December 15, 1910] 



NATURE 



21 



to make a deep impression upon the leaders of the surgical 

 profession. He had much to say which no previous Brad- 

 shaw lecturer ever had an opportunity of knowing, and 

 much that even his immediate predecessors had not had 

 time to assimilate. The lecture, which appeared in full 

 in both the Lancei and the BriXish Medical Journal of 

 December lo, will repay the perusal of all interested in 

 this complex problem and the efforts that are being made 

 to solve it. 



Committees have nowadays become quite a usual form 

 for the organisation and super\-ision of scientific research 

 to take, and investigations conducted under their aegis 

 may at times not redound in full measure to the credit 

 of the actual workers. Therefore, in Sir Alfred Gould's 

 Bradshaw lecture on cancer it is gratifying to note this 

 generous tribute paid to the workers who have raised the 

 English school of cancer research to its present pre- 

 eminent position among kindred organisations abroad. 

 The lecturer said :— " This college, in conjunction with 

 our sister in Pall Mall, by the initiation, control, and 

 housing of the Imperial Cancer Fund, has taken a ver>- 

 prominent part in this movement, and it is a matter of 

 great satisfaction that the researches carried out in our 

 laboratory are universally recognised as having been of 

 fundamental importance. We gladly recognise that all the 

 success which has attended, and may hereafter attend, the 

 labours of Dr. Bashford and his distinguished associates 

 is not due to the association with these Royal colleges, 

 nor to the sources from which the fund has been collected, 

 but to the abilit}', the wide knowledge, the patience, and 

 the honesty that are associated with the laborious industry- 

 of the workers." However excellently committees may be 

 constituted for advisory purposes and for control, they 

 can never replace the initiative and enthusiasm of in- 

 dividual workers. It is gratifying to know that this prin- 

 ciple is acknowledged in the investigation of a subject 

 of such great public moment as is cancer. 



The death is announced of Captain G. E. Shelley, the 

 youngest son of the late John Shelley, of Avington, in 

 Hampshire, and nephew of the poet. After a short service 

 in the Grenadier Guards, Captain Shelley retired from the 

 .Army and devoted himself entirely to ornithology-, especi- 

 ally to that of Africa. Captain Shelley's earliest publica- 

 tion was a " Handbook on the Birds of Egypt," a most 

 useful companion to the voyager on the Nile, illustrated by 

 many excellent coloured plates drawn by Keulemans. He 

 next turned his attention to the sun-birds (Nectariniidae), 

 and in 1880 con^)Ieted a beautiful quarto w^ork containing 

 coloured figures of ever\- species of this brilliant family, 

 which may be said to represent the humming-birds of the 

 New World in Africa and Asia, although the two groups 

 are by no means nearly related to each other. In 1890 

 Captain Shelley was requested by Dr. Giinther to join Mr. 

 Sclater in preparing the nineteenth volume of the great 

 " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum." To this he 

 gladly consented, as among the families included in this 

 volume were the cuckoos and other groups of which he 

 had made a special study. Captain Shelley now planned 

 a general work on the birds of Africa, in which he pro- 

 posed to comprise an account of all the birds known to 

 occur in the Ethiopian region. The first volume of this 

 important work was published in 1890, and succeeding 

 volumes were issued up to 1906, when the failing health 

 of the author brought the continuance of the work to a 

 stop. Besides these three works. Captain Shelley was for 

 many years a constant contributor to the Ibis, the journal 

 of ornithology published by the British Ornithologists' 

 Union, of which he was a well-known member. He was 

 NO. 2146, VOL. 85] 



also an excellent field naturalist, and made many excursions 

 to different parts of .Africa in order to observe the bird 

 life with his own eyes and to add to his valuable collec- 

 tions, which, we believe, have attained a final resting 

 place in the British Museum. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times reports the 

 death, at seventy -eight years of age, of Prof. Franr 

 Konig, who held in succession the chair of surgen.' at 

 the Universities of Rostock (1869), Gottingen (1875), and 

 Berlin (1895). He retired from the latter chair in 1904. 

 His reputation was based largely on his skill in the treat- 

 ment of articular tuberculosis, on which he published a 

 monograph in 1883 (later edition, 1895). He was also 

 author of teaching manuals of surgery-, which were fre- 

 quently republished. 



The Aeronautical Journal for October contained tr 

 announcement that the council of the Aeronautical Socie: 

 had conferred the gold medal of the societ>- on Mr. Octa-. 

 Chanute, consulting engineer, of Chicago. It was r- - 

 gretted that there was no immediate prospect of his being 

 able to receive the medal in person, owing to the serious 

 illness which overtook him at Carlsbad, from which, how- 

 ever, it was confidently expected that he had recovered 

 after removal to Paris. It is with greater regret that we 

 now learn of the death of Mr. Chanute at seventv-eight 

 years of age. Born in Paris in 1832, Chanute trained as 

 an engineer in America, where his professional duties in- 

 volved the construction of numerous railways and bridg- 

 including consultative duties connected with the New Yo: 

 elevated railwav ; wood preservation was also his speciali: 

 From 1874 onwards Chanute became interested in th: 

 problem of aviation, and not only did he make numerous 

 experiments with models, but shortly after, or perhaps 

 simultaneously with, Lilienthal and Pilcher's experiments 

 in Europe Chanute took up the practical realisation of 

 gliding flight in America in collaboration with Mr. 

 Herring and Mr. Aven.-. A large number of glides were 

 made with different types of glider, commencing with s 

 model based on the descriptions of Le Bris's historic 

 "albatross," and including gliders with a large number 

 of superposed planes, but the type finally adopted was a 

 biplane glider furnished with a smallish balancing tail. 

 .Although balance was, as a rule, maintained by moving 

 the bodv, Chanute embodied in his apparatus the prin- 

 ' ciple of a flexible framework, which thus paved the way 

 for the Wright Brothers' " warping " devices and similar 

 I arrangements for the recover},- of balance and counteraction 

 ; of instability, which form such a noteworthy feature of 

 I modern aeroplanes. The glides made with his machines 

 ! were remarkably successful, and, the practising grounds 

 '• being among sand dunes, no fatalities ensued. Chanute 

 '' was the author of a number of papers and reviews dealing^ 

 with the flight problem, and the Wright Brothers, the 

 late Captain Ferber, and numerous other aviators were 

 indebted to him for much valuable assistance. 



The annual general meeting of the Royal .Agricultural 

 SocietA- of England was held on December 7. It was 

 announced that the total membership is now 10,129, having 

 reached five figures for the first time since 1901. The 

 report, which was adopted at the meeting, contains 

 abundant evidence that the society is assisting scientific 

 research in agriculture in a substantial manner. At the 

 Woburn Experimental Station, in addition to general ex- 

 periments, trials have been made of the new varieties of 

 cross-bred wheats introduced by Prof. Biffen, of Cam- 

 bridge, and also of French wheats. The residual values 

 of calcium cvanamide and nitrate of lime have been ascer- 



