January 26, 1922] 



NATURE 



117 



t congenial, and afterwards when a princess at the 

 Court in Berlin asked him why he spoke so little, he 

 j-eplied : " Madame, parce que jo viens d'un pays 

 Hi quand on parle on est perdu." Euler continued 

 p> send memoirs to the Academy, and in 1766 he 

 Iccepted the invitation of Catherine II. to return to 

 Petrograd, and he died there in September, 1783. 

 iome of his sons entered the Russian service, while 

 ps son-in-law, Nicolas von Fuss, became permanent 

 secretary to the Acaderriy. 



One of the largest telescopes in the world, hitherto 

 unused, is likely to be brought into service shortly, 

 according to an announcement made at a recent 

 meeting of the American Astronomical Society. It 

 is a 6o-in. reflector constructed by the late Dr. A. A. 

 Common about thirty years ago and bought by the 

 Harvard Observatory in 1902. It is exceeded in size 

 by two telescopes only, both of them on the Pacific 

 coast — the loo-in. reflector at Mount Wilson, in Cali- 

 fornia, and the 72-in. reflector, the property of the 

 Dominion Government, at Victoria, in British 

 Columbia. A second reflector at Mount Wilson is of 

 the same size as that at Harvard. The Harvard 

 instrument was purchased for visual and photographic 

 star measurements, but when set up a:nd tested was 

 found unsatisfactory for that purpose. It was there- 

 fore abandoned, and has ever since been stored away 

 in the observatory grounds. Meanwhile, the science 

 of astrophysics has provided an increasingly large 

 number of problems, in which the light and heat from 

 a star, rather than the size of a photographic image, 

 are the things measured. It is for such problems as 

 these that the Harvard telescope, with its 5-ft. mirror 

 — once considered useless because it would not pro- 

 duce perfect images— is now to be employed. 



At the annual general meeting of the Royal Society 

 of Arts, on June 30, 1920, it was announced that 

 unless the society succeeded in purchasing the free- 

 hold of i;s house in John Street, Adelphi, it would 

 be obliged to find new quarters after March, 1922. 

 The matter was referred to again in the annual meet- 

 ing on June 29 last, and the sum. of 50,000^. was men- 

 tioned as the cost of buying and renovating the 

 property. An appeal for subscriptions was therefore 

 made in order to obtain funds to secure permanent 

 possession of the historic house built for the society 

 by the brothers Adam about 1775. So far, two lists 

 of subscribers have been issued in the society's 

 journal, from which it appears that the sum of 

 40,678/. has already been raised. Of this total no 

 less than 30,000?. is due to the generosity of one 

 anonymous benefactor. Other noteworthy subscrip- 

 tions are 2,500/. from Sir Charles A. Parsons, and 

 1000/. each from Lord Bearsted, Sir Dugald Clerk, 

 the Earl of Iveagh, Lord Leverhulme, and Mr. A. A. 

 Campbell Swinton. The sum already subscribed 

 should be sufficient to secure the continuity of tenure 

 of the John Street house, which has been the scene 

 of the society's labours for the past 147 years, but 

 it is to be hoped that further contributions will be 

 forthcoming, so that the whole of the purchase-money 

 may be available, and also means for making de- 

 NO. 2726, VOL. 109] 



sirable alterations in the meeting-room and other 

 parts of the building. 



At the annual general meeting of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society on January 18 the Symons 

 gold medal, which is awarded biennially for distin- 

 guished work in connection with meteorological 

 science, was presented to Col. H. G. Lyons. Dr. 

 Charles Chree was elected president of the society 

 for the year 1922. 



Dr. G. Claridge Druce has recently been elected 

 a corresponding member of the Botanical Society of 

 Czecho-Slovakia " for his inestimable services to 

 botanical science." The diploma is signed by the 

 president of the society. Prof. Karel Domin, professor 

 of systematic botany in the University of Prague. 



On Tuesday next, January 31, Prof. H. H. Turner 

 begins a course of three lectures at the Royal Institu- 

 tion on "Variable Stars," and on Thursday, 

 February 2, Sir Napier Shaw delivers the first of two 

 lectures on "Droughts and Floods." The Friday 

 evening discourse on February 3 will be delivered 

 by Sir Francis Younghusband on "The Mount Everest 

 Expedition," and on February 10 by Dr. Halliburton 

 on "The Teeth of the Nation." 



The Civil Service Commissioners announce that an 

 open competitive examination for not fewer than 

 fifteen situations as assistant engineer in the 

 Engineer-in-Chief's Department of the General Post 

 Office will be held in London, Edinburgh, and Man- 

 chester in April next, commencing on April 20. The 

 limits of age are twenty and twenty-five, with certain 

 extensions. Regulations and forms of application 

 will be sent in response to requests by letter addressed 

 to the Secretary, Civil Service Commission, Burling- 

 ton Gardens, London, W.i. 



Having regard to the confusion which now exists, 

 especially in overseas trade, due to the difference 

 between the American gallon and the Imperial gallon, 

 the Decimal Association urges that it is desirable for 

 an agreement to be reached between the Governments 

 of Great Britain and the United States to the effect 

 that as an alternative to either of the above gallons 

 being adopted by both countries as a common stan- 

 dard, each of them should forthwith adopt the litre, 

 which could be described as the "metric gallon." It 

 is obvious that uniformity of practice in a matter of 

 this kind is most desirable, and the adoption of the 

 metric gallon would not only standardise practice 

 between Great Britain and America, but also with 

 practically all other countries engaged in international 

 trade. 



A PORTRAIT of Sir Patrick Manson was unveiled by 

 Sir James Michelli at the London School of Tropical 

 Medicine on January 20. The portrait was subscribed 

 for by a large number of past and present students and 

 other friends at home and abroad. The painting was 

 entrusted to Mr. E. Webster, and is a most pleasing 

 likeness. It hangs in the vestibule of the school, 

 where it will be seen by the large number of 

 students attending the classes. Reproductions of the 



