August 8, 191 8] 



NATURE 



451 



mitted by Sir George Beilby and Dr. M. O. Forster : — 

 "That, in view of the war having continued during 

 nearly four years without any indication that the 

 scientific men of Germany are unsympathetic towards 

 the abominable malpractices of their Government and 

 their fellow-countrymen, and having regard to the 

 representative character of the Royal Society among 

 British scientific bodies, as recognised by the patronage 

 of his Majesty the King, the council forthwith take 

 steps necessary for removing all enemy aliens from 

 the foreign membership of the society." The council 

 of the society has had the matter under considera- 

 tion, and decided to refer the question of expulsion to 

 a conference of representatives of Allied academies to 

 be held in October next. This decision was approved 

 by the meeting, which adopted the follovVing resolu- 

 tion : — "That the delegates of the Royal Society at 

 the forthcoming conference with the representatives of 

 the academies of Allied countries should raise the 

 question of the expulsion of enemy foreign members, 

 with the view of eliciting the opinion of the conference 

 as to the desirability of joint action, and that the 

 subject be reconsidered at a future meeting of the 

 society on the report of the delegates." 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has ap- 

 pointed a Committee to study the life-habits of the 

 honey-bee with the object of improving the conditions 

 under which bee-keeping is carried on in England and 

 Wales, and to investigate the epidemic diseases of the 

 bee, more especially the disease or group of diseases 

 which pass under the name of " Isle of Wight dis- 

 ease." The Committee consists of the Master of 

 Christ's College, Cambridge University (Dr. A. E. 

 Shipley, F.R.S.), Prof. R. C. Punnett,' F.R.S. (pro- 

 fessor of genetics, Cambridge University), Dr. G. S. 

 Graham Smith, Prof. G. C. Bourne, F.R.S. (pro- 

 fessor of zoology and comparative anatomy, Oxford 

 University), Prof. W. Somerville (professor of rural 

 economy, Oxford University), Mr. T. W. Cowan 

 'chairman of the British Bee-keepers' Association), Mr. 

 G. W. Bullamore, Mr. J. C. Bee Mason, and Mr. 

 A. G. L. Rogers (head of the Horticulture Branch, 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries). Mr. R. H. Adie 

 will act as secretary. It is proposed to undertake the 

 study of healthy bees at Cambridge and the investiga- 

 tions on "Isle of Wight disease" at Oxford. The 

 Committee will be glad to receive specimens of bees 

 suspected of suffering from " Isle of Wight disease " 

 for examination and experiment. Communications on 

 this subject should be addressed to Mr. Rogers at 

 4 Whitehall Place, London, S.W.i. 



July this year stands out meteorologically as wet 

 and rather cool. The especial feature was the heavy 

 rainfall, which was essentially of a thunderstorm type. 

 .At Greenwich the aggregate rainfall for the month 

 was 737 in., which, according to the series of ob- 

 servations from 1815, is the wettest July on record, 

 and there has only been one wetter month at any 

 time of the year, October, 1880, with 7-65 in. The 

 excess of rain at Greenwich is 5-32 in. In the week 

 ending July 13 the rainfall was 2-48 in,, and on the 

 two days, July 11 and 17, in thunderstorm rains, the 

 total measurement at Greenwich was 303 in., whilst 

 at Camden Square the rainfall for the same two days 

 was 0-9Q in. and at Kew 107 in. At Tulse Hill the 

 total rain for July was 7-62 in., and at Wandsworth 

 Common 7-16 in., whilst at Kew the fall was only 

 465 in., and at Camden Square 492 in. The weekly 

 weather reports published by the Meteorological Office 

 show that July was wet over nearly the whole of the 

 British Isles, there being an excess of rain in all dis- 

 tricts except in Ireland N. The data for the four 

 weeks ending July 27 practicallv give the rainfall for 

 NO. 2545, VOL. lOl] 



the whole of July, as the closing days .of the month 

 were line. The wettest district was Scotland N., where 

 the measurement was 4-54 in., and it was 450 in. in 

 Scotland E, ; the wettest district in England was the 

 S.E., with 443 in. The driest district was Ireland N., 

 where the measurement was 2-81 in. Very little rain 

 fell during the opening week, and in many parts of 

 England the period was rainless. The mean tem- 

 perature at Greenwich was 62-4°, which is 04° below 

 the normal, and the absolute highest temperature was 

 82°. Over the British Isles generally the greatest 

 deficiency of temperature occurred in the second week, 

 ending July 13, when in parts the deficiency was 

 from 3° to 4° F. Sunshine was not very different 

 from the normal. 



Prof. P. D. Hahn, whose death at the age of sixty- 

 nine occurred on March 9, had occupied the chair of 

 chemistry at the South African College, Capetown, 

 since 1876. He was a South Afrioan by birth, the 

 son of a German missionary stationed in Great 

 Namaqualand. He received his early education in 

 Germany, whither his parents had returned during 

 his infancy. After graduating at Halle he studied 

 in London and Edinburgh, eventually returning to 

 Capetown in 1875, Throughout his career Prof. Hahn 

 manifested a ke6n interest in the agricultural progress 

 of South Africa; he helped in the establishment of 

 an Agricultural Department for Cape Colony, and 

 the recent institution of faculties of agriculture at 

 Pretoria and Stellenbosch Colleges, was an outcome 

 of his advice. He had broad scientific sympathies, 

 however, and urged upon the authorities the need for 

 providing scientific instruction in mining and other 

 subjects, as well as in agriculture. The present 

 School of Mines and Technology at Johannesburg has 

 grown out of the scheme which was devised as the 

 result of his representations to this end, and it was 

 on his recommendation that Government chemical 

 ■laboratories were established in Capetown. Prof. 

 Hahn was twice president of the Cape Chemical 

 Society, and was also president in 191 1 of the South 

 African Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 He had been a member of the council of the Cape 

 of Good Hope University for forty-two years. 



M. Charles Joseph Etienne Wolf died at Saint- 

 Servan on July 4 at the age of ninety. He was born 

 at Vorges, near Laon, being an Alsatian by descent. 

 He was appointed professor of physics at Nimes in 

 185 1, afterwards in succession at Metz and Mont- 

 pellier; he made pioneer researches at Montpellier, in 

 company with M. Diacon, on the temperature changes 

 in the spectra of metallic vapours. In 1862 he ac- 

 cepted Le Verrier's offer of an important post at the 

 Paris Observatory ; the great meridian circle and 

 other new instruments had just been installed, and he 

 took a large part in superintending the scheme of 

 observations, paying special attention to the personal 

 equation. He designed an instrument for its investiga- 

 tion, which was adopted in many observatories. Later 

 he introduced a system of synchronised clocks, first 

 in the observatory, afterwards throughout Paris. M. 

 Wolf made, in conjunction with M. Rayet, the im- 

 portant discovery of the Wolf-Rayet stars with bright- 

 line spectra, which play a large part in theories of 

 cosmogonv, a subject on which he was himself a 

 fruitful writer. He investigated the proper motions of 

 stars in clusters, especially in the Pleiades and 

 Praesepe. He took a large part in preparing for the 

 transits of Venus, investigating the Black Drop, etc. 

 His old age was occupied with writing historical 

 memoirs on the former standards of length, on those 

 of the metric system, and on the Paris Observatory. 

 He retired to Vorges, his birthplace, where he de- 



