146 



NATURE 



[December i, 1910 



NOTES. 

 Lord Avebury has been elected a corresponding member 

 for the section of anatomy and zoology of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 November 24, at sixty-four years of age, of Prof. Angelo 

 Mosso, professor of physiology in the University of Turin. 



We learn from the Revue scientifique that the new 

 astronomical observatory in the gardens of the Vatican 

 was opened on November 17. 



The Terra Nova, with the members of Captain Scott's 

 Antarctic expedition on board, left Port Chalmers on 

 November 29 on her way south. 



Prof. R. A. Sampson, F.R.S., professor of mathematics 

 and astronomy in the University of Durham, has been 

 appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland and professor of 

 practical astronomy in the University of Edinburgh, in 

 succession to Mr. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S. 



On account of the General Election, the annual dinner 

 of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (originally fixed 

 for December 6) has been postponed to Thursday, 

 February 2, 1911. 



The French Society of Biology has, sajs the Revue 

 scientifique, awarded the Godard prize to Mile. Anna 

 Drzewina. The prize is awarded every other year for the 

 best biological work. 



The Emperor Francis Joseph has conferred the Austrian 

 great gold medal of science and literature upon Mr. E. 

 Torday, the leader of the scientific expedition sent out by 

 the British Museum to study the native tribes in the 

 Kasai basin of the Congo. 



The Scientific American announces that Prof. Frank H. 

 Bigelow, who recently resigned from the United States 

 Weather Bureau, has joined the staff of the Argentine 

 Meteorological Office. 



We learn from the Times that, owing to ill-health, Mr. 

 Goodfellow, the leader of the British expedition to Dutch 

 New Guinea, has been compelled to return home, and that 

 the committee of the British Ornithologists' Union has 

 appointed in his place Captain C. G. Rawling, who repre- 

 sents the Ro\al Geographical Society on the expedition. 



The death is announced, at fifty-three years of age, of 

 Mr. F. Howard Collins, the author of " An Epitome of 

 the Synthetic Philosophy of Herbert Spencer " and 

 ' Author and Printer : • a Guide to Authors, Editors, 

 Printers, Correctors of the Press, Compositors, and 

 Typists." Mr. Collins was awarded a medal at the 

 Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 for his " Simplified 

 Mariner's Compass Card." 



Dr. Henry Wurtz died recently at Brooklyn in his 

 eighty-third year. At the beginning of the Civil War he 

 was chemical examiner in the U.S. Patent Office, as well 

 as professor of chemistry in the National Medical College 

 at Washington. He was the author of numerous scientific 

 treatises, and for some time editor of the New York 

 Gas Light Journal. The mineral wurtzilite was named 

 after him, and he was also the discoverer of the minerals 

 huntilite and animikite. 



A recent issue of Science gives. an interesting account 

 of the development of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical 

 Research. The establishment of the institute is the 

 culmination of a series of gifts, each one based on a 



NO. 2144, VOL. 85] 



demonstration of actual needs and on evidence of a wise 

 use of previously available funds. The initial gift was 

 made in 190 1, when 40,000/. was provided to be used in 

 a limited number of years in the form of grants to sup- 

 port research. In 1902 a donation of 200,000/. was re- 

 ceived to cover the erection of a laboratory and the cost 

 of current expenses for a few years. When the plans 

 were being prepared for the future organisation of the 

 institute, the necessity for having a hospital under the 

 control of the institute was felt very much. Mr. Rocke- 

 feller decided to erect a hospital, and provided a further 

 124,000/. for the purpose. In 1907, while the plans of 

 the hospital were being prepared, Mr. Rockefeller gave 

 520,000/. to be used solely for the endowment of the 

 institute. This year the trustees of the institute assumed 

 possession of 764,000/., the generous patron's latest gift. 

 Up to the present time the work of the institute has been 

 confined to laboratory studies of physiological and 

 chemical aspects of diseases and to surgical and other 

 problems that could be studied on animals. The need 

 for the direct study of diseases under conditions that 

 would permit accurate observations with the aid of com- 

 prehensive equipment led to the foundation of the hospital. 

 Instead of being compelled to treat almost every kind 

 of disease, as in a general hospital, the physicians will 

 concentrate on a few ailments. The hospital will have 

 physiological, chemical and biological laboratories to sup- 

 plement those in the institute. The laboratories of the 

 hospital will be devoted to investigations bearing on the 

 diseases under treatment, while the laboratories of the 

 institute will continue their investigations as conducted at 

 present. 



At the last meeting of the Cotteswold Field Club Mr. 

 L. Richardson pointed out that the so-called " stone 

 circle " on Shurdington Hill, near Cheltenham, was really 

 of natural origin. A slipping forward of the Upper Lias 

 Clay was accompanied by undermining of the basal 

 Inferior Oolite limestone, .and some blocks rolling down 

 the slope had assumed the appearance of a stone circle, 

 which is so recorded in the Ordnance Survey. The site- 

 being under the cold shadow of a northward-facing cliff is 

 not the position likely to have been selected for an inter- 

 ment. 



.An interesting part of the work of the Brooklyn Insti- 

 tute of Arts and Sciences is the arrangement of a special 

 museum and library for the use of children, of which an 

 account is given in the report for 1909. The institution 

 contains rooms devoted to exhibits of historical interest, 

 geography, birds, insects, and similar objects. The library 

 is • provided with special literature on these subjects suit- 

 able to the needs of its students, and interest in the study 

 of nature is excited by the issue of picture bulletins and 

 the exhibit throughout the year of specimens of trees in 

 bud, flowers, and fruits. The museum is said to b' 

 widely used by children in elementary schools, and it 

 offers facilities for training of teachers, who are thu- 

 enabled to collect materials for study by their pupils. 

 The practical system thus organised deserves the attention 

 of school authorities in this country. 



Captain A. J. N. Tremearne is busily engaged in un- 

 loading the stores of ethnological material which he has 

 brought from Hausaland. He contributes to a recent 

 number of the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts a series 

 of folk-tales dealing with the relations of Hausa parents 

 and children, which from these specimens seem to be far 

 from satisfactory, these tales being devoted to the themes of 

 unnatural parents and disobedient children. One is some-. 



