September i6, 1915] 



NATURE 



75 



tional Association, where we have voluntary effort put 

 forward to satisfy spontaneous desire to learn. As 

 this movement extends we may hope more and more 

 to get a generation of parents who, having themselves 

 experienced intellectual curiosity and the joy of satis- 

 fying it, who, having themselves felt the gain of a 

 wider outlook on men and things, may by their 

 example inspire their children with a similar disinter- 

 ested desire for learning and culture. 



NOTES. 



The members of the Siberian Expedition sent out 

 from this country sixteen months ago, at the joint 

 expense of the Oxford University School of Anthro- 

 polog}' and the Philadelphia University Museum, 

 reached London last week. The leader, Miss M. A. Czap- 

 licka, possessed exceptional qualifications for the w^ork 

 entrusted to her, being a native of Russian Poland, 

 and a distinguished student of the Warsaw University 

 and of Somerville College, Oxford. The expedition 

 consisted of Miss Curtis, the artist, Miss Haviland, 

 ornithologist, and Mr. Hull, of Philadelphia Univer- 

 sity, ethnologist. They proceeded from Warsaw to 

 Krasniack, in Siberia, and thence to the mouth of the 

 Yenisei. The first tribe examined was that of the 

 Samoyeds, and then the winter was spent among the 

 Tungus of the Tundra, a very primitive race, little 

 influenced by Russian culture. The spring was de- 

 voted to the Tartars, who are much more civilised 

 than either the Samoyeds or the Tungus. Much in- 

 formation of scientific interest has been acquired, and 

 a large collection of costumes, weapons, implements, 

 and ornaments made of copper and iron has been 

 made. These will, it is hoped, be exhibited in Europe 

 and America after the close of the war. 



The Admiralty Air Department has been reorganised 

 and for the future w-ill be under the direction of a flag 

 officer, with the title of Director of Air Services. 

 Rear-Admiral C. L. Vaughan-Lee has been selected 

 for this appointment. He held the post of assistant 

 to the Director of Naval Ordnance from February, 

 1899, to July, 1900, and of Assistant Director of Naval 

 Intelligence from January to December, 1905. The 

 Director of the Air Department, Commodore M. F. 

 Sueter, C.B., has been promoted to the rank of Com- 

 modore ist Class, and w^ill be in charge of the maUriel 

 side of naval aeronautical work, with the new title of 

 Superintendent of Aircraft Construction. Commodore 

 Sueter was appointed Inspecting Captain of Airships 

 in September, 1910, and in 1912 he was selected for 

 the post of Director of the Air Department. 



An exhibition of the various forms of apparatus 

 found most useful in the treatment of fractures met 

 with in the war will be held in the premises of the 

 Royal Society of Medicine, i Wimpole Street, W., 

 from October 7 to 11. During the exhibition Sir 

 Almroth Wright will demonstrate his recent researches 

 in the drainage of wounds. 



We learn from the Kew BulleHn that Mr. W. G. 



Craib, assistant for India in the Kew Herbarium, has 



been appointed assistant to the professor of botany in 



the University of Edinburgh, with the status of Uni- 



NO. 2394, VOL. 96] 



versity lecturer on forest botany and Indian forest 

 trees. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Mr. J, 

 Hutchinson succeeds Mr. Craib at the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew. 



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

 of Dr. Carlos J. Finlay, who was associated with the 

 discovery of the part played by the mosquito in the 

 transmission of yellow fever and other diseases. He 

 was a native of Cuba, and received his general educa- 

 tion at the Lyc6e at Rouen, and his professional 

 education at the Jefferson Medical College, Phil- 

 adelphia. He then returned to Cuba and became one 

 of the leading physicians in the island. 



The death is announced in Engineering for Septem- 

 ber 10 of Mr. G. W. Manuel, who for twenty-one years 

 was superintending engineer to the Peninsular and 

 Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Perhaps his 

 strongest characteristic was his determination that the 

 P. and O. mail liner should reach its port according 

 to scheduled time without the variation of a minute, 

 and no development was made unless he himself was 

 perfectly satisfied that it could be relied on and would 

 conduce to punctuality. Mr. Manuel became a mem- 

 ber of the Institution of Naval Architects in 1879, and 

 contributed frequently to debates. His death will be 

 regretted by many sea-going engineers who have come 

 under his influence. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 September 14, at eighty-five years of age, of Sir John 

 Knox Laughton, distinguished particularly by his 

 studies in naval history. Sir John Laughton entered 

 the Navy in 1853 as a naval instructor, and was 

 mathematical and naval instructor at the Royal Naval 

 College, Portsmouth, from 1866 to 1873. He vvas then 

 transferred in the same capacity to the Royal Naval 

 College at Greenwich, becoming also lecturer on 

 meteorology. In 1885 he retired from active service 

 on being appointed professor of modern history at 

 King's College, London, and from that date until his 

 death he devoted himself almost entirely to studies 

 of naval history. In addition to valuable works upon 

 this subject, he was the author of volumes on 

 " Physical Geography in its Relation to the Prevailing 

 Winds and Currents," and "A Treatise on Nautical 

 Surveying." From 1882 to 1884 he was president of 

 the Royal Meteorological Society. 



Julius Payer, the discoverer of Franz-Josef Land, 

 whose death on .A^ugust 31 was announced in our- last 

 number, was born in Bohemia in 1841. He served 

 with distinction in the war with Italy in 1866, before 

 he joined the second German expedition to east Green- 

 land in the Germania, under Koldewey, in 1869. 

 There he acquired much experience in polar work, 

 in the exploration of King William's Land and the 

 extraordinary Franz-Josef Fjord. In 187 1, through 

 the liberality of Graf Wilczek, Payer and Weyprecht 

 undertook an expedition in the Isbjom to Spitsbergen 

 and the Barents Sea as a preliminary to an Arctic 

 expedition on a large scale. This expedition, the first 

 to explore the north of the Barents Sea, was fruitful 

 of discoveries there and in Spitsbergen and Hope 



