January 26, 191 1] 



NATURE 



415 



The second annual Simple Life and Healthy Food Con- 

 nce and Exhibition will be held in the Caxton Hall, 

 >tminster, on March 21-24. The objects of the con- 

 nce and exhibition are to simplify modern life, to 

 .)duce into homes healthy food and hygienic decora- 

 ;<, to teach rational physical culture, and to inculcate 

 live of simple and beautiful architecture. 



Announcement is made of another gift of 2,000,000/. 

 . -ented by Mr. Carnegie to the Carnegie Institution at 

 -hington. It is stated that Mr. Carnegie's total gifts 

 hat foundation amount to 5,000,000/., and his total 

 factions to nearly 40,000,000/. The gift from him is 

 . announced of a new telescope, with a 100-inch lens, 

 the observatory on Mount Wilson, California. 



At a meeting of the executive committee of the British 

 ^i ;• nee Guild, the question of the annual dinner was con- 



' red in connection with the visit of the Colonial 

 niers for the Imperial Conference of the Colonial 

 niers. It was stated that the report on the 

 hronisation of clocks had given rise to a very wide 

 assion by the newspapers and Press. A committee 



- appointed to deal with the question of the prize essay 

 :i the best way of carrying on the struggle for exist- 



and securing the survival of the fittest in national 

 :irs. 



HE announcement has been made of the discovery of 



ancient fossil Archaeocyathus in material collected in 



irctica by the Shackleton expedition. The identifica- 



■ >n was made some months ago by Dr. Griffith Taylor, 



ha is the author of a monograph on the Archaeo- 



hineas of South .Australia, and is a member of the 



-ent British Antarctic Expedition. As Archaeocyathus 



- a marine animal, it, of course, does not supply any 

 lence bearing on the presumed land connection between 



\ustralia and Antarctica. The evidence for that hypo- 

 sis is based on the distribution of land animals in the 

 hern hemisphere and on tectonic evidence. 



\ CORDING to a Reuter message from San Francisco, 



Eugene Ely succeeded, on January 18, in an attempt 



ily in a Curtis biplane from Self ridge Field, twelve 



s south of San Francisco, and to land on Ihc deck of 



cruiser Pennsylvania, lying twelve miles from the 



-t. Shortly afterwards he returned in his aeroplane to 



starting point. The flight was made close to the 



' r, and the aeroplane approached the cruiser's bows. 



Ely flew past the ship for a distance of about a 



ired yards, and then circled back, rising slowly, and 



Ily settled lightly. The flight occupied sixteen minutes 



ig and fifteen minutes returning. 



At the Royal College of Surgeons on February i Dr. 

 W. Edridge-Green will deliver the first of two lectures 

 "Colour-vision and Colour-blindness." The second 

 ure will be given on February 3. Two lectures will 

 lelivered by Prof. W. d'Este Emery on " The Immunity 

 Reaction in Relation to Surgical Diagnosis " on 

 ruary 6 and 8, and on February 10 Prof. Benjamin 

 ■re will give one lecture on new views on the chemical 

 •mposUion and mode of formation of renal calculi, and 

 nietabolism of calcium in gout. Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 



^ S., is to give three lectures on "The History of 

 nmification " on February 13, 15, and 17. The con- 

 ator of the college museum. Prof. Arthur Keith, will 

 ver lectures on "The Anthropology of Ancient British 

 -'3 " on Februar\- 20, 22, 24, and March i and 3. 



V CONTRACTOR employed by the Okehampton Rural 

 rict Council for the repair of roads recently removed 



nes from an ancient monument, known as King's Oven. 

 NO. 2152, VOL. ^^i 



Attention having been directed to this action, the CounciK 

 while admitting that the contractor should not have 

 removed the stones, suggested that the Duchy of Cornwall 

 should bear the cost of restoring the stones. The Secretary 

 and Keeper of Records of the Duchy has informed the 

 District Council that in future permission to take stone 

 must be obtained before it is used for road mending, and 

 that the Duchy counts upon the support and assistance of 

 the local authorities in the protection and preser\'ation of 

 ancient remains. The District Council has, we are glad to 

 know, decided to take steps to replace the stones. 



The annual general meeting of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society was held on January 18. After the report of the 

 council had been read, the president, Mr. H. Mellish, said 

 that the completion of the third decade since the society 

 undertook the collection of climatological observations 

 suggested that the moment was opportune for taking stock 

 of the data which had been collected in the British Isles, 

 and of the progress which has been made in reducing 

 and discussing them ; he therefore devoted his address to 

 a consideration of the present position of British 

 climatology. The following officers were elected for the 

 ensuing year : — President, Dr. H. N. Dickson ; vice- 

 presidents, F. Druce, H. Mellish, R. G. K. Lempfert, 

 Colonel H. E. Rawson, C.B. ; treasurer. Dr. C. Theodore 

 Williams ; secretaries, F. C. Bayard, Commander W. F. 

 Caborne, C.B. ; foreign secretary, Dr. R. H. Scott, 

 F.R.S. 



The Northern Whig for January 19 contains a full re- 

 port of a meeting held by the Belfast Naturalists' Field 

 Club to commemorate the life-work of the late Samuel 

 Alexander Stewart. The Rev. C. H. Waddell, Mr. R. 

 Lloyd Praeger, and the president of the club, Mr. R. J. 

 Welch, dwelt on various aspects of Stewart's career. Mr. 

 Waddell and Mr. Praeger have also contributed sympa- 

 thetic notices, accompanied by a bibliography and a 

 charmingly characteristic portrait, to the Irish Naturalist 

 for October, 1910. Belfast is justly proud of having 

 numbered Stewart among her citizens for more than 

 seventy years. It is one of the ironies of fate that his 

 death, at the age of eighty -four, was caused by a street 

 accident, but he had already retired from his post at the 

 museum of the Belfast Natural History Societ}-. His 

 career was outlined in N.^ture for June 30, 1910, and the 

 recent meeting shows that the impression made by the 

 energy and temperament of the man will not be lost 

 among naturalists in Ireland. Those who knew his 

 welcoming smile, and who discussed with him questions 

 of botany or geology, felt that they were in the presence 

 of a mind as beautiful as the open-air studies to which he 

 pointed out the way. 



Proceeding upon the reports of three committees and 

 a Royal Commission, Mr. J. C. Medd presents in the 

 Quarterly Review (January) a rational criticism of 

 ways and means with reference to the extension of forestry 

 areas and improved methods of cultivation in the British 

 Isles. As examples of small beginnings, allusion is made 

 to the purchase of the Inverliever estate in Argvllshire, of 

 a forestr\- station at Avondale, and of estates at Aghrane, 

 Dundrum, and other localities in Ireland. In common 

 with most critics, Mr. Medd comments upon the failure 

 of the commission to consider a scheme of cooperation 

 between the State and private owners, and instances a 

 number of advantages that would attend such an arrange- 

 ment ; in this connection he mentions approvingly the 

 scheme of copartnership advocated by Lord Lovat. ^^'ith 

 regard to difficulties in the way of an extensive general 

 scheme, it is pointed out that it would be unwise to dis- 



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