1 14 



NATURE 



[March 24, 192 1 



Adolf Appellof, who died at Upsala on 

 January 5, was born on the island of Gottland 

 on November 2, 1857. In 1889 he became a con- 

 servator of the zoological collections in Bergens 

 Museum, and succeeded to the keepership of the 

 whole department in 1907, being at the same time 

 made professor at the newly established university 

 there. In 1910 he was appointed professor of 

 comparative anatomy at Upsala, which post he 

 held until the end. In his early writings on 

 Cephalopoda, Appellof showed that similarly 

 hectocotylised arms arose in diverse groups ; he 

 threw light on the homologies of the shell in 

 Sepia, Spirula, ^nd Nautilus, and proved the 

 occurrence of a shell in the octopods. Among 

 many works on actinians. that on their develop- 

 ment {1900) won for him the Nansen prize. Later 

 he studied the Crustacea, wrote an important 

 work on the decapods of Norway, and won the 

 Joachim Friele gold medal with a memoir on the 

 lobster. Two papers on Pycnogonids of the Arctic 

 should not be forgotten. wSuch were Appellof 's 

 chief publications ; but he did a large amount of 

 investigation into fishery and other zoological 

 problems in expeditions along the Norwegian 

 coast and, on the Michael Sars, to the North Sea 

 and North Atlantic. His chief work, however, was 

 the inspiring instruction of youth in the laboratory 

 at Bergen, and later at Upsala and in the bio- 

 logical station of "The Club," which he founded 

 five years ago on Gullmar Fjord. There, among 

 the living sea-creatures and the merry students, 

 Appellof's cheerful enthusiasm found its untram- 

 melled exercise. F. A. B. 



The death of Mr. Herbert ByRom Ransom is 

 announced in Engineering for March 11. Mr. 

 Ransom was born in 1867, and was educated at 

 Cheltenham College, and passed through the 



engineering course at University College, London. 

 He received his practical training with Messrs. 

 Manlove, AUiott, and Co., Ltd., Nottingham, and 

 became a director of the company in 1902. In 

 1908 he retired to take up private practice. He 

 was a member of the Institutions of Civil and 

 Mechanical Engineers, and his papers to the 

 former institution were awarded a Miller prize and 

 scholarship, a Watt medal, and a Telford 

 premium. 



The death is reported, in his eighty-third year, 

 of Dr. Charles H. Fernald, professor of natural 

 history at the Maine State College (now the Uni- 

 versity of Maine) from 1871 to 1886, and of zoo- 

 logy and entomology at the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College from 1886 to 1910. When the 

 Hatch experiment station was established at the 

 latter institution Dr. Fernald became the entomo- 

 logist of the station. He had contributed largely 

 to scientific journals, and in collaboration with 

 Mr. E. H. Forbush prepared a large work on 

 "The Gypsy Moth," which was published by the 

 State. He was the father of Dr. H. T. Fernald, 

 the present head of the entomological department 

 at the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 



The death of Sir Arthur Lewis Webb on 

 March 15 is announced in the Engineer for 

 March 18. Sir Arthur was born in i860, and 

 entered the irrigation branch of the Public Works 

 Department of India in 1881, after having passed 

 through the Royal Engineering College at Coopers 

 Hill. He was transferred to the Egyptian Irriga- 

 tion Department in 1894, and rose to be Under- 

 Secretary for Irrigation and Adviser to the Public 

 Works Ministry. He was created K.C.M.G. in 

 1912. 



Notes. 



For the meeting- of the British Association which 

 will be held at Edinburgh on September 7-14 next 

 the following presidents of Sections have been ap- 

 pointed : — Section A (Mathematics and Physics), Prof. 

 O. W. Richardson; B (Chemistry), Dr. M. O. 

 Forster; C (Geology), Dr. J. S. Flett ; D (Zoology), 

 Mr. E. S. Goodrich; E (Geography), Dr. D. G. 

 Hogarth; F (Economics), Mr. W. L. Hichens; 

 G (Engineering), Prof. A. H. Gibson; H (Anthropo- 

 logy), Sir J. Frazer ; I (Physiology), Sir W. Morley 

 Fletcher ; J (Psychology), Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan ; 

 K (Botany), Dr.' D. H^ Scott; L (Education), Sir 

 W. H. Hadow; and M (Agriculture), Mr. C. S. 

 Orwin. Sir Richard Gregory has been appointed 

 president of the Conference of Delegates of Corre- 

 sponding Societies. Among the subjects of general 

 interest which are being arranged for discussion at 

 joint sectional meetings are : — The Age of the Earth, 

 Biochemistry, Vocational Training and Tests, The 

 Relation of Genetics to Agriculture, The Proposed 

 Mid-Scotland Canal, and The Origin of the Scottish 

 NO. 2682, VOL. 107] 



People. The president of the association. Sir Edward 

 Thorpe, will deliver his address at the inaugural 

 meeting on Wednesday evening, September 7, and 

 discourses will be given at general evening meetings 

 by Prof. C. E. Inglis on The Evolution of Cantilever 

 Bridge Construction, involving a comparison between 

 the Forth and Quebec bridges, and by Prof. W. A. 

 Herdman, the present president, on Edinburgh and 

 Oceanography. Measures are beinf taken towards a 

 more effective co-ordination of the daily programmes 

 in order to avoid the clashing of subjects of kindred 

 interest. 



The Secretary for Mines has appointed Dr. F. H. 

 Hatch to be Technical Adviser to the Mines Depart- 

 ment on questions relating to the metalliferous mining 

 industry. 



Sir Edward Thorpe (Great Britain), Prof. Le 

 Chatelier (France), Prof. Ciamician (Italy), and Dr. 

 Ernest Solvay (Belgium) have been elected honorary 

 foreign members of the Chemists' Club, New York. 



