November 24, 19 10] 



NATURE 



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length taken form in this direction, to the extent that 

 there is now a prospect of a memorial which shall be not 

 inadequate to the merits and renown of this great explorer. 

 As the circular issued by your committee states, the Royal 

 Society was closely connected with the initiation of these 

 famous voyages, with the selection of Captain Cook to 

 the command, and with the working up and publication 

 of the results of the expeditions. Many of its Fellows, 

 including Sir Joseph Banks, one of Cook's companions 

 in his first voyage, afterwards for many years president of 

 the Royal Society, took, a prominent part in that work ; 

 •lid the society still retains in its possession memorials 

 of this connection." 



Under the heading " Earthquakes in the Pacific," the 

 Times of November 17 published a statement by Mr. J. J. 

 Shaw, of West Bromwich, that there was evidence the 

 ocean depths of the Pacific are in a state of great unrest. 

 Mr. Shaw said that his seismograph recorded shocks at 

 .8 a.m. on Monday, November 14, and at midnight and 

 between 2 and 3 p.m. on Tuesday, November 15, all at 

 a great distance. In reply to an inquiry as to these re- 

 ported disturbances, Prof. Milne has sent us from Shide 

 the following records of earthquakes in October and 

 November : — " Although a few small earthquakes were 

 recorded in October, the month was one of earth rest. 

 During the first two weeks of November seismic activity 

 was somewhat pronounced. The dates on which records 

 were obtained, followed by the times of commencement 

 and maximum movement in hours and minutes, were as 

 follows: — November 6, 19.18 and 21.23; November 9, 

 6.16 and 7.50 or 8.5; November 14, 7.35 and 8.34; 

 November 14, 19.58 and 20.27; November 15, 0.31 and 

 10.45, 6.1 and 6.21, 7.42 and 7.46, 9.16 a maximum, and, 

 lastly, 14.35 3nd 15.21. The second of these was the 

 largest, having an amplitude of 7 mm., which means that 

 tiltings of 2-2* occurred. The time employed is G.M.T. 

 civil, or midnight = o or 24h." 



.\t the first Optical Convention, held in 1905, a per- 

 manent committee was app>ointed, to which was entrusted 

 the task of deciding upon a suitable date for the holding 

 of a second convention, and of taking the necessary steps 

 to initiate it. A general meeting of the committee and of 

 members of the optical industry, representatives of optical 

 bodies and societies, and others interested in optical ques- 

 tions, win be held on Tuesday, November 29, to consider 

 and discuss proposals for the organisation of a second 

 convention. The chair will be taken by Dr. R. T. Glaze- 

 brook, C.B., F.R.S., director of the National Physical 

 Laboratory, as chairman of the permanent committee, and 

 all interested are invited to be present at the meeting. The 

 main features of the scheme which the members of the 

 existing executive committee have in view, and the prin- 

 cipal questions on which it seems necessary, at this 

 general meeting, specially to invite discussion, are in broad 

 outlines as follows : — (i) an exhibition of optical and allied 

 instruments ; (2) the preparation of a catalogue of optical 

 and allied instruments of British manufacture to serve as a 

 convenient work of reference for all users of optical and 

 scientific instruments, not necessarily to be limited to 

 mstruments actually exhibited ; (3) the holding of meetings 

 ; for the reading of papers and for discussions and demon- 

 • strations on optical subjects ; (4) the publication of a 

 I volume of Proceedings, in which these papers will be 

 ■collected together. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 vember 16, of Dr. J. F. Payne, emeritus librarian to 

 Royal College of Physicians, and the author of valu- 

 NO. 2143, VOL. 85] 



able medical works and many other contributions to 

 science. From an obituary notice in the Times we learn 

 that Dr. Payne was born on January 10, 1840, and- took 

 his degree at Oxford in 1862 with first-class honours in 

 natural science. In 1863 he obtained the Burdett-Coutts 

 scholarship in geology, and in 1865 the Radcliffe travelling 

 scholarship. In accordance with the regulations of the 

 Radcliffe scholarship he went abroad, spending some time 

 in Paris and in Berlin, and proceeding later to Vienna. 

 On his return to this country Dr. Payne was appointed 

 examiner in natural science at Oxford, demonstrator of 

 morbid anatomy and curator of the museum to St. Mary's 

 Hospital. It was about this time that he revised, enlarged, 

 and edited Jones and Sieveking's " Manual of Pathology." 

 In 1871 he went to St. Thomas's Hospital, being appointed 

 lecturer successively in general pathology, materia medica, 

 forensic medicine, and finally on the principles and practice 

 of medicine. About nine years ago he was appointed con- 

 sulting physician to this hospital. In 1873 Dr. Payne was 

 appointed to deliver the Gulstonian lecture of the Royal 

 College of Physicians, and in later years he gave the 

 Lumleian and the FitzPatrick lectures. In 1879, when the 

 plague was prevalent in Russia, and the college was con- 

 sulted by the British Government, they appointed Dr. 

 Paine to accompany Surgeon-Major Colvill as com- 

 missioners to investigate and report on the disease. He 

 became a Fellow of the Pathological Societj- in 1869, and 

 was afterwards a councillor, a member of the morbid 

 growth committee, secretary from 1880-2, vice-president 

 from 1888-9, ^nd president in 1897. He was twice presi- 

 dent of the Epidemiological Society, choosing for his first 

 inaugural address the subject of " Tuberculosis as an 

 Endemic Disease," and on the second occasion ''The 

 History of Epidemiology in England." He was also presi- 

 dent of the Dermatological Society, and was vice-president 

 of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1906. 

 Dr. Payne was the author of " .A Manual of Pathological 

 Anatomy " and " Observations on some Rare Diseases of 

 the Skin," and the life of Thomas Sydenham in the 

 " Masters of Medicine " series. 



The Eugenics Education Society has distributed a special 

 "Poor Law number" of the Eugenics Review, which is 

 devoted to the eugenic aspect of Poor Law reform. The 

 number contains a report of a committee of the society 

 appointed to considei- the reform of the Poor Law from 

 this particular point of view ; reviews by Dr. C. S. Loch 

 and Mr. Sidney Webb, respectively, of the majority and 

 minority reports of the Poor Law Commission ; and a 

 most valuable article, by Mr. E. J. Lidbetter, the General 

 Relieving Officer of the Bethnal Green Union, on some 

 examples of Poor Law eugenics. Of the report of the 

 committee, the third section is the most important. 

 Through the kindness of various 'ooards of guardians, the 

 committee has been allowed access to workhouse records, 

 and, where necessary, personal interviews with paupers ; 

 three extensive pedigrees of pauperised families are in 

 course of construction, and the most complete of these is 

 now published, the chart being supplemented by a key 

 giving detailed particulars of the cases included. The 

 chart covers five generations, and indicates the inter- 

 marriage of five pauper families. Mr. Lidbetter 's investi- 

 gation supplements this report of the committee by some 

 thirteen charts of pedigrees based on his personal investi- 

 gation. The society and Mr. Lidbetter deserve unreserved 

 commendation for carrying out such researches, which 

 must have required much prolonged and laborious work. 

 It is no reflection on the work if we add that it still 

 remains a most difficult problem to determine, on the 



