J^NE 



9i«] 



NATUJiE 



329 



losa, Lyginopteri^j-^upressinoxylon, Dadoxylon, 

 \ and other genera. A memoir, published this year, 

 [ on the earher Mesozoic floras of New Zealand, an 

 • extension of a shorter paper reao <o the Royal 

 Society, is an especially vjiluable addition to our 

 knowledge of a much neglected subject. Two 

 papers written in collaboration with his friend 

 Major Parkin, on the origin and evolution of the 

 Angiosperms, afford evidence of Arber's power of 

 treating in a philosophical spirit difficult and con- 

 troversial problems. Among other papers, mention 

 may be made of one on the past hi.story of ferns, 

 and of those on Glossopteris, in which the sporan- 

 gia are described for the first time, Lagenostoma, 

 Psygmophyllum, Yuccites, Zamites, and Ptero- 

 phyllum. 



Arber had made fori himself a name as an 

 authoritv on the economic side of palaeobotany, 

 primarily in connection with the Kent coalfield. 

 It is impossible, in a short article, to give an 

 adequate account of his original work ; his output 

 was much greater than that of most men of his 

 years, and, in view of the difficulties with which 

 he had to contend, the amount he was able to 

 accomplish compels our admiration. Arber was a 

 majQ of strong convictions and had the courage of 

 his opinions ; he was unsparing of himself in 

 his devotion to the science which he loved and to 

 the service of his university. Those who knew 

 him well felt for him a deep affection and can most 

 sincerely share the grief .of his devoted wife, with 

 w hom be enjoy^ a true companionship otf heart 

 and work. A. C. Seward. 



NOTES. 



Th£ Board of Trade has appointed, with the con- 

 currence of the Minis-try of Reconstruction, a ■Com- 

 mittee to examine and report upon the water^ower 

 resources of the United Kingdom and the extent to 

 which they can be made available for industrial pur- 

 poses. The members of the Committee are :— Sir 

 John F. C. Shell (chairman), Mr. G. S. Albright, Sir 

 Dugald Clerk, F.R.S., Dr. J. F. Crowlev, Mr. H. F. 

 Carlill, Mr. P. Dawson, Prof. A. H. Gibson, Mr. V. 

 Hartshorn, J. P., Dr. H. R. Mill, Mr. A. Newlands, 

 Mr. G. C. Vyle, Mr. A. J. Walter, Mr. Ralph Walter 

 I Ministry of Reconstruction), and Mr. D. J. Williams. 

 Mr. R. T. G. French is the secretary, and all com- 

 munications intended for the Committee should be 

 addressed to him at 10 Princes Street, Westminster, 

 S.W.I. 



Thk lutiuy-ninth annual meeting of the Museums 

 Association will be held at Manchester on July 9-1 1 

 under the presidency of Mr. E. Rimbault Dibdin. 

 Among the subjects to be discussed are : — " The 

 Museum in Relation to Art and IndustrN'," H. Cad- 

 ness; "The .Application of Art to Industry and its 

 Relation to Museum Work," S. E. Harrison; "The 

 Museum and Trade," T. Midgley ; and "Arrange- 

 ment of an Ethnographical Collection," B. H. Mullen. 



At the annual meeting of the .Vmerican Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers, held last month, Col. J. J. Carty, 

 U.S. Signal Corps, was presented with the Pkiison 

 medal of the institute in recc^nition of his services 

 in developing the science and art of telephone 

 engineering. 



NO. 2539, VOL. lOl] 



We regret to note that the death of Mr. John H. 

 Heck is recoirded in Engineering for June\2T. Mr. 

 Heck was senior engineering survwor to Llcn'd's 

 Register of Shipping in the Glasgow district, and 

 was sixty-seven years of age. He read many papers 

 on engineering subjects before the Institution of Naval 

 .Architects, the North-East Coast Institution of En- 

 gineers and Shipbuilders, and other technical societies. 



The death is announced in his forty-minth year of 

 Dr. C. C. Trowbridge, assistant professor of physics 

 at Columbia University, New York. Dr. Trowbridge 

 had made notable contributions to the knowledge of 

 meteors and of the mechanics of bird-flight One of 

 his ;principal services to Columbia University was his 

 development oi the E. K. Adams precision laboratory, 

 one of the best-planned and best-equipped labol-atories 

 in America. 



The registrar of the Institute of Chemistry has 

 received a letter from the Board of Education stating 

 that the Ministry of National Service has cancelled 

 the arrangements made in connection with military 

 service to students of chemistry. The effect of this 

 cancellation is that any student of chemistrA- in Cate- 

 gory B (i), C .(i), or B (ii), or in Grade 2,' who has 

 hitherto been' protected under the arrangements in 

 question will be called up, if otherwise available for 

 service. 



We learn from the Lancet that Prof. S. J. Pozzi, 

 professor of clinical gynaecolog}- in the University of 

 Paris, was fatally shot on June 13 in his consulting- 

 room in Paris by a lunatic patient. Prof. Pozzi was 

 born at Bergerac (Dordogne) in 1846. He w.as 

 educated at the lyc6es of Pau and Bordeaux, becoming 

 a student of medidne in Paris in 1869, where he was 

 an apt pupil of Paul Broca. FrcJm 1885 to 1894 he 

 acted as secretary-general of the F'rench* Congress of 

 Surgery, and in 1895 '^^"'as elected to the .\cademv of 

 Medicine. He was an honorary fellow of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of England and an officer of the 

 Legion of Honour. 



The council of the Royal Society of Arts announces 

 that the next award of the Swinev prize will be rn 

 J January, 1919. Dr. Swinev died in 1844, «nd in his 

 ! will he left the sum of 5000/. Consols to the societ>% 

 I for the purpose of presenting a prize, on everv fifth 

 anniversary of his death, to the author of the best 

 ^ published work on jurisprudence. The prize is a 

 cup, value looi., and money to \he same amount. 

 The award is made jointly by the Roval Society of 

 .Vts and the Royal College' of Physicians, and is given 

 alternately for works on medical and on general juris- 

 prudence. On the last occasion of the award, in 

 19 1 4, the prize was awarded for general jurisprudence. 

 It will, therefore, be offered on the present occasion 

 for medical jurisprudence. 



One of the tasks of the General Staff at the War 

 Office during the war has been the issue of a Dailv 

 Review of the Foreign Press, the scope of which has 

 been extended from time to time by the preparation 

 of supplements dealing with special subjects. A fort- 

 nightly Technical Supplement, compiled with the co- 

 operation of the Institution of Civil Engineers, was 

 ! added to the list in January last, and since then has 

 been widely ctrculatetl through oftirial channels for the 

 assistance of naval and military workers. We are now 

 informed that it has been decided to place the 

 Technical Supplement on sale, and the issues of 

 May 28 and sub.sequent numbers may be obtained at 

 the cost of sixpence through any bookseller or directly 

 from H.M. Stationery Office at Imperial House, 

 Kingsway, London, W.C.2. 



