358 



NATURE 



[December 4, 1919 



president of the New York State Sanitary Officers' 

 Association. 



At the ordinary scientific meeting of the Chemical 

 Society to be held on Thursday, December i8, Prof. 

 J. Walker will deliver a lecture entitled "War Experi- 

 ences in the Manufacture of Nitric Acid and the 

 Recovery of Nitrous Fumes." 



Dr. Paul Sabatier (Toulouse), Dr. Pierre Paul 

 Emile Roux (Paris), Dr. Jacques Loeb (New York), 

 Dr. Robert Andrews Millikan (Chicago), Dr. .Arthur 

 Gordon Webster (Harvard), and Dr. William Wallace 

 Campbell (California) have been elected honorary 

 members of the Royal Institution. 



The death is announced, in his eighty-fourth jear, 

 of Dr. Charles Henry Hitchcock, professor of geology 

 at Dartmouth College, U.S.A., from 1868 to igoS. 

 Dr. Hitchcock was widely known as the compiler of 

 several geological maps of the United States, and for 

 his researches in ichnology, geology of the crystalline 

 schists, and glacial geology. During the winter of 

 1870-71 he established, on the top of Mount Washing- 

 ton, the first high mountain observatory in the United 

 States. ."Xmong his many publi;:ations were memoirs 

 upon the fossil tracks of the Connecticut Valley. On 

 his retirement he went to live in Hawaii (where he 

 died), and in 1909 he published a book on the vol- 

 canoes of that territory. 



The following are among the lecture arrangements 

 at the Royal Institution before Easter, 1920 : — Prof. 

 W. H. Bragg, six lectures adapted to a juvenile audi- 

 tory on The World of Sound ; Sir John Cadman, two 

 • lectures on (i) Modern Development of the Miner's 

 Safety Lamp and (2) Petroleum and the War; Prof. 

 G. Elliot Smith, three lectures on The Evolution of 

 Man and the Early History of Civilisation ; Prof. 

 Ernest Wilson, two lectures on Magnetic Susceptibility ; 

 Prof. .Arthur Keith, four lectures on British Ethnology : 

 The Invaders of England ; Prof. \. E. Conrady, two 

 lectures on Recent Progress in Photography ; Prof. 

 .A. H. Smith, two lectures on Illustrations of Ancient 

 Greek and Roman Life in the British Museum ; 

 Lt.-Col. E. Gold, two lectures on The Upper Air; 

 Sir F. W. Dyson, .Astronomer Royal, three lectures 

 on The .Astronomical Evidence bearing on Einstein's 

 Theory of Gravitation; and Sir J J. Thomson, six 

 lectures on Positive Rays. The Friday evening dis- 

 courses will begin on Friday, January 16, 1920, at 

 9 o'clock, when Sir James Dewar will deliver a dis- 

 course on Low-temperature Studies. Succeeding dis- 

 courses will probablv be given by Sir C. .A. Parsons, 

 Mr. S. G. Brown, Prof. W. M'. Bayliss, Dr. E. J. 

 Russell, Mr. W. B. Hardv, tTie Hon. J. W. Fortescue, 

 Prof. J. A. Fleming, Mr. E. McCurdy, Sir J. J. 

 Thomson, and others. 



We learn with regret of the death on November 25 

 of Mr. Frederick Webb Headley, at the age of sixty- 

 three years. Educated at Harrow and Caius College, 

 Cambridge, where he obtained a First Class in the 

 Classical Tripos, Mr. Headley spent nearly forty years 

 of his life as an assistant master at Haileyburv Col- 

 lege, where, so recently as June 30 last, he delivered 

 his last lecture to the College Natural Historv Society 

 on his favourite .subject, "The Pedigree and Life of 

 Birds." Through the instrumentality of this society 

 and of the museum he succeeded in maintaining, 

 generation after generation, a body of active bov- 

 naturalists in the college, and few men were better 

 able to fan into enthusiasm the spark of what so often 

 proves but the passing hobby of a young boy. Of 

 Headley 's published works two, namely, "The .Struc- 

 ture and Life of Birds" and "Life and Evolution," are 



NO. 2614, VOL. 104] 



