A5^ 



NATURE 



[December 24, 1914 



science, which is as important for peace as for war 

 purposes. 



Meteorology and the Scarborough Raid. 



It is by no means surprising that for their raid on 

 the three British coast towns the Germans should 

 have profited so accurately by climatic conditions. 

 When they first entered Belgium their army corps 

 were immediately followed by the full staff of their 

 observatories. On August 16 the astronomers and 

 meteorologists attached to the Aix-la-Chapelle army 

 corps took up their quarters at Liege, and on August 

 25 they were all at the Brussels Observatory at I'ccle, 

 where, on September i, they were replaced by astro- 

 nomers and meteorologists from Berlin. 



Immediately on arriving at the Brussels Observa- 

 tory the Germans turned out the Belgian staff. They 

 made use of the Belgian instruments but supple- 

 mented them by the very up-to-date instruments they 

 had brought from Berlin. On September 3 they 

 began hunting for a Belgian hydrogen factory where 

 they could obtain hydrogen for filling their testing 

 balloons, by means of which they make their observa- 

 tions for predicting fogs. They used these balloons 

 for forecasting the weather, particularly for the great 

 German attack on Antwerp. 



There is abundant evidence that the German men 

 of science followed the same course with regard to 

 the German raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and 

 Whitby. They are admirably equipped for forecasting 

 fog forty-eight hours ahead wherever they are. The 

 German .\rmy meteorological stations have certainly 

 been transferred to Ostend and Zeebrugge. They 

 maj- not be as important as submarines, but these 

 observation stations can render almost as effective aid 

 in Germanv's work of destruction as these engines. 



NOTES. 

 M. C. E. GuiLLAUME, the director of the Bureau des 

 Poids et Mesures at the Pavilion de Breteuil, Sevres, 

 has made it known that the Institute of France has 

 started a hospital, using for the purpose the funds at 

 its disposal, and the voluntary contributions of its 

 members. In Great Britain there are about thirty 

 Associes Etrangers and correspondants of the insti- 

 tute, who have been notified of the action of the 

 institute, and they have responded generoush' to the 

 appeal of their French colleagues. 



We learn from Science of the death at sixty-four 

 years of age of Dr. D. E. Salmon, chief of the U.S. 

 Bureau of Animal Industry from 1884 to 1906. 



We regret to announce the death, at seventy-one 

 years of age, of Mr. A. R. Hunt, of Torquay, fellow 

 of the Geological and Linnean Societies. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death 

 on November 10, at seventy-five years of age, of Prof. 

 N. C. Duner, secretary of the Swedish Royal Society 

 of Science, Upsala, associate of the Royal Astrono- 

 mical Society, and author of astronomical works of 

 prime importance. 



It is announced that, owing to continued ill-health, 

 Dr. E. F. Bashford has resigned the post of general 

 superintendent of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, 

 which he has held for the past eight years, and that 

 his resignation has been accepted by the executive 

 committee. 



NO. 2356, VOL. 94] 



The Royal (ieographical Society has arranged two 

 lectures to young people for the new year. On 

 January 4, Mr. C. Carus-Wilson will lecture on the 

 earth's unstable crust; and on January 8 the Rev. 

 T. T. Norgate will take as his subject the theatres of 

 war, illustrated. The meetings will be held in the 

 Kensington Town Hall, High Street, Kensington, at 

 3.30 p.m. Application for tickets should be made to 

 the chief clerk. Royal Geographical Society, Ken- 

 sington Gore, S.W. 



At the fifth annual general meeting of the .Society 

 of Engineers (Incorporated), held on Monday, Decem- 

 ber 14, the awards of premiums made in respect of 

 papers published in the journal of the society during 

 19 14 were announced as follow-s :■ — The president's 

 gold medal to Mr. A. S. E. Ackermann for his paper 

 on the utilisation of solar energy ; the Bessemer pre- 

 mium, value 5L 55., to Mr. A. S. Buckle for his 

 paper on cylinder bridge foundations in the East ; the 

 Clarke premium, value 5^. 55., to Mr. S. M. Doding- 

 ton for his paper on mechanical appliances for the 

 painless killing of animals ; the premium, value 

 3/. 3s., for members of affiliated societies, to Mr. 

 R. H. Cunningham (Crystal Palace Engineering 

 School) for his paper on irrigation in India; a society's 

 premium, value 2I. 2s., to Mr. James Tonge for his 

 paper on uses of the hydraulic mining cartridge. Mr. 

 Norman Scorgie was elected president of the society 

 for 1915. 



The Royal Institution has circulated an illustrated 

 brochure which explains for popular purposes the 

 nature and objects of the institution. The institution 

 was established under a charter of George III. in 

 1800, and enlarged and confirmed by an Act 

 of Parliament in 18 10. The objects of the founda- 

 tion" are " to prosecute scientific and literary research ; 

 to illustrate and diffuse the principles of inductive and 

 experimental science ; to promote social intercourse 

 among lovers of science, men and women ; and to 

 afford them opportunities for collective and individual 

 study." It is not necessary to insist upon the value 

 to the world of the scientific work accomplished in 

 the laboratories of the Royal Institution, when the 

 names of a few of the great men who have worked 

 there are recal^led : Davy, Faraday, Tyndall, to say 

 nothing of living men of science. The hope may be 

 expressed that there will be no diminution of the use- 

 fulness and popularity of the institution in view of 

 the war, but that its influence may become increas- 

 ingly powerful as the years pass. 



A DISTINGUISHED traveller and servant of the Empire 

 has passed away in Archibald Ross Colquhoun, who 

 died on December 18. He was born in 1848, and his 

 earliest civil service was in the Indian police. From 

 this he passed to the public works department, and 

 then became secretary to a Government mission to 

 Siam, and the Siamese Shan States. Later he was 

 Deputy Commissioner of Upper Burma, but before 

 this, in 1881-82, he made an important journey from 

 Canton to Bhamo, investigating the possibilities for a 

 Burma-Chinese railway route, and also acted as a 

 special correspondent in the French war in Tongking 

 (1883-84). .Afterwards, having left Government ser- 



