December 31, 1914] 



NATURE 



485 



In 1878 Duner turned his attention to stellar 

 spectra, and with only a lo-inch refractor at his 

 disposal, courageously entered upon a systematic 

 survey of the red stars. His classical memoir, 

 " Sur les etoiles a spectres de la troisi^me classe," 

 1884, gives details of his eminently successful 

 observations of the spectra of 352 stars. Further 

 observations were made with the Upsala 36 cm. 

 refractor in 1893. The interest of such observa- 

 tions is now largely discounted by the entry of 

 the giant telescopes and spectrographs of America 

 into this field of research, but Duner rightly con- 

 sidered that comparative observations of a large 

 number of stars by a single observer might have 

 a special value. 



Another important investigation bv Duner was 

 that on the sun's rotation, carried out at Lund, 

 and later at Upsala, with a powerful grating 

 spectroscope which he designed for this purpose. 

 His memoir, " Recherches sur la Rotation du 

 Soleil " (1891), is a model report on a scientific 

 investigation, and a lasting tribute to the skill 

 of its author. The observations were extended 

 to solar latitude 70°, and showed that the polar 

 retardation indicated by spots was continued far 

 beyond the sun-spot zones. 



Duner was an inspiring teacher, and his amia- 

 bility and self-sacrificing devotion to their interests 

 gained for him the affection and gratitude of his 

 pupils and fellow -workers. His scientific achieve- 

 ments brought him many distinctions, among 

 which may be mentioned the award of the Rumford 

 medal by the Royal Society in 189^, and election 

 as an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 in 1889. 



NOTES. 



Inquiries which reach us from time to time sug- 

 gest that many people would find it a convenience to 

 be able to examine books received from publishers 

 abroad and reviewed in Nature. These volumes are 

 usually not readily accessible, and often the only 

 copies existing in this country are the few sent to 

 scientific journals for review. We have therefore 

 made arrangements to retain at Nature office, St. 

 Martin's Street, W.C., for a period of six months 

 after the issues in which the reviews have appeared, 

 all volumes published in countries outside the United 

 Kingdom. Every volume from abroad reviewed in our 

 columns will thus be on view freely to anyone who 

 cares to call to see it. This arrangement will begin 

 with our first issue in the New Year, and we believe 

 that many men of science will welcome the opportunity 

 which it will afford them of inspecting American and 

 foreign books of which reviews have been printed in 

 Nature. 



After a long period of service in that capacity, Mr. 

 W. L. Distant is resigning the editorship of the 

 Zoologist. 



The Rome correspondent of the Times reports that 

 among the Italian Senators who are to be nominated 

 on New Year's Day is Signer Marconi. 



XO. 2357, VQL. 94] 



The death is announced at Los Angeles, in his 

 seventy-sixth year, of Dr. John Muir, member of the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences, and distinguished 

 as an explorer and naturalist, as well as by his work 

 for many years in the cause of forest preservation. 



It is announced in Science that in the will of the 

 late Miss Dessie Greer, the American Museum of 

 Natural History is designated as the ultimate bene- 

 ficiary of a fund of i8,oooZ. By the will of the late 

 Mr. W. Endicott, of Boston, a bequest of 5000/. for 

 cancer research is made to Harvard University. 



The death is announced, at sixty-four years of age, 

 of Sir Robert Simon, professor of therapeutics in the 

 University of Birmingham since 1910, and author of 

 a book on " Disease of Brass Workers " and other 

 works ; also of Mr. D. Balfour, member of the Insti- 

 tution of Civil Engineers, and a fellow of the Geo- 

 logical and the Royal Meteorological Societies. 



We regret to announce the death, in his seventy- 

 second year, of Dr. Leon LerebouUet, president of the 

 French Medical Association, and associate member of 

 the Academy of Medicine. An obituarj- notice in the 

 British Medical Journal points out that he collaborated 

 with Dechambre on the Gazette Hebdoniadaire de 

 Chirurgie, and was editor of the " Dictionnaire En- 

 cyclopedique des Sciences Medicales." He was also 

 the author of several works on medicine, and of a 

 series of articles on the health service which attracted 

 the attention of Jules Ferry and other leading states- 

 men. 



The Governor of Bombay unveiled on November 30 

 a simple marble memorial tablet in Bombay Cathedral 

 to Lieutenant Bowers, Royal Indian Marine, who lost 

 his life with Captain Scott and his comrades in the 

 Antarctic. We learn from the Times that the memo- 

 rial at Finse, in Norway, in honour of Captain Scott 

 and his companions was unveiled on December 28 

 by Dr. Skattum, vice-president of the Norwegian 

 Geographical Society. The memorial has taken the 

 form of a monument about 20 ft. high bearing the 

 names of the explorers — Captain R. F. Scott, Dr. 

 Wilson, Captain L. E. G. Gates, Lieutenant H. R. 

 Bowers, and Petty Officer Evans — and an inscription 

 reading : — " Erected by Norwegians in honour of 

 Antarctic research and heroic courage." 



A meeting of the Imperial Advisory Council of the 

 I Institute of Industry and Commerce was held on 

 December 22 at the offices of the institute on Aldwych 

 Site, Strand, for the purpose of considering, among 

 other matters, the best means of bringing about the 

 standardisation of company law throughout Great 

 Britain, the Dominions and Colonies in order to 

 facilitate commerce within the Empire. The council 

 decided that a memorandum should be drawn up by 

 the institute after consulting with the leading 

 specialised trade organisations, and that this memor- 

 andum be submitted to the Agents General of the 

 Dominions and Colonies for submission to their re- 

 spective Governments. The policy of the institute is 

 to develop a set of satisfactory working conditions 