very largely the finished product of lectures delivered to 

 the boys. The variety of subjects handled is eloquent 

 testimony to the wide sympathy and biological know- 

 ledge of the man — a classic by early training. The 

 doctrine of evolution made a powerful appeal to his 

 mind, as is evidenced by his " Problems of Evolution " 

 and by " Darwinism and Modern Socialism." But it 

 was "birds" and "night" that more than all else 

 attracted him. The war prevented the execution of a 

 projected tour abroad with "birds " as a main object, 

 and kept him at Haileybury longer than he had in- 

 tended. .Another such tour was planned after his 

 final retirement last July. Dis aliter visum. 



.At the meeting of the Illuminating Engineering 

 Society on November 25, a short address on " Lambert 

 and Photometry" was given by the president, Mr. 

 A. P. Trotter, who raised the question whether Lam- 

 bert ever devised a photometer, inclining, however, to 

 the view that Bouguer was the first to contrive an 

 apparatus for measuring light. Later in the evening 

 Mr. Haydn T. Harrison exhibited a new form of 

 photometer which had several interesting features, 

 notably the use of an illuminated scale. The greater 

 part of the evening was given up to exhibits, including 

 a new form of "daylight" or colour-matching lam^, 

 shown by Mr. L. C. Martin. This device, which is 

 due to Mr. Sheringham, the well-known artist, in- 

 volves the projection upwards of light from an electric 

 lamp to a surface carrying a chessboard pattern in 

 various colours. The reflected light closely resembles 

 daylight in colour, and is stated to be well adapted to 

 colour-matching processes. The indirect method thus 

 utilised is considered very suitable for use in picture 

 galleries, etc. Other exhibits included a series of 

 tungsten arc ("pointolite ") lamps exhibited bv Mr. P. 

 Freedman, of the Ediswan laboratory. This form of 

 lamp utilises an arc between tungsten electrodes within 

 a hermetically sealed bulb, and has proved very suit- 

 able for optical projection. By improved methods of 

 manufacture larger tungsten globules, facilitating 

 much higher candle-powers, have been prepared. 

 Lamps giving up to 1000 c.p. have already been used, 

 and a special 4000-c.p. unit, which it is hoped will 

 prove specially suitable for kinema work, was shown 

 at the meeting. 



The retirement of Dr. Cecil Lyster from the posi- 

 tion of head of the electro-therapeutic department of 

 the Middlesex Hospital was announced at a meeting 

 of the governors of the hospital. The chairman, Lord 

 .Athlone, said that Dr. Lyster was now lying in a 

 critical condition directly due to his self-sacrificing 

 devotion to duty. Dr. Lyster was one of the pioneers 

 of scientific research, and applied himself to the study 

 of X-rays and radium and their use in the treatment 

 of disease, especially cancer. By exposure to the rays 

 in the early days he fell a victim to the disease he 

 sought to conquer. Though suffering, he declined to 

 be .set aside from his purpose, and continued his good 

 work until now, when work for a time was no longer 

 possible. Mr. Sampson Handlev spoke of the high 

 esteem in which Dr. Lyster was held by his colleagues 

 on the staff of the hospital. Dr. Lyster was president 

 of the section of electro-therapeutics of the Royal 

 Society of Medicine for the year which ended in 

 October last, nis colleagues in the domain of X-rays 

 and electro-therapeutics had occasion to appreciate his 

 invariable tact and sympathy at the meetings over 

 which he presided .At the joint meeting of his section 

 with the Institution of Electrical Engineers on 

 March 21 last he remarked, in introducing the presi- 

 dent of the institution and asking him to take the 

 chair: "We are amateurs in electricity, and we 

 are at last asking the professional electrician to tell 



