48a 



NATURE 



[March 24, 1898 



consider what steps could be taken in furtherance of the 

 use of steel for structural purposes, and signed the 

 report, which was issued in March 1877. He was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society June 12, 1879. His cer- 

 tificate of claim is probably as short as any ever set forth 

 for candidature, bearing, as it does, the single sentence, 

 " Discoverer of the Bessemer process of making steel." 

 In the same year he received the honour of knighthood, 

 and in 1880 was presented with the freedom of the City 

 of London. From abroad he received many honours. 

 He was offered the Grand Cross of the Legion of 

 Honour ; but as permission to wear it was refused, he had 

 to be content with a large gold medal given him by 

 Napoleon III. He was an honorary member of the Iron 

 and Steel Board of Sweden, a freeman of the City of 

 Hamburg, an honorary member and gold medallist of 

 the Society of Arts and Manufactures of Berlin, and a 

 Grand Cross of the Order of H.I.M. Francis Joseph of 

 Austria. 



His written contributions to science were very limited. 

 The Royal Society's " Catalogue of Scientific Papers " 

 contains one other besides the two already given, viz. 

 " On the Resistance of the Atmosphere to Railway 

 Trains and on a means of lessening the same " 

 {Franklin Inst. Joiirn.., vol. xiv., 1847). It is in con- 

 nection with his metallurgical labours that his name will 

 go down to posterity ; and as an inventor who refused to 

 be discouraged by obstacles, and pertinaciously held on 

 to a scheme until it carried him to success. 



NOTES. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the Royal Society will be held in the 

 rooms of the Society at Burlington House on Thursday, March 

 31, at 4.30 p.m., to receive preliminary statements as to the 

 results of observations made during the recent total solar eclipse. 

 Communications will be made by the Astronomer Royal, Sir 

 Norman Lockyer, K.C. B., and other genUemen. 



Mr. Chree's communication in another column relating to 

 the present disturbed magnetic conditions is most interesting in 

 relation to the recent eclipse. The remarkable association of a 

 great number of sun-spots was connected in the telegrams from 

 Viziadurg with the brightness of the corona, and the absence of 

 the equatorial extensions seen at the period of minimum sun- 

 spots. The wonderful chemistry of the spots may also he 

 referred to recent observations indicating chiefly the presence 

 of scandium and vanadium. Magnetic storms and aurorae there- 

 fore are little to be wondered at, Were there any indications 

 in January and February ? 



At the meeting of the British Association held at Toronto 

 last year, a resolution was passed by the general committee, re- 

 questing the Council to consider the desirability of approaching 

 the Government with a view to the establishment in Britain of 

 experimental agricultural stations similar in character to those 

 which are producing such satisfactory results in Canada and else- 

 where. This proposal was referred by the Council to a special 

 committee, which has since made a report. The committee, 

 while agreeing that some central institution might be of great 

 use in the improvement of agriculture in this country, pointed 

 out that there are already a number of independent bodies, con- 

 nected with agricultural societies, colleges, and county councils, 

 which are conducting agricultural investigations, and that it 

 would be undesirable to approach the Government without the 

 co-operation and support of these various bodies. The Council 

 of the British Association has accepted this report, and has 

 requested the committee to communicate with the various 

 institutions interested in agriculture throughout the country, and 

 to ascertain their views upon the subject. We are informed that 

 the committee are now in communication with the various insti- 

 tutions referred to, in order to obtain a combined opinion upon 



NO. 1482, VOL. 57] 



the desirability of the creation by the Government of a central 

 agricultural institution, for the purpose of undertaking agricultural 

 research, and of acting as a centre of union for the various bodies 

 conducting similar researches in this country, and of affording 

 them advice and assistance when desired. 



The following officers of sections have been appointed for the 

 Bristol meedng of the British Association :— Section A— Presi- 

 dent : Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents: Prof. 

