January io, 1901] 



NATURE 



*57 



extent the working of the traffic on the Central London Rail- 

 way produces vibration in the adjacent buildings, and what 

 alterations in the conditions of such working or in structure 

 can be devised to remedy the same. 



, The dispute between Kew Observatory and the London 

 United Tramways Company still occupies public attention. Mr. 

 R. T. Glazebrook, in a letter to the Times, gives an answer to 

 the argument brought forward by the Tramways Company that 

 the current leaking into their lines, presumably from the Central 

 London Railway, should have already vitiated the magnetic 

 observations made at Kew. He points out that the observations 

 have not been appreciably affected, and that from theoretical 

 considerations it was not to be expected that they would be. 

 The disturbances that the London United Tramways Company 

 are likely to produce will be about a hundred times as serious. 

 Mr. Glazebrook has given a proof of this in a letter to the 

 Electrician. A letter to the Times from Mr. Walter Hunter 

 points out that the leakage currents from the tramway lines are 

 a serious danger to gas and water pipes, and that the amount of 

 harm done is merely a question of time. Perhaps it is too much 

 to expect the Tramways Company to consider any but their own 

 interests ; it is to be hoped, however, that they will be brought 

 to see that it is really to their own interest to insulate their 

 return mains. There is no difficulty in doing so, and sooner or 

 later it will have to be done. We notice that American ex- 

 perience shows that the only way to avoid electrolysis of the 

 pipes is to keep the return currents out of the ground, and also 

 that an experience from ten years running of over 200 miles of 

 track shows that the double trolley system — which the London 

 United Tramways Company consider impracticable — is cheaper 

 in operation and maintenance than the single trolley system. 



The annual general meeting of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society will be held on Wednesday, January 16, when the 

 president, Dr. C. Theodore Williams, will deliver an address on 

 " The Climate of Norway and its Factors." 



The British Medical Journal states that the Astley Cooper 

 triennial prize of 300/. will be awarded for the best essay or treatise 

 on " The Pathology of Carcinoma and the Distribution and Fre- 

 quency of the Secondary Deposits corresponding to the Various 

 Primary Growths." The essay, which is to be written in 

 English, must reach Guy's Hospital, addressed to the physicians 

 and surgeons, on or before January, 1904. 



Col. a. T. Fraser sends us a copy of the Independance 

 Beige to direct our attention to a matter brought before the last 

 meeting of the Brussels Academy of Sciences. From the report 

 we see that M. Charles Lagrange, director of the Royal Obser- 

 vatory, has resigned his office and has presented to the Academy 

 his two years' arrears of salary, or a capital sum of ten thousand 

 francs, to establish a prize to be awarded, at intervals of four 

 years, for the best contribution to our knowledge of the physics 

 of the globe. In expressing the thanks of the Academy for the 

 gift. General Brialmont described the circumstances which led 

 to M. Lagrange's resignation. It appears that for the past two 

 years the position of director of the Observatory has been a 

 humiliating one, because a young infantry officer without scien- 

 tific attainments has controlled the establishment. 



We regret to announce the death of Mr. F. W. Egan, B.A., 

 of the Geological Survey of Ireland, which took place at his 

 residence in Dublin on January 6. After some experience as a 

 civil engineer, he joined the Geological Survey under Jukes in 

 1 868, and has ever since that date been actively engaged in the 

 field-work of the service. For the last few years he devoted 

 himself to the revision of the Silurian system in the east of 

 Ireland, and separated the Lower from the Upper division 

 over a large part of that region. Eighteen months ago, during 



NO. 1628, VOL. 63] 



a tour of inspection in County Wicklow, the Director-General 

 of the Survey, with Messifs. Egan and McHenry, were thrown 

 from an Irish car. Though each of the party sustained more or 

 less injury, Mr. Egan fared worst. He had his shoulder dis- 

 located, and suffered also some internal injury, so that he never 

 regained his former strength, though he went through the field- 

 campaign last year. Last week, symptoms of a grave kind began 

 to show themselves, and he passed away on Sunday evening. 

 Quiet, gentle and kindly, and not without a touch of humour, 

 he was everywhere a favourite, and though he never had any 

 ambition to distinguish hipiself, his long years of steady and 

 patient devotion to his official duties enabled • him to do good 

 service to the cause of geology in Ireland. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times announces that the 

 German Emperor has conferred the Order of the Pvcd Eagle, 

 First Class, upon Lieutenant-General Count von Zeppelin, as a 

 recognition of his efforts to overcome the difficulties of aerial 

 navigation. The announcement of this distinction was made to 

 Count von Zeppelin by the following letter from the Emperor, 

 which was conveyed to him by General von Hahnke, the chief 

 of the Emperor's Military Cabinet, before the beginning of a 

 lecture upon the " Future of Aerial Navigation," delivered by 

 the aeronaut at a meeting of the Berlin branch of the German 

 Colonial Society : — " Having been informed of the ascents 

 which have been made in the air-ship which you have invented, 

 I am glad to express my appreciation of your persistence and 

 trouble in successfully carrying out your self-imposed task, in 

 spite of the manifold difficulties which it presented. The 

 advantages of your system — the division of the long, extended 

 balloon into compartments, the equal distribution of the burden 

 by means of two independent engines, and a rudder working 

 with success for the first time in a vertical direction — have 

 enabled your air -ship to move with the greatest speed which 

 has hitherto been attained and have rendered it amenable to the 

 rudder. The results which you have achieved constitute an 

 epoch-making step in advance in the construction of air-ships, 

 and form a valuable basis for further experiments with the exist- 

 ing material. I will support you in these further experiments by 

 placing the advice and the experience of the Balloon Division of 

 the army at your disposal whenever you may desire. I have 

 accordingly given orders to the Balloon Division to send an 

 officer to be present at your future experiments whenever it may 

 be of advantage. As an outward sign of my recognition I hereby 

 confer upon you the Order of the Red Eagle, First Class." 



The annual general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers will be held on Friday evening, January 18, when 

 the chair will be taken by the president. Sir William H. 

 White, K.C.B., F.R.S. The first presentation by the Institu- 

 tion of the Willans Premium will be made to Capt. H. Riall 

 Sankey ; and the prizes awarded by the Council for the best two 

 papers in the graduates section will be presented to Mr. W. B, 

 Cleverly and Mr. Brees van Homan. The adjourned discussion 

 will be resumed upon the paper on power-gas and large gas- 

 engines for central stations, by Mr. Herbert A. Humphrey, 

 read at the December meeting. At the graduates' meeting, to 

 be held on Monday, January 14, Prof. J. A. Evving, F.R.S. 

 will deliver a lecture at the Institution on "The Structure of 

 Metals," illustrated by lantern slides. 



Entomology has sustained a serious loss in the death of 

 Mr. John Henry Leech, which occurred on December 29, at 

 the early age of thirty-eight. Mr. Leech, who had one resi- 

 dence at Hurdcott House, Salisbury, and a second at Kippure 

 Manor, Kilbride, Dublin, was the eldest son of the late Mr. 

 John Leech, of Gorse Hall, Cheshire, and was a graduate of 

 Cambridge. In addition to being proprietor of the Entomolo- 

 gist, he was author of " The Butterflies of China, Japan and 



