March 24, 1898] 



NATURE 



489 



The Royal Academy of Sciences of Bologna announces that 

 a gold medal in memory of Aldini will be awarded in 1899 

 for the best essay on galvanism (animal electricity). The 

 essays may be either in Italian, French or Latin, or may be 

 in any other language, provided the author sends in a trans- 

 lation in one of these languages. They may either be in 

 manuscript or printed, provided that in the latter case their 

 publication has taken place within the two years preceding the 

 award. Papers competing for the prize are to be sent before 

 May 29, 1899, addressed to the Secretary of the Royal Academy 

 of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna. 



Prof. B. Brauner, of Prague, addressed an extraordinary 

 meeting of the Chemical and Physical Society of University 

 College, London, on Friday, March 18, and gave an account of 

 his investigations with regard to the elements thorium, praseo- 

 dymium and neodymium, his revision of the atomic weights of 

 the latter elements, and their probable positions in the periodic 

 table. ' In concluding his address. Prof. Brauner drew attention 

 to the scientific importance of further investigation among the 

 rare earths, and expressed a hope that more chemists would enter 

 this field of research, which promised results of the highest value. 

 In proposing a vote of thanks. Prof. Ramsay pointed out that 

 the work, of which an account had been given, was a monument 

 of careful experiment and extraordinary industry. Although it 

 might appear to many present that an enormous amount of labour 

 had been expended on an obscure corner of chemistry, it must 

 be remembered that it was precisely such work which bore on 

 the whole of chemical theory ; and, indeed, which might be 

 expected to influence chemical manufactures at a future date. 

 It was possible that in the middle of the next century these re- 

 searches of Prof. Brauner might bear fruit in extensive industrial 

 application, and that these researches might become household 

 words in the mouths of future generations of chemists. Prof. 

 Tilden, in seconding thj vote of thanks, desired in the first place 

 to offer to the Society his own thanks, and those of his colleagues 

 and students who were present, for the courteous invitation which 

 had been extended to them. He congratulated Prof. Brauner 

 on the success which so far had attended his labours, to which 

 he had brought so large a supply of patience and perseverance, 

 and in framing his hypotheses so much of the inspiration of the 

 poet. In regard to the origin of these strange elements, the 

 choice seemed to lie between the notion that they represented 

 the ruins of a former state of things, or they might stand for 

 those " old worn particles" referred to by Descartes, and on the 

 other hand the idea that they resulted from the condensation of 

 the original protyl, though in some way the process differed 

 from that which gave rise to the rest of the elements. With 

 regard to cobalt and nickel, which had been mentioned, he 

 thought it probable that their atomic weights would ultimately 

 turn out to be not quite so nearly identical as sometimes supposed. 

 At the close of the meeting Prof. Brauner exhibited the absorp- 

 tion spectra of salts of praseodymium and neodymium, and a 

 number of specimens of the pure salts. 



At a meeting of the Associated Chamber of Commerce, on 

 March 17, Sir H. Stafford Northcote, Bart., M.P., in the 

 chair, the following resolution was carried unanimously : — 

 " That, in the opinion of this Association, the compulsory 

 adoption within some limited period of the metric system of 

 weights and measures legalised by the Act of last Session be 

 advocated by every possible means, with the view of inducing 

 Her Majesty's Government to afford facilities for the amendment 

 of the law in this respect, and that a copy of this resolution be 

 sent to the President of the Board of Trade and to the First 

 Lord of the Treasury. This Association urges the Government 

 meanwhile to adopt the metric system of weights and measures, 

 as far as possible, in all Government contracts and returns, so 

 as to make it familiar to jthe people ; and recommends indi- 



NO. 1482, VOL. 57] 



vidual Chambers of Commerce to press the matter upon the- 

 attention of local governing bodies, to the end that these also 

 may employ the system in all public contracts, and thus facilitate 

 its general adoption." 



Work has just been begun upon a new building— the Horni- 

 man Free Museum— which Mr. F. J. Horniman, M.P., intends- 

 to present to the inhabitants of Dulwich and the neighbour 

 hood. Several years ago Mr. Horniman filled a house at Forest 

 Hill, London, with curios and objects of natural history, and 

 made this museum free to the public. He now proposes to 

 house the collections more elaborately, and it is for this purpose 

 that the new building is to be erected. The building will con- 

 tain two lofty galleries, each 100 feet long, lighted from the 

 top. In addition, there will be a large lecture theatre capable 

 of seating 300 people. The galleries will be divided into various 

 courts, each devoted to a separate class of objects. Special? 

 provision will be made for the zoological and entomological 

 specimens. Around the site of the new museum Mr. Horni- 

 man has purchased fifteen acres of ground, which he intends 

 to convert into a public park and recreation ground. One of 

 the mansions at present occuping the site is to be fitted up as a 

 free library and club house, separate rooms being devoted to the 

 free use of the scientific and other clubs in the neighbourhood. 



The Athenceiivi announces that the Accademia dei Lincei has 

 chosen Prof. Eugenio Beltrami as president, in place of the late 

 Prof. Brioschi. The new president of the most important 

 scientific society in Italy, like his predecessor, is a mathema- 

 tician. He is a native of Cremona, sixty-three years old, and 

 has enriched his special branch of literature with a series of 

 works on differential geometry, electricity, and magnetism. He 

 is at present occupied with the editing of Leonardo da Vinci's 

 "Codice Atlantico." 



Some few years ago the attention of readers of Nature was- 

 directed to the then very remarkable utterance of an Oxford 

 theological tutor on the subject of evolution. We refer to the 

 late Canon Aubrey Moore. We now quote a striking passage 

 by another Oxford teacher, whose sincerity and philosophic 

 acumen are becoming generally recognised — the Rev. Charles- 

 Gore, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and Canon of West- 

 minster. The lecturer, after referring to the extraordinarily 

 free way in which St. Paul quotes the Old Testament, says that v 

 " Thereby we learn a lesson which we have got to learn, that 

 Divine revelation does not include critical methods. God 

 leaves us to the critical methods natural to every age, and 

 each age must readjust its criticism. What God does give us- 

 is a moral and spiritual revelation of His own being and of our 

 being, of our destiny and of our sin, and a revelation of the 

 Divine means that God has taken for our recovery ; and we 

 have got to learn that lesson. Divine revelation is in the 

 things of faith and morals — as we say, is of spiritual things ;. 

 and we only bewilder our intelligences and cause stumbling- 

 blocks if we try to assert that Divine revelation is given of 

 these matters of natural science which progress from age to- 

 age by human investigation." The passage is quoted from a 

 verbatim report in the Guardian, as it was delivered ir> 

 Westminster Abbey to a crowded audience of thoughtful men 

 on March 11, during Canon Gore's third Lent lecture on the 

 epistle to the Romans. 



In Annalen der Hydrographie und maritimen Meteorologielor 

 February, Dr. W. J. van Bebber has an article on weather pre? 

 diction, with especial reference to the storm signal service 00 

 the German coasts. The author lays stress upon the difficulty of 

 obtaining a clear idea of the success of weather predictions in 

 different countries owing to the various methods of checking 

 them, and thinks that the only safe criterion is the opinion of 

 the public most interested in them. He makes various proposals- 



