138 



NA TURE 



[December 6, 1900 



The medals were then presented as follows : — The Copley 

 Medal to Prof. Marcellin Berthelot, For.Mem.R.S., for his 

 brilliant services to chemical science ; the Rumford Medal to 

 Prof. Antoine Henri Becquerel, for his discoveries in radiation 

 proceeding from Uranium ; a Royal Medal to Major Percy 

 Alexander MacMahon, F.R.S., for the number and range of his 

 contributions to mathematical science ; a Royal Medal to Prof. 

 Alfred Newton, F.R.S., for his eminent contributions to the 

 science of ornithology and the geographical distribution of 

 animals ; the Davy Medal to Prof. Guglielmo Koerner, for his 

 brilliant investigations on the position theory of the aromatic 

 compounds ; and the Darwin Medal to Prof. Ernst Haeckel, 

 for his long-continued and highly important work in zoology, 

 all of which has been inspired by the spirit of Darwinism. 



The Society next proceeded to elect the officers and council 

 for the ensuing year. The following is a list of those elected : — 



President: Sir William Huggins, K.C.B. ; Treasurer: Mr. 

 A. B. Kempe ; Secretaries: Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., Prof, 

 Arthur William Riicker ; Foreign Secretary : Dr T. E. Thorpe ; 

 other Members of the Council : Prof. H. E. Armstrong, Mr. 

 C. V. Boys, Dr. Horace T. Brown, Mr. W. H. M. Christie, C.B., 

 Prof. E. B. Elliott, Dr. Hans F. Gadow, Prof. W. M. Hicks, 

 Lord Lister, Prof. W. Mcintosh, Dr. Ludwig Mond, Prof. A. W. 

 Reinold, Prof. J. Emerson Reynolds, Dr. R. H. Scott, Prof. 

 C. S. Sherrington, Mr. J. J. H. Teall, Sir T. Wolfe Barry, 

 K.C.B. 



In the evening the Fellows and their friends dined 

 together at the Whitehall Rooms. 



NOTES. 

 Dr. E. von Mojsisovics, Vice-director of the Austrian Geo- 

 logical Survey, has obtained permission to retire from the active 

 staff of the service on account of the state of his health. But 

 his scientific labours will suffer no interruption. In particular he 

 will be able to continue, and, it may be expected, bring to an 

 early completion, two important works on which he is engaged 

 ^" The Cephalopoda of the Halstatt Limestone," and " The 

 Geology of the Salzkammergut." 



Prof. J. Perry, F.R.S., presided at the annual dinner of 

 the Institution of Electrical Engineers on Monday, and in re- 

 sponding to the toast of the Institution he compared the pro- 

 fession of electrical engineering with a baby, inasmuch as the 

 members were ignorant of its future, though they knew that its 

 life would be affected by the action adopted now. Other 

 speakers were Lord Alverstone, Lord Kelvin, Sir J. Wolfe 

 Barry, Sir G. Kitson, and Sir Courtenay Boyle, who spoke as 

 the representative of a department (the Board of Trade) which 

 has to do with the translation of scientific researches into com- 

 mercial facts. 



Mr. I. H. BuRKiLL, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 

 has been appointed assistant to Dr. Watt, and will shortly leave 

 for Calcutta. 



We learn from the Athenaeum that an official announcement 

 has been made to the effect that the Viennese Akademie der 

 Wissenschaften intends sending an expedition to Brazil in 1901, 

 which will have for its object the study of the flora of that 

 country. It is to a certain extent a sequel of the expeditions of 

 the early part of this century, which resulted in the publication 

 of that monumental work the "Flora Brasiliens." The 

 botanists accompanying the party are Prof. Dr. Richard von 

 Wettstein, Director of the botanical garden of the University, 

 and Dr. Victor Schiffner of Prague. 



