486 



NATURE 



[December 31, 1914 



within the Empire in which industry can operate, and 

 if this is accomplished satisfactorily a considerable 

 increase of trade should follow. 



A Central News telegram from Amsterdam, pub- 

 lished in the Times of December 21, announced that 

 Prof. Otto Sackur was blown to pieces by an explo- 

 sion which occurred in the laboratory of the Kaiser- 

 Wilhelm Institute at Dahleni, near Berlin, where ex- 

 periments in high explosives were being conducted. 

 The Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute was founded in 191 1 by 

 the Kaiser-Wilhelm Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, and the first volume of results of researches 

 issued by it was described in Nature of May 28 

 (vol. xciii., p. 322). Prof. Sackur was one of the 

 ablest of the younger physical chemists in Germany. 

 A pupil of Richard Abegg, he became a Privat-dozent 

 in the University of Breslau, and on Abegg's appoint- 

 ment to the Technische Hochschule there, succeeded 

 him as extraordinary professor in the University. He 

 la.ter received an appointment in the Kaiser-Wilhelm 

 Institute. Sackur was more distinguished as a 

 theorist than as a practical worker. His papers cover 

 a wide range, and are characterised by considerable 

 independence of thought. In 19 12 he published a 

 " Lehrbuch der Thermochemie und Thermodynamik," 

 which is an admirable modern introduction to the 

 subject, and is, we understand, being translated into 

 English. 



The Duke of Bedford presided at the general 

 monthly meeting of the Zoological Society on Decem- 

 ber 23, 1914; twenty-two new fellows were elected, 

 the honorary membership of the society was conferred 

 on Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartum, and 

 eight new names were added to the list of correspond- 

 ing members. During November fifty additions were 

 made to the menagerie, of which forty-two were pre- 

 sented; among the latter particular interest attaches 

 to a pair of South African elands presented by Mr. 

 A. H. Wingfield, of Ampthill House. During the 

 same month the number of visitors to the gardens 

 was 26,403, or 15,166 fewer than in November, 19 13. 

 From January i to November 30 the total number of 

 visitors was 1,037,929, fepresenting a decrease 

 of 90,225, as compared with the corresponding 

 period in 1913. 



In a letter to the Times of December 26, and in an 

 article in the Strand Magazine for January, 19 15, Sir 

 E. Ray Lankester disputes the idea that Germans are 

 entitled to special pre-eminence in the domain of 

 physical sciences. On the contrary, with the excep- 

 tion of the work in spectrum analysis in the middle 

 portion of last century, their claims to original dis- 

 coveries of importance, more especially during the 

 reign of the present Kaiser, are comparatively insig- 

 nificant. Their real line of success lies in their capa- 

 city for adopting and developing the discoveries made 

 in other countries for their own interest and benefit, 

 more especially when large profits are to be made, as 

 in the case of the artificial synthesis of indigo and 

 other organic products, by such means. In their 

 voluminous treatises on the history of science pub- 

 lished during the last forty years they have in many 

 NO. 2357, VOL. 94] 



instances deliberately ignored the claims of inves- 

 tigators in other countries to discoveries and ideas 

 upon which their own work is based. 



The Committees on Food and Hygiene of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences have presented reports dealing 

 with the conservation of cattle during the war and 

 with the alcohol question. In view of the meat supply 

 required for the troops and the necessity of reserving 

 the best animals for reproduction, it is recommended 

 that all young animals and calves should be preserved 

 and that importations of meat from Australia, New 

 Zealand, the Argentine Republic, and the French 

 colonies should be encouraged. It is also suggested 

 that animals should be killed in the place where they 

 were raised, as the transport of live cattle is attended 

 with many disadvantages. The installation of large 

 cold storage depots is recommended. Recommenda- 

 tions were also made with regard to the consumption 

 of alcohol. It is proposed that the number of places 

 open for the sale of alcoholic drinks should be limited, 

 that absinthe and similar liqueurs should be abso- 

 lutely prohibited, and that the privilege of the 

 bonilleurs de cru should be suppressed. These con- 

 clusions were unanimously adopted by the academy, 

 and forwarded to the Government. 



A NOTICE recently appeared in Science that the late 

 Dr. Albert Giinther's collection of pamphlets relating 

 to fishes, amphibia, and reptiles has been secured by 

 the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh. As a matter of 

 fact, some years have elapsed since Dr. Giinther, 

 finding that through failing eyesight he could no 

 longer make full use of this portion of his scientific 

 library, and being naturally loathe to break up an 

 unrivalled collection of separate papers and mono- 

 graphs gathered from the scientific periodicals of the 

 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and knowing of 

 no purchaser in this country, determined to sell the 

 collection as a whole to Prof. C. H. Eigenmann, of 

 Indiana University, who also held the post of curator 

 of ichthyology in the Carnegie Museum. The collec- 

 tion shipped to America in August, 1910, comprised 

 nearly 7000 octavo and 600 quarto and folio pamphlets, 

 by some 1200 authors. The possession of so complete 

 a literature in so compact a form enabled Dr. Giinther 

 to identify and describe collections of fish at home 

 without always having to visit public libraries. He 

 often said that so complete a series of the smaller 

 monographs on the ichthyology and herpetology of 

 the time would probably never be accumulated again. 

 May their value be as great in the New world as It 

 has been in the Old ! 



As announced with regret last week, Mr. A. R. 

 Hunt, who was well known in the British geological 

 world, died at his residence, Southwood, Torquay, on 

 December 19, aged seventy-one years. Son of a. chief 

 of an old firm of wine shippers, he was born and lived 

 his earliest years in Portugal. After taking his M.A. 

 degree at Trinity College, Cambridge, he read for 

 the Bar, and was enrolled a barrister of the Inner 

 Temple, not, however, to follow the profession. His 

 family settling In Torquay, brought him Into associa- 

 tion with Pengelly, and the stirring revelations of 



