682 



NATURE 



[February i8, 19 15 



The gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 was presented, at the meeting of the society on 

 February 12, to Prof. A. Fowler in recogni- 

 tion of his spectroscopic investigations of sun- 

 spots, stars, and comets, and related laboratory 

 researches. In a short survey of Prof. Fowler's work, 

 the president. Major E. H. Hills, referred to his asso- 

 ciation with, and extension of, the study under labora- 

 tory conditions, initiated by Sir Norman Lockyer, of 

 various elements represented in celestial spectra. By 

 these means he discovered that many of the band lines 

 peculiar to the sun-spot spectrum are due to mag- 

 nesium hydride, the existence of which, together with 

 flutings of titanium oxide and calcium hydride, indi- 

 cate that spots are regions of reduced temperature. 

 This view was further supported by the observation 

 that the "long " lines of the higher chromosphere are 

 generally weakened in sun-spot spectra, while the 

 " short " lines of the lower chromosphere are generally 

 widened or strengthened. The arc spectrum of scan- 

 dium was shown to consist of two distinct sets of 

 lines which similarly present a differential behaviour 

 in the spectra of the sun, sun-spots, and chromo- 

 sphere. In the field of stellar spectra, Prof. Fowler 

 proved that the chief substance concerned in the pro- 

 duction of the flutings characteristic of stars of the 

 Antarian type is titanium oxide. The tail spectrum 

 of comets was identified by him with the spectrum of 

 carbon monoxide at extremely low pressures— o'oi 

 mm. or less ; and during this research a new high- 

 pressure (100 mm.) spectrum of the same carbon 

 compound was discovered. Investigations of spark 

 spectra, and particularly of Sir Norman Lockjer's 

 class of "enhanced lines," led to the discover}^ of a 

 new ultra-violet series ascribed to "proto-helium," 

 and also to a series of close doublets having the spark- 

 line of magnesium, A 4481, as its leader. The bear- 

 ing of these series upon theories of the constitution 

 of the atom was discussed in the Bakerian Lecture 

 delivered by Prof. Fowler before the Royal Society 

 last year (N.ature, April 9, 1914, vol. xciii, p. 145). 



Prof. C.^vrl Theodor Liebermanx, who died on 

 December 28 of last year, at the age of seventy-two, 

 left behind, in his numerous published researches, the 

 record of a remarkably active scientific career. Carl 

 Liebermann was born in Berlin in 1842, and spent 

 the greater part of his life in his native town, first as 

 assistant to Prof. v. Baeyer, and later as professor of 

 chemistry in the Technical College of Charlottenburg, 

 It was in Baeyer's laboratory in 1868 that young 

 Liebermann, with his colleague, Carl Graebe, made 

 the famous discovery of the synthesis of alizarin from 

 anthracene, which, like modern synthetic indigo, revo- 

 lutionised the colour industry of the time, and brought 

 to a sudden end the cultivation of the natural product. 

 It would be impossible in the course of a short notice 

 to attempt to enumerate the variety of problems in 

 organic chemistry to which Liebermann devoted his 

 long life. Following up his first investigation, he 

 made a comprehensive study of the various hvdroxy- 

 derivatives of anthraquinone and the corresponding 

 derivatives of naphthalene (naphthazarin), from which 

 he was led to formulate a theory of coloured com- 

 NO. 2364, VOL. 94] 



pounds and mordants. He included in his researches 

 the study of many natural and artificial dyestuffs, 

 such as brasilin, rhamnetin, quercetin, chrysarobin, 

 cochineal, coerulignone, and a variety of phenol colour- 

 ing matters, the structure of which he was able in 

 many cases to ascertain. In later years he turned 

 his attention to the alkaloids, especially the numerous 

 constitvients of the coca-leaf, which he isolated and 

 studied. .'V.mong these constituents he examined 

 cocaine, for which he devised a method of synthesis, 

 cinnamylcocaine, the truxillines, which he also syn- 

 thesised, and also ascertained the structure of the inter- 

 esting pair of truxillic auids with which they are com- 

 bined ; benzoylecgonine ; tropa-cocaine and hygrine. The 

 latter he also found in Peruvian cusco-leaves, together 

 with cuscohygrine. Prof. Liebermann received the 

 honorary degree of D.Sc. of the University of Leeds 

 in 1906, and was also an honorary fellow of the 

 Chemical Societ}-. 



When Columbus discovered and landed on Jamaica 

 during his second voyage, in 1494, he found it popu- 

 lated by Arawak Indians, who, after some hesitation, 

 followed by bribing, received- the white men in a 

 friendly spirit. The subsequent settlement of the 

 Island by the Spaniards, and the impressment of the 

 natives for work in the gold-mines of Haiti, as well 

 as for agricultural labour in their own island, soon 

 led, however, to their extermination, and by 1558 the 

 whole Arawak nation appears to have been completely 

 wiped out. To recover traces and relics of this lost 

 race has been the self-imposed task of Mr. G. C. 

 Longley, of Pelham Manor, New York, who for the 

 last half-dozen j-ears has passed the winter in the 

 island exploring the old kitchen-mlddeos. The result 

 Is a collection of some 1500 celts, fragments of pottery, 

 grinding-stones, stone-pendants, etc., all of which 

 have been presented by the collector to the American 

 Museum of Natural History. They form the subject 

 of an illustrated article by Mr. Longley in the 

 American Museum Journal for December, 1914. 



A NOVEL kind of nesting-box made of bark in the 

 shape of a slug, so as to be almost invisible when 

 affixed to the trunk or arm of a tree, is described 

 and Illustrated In the Selborne Magasine for 

 February. 



A well-merited protest against the treatment of 

 horses with the home troops in the early part of 

 their training in certain districts is formulated In 

 the February Issue of the Animals' Friend, where it 

 Is stated that horses taken out of good stables were 

 tethered In the open during wet and cold weather — 

 in some cases even without rugs. Many fine horses, 

 as we can testify from personal knowledge, were 

 utterly ruined, If not actually killed, by such treat- 

 ment. 



In his annual fish-notes from Great Yarmouth, 

 for 19 14, Mr. A. H. Patterson, in the January 

 number of the Zoologist, expresses the opinion that 

 the fecundity of the herring is so great as to render 

 It Impossible for sea-birds, such as gannets and cor- 

 morants, even to reduce, let alone deplete, the shoals 



