mines 

 of reef platinum metals in the world in the dyke rocks of 

 the Nelson district, British Columbia. He has now 

 announced the discovery therein of a new element, to 

 which he has given the name Canadium. The element is 

 diiscribed as a new member of the family of noble metals, 

 with a melting point somewhat lower than that of silver 



NO. 2198, VOL. 88] 



and gold, possessing a brilliant white lustre, easily soluble 

 in hydrochloric and in nitric acids, not tarnished by damp 

 air, sulphuretted hydrogen, alkaline sulphides, or tincture 

 of iodine, and not precipitated from its solutions by 

 chlorides or iodides. Continued heating in the oxidising 

 flame does not oxidise the molten metal, though some speci- 

 mens, when first heated, give off dense fumes, which may 

 be due to osmium, or possibly to something also new. It 

 is electronegative to silver, is precipitated from its solu- 

 tions by zinc, and, when allojed with lead, may be 

 separated by cupellation. The metal occurs pure as semi- 

 crystalline grains, and in short rods about 0-5 mm. long 

 and 01 mm. thick, and also alloyed with the other 

 platinum metals. Quantities up to 3 oz. per ton have 

 been found in the rock. It is more brilliant 

 and lustrous than palladium, and softer than platinum, 

 ruthenium, and osmium. The new metal is thus well 

 characterised and clearly differentiated in properties from 

 all known substances, and the confirmation of the discovery 

 will be awaited with interest. Mr. French has had wide 

 practical experience in the extraction and separation of the 

 platinum metals with various bullion-smelting firms in this 

 country, and is a native of Glasgow. 



Mr. J. C. Robertson, of 119 Victoria Road, Kirkcaldy, 

 has sent us a communication relating to recent proposals 

 for the reform of the calendar. For the most part his re- 

 marks add little to the information conveyed in our 

 articles of April 27 and October 26. But he also takes 

 occasion to advocate the setting back of the year by ten 

 days in order that its beginning may coincide with the 

 winter solstice. This suggestion cannot be supported on 

 the ground of any advantage in commercial affairs, and 

 the chief interest which it has for us lies in the light 

 which it throws on the mental attitude of the prominent 

 reformers. In criticism of the provisions of the Fixed 

 Calendar Bill, we suggested the case of a servant engaged 

 on March 32, and wished to know the date of the first 

 monthly payment and the rule for calculating its amount. 

 On the first point Mr. Robertson confirms our surmise 

 that the due date is April 28. This, it may be observed, 

 implies that in practice a month may be any period from 

 twenty-eight to thirty-five days — a truly great improvement 

 on our present system ! He then suggests that the pay- 

 ment will be by special agreement one-twelfth of the 

 annual wage. But again it is difficult to appreciate the 

 simplicity of a calendar which needs to be supplemented 

 by special agreements. Alternatively, he states that the 

 Bill provides that the payment shall be in proportion to 

 the length of service. We believe that according to the 

 Bill payment should be in proportion to the number of 

 weeks in the month. When, as in the case suggested, a 

 fraction of a week is involved, we were at a loss for a 

 rule, and Mr. Robertson has not convinced us that the 

 Bill is explicit on the point. We have no wish to press 

 this simple example too far, but we do think that the 

 reformers have altogether underrated the practical difficul- 

 ties of the problem and undervalued the legitimate objec- 

 tions which can be brought against their solution of it. 



Mr. Heron-Allen informs us that the violent gales at 

 the end of November have enabled him to make two very 

 remarkable finds at Selsey, near Chichester. One is a 

 series of Proteoliths in the seldom exposed Pleistocene mud 

 bed on the west coast, which Sir Ray Lankester pronounces 

 to be of the rostro-carinate eaglcs's-beak form, similar in 

 shape and date to the sub-Crag Proteoliths of which 

 frequent mention has been made in these pages. Mr. 

 Heron-Allen is handing them all over, together with thf 

 Selsey Palaeo'iths and Mesoliths, to Sir Ray Lankester, 



