January 4, 19 12] 



NATURE 



123 



Mr. a. F. Hallimond has been appointed to the 

 assistant curatorship of the Museum of Practical Geology, 

 in succession to Mr. W. F. P. McLintock, who has been 

 transferred to the geological department of the Royal 

 Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. 



Dr. Gilbert T. Morgan, assistant professor of chem- 

 istry at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, 

 South Kensington, and junior hon. secretary of the 

 Chemical Society, has been appointed to the chair of chem- 

 istry at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, rendered 

 vacant bv the retirement of Sir Walter Noel Hartlev, 

 F.R.S. 



At the ordinary scientific meeting of the Chemical 

 Society on Thursday, December 21, 191 1, it was 

 announced by the president. Prof. Percy F. Frankland, 

 F.R.S., that the council had awarded the Longstaff medal 

 for 1912 to Dr. H. Brereton Baker, F.R.S., and that the 

 presentation of the medal would be made at the annual 

 general meeting to be held on March 28. 



The Selborne Society has arranged a Christmas holiday 

 Iwture for children, to be given in the Theatre at 

 Burlington Gardens on Monday, January 8, by Mr. Wilfred 

 Mark Webb. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu will preside, and 

 the subject will be " Punch and Judy." Tickets may be 

 obtained through members or from the offices of the 

 society at 42 Bloomsbury Square, London, W.C. 



.\ SCARE has been caused in Berlin by the occurrence of 

 a mysterious "epidemic." Within a couple of days or so 

 more than a hundred individuals were attacked with 

 serious illness presenting the same symptoms, and some 

 sixty or thereabouts have died. The victims seem to be of 

 the poorest class, and the outbreak is not confined to one 

 locality. The information to hand is scanty, but suggests 

 that the condition is one of ptomaine poisoning, or of 

 epidemic food poisoning, due to the ingestion of unsound 

 food. The latest report states that certain spirits sold for 

 consumption have been found to contain a large proportion 

 of methylated spirit, and attributes the illness to this, but 

 is hardly credible, unless German methylated spirit is very 

 different from ours. 



A SUMMARY, issued by the Meteorological Office, of the 

 weather for 191 1 for the several districts of the United 

 Kingdom, obtained from the Weather Reports for the 

 fifty-two weeks ended December 30, shows that the mean 

 temperature was ahovf the average over the whole of the 

 United Kingdom, .md In most of the English districts the 

 excess amounted lo about 2°. The range of temperature 

 was everywhere large, being 84° in the Midland counties, 

 Si° in the east of England, and 80° in the south-east of 

 England. The maximum shade temperature exceeded 90° 

 in all the English districts, and was 98° in the Midland 

 tounties, whilst the minimum temperatures were below 

 20° over the entire kingdom, except in the Channel 

 Islands. The rainfall for the year was generally deficient, 

 but the heavy rains which fell in October, November, and 

 December have everywhere lessened the deficiency, whilst 

 in the south-east of England and in the Channel Islands 

 the aggregate rainfall was in excess of the average. The 

 largest measurement of rain for any district for the year 

 was 51-04 inches, for the north of Scotland, and the largest 

 in any English district was 30-82 inches, for the south- 

 west of England. The least measurement was 2204 

 inches, for the M • ' ounties, which is 4-20 inch, s !• 

 than the aver.-i;; past twenty-five years. In 1 



north of Ireland di. <|. Im imcy is 4.75 inches. In the soin 

 east of England, which district embraces London, the r.i; 

 NO. 2201, VOL. 88] 



fall for the year was 28-05 inches, which is 1-14 inches 

 more" than the normal. The rainy days were fewer than 

 the average everywhere, except in the south of Ireland. 

 The greatest frequency of rain was 227 days, in the north 

 of Scotland ; the least 159, in the south-east of England. 

 The duration of bright sunshine was largely in excess of 

 the average over the entire country ; the greatest excess in 

 any district is 336 hours, in the south-east of England. 

 The absolutely greatest duration of sunshine was 2028 

 hours, in the Channel Islands, and the least 1257 hours, in 

 the north of Scotland. In the south-east of England the 

 sun shone for 1933 hours. 



The congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute will this 

 year be held at York on July 29-August 3. The Arch- 

 bishop of York will be the president of the congress. The 

 business will be divided among ten sections, presided over 

 as follows : — A, sanitary science and preventive medicine, 

 Sir Shirley F. Murphy; B, engineering and architecture, 

 Mr. J. Walker Smith; C, domestic hygiene, Mrs. 

 Edwin Gray; D, hygiene of infancy and childhood, 

 Mrs. M. Scharli-b ; E, industrial hygiene. Sir Thomas 

 Oliver ; municipal representatives, the Lord Mayor of 

 York, Mr. Aid. N. Green ; medical officers of health, Prof. 

 A. Bostock Hill ; engineers and surveyors to county and 

 other sanitary authorities, Mr. A. F. Greatorex ; veterinary 

 inspectors. Prof. J. R. U. Dewar ; sanitarv inspectors, Mr. 

 T. G. Dee. 



In another part of the present issue an adount is given 

 of grants which the Development Commissionurs have made 

 for forestry instruction and investigation in connection 

 with the University of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh and 

 East of Scotland Agricultural College. The Commissioners 

 have granted the University a sum of 4500/. toward the 

 erection of a new forestry building, 2000/. toward the 

 equipment of the museums and laboratories, and 500/. a 

 year for five years for an additional lecturer and assistant. 

 In addition, the University and the .Agricultural College 

 have been promised conjointly an annual sum, for a period 

 of years, for the rent and upkeep of a forest garden and 

 an area of experimental plantations. We are glad that the 

 claims of forestry and agriculture are receiving such 

 generous treatment from the Commissioners. When the 

 British Science Guild urged these claims upon the Board 

 of Agriculture not very long ago, little consideration was 

 given to the strong case then presented. The practical 

 assistance now being afforded by the Development Com- 

 missioners to various departments of ai^ricultural educa- 

 tion and research suggests that thr duildV efforts to pro- 

 mote the advancement of scirntitic a-iirulture have not 

 been in vain. 



The second Mendel6efT Congress nt \\\y and Applied 

 Chemistry and Physics will be held in St. i'ciersburg on 

 December 21-28 (January 3-10). These congresses 

 were originated by the Russian Physico-Chemicai Society 

 as a suitable means of perpetuating the memory of 

 Mendel^eff and other notable Russian chetnists, and are 

 organised by the society ; the first congress was held in 

 1907. Anybody interested in chemistry and physics may 

 become a member by paying a fee of five roubles. The 

 e.xecutive committee of the present congress consists of 

 about fifty members ; its president is Prof. Borgman, and 

 vi(('-president. Prof. Favorski (the honorary president, 

 Prof, Bfkftoff, died on December t). Loral committees 



ii'd ill iwrlvi' t(iun~ l.'wing are the 



il)si-(ii(jn> of till' I' II !>iir(! chem- 



nical analysis; (3) nutiil I metallo- 



I plied electrochemistry ; (5 1 nd glass; 