 Riicker, F.R.S. , Prof. S. P. Thompson, F.R.S. Secretaries: 

 Prof. A. P. Chattock, Prof. W. H. Heaton (Recorder), J. L. 

 Howard, W. Watson, E. T. Whittaker. Section B— President : 

 Prof. F. R. Japp, F.R.S. Vice-President: Prof. W. Ramsay, 

 F.R.S. Secretaries: Dr." C. A. Kohn (Recorder), Dr. T. K. 

 Rose, F. Wallis Stoddart. Section C— President : W. H. 

 Hudleston, P\R.S. Vice President : E. Wethered. Secre- 

 taries : G. W. Lamplugh, Prof. H. A. Miers, F.R.S. (Recorder), 



E. Wilson. Section D— President : Prof. W. F. R. Weldon, 

 F.R.S. Vice-Presidents : Prof. F. Gotch, F.R.S., Prof. L. C. 

 Miall, F.R.S. Secretaries : W. Garstang, Dr. A. J. Harrison, 

 W. E. Hoyle (Recorder). Section E — Vice-Presidents : Colonel 



F. Bailey, Dr. J. Scott Keltie. Secretaries : H. N. Dickson, 

 Dr. H. R. Mill (Recorder), A J. Herbertson, H. C. Trapnell. 

 Section F — President : Dr. J. Bonar. Vice-President : Prof. E. 

 C. K. Conner. Secretaries : E. Cannan, Prof. A. W. Flux, H, 

 Higgs (Recorder), W. E. Tanner. Secdon G— President : Sir 

 John Wolfe-Barry, F.R.S. Vice President : G. F. Deacon. 

 Secretaries: Prof. T. H. Beare (Recorder), H. W. 

 Pearson, W. A. Pnce, Prof. John Munro. Section H — Presi- 

 dent : E. W. Brabrook, C.B. Vice-President: C. H. Read. 

 Secretaries: H. Balfour, J. L. Myres (Recorder), Dr. G. Parker. 

 Section K— President : Prof. F. O. Bower, F.R.S. Vice-Pre- 

 sident: Prof. H. Marshall Ward, F.R.S. Secretaries: A. C. 

 Seward (Recorder), Prof J. B. Farmer, J. W. White. 



Sir George King has retired from the superintendentship 

 of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, and has been succeeded 

 by Surgeon- Major David Prain. 



The Bakerian Lecture will be delivered at the Royal Society 

 this afternoon by Dr. W. J. Russell, F.R.S., the subject being 

 " Further experiments on the action exerted by certain metals 

 and other bodies on a photographic plate." 



The centenary of the discovery of the voltaic pile will shortly 

 be celebrated at Volta's birthplace on Lake Como. 



M. F.MILE Picard, member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 and professor of higher algebra in the University of Paris, has 

 been elected corresponding member of the Berlin Academy of 

 Sciences. 



Dr. Ludwig Mono, F.R.S., has been elected a member 01 

 the Athenreum Club, under the rule which empowers the Com- 

 mittee to elect annually nine persons " of distinguished eminence 

 in science, literature, the arts, or for public services." 



The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great 

 Britain will be held in London on Thursday and Friday, May 

 5 and 6. At this meeting the Council will present their annual fl 

 report for 1897, and a number of papers will be read and dis- * 

 cussed. The autumn meeting of the Institute will be held at 

 Stockholm, under the auspices of the Swedish Association of 

 Ironmasters, on Friday and Saturday, August 26 and 27. 



The Academy of Mathematical and Physical Sciences of 

 Naples offers a prize of 500 lire for the best memoir on some 

 subject connected with stereo-chemistry. The essays, which 

 must be in Italian, Latin or PVench, must be sent in to the 

 Secretary of the Academy not later than June 30, 1899. A 

 prize of 1000 lire has just been awarded by the Academy to 

 Prof. Giuseppe de Lorenzo for his essay on the pleistocene 

 lakes of Southern Italy. 



