September 9, 19 15] 



NATURE 



47 



in Costa Rica, and a circle of io° radius drawn from 

 this point as centre includes a i>ortion of Central 

 America and the Isthmus of Panama. 



A Reuter message from Paris states that the Minis- 

 try of Foreign Affairs has sent to the Academy of 

 Sciences a note reporting the discovery of mineral 

 springs in Colorado containing radium in such large 

 quantities that they may lead to the industrial extrac- 

 tion in America of radium, and the reduction of price 

 1 less than one-quarter the present rate per gram. 



The Ministry of Munitions announces that the Muni- 

 tions Inventions Branch, which was recently consti- 

 tuted by the Minister of Munitions to deal with pro- 

 jects for inventions relating to munitions for warfare 

 on land, or matters appertaining thereto, has now 

 been removed from Armament Buildings, Whitehall, 

 to accessible and commodious quarters in Princes 

 Street, Storey's Gate, S.W. (hitherto the premises of 

 the Whitehall Club), to which all future communica- 

 tions should be addressed. The department is now in 

 working order, and is already dealing with a large 

 number of proposals. The comptroller, Mr. E. W. 

 Moir, is being assisted in this work by an advisory 

 panel of scientific experts, whose names were 

 announced in Nature of August 19 (p. 678). This 

 body is now at work in committees, and every proposal 

 receives consideration from them. 



In commemoration of Capt. Cook, a tablet has been 

 placed on the school at Great Ayton, Cleveland, where 

 the navigator received his education ; a scholarship 

 has also been established at Marton, in the same 

 neighbourhood, which was Capt. Cook's birthplace. 

 The cost of both has been provided out of the surplus 

 of the fund raised for the erection of the Cook 

 memorial in London. 



We are informed that Mr. A. Gibb Maitland, 

 Government Geologist and Director of the Geological 

 Survey, Western Australia, has been appointed Presi- 

 dent of the Royal Society of Western Australia for 

 the session 1915-16. 



We learn from the Allahabad Pioneer Mail that Dr. 

 N. Annandale, superintendent of the Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta, is to spend the greater part of his six months' 

 leave of absence in Siam and Japan, studying the 

 fauna of the lake regions, and that he will prepare 

 and submit a report on the geological and entomo- 

 logical collections in the two countries referred to. 



We are glad to learn from Cambridge that the 

 announcement in the Times of September 2 that Capt. 

 James Romanes had been killed at the Dardanelles 

 on August 31 is incorrect. A telegram from Gibraltar 

 states that Capt. Romanes is returning home slightly 

 wounded. 



We notice with much regret the announcement of 

 the death, on September 4, at forty-four years of age, 

 of Prof. D. T. Gwynne-Vaughan, professor of botany 

 at University College, Reading. 



The death is announced of Julius von Payer, who, 

 in a memorable Austro-Hungarian Arctic Exf)edition 

 in 1872-74, under the leadership of Lieut. Weyprecht 

 NO. 2393, VOL. 96] 



and himself, discovered and explored the coast of 

 Franz-Josef Land. 



The death is announced of Mr. F. Higgins, chief 

 engineer to the Exchange Telegraph Company. He 

 began his career in the Post Office Telegraph Depart- 

 ment, was Superintendent of Telegraphs in Mauritius 

 for a time, and entered the service of the Exchange 

 Telegraph Company in 1873, when he began to direct 

 his attention to the development of type-printing tele- 

 graphs in the various forms now familiarly known as 

 "tape" instruments. In this he was successful, as, 

 besides perfecting several forms of "relays," he largely 

 increased the speed of the instruments. In addition, 

 he invented an instrument known as the column 

 printer for printing on a broad band of paper. He 

 was also the patentee of numerous inventions in elec- 

 tric fire alarms. 



By the death of Mr. Thomas Carrington-Smith 

 agriculture has lost a prominent and characteristic 

 personality, and one who did much to make 

 British farming what it now is. He entered his farm 

 about the middle of the 'fifties, and maintained an 

 uninterrupted tenancy of some sixty years; thus he 

 farmed through the prosperous times of the 'sixties, 

 the disasters of '79, the depression of the 'nineties, 

 and he lived to see high prices setting in once rnore. 

 His long experience was placed ungrudgingly at the 

 service of his fellow-agriculturists, and he played 

 a considerable part in bringing about the legislation 

 that was necessary before farmers could alter their 

 systems of working. No industry is subject to more 

 restrictions than agriculture, probably because farmers 

 rarely work on more than an annual lease. Legis- 

 lation is therefore necessary from time to time to effect 

 adjustments of the various interests involved. In all 

 this Mr. Carrington-Smith played a prominent part, 

 and his name is associated with legislation affecting 

 tenant right reform, swine fever, cattle disease, agri- 

 cultural rates, and the sale of margarine. He was 

 active, both on the advisory side, as chairman of the 

 Dairy Products Committee of the Central Chamber of 

 Agriculture, and on the administrative side, as a mem- 

 ber of the Staffordshire County Council. He also 

 wrote a number of papers on agricultural subjects. 



We announced, with regret, in our last number, 

 the death of Mr. Henry Crookes, which took place 

 after a short illness at his residence, 109 Ladbroke 

 Road, W., on August 28. Henry Crookes was the 

 eldest son of Sir William and Lady Crookes, and for 

 many years he had been closely associated with his 

 father in several branches of scientific activity. He 

 was an associate of the Royal School of Mines, and 

 was elected a fellow of the Chemical Society in 1902. 

 Quiet and unassuming in disposition, his work was 

 not largely known outside his immediate circle of 

 friends and collaborators. Some years ago he spent 

 a considerable time in South Africa, engaged in work 

 connected with gold mining and the extraction of gold 

 from residues by the cyanide process. At this time 

 he unfortunately contracted intermittent fever, which 

 necessitated his return to England, and the effects 

 of which never left him. It is to this circumstance 

 that his death at a comparatively early age is largely 



