244 



NATURE 



[December 22, 1910 



We learn from Science that the Nichols gold medal of 

 the American Chemical Society for the year 1909-10 has 

 been awarded to Prof. M. A. Rosanoff, of Clark Uni- 

 versity, and his pupil, Mr. C. VV. Easley, for their joint 

 study of the partial vapour pressures of binary mixtures. 

 The -formal award will take place at the meeting of the 

 New York Section on January 6, 191 1. 



Referring to the letter from Prof. W. A. Douglas 

 Ridge on the tribo luminescence of uranium in Nature 

 of December 15, Mr. H. A. Kent (The Poplars, Maidstone 

 Road, Bounds Green, N.) writes to say that he noticed 

 similar effects in 1904. He found by filling the tube con- 

 taining metallic uranium with oxygen the brilliancy was 

 much exhalted. 



I\" continuation of the inde.x volume printed twenty years 

 ago, the Royal Society of Edinburgh has completed an 

 index to the Transactions of the society issued during the 

 years 1889-1908. The volume includes also an address by 

 Sir Wm. Turner, K.C.B., F.R.S., president of the society, 

 delivered at the opening of the new rooms on November 

 8, 1909. 



A PRIZE of 100,000 francs is to be awarded to the 

 inventor of a practical apparatus which will make it 

 possible to save the crews of wrecked submarines, enabling 

 them to regain the surface uninjured. The French 

 Minister of Marine is able to offer the prize, as he has 

 received an anonymous gift from a French lady for the 

 purpose. The conditions under which the prize will be 

 awarded have been officially announced. 



A .MEMORi.^L has been erected, says Science, at the 

 National Bacteriological Institute in the City of Mexico 

 to the late Prof. H. T. Ricketts, who at the time of his 

 death was assistant professor of pathology in the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago and professor-elect of pathology in the 

 University of Pennsylvania. His death was caused by 

 typhus fever, which he contracted while conducting re- 

 searches in this disease. 



Among the many curious investigations carried out by 

 means of instantaneous photography, not the least curious 

 are those which Prof. A. M. Worthington, F.R.S., has 

 devoted to the study of the effects produced by the fall 

 of drops or solid spheres into water and other fluid. These 

 investigations will be described and illustrated in this 

 \-ear's Christmas lectures at the Royal Society of .^rts by 

 Prof. Worthington. 



In his recent annual report the Secretary of the United 

 States points out that the attainment of the North Pole 

 by Commander Peary has added to the honour and credit 

 of the -United States. The Secretary of State therefore 

 recommends that Commander Peary should be given a 

 commission by legislation as rear-admiral of the Corps of 

 Civil Engineers of the U.S. Navy, to date from the day 

 of his discovery, and that he be retired as from that date 

 with the highest retired pay of that grade. 



The death is reported, at the age of sixty-eight, of Dr. 

 Charles Otis Whitman, for the last eighteen years head 

 of the department of zoology and curator of the zoo- 

 logical museum at the University of Chicago. He had 

 previously held appointments at the Imperial University 

 of Japan, the Naples Zoological Station, Harvard Uni- 

 versity, the Allis Lake Laboratory, and Clark University. 

 From 1888 to 1908 Dr. Whitman was director of the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. He was 

 editor of the Journal of Morphology and of the Biological 

 Bulletin. 



NO. 2147, VOL. 85] 



One of the most promising of American pathologists, 

 Dr. Christian Archibald Herter, has died recently at the 

 early age of forty-five. In 1890 he followed up his studies 

 at Johns Hopkins University and Zurich by publishing a 

 text-book on "The Diagnogs of Nervous Diseases." He 

 then devoted himself especially to pathological chemistry, 

 and held for several years the chair of that subject at 

 the Bellevue Hospital .Medical School, New York. Since 

 1903 he had been professor of pharmacology and thera- 

 peutics at the New York College of Physicians and 

 Surgeons. Dr. Herter had carried out several scientific 

 investigations for U.S. Government departments. He was 

 treasurer to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 

 and had himself created two lectureship foundations, one 

 at Johns Hopkins University and the other at the Bellevue 

 Medical School. 



At the annual meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union, held at Middlesbrough on Saturday, December 17, 

 a vigorous protest was made against the action of H.M. 

 Stationery Office in reference to the increased prices which 

 have now to be paid for hand-coloured editions of the 

 maps of the geological department. It was pointed out 

 that in withholding from the public cheap and easy access 

 to the results of the Geological Survey, the objects of the 

 Survey were in large measure defeated, and the cost of 

 this department of the public service deprived of much of 

 its justification. .'\t the same meeting Dr. Alfred Harker 

 was elected president for 191 1, Mr. H. Culpin the hon. 

 treasurer, and Mr. T. Sheppard hon. secretary. 



The Eastern Telegraph Company report that an earth- 

 quake was felt at Zanzibar on December 14 at 11.40 a.m. 

 Greenwich mean time. The shock must have been of 

 great intensity over a wide area, for four of the com- 

 pany's cables between Zanzibar and Durban were broken 

 at about the same time. The first tremors were recorded 

 by the seismograph at Cardiff at about noon, the total 

 duration of the movement there being about two hours. 



Tw'o slight earthquakes were felt throughout Glasgow 

 on Wednesday evening, December 14, the first at 8.54 p.m. 

 and the second shortly after ten. The first shock, which 

 was strong enough to make windows rattle and to throw 

 down some ornaments, lasted four or five seconds, and 

 was accompanied by a loud rumbling noise. The area 

 affected by it extends at least twenty-one miles east and 

 west from Glasgow to Greenock, and ten miles north 

 and south from Milngavie to Johnstone. The seismograph 

 record at Paisley Observatory shows a disturbance, one- 

 tenth of a millimetre in amplitude, at 8-54 p.m., and 

 others of larger amplitude, but not connected with the 

 Glasgow earthquakes, at 9.26 and 9.29 p.m., while a 

 slight movement about 10 p.m. may have been caused by 

 the second shock. The record obtained at the Royal 

 Observatory, Blackford, Edinburgh, at about 10.30 p.m. 

 had, of course, no connection with the Glasgow shocks. 



In a communication published in the Morning Post of 

 December 20 Prof. J. Milne, F.R.S., records the follow- 

 ing series of earthquakes : — After a long period of rest 

 we have had a succession of large earthquakes. On 

 December 13 there was one on the West Coast of Africa, 

 which broke several cables, and on December 14 one in 

 Scotland. On December 16 one occurred so far off as 

 New Guinea. On December 17, at 7.30 a.m., one reached 

 us from a place so far distant as the West Indies. Next 

 day, at 4 a.m., one came from Java, and in less than 

 two hours, namely, at 5.49 a.m., there was another dis- 

 turbance in the West Indies. There was a third at 4.50 

 p.m. With the exception of the disturbance in Scotland 

 they were all very large, and shook quite half the world. 



