20 



NATURE 



[March 3, 192 1 



as consultants. Sir Edward Frankland was the 

 first president, and he was followed by Sir 

 Frederick Abel; but it was during- Odling's occu- 

 pancy of the chair, and largely owing to his 

 influence, that the charter was granted in 1885. 

 Although it is vain to look in the Royal Society 

 Catalogue of Scientific Papers for outstanding 

 discoveries the result of experimental work under 

 Odling's name, it should not be forgotten that 

 he contributed several very important articles on 

 theoretical subjects to Watts 's " Dictionary," and 

 among them one on atomic weights, in which he 

 came very near the discovery of the periodic law 

 now always associated with the name of 

 Mendel^eff. 



In 1872 Odling married the only daughter of 

 Alfred Smee, F.R.S., inventor of " Smee's 

 battery," and formerly surgeon to the Bank of 

 England, and by her he left three sons. Mrs. 

 Odling died about four years ago, and this loss 

 seems to have affected her husband seriously ; 

 however, when visited in January only a few 

 weeks before his death his mental activity seemed 

 undiminished, and he was ready to talk of old 

 times. W. A. T. 



The death of Mr. C. Grover, of Rousdon, 

 Devonshire, on February 16, removes from the 

 list of variable star observers a notable figure. 

 There are now thirty-five years' observations made 

 with the same instrument (a 6-4-in. refractor 

 by Merz and Cooke, with low-power eye-piece 

 of 25 by Steinheil) by the same observer on the 

 same plan, and with remarkable regularity and 



continuity. The first half of these observations 

 were collected and discussed in vol. Iv. of the 

 R.A.S. Memoirs, but an equal contribution can 

 now be added with a natural termination. This 

 work was planned by the late Sir Cuthbert Peek, 

 who took a personal share in its inception. Since 

 Sir Cuthbert 's death in 1900 it has been continued 

 by his son. Sir Wilfred Peek. Mr. Grover would 

 have been seventy-nine on March 7, and continued 

 at his regular work until the very day preceding 

 his death. There can seldom have been a more 

 single-minded piece of astronomical work. 



The death of Mr. John Clarke Hawkshaw 

 on February 12 is recorded in Engineering for 

 February 18. Mr. Hawkshaw, who was eighty 

 years of age at the time of his death, was the 

 son of the late Sir John Hawkshaw, whose name 

 is associated with so many important engineering 

 works. Mr. Hawkshaw was associated with the 

 construction of the Albert Dock, Hull, the Severn 

 Tunnel, etc., and assisted his father in investiga- 

 tions with the Channel Tunnel and many other 

 schemes. He was elected a member of the In- 

 stitution of Civil Engineers in 1867, became 

 member of council in 1889, and held the office of 

 president in 1902-3. 



It is announced in Science for February 4 that 

 Mary Watson Whitney, emeritus professor of 

 astronomy, and from 1889 to 191 o director of the 

 observatory of Vassar College, New York State, 

 died on January 20, aged seventy-three years. 



Notes. 



The following fifteen candidates have been selected 

 by the council of the Royal Society to be recom- 

 mended for election into the society : — Dr. W. E. 

 Agar, Dr. F. W. Aston, Prof. W. L. Bragg, Dr. 

 W. T. Caiman, Dr. A. H. Church, Prof. G. Dreyer, 

 Prof. W. H. Eccles, Dr. J. C. G. Ledingham, Mr. 

 C. S. Middlemiss, Prof. K. J. P. Orton, Dr. J. H. 

 Parsons, Prof. J. C. Philip, Dr. A. A. Robb, Sir 

 E. Tennyson D'Eyncourt, and Mr. G. Udny Yule. 



The Royal Society administers two funds, the Gore 

 Fund and the Trevelyan Fund, which have been be- 

 queathed to the society for the promotion of scientific 

 research. There is a balance in hand of about 200I., 

 and the president and council would be glad to con- 

 sider applications for the whole or part of this balance. 

 Applications should be sent to the Secretaries of the 

 Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W.i, 

 before April 15, stating the sum asked for and the 

 way in which it is proposed to spend it, and enclosing 

 any references or other documents the applicant may 

 think fit. 



The combined meeting of organising committees 

 of the Sections of the British Association, held at 

 Burlington House on Friday last, February 25, was 

 so helpful in many respects that it might very well 



NO. 2679, VOL. 107] 



become an annual event. The meeting was called to 

 consider various suggestions as to the number and 

 grouping of Sections, presidential addresses, and 

 other subjects discussed in the recent correspondence 

 in Nature and elsewhere, and also to facilitate the 

 arrangement of joint programmes between two or 

 more Sections for the annual assembly at Edinburgh 

 in September next. At the general session it was 

 agreed that the number of Sections should not be 

 reduced, but that voluntary grouping for the considera- 

 tion of subjects of common interest was desirable. 

 The council (through the general officers) was em- 

 powered to fix hours of addresses and discussions, 

 and the view was approved that the oral delivery 

 of presidential addresses should be optional, as well 

 as that the addresses themselves might be used to 

 open discussions. It was also decided that the council 

 should invite the recorders of Sections, or their- 

 nominees, to be present at meetings of council when 

 presidents of Sections are elected. Organising com- 

 mittees will thus, through their representatives, be 

 able to put forward their views as to new sectional 

 presidents. Several Important joint discussions were 

 arranged for the forthcoming meeting, among them 

 being one between the Sections of Physics and Chemis- 

 try on Langmulr's theory of the atom-, and another 

 between the Sections of Economics, Education, and 



