April 29, 1920] 



NATURE 



273 



his homeland across the Atlantic. Mr. Vail's life- 

 work was the development of the " Bell " tele- 

 phone system in the United States, and it is to 

 his personal initiative that the enormous growth 

 of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., of 

 which he was for many years the president, is 

 largely due. He was a rare combination of the 

 business man, quick to see opportunities and far- 

 seeing in his policy, and the patient, scientific 

 worker. It is not too much to say that the 

 success of the American telephone system, cul- 

 minating in the achievement of speech from New 

 York to San Francisco, is mainly due to the 

 unremitting attention that he gave to the organ- 

 isation and prosecution of research, and the tech- 

 nical laboratories that he initiated are the finest 

 in any industrial undertaking. It is pleasant to 

 think that, unlike many workers on parallel lines, 

 Mr. Vail lived to behold the fruit of his labours. 



The death is announced, at the age of eighty 

 years, of Dr. John A. Brashear, the founder of 

 the well-known American firm of makers of astro- 

 nomical and physical instruments. In his youth, 

 while working as a machinist, Dr. Brashear 

 devoted himself to the study of astronomy, and 

 made his first telescope while pursuing this hobby 

 after his working hours. With this instrument 

 "he made many observations, as a result of which 

 he contributed articles to the daily Press on 

 comets, etc. These attracted the attention of 

 Mr. William Shaw, whose offer to build and 

 •equip for him a good shop for the production of 

 astronomical instruments was accepted. This 

 ultimately developed into the works of the John A. 

 Brashear Co. at Pittsburgh, which turns out 

 instruments that are used in observatories all over 

 the world. Dr. Brashear received the honorary 

 doctorate from Pittsburgh and other universities, 

 and from 1901 to 1904 was acting chancellor of 

 the Western University of Pennsylvania, now the 

 University of Pittsburgh. He was a member of 

 many American and foreign scientific societies, 

 and was a recognised authority on solar pheno- 

 mena, lunar craters, and other subjects. 



Mk. James Metcalfe, who died on April 12, 

 was born in 1847, and was locomotive super- 

 intendent of the Manchester and Milford Railway 

 from 1867 to 1880. He was afterwards managing 

 director of the Patent Exhaust Steam Injector Co., 

 whose injectors are extensively used in locomo- 

 tives. Mr. Metcalfe was elected a member of the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers in IQ06. 







The death is announced of Mr. Frank Edward 

 RiEST as having taken place on April 14. Mr. 

 riest was born in i860, and was chiefly interested 

 m railways, waterworks, and road and sewerage 

 works. He took a great interest in aeronautics, 

 and at the time of his death he was chairman of 

 Messrs. A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd, He was elected 

 a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 

 1896. 



NO. 2635, VOL. 105] 



Notes. 



Further news from Capt. Roald .Amundsen fails to 

 explain his movements. According to the Times of 

 April 23, a message has been received in Norway from 

 the wireless station on the Anadir to the effect that the 

 expedition will arrive at Nome, Alaska, at the end of 

 July. Nome is the port .Amundsen reached on his 

 accomplishment of the North-West Passage in the 

 Gjoa in 1905. Possibly his ambitions include the 

 North-West Passage before starting on his North 

 Polar journey. These two difficult journeys, in addi- 

 tion to the discovery of the South Pole and the not 

 improbable attainment of the North Pole, would be a 

 remarkable record for one man. A start on the polar 

 drift from Bering Strait or Point Barrow entails a 

 longer route than Amundsen had originally intended, 

 so that he may be calling at Nome for extra stores. 

 News of the arrival of Amundsen himself at Anadir 

 needs confirmation. 



Now that political and social conditions are more 

 favourable in the Near East, a certain recrudescence 

 of archaeological activity is evident. The recent dis- 

 coveries of M. Hatzidakis at Mallia, in Crete, have 

 been followed by a further discovery west of Candia. 

 M. Xanthoudides has excavated a Cretan palace, 

 which appears to date for the most part from the end 

 of the Middle Minoan period to the end of the first 

 Late Minoan period. The most important discovery 

 made in the palace was a series of colossal bronze 

 douKle-axes, measuring several feet in length in some 

 cases. No such axes of this size have yet been found 

 on Cretan sites, and their purpose is for the present 

 obscure. Another excavation by M. Xanthoudides 

 near Candia brought to light some pottery of Early 

 Minoan date of a peculiar type. Similar pottery has 

 been found only at one other site in Crete, and it 

 does not appear to be typically Cretan. In shape the 

 vases found resemble the so-called Minyan ware. In 

 technique they have no parallel in Cretan wares. 

 The detailed publication of both these excavations 

 will be awaited with the greatest interest. 



.Applications for grants in aid of scientific investiga- 

 tions bearing on agriculture are receivable by the 

 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries not later than 

 May 15. They must be made upon Form A, 230/1, 

 copies of which are obtainable upon application to the. 

 General Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and 

 t'lsheries. 72 Victoria Street, S.W.i. 



The Minister of Health has appointed a Committee 

 to consider and advise on the legislative and adminis- 

 trative measures to be taken for the effective control 

 of the quality and authenticity of such therapeutic sub- 

 stances offered for sale to the public as cannot be 

 tested ■ adequately by direct chemical means. The 

 members of the Committee are : — Sir Mackenzie';;;^ 

 Chalmers (chairman), Dr. H. H. Dale, Dr G. F. ''^ 

 McCleary, Mr. A. B. Maclachlan, and Dr. C. J. 

 Martin. The secretary is Dr. E. W, Adams, of the. 

 Ministry of. Heaith, '' ^ '[/..,'\' ' .-'^■^i'^i-irti 



TijE fotiowiqg,have,l3e(Bft,eil|acted.officers and. cwiitilfrl: 

 of the Society of AntiquajT^^ of London -.—President : 



