September 8, 1923] 



NA TURE 



;7i 



has found traces of it extending to Phaestos and thence 

 to the havens of the African Sea. It thus brought 

 Knossos into direct connexion with the Nile valley, 

 and explains the intimate relations with Egypt, 

 going back to the earliest dynastic age and beyond, 

 which are recorded in the series of Egyptian relics 

 found in the excavations on this site. 



A GALE of unusual severity for the time of year 

 was experienced over England during the latter part 

 of Wednesday, August 29, and the early part of 

 Thursday, August 30. At places in the south-west 

 of England and at Scilly, the strength of the storm 

 reached the force of a " whole gale," the anemo- 

 meters registering a velocity of 60 miles an hour, 

 while elsewhere on the south and east coasts and in 

 the central parts of England the force of a " strong 

 gale " was experienced, the anemometers registering 

 a velocity of 50 miles an hour. The intensity of the 

 gale was very prolonged, the greatest strength of the 

 \ storm continuing in many places for six or eight hours. 

 I On Tuesday evening, August 28, the centre of the 

 I storm was located about 500 miles west-south-west 

 of Ireland and was approaching the British Isles at 

 the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. The centre of 

 the storm passed over Ross-on-Wye on Wednesday 

 evening, when the barometer read 29-17 in., and it 

 continued in a north-easterly track across England, 

 reaching southern Norway by Thursday evening. A 

 noteworthy feature of the storm was the rapid 

 movement or progress of the storm area, which 

 maintained a rate of thirty-five miles an hour for a 

 distance of about 1500 miles from the Atlantic to 

 the North Sea. Heavy rain accompanied the storm, 

 falling most in the advance segment ; the amount 

 measured exceeded an inch in the south of Ireland, 

 and at places on the south-west and west coasts of 

 England. Little rain fell in the rear of the dis- 

 turbance, the weather rapidly clearing as the baro- 

 meter rose, and brilliant sunshine was fairly general, 

 ten to eleven hours being registered on Thursday, 

 August 30, over England, except in the north and 

 north-west. 



_ The sixty-eighth annual international exhibition 

 of the Royal Photographic Society will be opened at 

 35 Russell Square, on Saturday, September 15, at 

 3 P.M., by the Rt. Hon. Lord Riddell. The exhibition 

 will be open free to the public on September 17- 

 October 27. 



We much regret to announce the death, at fifty- 

 four years of age, of Sir Henry Hayden, F.R.S., 

 formerly director of the Geological Survey of India, 

 in an accident while descending the Finsteraarhorn 

 a August 13 ; also of Mr. E. K. Muspratt, vice- 

 chairman of the United Alkali Company, president of 

 the Society of Chemical Industry in 1885 and member 

 of the council of the University of Liverpool, on 

 September i, aged eighty-nine. 



The London Press recently reported the fall of a 

 meteorite during a storm at Immingham, in North 

 Lincolnshire, and stated that it had been secured 

 by the Vicar. The matter has been investigated by 



NO. 2810, VOL. I 12] 



Mr. T. Sheppard, of the Municipal Museum, Hull, 

 who finds that the alleged meteorite is a piece of slag 

 from the local ironworks, though it certainly appears 

 to have been fused by having been struck by lightning, 

 which will account for an eye-witness's statement 

 that it made a hissing noise in the water and that 

 steam rose from it. 



Under the auspices of the National Union of 

 Scientific Workers a meeting is to be held in the 

 Hartley Botanical Laboratories, University of Liver- 

 pool, on Friday, September 14, at 5.30 p.m., to which 

 all members of the British Association are invited. 

 A discussion on the relation of " Science and Industry" 

 will be opened by Prof. J. M. Thompson : Mr. J. 

 Sandeman Allen, chairman of the Liverpool Chamber 

 of Commerce, is to preside. It is hoped that a large 

 attendance of local business men will be secured, in 

 order that their interest in the application of science 

 and the claims of men of science for their sympathetic 

 interest and support may be further stimulated. 



The Vancouver correspondent of the Times states 

 that a member of the relief party sent in search of 

 the Canadian expedition to Wrangel Island has 

 returned to Nome, Alaska, bringing with him only 

 the Eskimo cook of the party. The expedition, which 

 was under the leadership of Mr. Alan Crawford, was 

 financed by Dr. V. Stefansson, and set out in 192 1. 

 The relief party under Mr. Harold Noice found the 

 body of one member of the expedition, who had 

 apparently died of scurvy, and learned that Mr. 

 Crawford with two companions started over the ice 

 for Siberia in December. Nothing has been heard 

 of them since. A bottle was found in Roger Harbour 

 on the south of Wrangel Island containing the names 

 of the party and claiming the island in the name of 

 King George. The relief party left one man with 

 thirteen Eskimos behind to colonise the island and 

 to search for the bodies of the missing men. 



In connexion with the recent correspondence in 

 Nature on the forms of scientific terms derived from 

 the Greek language, Mr. A. Stanley Pye-Smith sends 

 us a copy of an interesting letter written to " Charles 

 Lyell, jun., Esq., F.R.S." by Dr. J. Pye Smith, F.R.S. 

 in April 1837, ^^^d returned by Lyell in 1851 when 

 the biography of his correspondent was being pre- 

 pared. Dr. Pye Smith protests in this letter against 

 the use of " e " to represent " ai " in Eocene, Miocene, 

 etc., and he points out that this letter leads to 

 obscurity, since it might equally serve as a sub- 

 stitute for " oe," as is the case in the word " economy." 

 He cites several cases in which a diphthong was 

 dispensed with for about a century and was aiter- 

 wards restored (Caesar, Phoenicia, aegis, etc.). 

 Curiously enough, he does not criticise the first 

 syllable of Miocene and Pliocene, in which the use 

 of the Greek " ei " has been courageously maintained 

 by Prof. Boyd Dawkins. International usage prob- 

 ably now stands in the way of any changes in either 

 of these well-established terms. 



We have received from Messrs. James Swift and 

 Son, Ltd., 81 Tottenham Court Road, London, W.i, 

 a copy of their " Petro 922 " catalogue of petrological 



