648 



NATURE 



[January 13, 192 1 



against "the Greenland pirates" in their "small ships 

 without keels" is made in 1551 by Carsten Grip, 

 Mayor of Kiel. 



Visits of similar people in skin canoes are recorded 

 in the Orkney Islands by writers of unimpeachable 

 veracity in the seventeenth century. One of these 

 canoes is still preserved in the anthropological 

 museum of Marischal College, Aberdeen. Its frame- 

 work and implements are made of North European ' 



wood. The estimated maximum height of its occupant 

 is 4i ft. 



A vast field of conjecture opens up if we begin to 

 consider the European skin boat in the first thousand 

 years of the Christian era. Von Diiben shows that 

 it was the earliest boat used by the Lapps, and Prof. 

 Julius Pokorny interprets the Fir Bolg of Gaelic lore 

 as "skin-boat men." "The Greenlandish Attila Lay" 

 is said to date from the eighth or ninth century. 



Prize Awards of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



Mathematics. — Grand prize of the mathematical 

 sciences to Ernest Esclangon, for his memoir entitled 

 " New Researches on Quasi-periodic Functions " ; the 

 Poncelet prize to Elie Cartan, for the whole of his 

 work ; the Francoeur prize to Ren6 Baire, for his 

 work on the general theory of functions. 



Mechanics. — A Montyon prize to St^phane Drze- 

 wiecld, for his book on the general theory of the 

 helix, with reference to marine and aerial propeller- 

 blades; the de Parville prize to Jean Villey, for his 

 work on internal-combustion motors. No memoir 

 was received dealing with the question proposed for 

 the Fourneyron prize, but the arrears accrued are 

 divided between Joseph Auclair and .Mired Boyer- 

 Guillon (1000 francs), for their theoretical and prac- 

 tical studies on the measurement of the acceleration 

 of a point of a body subject to a periodic motion, and 

 Eugene Burlot (1000 francs), for the whole of liis work 

 concerning the propagation of waves of shock in air 

 and water. 



Astronomy. — The Lalande prize to Leopold Schul- 

 hof, for his revision of the catalogue of the proper 

 motions of 2641 stars published by J. Bossert in 1896; 

 the Valz prize to Ernest Maubant, for the whole of 

 his work on the calculation of the perturbations of 

 comets; the Janssen medal to William W. Coblentz, 

 for his work on the infra-red radiation of terrestrial 

 sources and of stars ; the Pierre Guzman prize 

 between Francois Gonnessiat (5000 francs), for his 

 work on the photography of the minor planets, Ren6 

 Jarrv-Desloges (5000 francs), for his physical observa- 

 tions on the planets, especially Mars, and Joanny-Ph. 

 Lagrula (4000 francs), for his work on the rapid 

 identification of the minor planets. The Damoiseau 

 prize was not awarded, and the questions proposed 

 for 1917 and 1920 are again proposed for 1923. 



Geography — The Delalande-Gu^rineau prize to 

 Georges Bruel, for the whole of his explorations and 

 publications relating to French Equatorial Africa ; the 

 Tchihatchef prize to Auguste Chevalier, for his ex- 

 plorations in Africa and Indo-China ; the Binoux prize 

 to Marcel Au£?i6ras, for his work in the western 

 Sahara. The Gav prize is not awarded. 



Navigation. — ^The prize of 6000 francs between 

 Fernand Gossot (4000 francs), for his treatise on the 

 effects of explosives, Pierre de Vanssay de Blavous 

 (1500 francs), for the whole of his work, and Ren6 

 Risser (500 francs), for his work on ballistics ; the 

 Plumey prize between Charles Dovfere (2000 francs), 

 for the whole of his work, especially for the services 

 which he rendered during the war, and Edouard 

 Tournier (1000 francs), for his book entitled "Prac- 

 tical Guide for the Use of Mechanics for Calculating 

 the Internal Losses in Machines and Determining 

 their Yield." 



Physics. — ^The L. La Caze prize to Georges Sagnac, 

 for the whole of his work in physics ; the Hubert 

 prize to L^on Bouthillon, for his work and publica- 

 tions on wireless telegraphy ; the Hughes prize to 

 Frederic Laporte, for his work on electrical standards 

 4ind the photometry of electric lamps ; the Clement 



NO. 2672, VOL. 106] 



Felix foundation to Am^^e Guillet, for his researches 

 on chronometry. 



Chemistry. — The Montyon prize (unhealthy trades) 

 to Leonce Barthe, for his work on the hygiene of 

 workshops, a mention (1500 francs) to Paul Goissedet, 

 for his work in relation to poison gas, and a mention 

 (1000 francs) to Henri Guinot, for his chemical work 

 during the war ; the Jecker prize (5000 francs) 

 between Henri Gault, for his work in organic 

 chemistry, and Henri H^rissey, for his researches on 

 the glucosides of plants ; the L. La Caze prize to 

 Robert de Forcrand, for the whole of his work in 

 inorganic chemistry ; the Cahours foundation between 

 Raymond Cornubert, for his work in the cyclo. 

 hexanone series, and Paul Robin, for his chemical 

 studies in relation to the war and for his work on 

 the oximes ; the Houzeau prize to the late Emile 

 Baud, for his researches on the compounds of 

 aluminium and arsenic and his work in the national 

 defence. 



Mineralogy and Geology. — The Fontannes prize to 

 Olivier Couffon, for his work entitled " Le Callovien 

 du Chalet (Commune de Montreuil-Bellav) " ; the 

 Joseph Labbe prize to Albert Bordeaux, for his ap- 

 plications of geology to the solution of mining 

 problems. The Victor Raulin prize is postponed until 

 192 1. 



Botany. — The Desmazieres prize to Andr6 Maublanc, 

 for his work in mycology and plant diseases, an 

 honourable mention to Pierre S6e, for his book on 

 the diseases of paoer ; the De Coincy prize to Lucien 

 Hauman-Merck, for the whole of his botanical work. 

 The Montagne prize is not awarded. 



Anatomy and Zoology. — The Cuvier prize to 

 Alphonse Malaouin, for the whole of his work in 

 zoology ; the Savigny prize to F. Le Cerf, for his 

 "Revision des ^geriid^s algeriens " ; the Jean Thore 

 prize to .'\. Cros, for his biological studies of the 

 Colpoptera of northern .Africa. 



Medicine and Surgery. — Montyon prizes to Pierre 

 Dflbet and Noel Fiessinger (2!;oo francs), for their 

 memoir on the biology of war wounds, Joseph Fran- 

 chini (2500 francs), for his studies on the pathogenic 

 protozoa, and Fran<;ois Maignon (2500 francs), for 

 his researches on the rSle of fats in the utilisation of 

 albuminoids. Honourable mentions (1^00 francs) to 

 Henri .Alezais and Albert Peyron, for their researches 

 on the histogenesis of certain groups of tumours, to 

 Maurice Heitz-Boyer, for his researches on the physio- 

 logy and surgery of bone, and to P. Lassabliire, for 

 his studies on milk and feeding of new-born infants. 

 .\ citation to Joseph Rigaut and .Antoine Orticoni, for 

 their work entitled " L'^volution de la croissance chez 

 les addnoldiens " ; the Barbier prize to .Mbert Berthelot, 

 for his chemical work on intoxications of intestinal 

 origin ; the Breant prize between .Aucuste Marie and 

 Constantin Levaditi (3000 francs), for their work on 

 eeneral paralysis, and Henri Violle (2000 francs), for 

 his memoir on cholera ; the Godard prize to Henry 

 Chabanier, for his study of the numerical laws of 

 the renal secretion ; the Mege prize is not awarded ; 