It is announced by the Colonial Office that the Pacific Cable 

 Committee have accepted, on behalf of her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment and of the Governments of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 Queensland and New Zealand, the tender of the Telegraph 

 Construction and Maintenance Company for the manufacture 

 and laying of the projected Pacific cable. The amount of the 

 tender is 1,795,000/., and the work is to be completed by the 



NO. 1623, VOL. 63] 



end of 1902. The cable will run from Vancouver to Queens- 

 land and New Zealand, via Fanning Island, Fiji and Norfolk 

 Island. 



A FEW particulars concerning the Antarctic expedition in 

 course of organisation in Sweden, by Dr. Otto Nordenskjold, 

 are given in the Times. For the purpose of his Antarctic ex- 

 pedition Dr. Nordenskjold has acquired the steam-whaler the 

 Antarctic, which was built for whaling in the Greenland seas by 

 a Norwegian firm, and has performed many voyages in Polar 

 waters. She was eventually acquired by Prof G. Nathorst, the 

 celebrated geologist and Arctic traveller, who has shared in 

 almost every Swedish Polar expedition. Last year, again, the 

 Antarctic was employed in the search for Andree on the east 

 coast of Greenland, when the owner himself was in command of 

 the expedition, but which yielded no result. The vessel 

 will proceed to Gothenburg for her final equipment. Dr. 

 Nordenskjold estimates the cost of the expedition at only some 

 10,000/. Of this sum one-half has already been 'contributed 

 by Swedish subscribers, and Kin j Oscar, with his well-known 

 interest in Swedish explorations, has also promised a considerable 

 amount towards this expedition, the first of its kind ever dis- 

 patched from Sweden, Should circumstances permit, the 

 Swedish expedition will, of course, co-operate with the British 

 and German. It is hoped that the Antarctic will be ready to 

 sail next August. 



The Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union has recently received 

 several valuable additions to its museum. Further space is 

 required for a large collection of fossils and specimens of rock 

 formation recently presented by Mr. Melville. A large case of 

 drawers containing a number of birds' skins from the collection 

 of the late president of the Union (Mr. John Cordeaux) has 

 been presented by Mrs. Cordeaux. A large collection of fossils 

 and specimens of rock formation has been presented by Mr. 

 A. S. Leslie-Melville. The collections would make a good 

 nucleus for a county museum, and the City Council of Lincoln 

 is to be asked to make suitable provision for them. 



It is satisfactory to know that British engineers and manu- 

 facturers are seriously examining the causes which have enabled 

 German and American works to successfully compete with their 

 productions. Sir Lowthian Bell dealt with the subject in his 

 address to the Institution of Junior Engineers on November 30, 

 In the course of his remarks he said : " Some correspondents 

 of our newspapers attributed our loss of ground in the race to 

 ignorance of the scientific truths on which success was de- 

 pendent ; but they could not be aware that at Newcastle, Leeds, 

 Nottingham, Sheffield, Edinburgh and Glasgow there were large 

 and well-appointed colleges for teaching the sciences which for 

 the last twenty-five years had been deemed indispensable in 

 Great Britain for a successful career in metallurgy. Moreover, 

 every ironworks of any importance possessed a suitable laboratory 

 as a guide in its daily operations as well as for original research. 

 Comparison between the United States and England involved 

 two conditions — that imposed by nature, and that resulting 

 from ignorance and consequent want of skill ; the former was 

 unavoidable, the other susceptible of remedy. Now, taking the 

 Middlesbrough district in this country and Pittsburg and its 

 vicinity in America, it appeared that the final cost of the 

 minerals, mining and carriage included, consumed for each ton 

 of pig iron at Pittsburg and Middlesbrough was almost iden- 

 tical." Though Sir Lowthian Bell's estimate of the alleged 

 advantages of the Pittsburg works may do something to reassure 

 British manufacturers, his remarks as to educational facilities 

 and industrial research are not so convincing. True, we have 

 our University Colleges and- Technical Schools, but in how 

 many districts are they considered by the manufacturers to have 



