390 



NATURE 



[July i8, 1918 



foundation until 1884, and was made an hon. 

 member in 1902. 



Prof. Senier took an active part in all matters 

 connected with the government of Galway College 

 and of the National University of Ireland. He was 

 a member of the governing body of the. college 

 and a member of senate of the university, and 

 possessed in a high degree the qualities that are 

 essential for securing efficiency in a position of 

 responsibility in the administrative work of a 

 university. He w-as a fellow of the Chemical 

 Societies of London and Berlin, a fellow of the 

 Institute of Chemistry, a member of the Royal 

 Irish Academy, and an honorary doctor of science 

 of the late Royal University of Ireland. 



NOTES. 



The French National- Fete Day is July 14, but as 

 , the date fell on a Sunday this year it was celebrated 

 with much enthhsiasm in London on Friday and Satur- 

 day. Last year the sum of 2oo,oooL was raised on 

 "France's Day" for the French Red Cross, and this 

 year it is expected that a total of a quarter of a 

 million pounds will have been reached. The festival 

 was made particularly noteworthy by messages which 

 were dispatched to France by many leading societies 

 and institutions in Great Britain, among them being 

 the following : — Royal Society : The Royal Society 

 of London sends greetings to the French nation, and 

 more especially to its scientific men. It recalls the 

 intimate friendship which since their foundation has 

 bound together the Academic des Sciences, with its 

 own body. Always united in their endeavour to pro- 

 mote the advance of science, they are now joined in 

 their efforts to defend the cause of civilisation and 

 freedom. British Association: Nineteen years ago 

 the Dover meeting of the British Association was " so 

 arranged that two great nations which had been, a 

 century earlier, grappling in a fierce struggle should 

 in the persons of their men of science draw as near 

 together as they could." Another joint meeting with 

 France was on the point of taking place when our 

 high hopes of lasting general peace were so cruelly 

 destroyed. But out of the destruction has arisen a far 

 closer union of our two peoples, and an even brighter 

 prospect of pur future co-operation for the good of 

 humanity and of science. Royal College of Surgeons 

 of England : Brothers-in-arms, we greet you. Bound 

 by ancient ties of blood and by the memories of many 

 a gallant contest in the past, to-day we stand as one 

 nation united in a sacred cause. \Ve have before us 

 a happy presage from the past. As the united efforts 

 of Pasteur and Lister have laid low the tyranny of 

 disease, so shall France and Britain conquer a tyranny 

 still more remorseless. Our future brightens, and 

 shall en^ow Gaul and Briton with a common birth- 

 right to remain a splendid heritage for all time. 

 British Academy: To France, who has so often in- 

 spired and led civilisation in Europe : to France, who 

 upholds the banner of intellectual freedom and un- 

 fettered thought; to France, who for nearly four 

 years has endured brutal outrage and the violation of 

 all decencies of humanitv and civilisation, the British 

 Academy, in the name of British scholarship, sends on 

 this great anniversary a renewed assurance of loyal 

 fraternitv and of unshaken determination to continue 

 the conflict until liberty is secured and French soil 

 delivered from the desecration of the invader. 



The prevailing epidemic of so-called influenza is 

 widespread both in this country and on the Continent. 

 NO. 2542, VOL. lOl] 



The most striking symptoms are sudden onset with 

 chills, headache, and pain in the neck, back, 

 loins, and limbs, with general malaise. Fever is 

 present, ranging from 102° to 104°, or even 105° F., 

 but generally disappears almost suddenly on the third 

 or fourth day of attack, and the individual rapidly 

 convalesces. On the whole, the disease is quite mild 

 and unattended with complications. It diiters from 

 the true influenza, which was so prevalent in 1889 and 

 the early 'nineties, by being milder and of shorter 

 duration, and by the rapid convalescence. The true in- 

 fluenza is caused by Pfeiffer's bacillus, a minute rod- 

 shaped microbe abundant in the bronchial secretion. 

 As regards the present disease, Capts. T. R. Little, 

 C. J. Garofalo, "and P. A. Williams state that they 

 have investigated a number of cases and entirely 

 failed to find the Bacillus influenzae, but a gram-posi- 

 tive diplococcus appears to be constantly present in 

 the naso-pharynx, throat, and sputum,^ whi,ch they 

 tentatively regard as being the causative organism 

 (Lancet, July 13, 1918, p. 34). The Lancet suggests 

 that the disease would be better named " catarrhal 

 fever." 



The following grants of money for research com- 

 mittees were voted by the General Committee of the 

 British Association at the meeting in London on 

 July 5 : — Section A. — Mathematical and Physical 

 Science : Seismological investigations, looL ; discus- 

 sion of geophysical subjects, lot. B.—Chemistry : 

 Colloid chemistry and its industrial applications, 5I. ; 

 non-aromatic diazonium salts, 7/. 7s. Sd. D. — Zoo- 

 logy : Inheritance in silkworms, 17L _ F. — Economic 

 Science and Statistics : Women in industry, lol. ; 

 efl"ects of the war on credit, etc., lol. H. — Atrthropo- 

 logy : Palaeolithic site in Jersey, 5L ; archgeolpgical in- 

 vestigations in Malta, loL ; distribution _ of Bronze- 

 age implements, il. ; age of stone circles, 15L; 

 anthropological photographs, iL I.— Physiology : 

 T\ie ductless glands, gl. K.— Botany : Heredity, 151.; 

 Australian Cycadaceae, yl. 17s. ; Australian fossil 

 plants, 15Z. ' L. — Educational Science : The " free- 

 place" system, 5!. Corresponding Societies Com- 

 mittee: For preparation of report, 25L Total, 

 268L 4s. M. 



The death' of Mr. Isaac Beardmore is recorded in 

 the Engineer for July 12. Mr. Beardmore, who was 

 eighty-two years of age, was joint proprietor, and 

 was associated with the management, of Parkhead 

 Forge, Glasgow, for about twenty years. Under his 

 control the Parkhead Forge was converted from an 

 iron to a steel works in 1878-80. 



The death Is announced, on July 14, at seventy- 

 seven years of age, of Dr. R. O. Cunningham, 

 emeritus professor of natural history and geology, 

 Queen's College, Belfast. Dr. Cunningham was 

 naturalist to the survey of the Straits of Magellan and 

 author of " Notes on the Natural History of the Straits 

 of Magellan" and "On Reptiles, Amphibia, Fishes, 

 Mollusca, and Crustacea obtained during the Voyage 

 of H.M.S. Nassau." 



Two Chadwick public lectures were delivered by 

 Prof. D'Arcy Thonipson last month at the Mansion 

 House, London, and the Surveyors' Institution, West- 

 minster, respectively. Abstracts of these lectures have 

 been published in the Fish Trades Gazette of June 29 

 and July 6. The first dealt, in general, with the fish- 

 ing industry of Europe, and in particular with the 

 line and trawl fisheries of Great Britain. The second 

 had for subjects the great herring fishery of the 

 Scottish and English east coasts, the growth of the 

 industry and its administration, and the origin of the 

 fishing population. 



