398 



NATURE 



[December i8, 1919 



illustrating Sir William Ramsay's numerous decora- 

 tions and honours. 



An influential committee, with Sir F. G. Kenyon 

 as its chairman, has issued an appeal for the founda- 

 tion of a school of archajology at Jerusalem to con- 

 duct exploration in Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia. 

 The school will facilitate the work of scholars, tr^in 

 students, excavators, and administrators, and assist 

 in every way the Palestine Exploration Fund. Its 

 researches will extend from the Stone age and the 

 early cultures down to the later Mohammedan period. 

 The school will catalogue existing remains and co: 

 operate with the archaeological departments which, it 

 is hoped, the new Governments will establish. It will 

 hold itself aloof from politics and religious contro- 

 versies. A site has been secured for the necessary 

 buildings at Jerusalem, and Prof. J. Garstang, of the 

 University of Liverpool, who has already visited 

 Palestine, has been provisionally appointed the first 

 director. The scheme is in every way commendable, 

 and the necessary funds will doubtless bo provided 

 without difficulty. Communications should be ad- 

 dressed to the Secretary, British School, c/o Palestine 

 Exploration Fund, 2 Hinde Street, Manchester Square, 

 W.I. 



A DOZEN years ago the expressions " newer physics " 

 and "newer chemistry" would have been taken to 

 refer to those branches of the subjects which centred 

 round the words "electron" and "radium" as op- 

 posed to those dealing with surface tension, sound, 

 etc., or with atomic weights and constitutional 

 formulae to which the term "older " might have been 

 applied. It is interesting to note how the last few- 

 years have rendered the two terms inappropriate, and 

 how fields which were considered worked out, or &t 

 least not likelv to produce returns which would justify 

 the time spent on further research, have proved them- 

 selves not merely fertile, but also worthy of cultiva- 

 tion for many years to come. A revision of astronomy 

 and physics in the light of the theory of relativity has 

 to be carried out ; the hydrophone has brought new 

 problems in elasticitv to light ; we want more know- 

 ledge of atomic weights, of the action of catalysts, 

 and of the svnthesis of nitrates. On surface tension 

 and contact angles a whole industry has been founded, 

 some of the problems of which are dealt with by Mr. 

 H. L. Sulman in a paper read before the Institution 

 of Mining- and Metallurgy on "Flotation," a sum- 

 mary of which appears elsewhere in this issue. 



The foundation of the Saiters' Institute of Industrial 

 Chemistry about a year ago was celebrated on Decem- 

 ber II by a dinner given by the Saiters' Company to a 

 number of leading representatives of applied chem- 

 istry, the Master, Mr. W. B. M. Bird, presiding. 

 Saiters or drysalters have for centuries been the recog- 

 nised dealers in potashes, dyestuffs, and almost everv 

 chemical preparation ; and their livery of the City of 

 London has taken a prominent part in the promotion 

 of technical education and of research in chemistry. 

 The Company docs this because, as .Mr. Bird remarked 

 at the dinner, it believes in the progress of chemical 

 industry through scientific knowledge, and considers it 

 a privilege as well as a duty to assist in such develop- 

 ment. The institute established last year is not a 

 building or a laboratory, but a foundation for the award 

 of fellowships to enable post-graduate students to con- 

 tinue their studies, or suitably equipped chemists to 

 carry on research in chemical industry. Grants are 

 also made to artisans attending evening classes for the 

 purchase of books and like assistance in their studies. 

 The director of the institute is Dr. M. O. Forster, 

 and under his capable and sympathetic guidance, with 

 the liberal support of the Saiters' Company, the fellow- 



NO. 2616, VOL. 104] 



ships, which are of the value of 250/. a year, promise 

 to exert the same effective influence upon chemical 

 science that the 185 1 Exhibitions have upon scientific 

 research generally. The scheme was wisely conceived, 

 and its formation gives worthy cause of congratulation 

 to all who are concerned with it. 



The appointment of Mr. G. H. Hardv, fellow and 

 mathematical lecturer of Trinity College', Cambridge, 

 to the Savilian professorship of geometry at 

 Oxford reminds us that the present year marks 

 the tercentenary of the foundation by ' Sir Henry 

 Savile of the first university chairs of geometry 

 and astroftomy in Great Britain. Gresham in lyid 

 had inaugurated similar professorships in London, 

 but the Gresham College never attained the import- 

 ance it might have done, and London had to wait 

 two centuries for her university. Both the famous 

 Elizabethans, Gresham and Savile, performed valu- 

 able services for their Queen and country, and both 

 were favourites at Court. Savile, who was born near 

 Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1549, was, from 1585 until his 

 death in 1622, Warden of Merton College, Oxford, of 

 which he had been made a fellow in 1570. He 

 founded the Savilian professorships in 1619. and the 

 first holders of them were Briggs and J3ainbridge, the 

 former of whom had been the first Gresham professor 

 of geometry. Briggs, who, like Savile, was born nenr 

 Halifax, is best known for his notable works cm 

 logarithms and his intimacy with Napier, and the 

 details of his life are generally familiar. Bainbridge 

 did not rise to the same celebrity as his colleague, 

 which may be partly accounted for by the fact that 

 he was trained as a physician, and while .Savilian 

 professor of astronomy he was also Linacre reader in 

 medicine. He was born in Leicestershire in 1582, and 

 died in 1643, twelve years after Briggs. Savile, 

 besides being Warden of Merton, was from t5ii6 

 Provost of Eton, where he died and is buried. He 

 is commemorated by a monument in the choir of 

 Merton College, close beneath which are the tombs 

 of Briggs and Bainbridge, the former of whom di^d 

 in the college, and the latter in a house just opposite. 



Mr. C. T. Whitmell, the well-known amateur 

 astronomer, who died at Leeds on December 10 

 after a brief illness, graduated at Cambridge in 18-2, 

 being placed in the First Class in the Natural Sciences 

 Ti ipos and Senior Optime in the Mathematical Tripos. 

 He was a prominent member of the British .Astrono- 

 mical .Association, and contributed very largely to its 

 journal. His interests lay in the mathematical rather 

 than in the observational side of astronomy, though his 

 long series of observations of the phenomenon known 

 as the " green flash " are almost unique. Mr. Whit- 

 mell acted as director of the expedition to Spain organ- 

 ised bv the British .Astronomical .Association for the 

 purpose of viewing the solar eclipse in May, 1900. 

 He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 and published several papers in the Monthly Notices. 

 His careful determination of the maximum duration 

 of totality of a solar eclipse supersedes De Sejour's 

 erroneous value. On his appointment as H.M. In- 

 spector of Schools in Leeds in 1897 he identified him- 

 self with many of the scientific societies in that city. 

 The Leeds .Astronomical Society, which owes much 

 to his interest and devotion, elected him as president 

 in 1898-99. In his earlier years Mr. Whitmell did a 

 fair amount of geological fieldwork, both in England 

 and abroad. He was an active member of the Leeds 

 Geological .Association, of which he was at one time 

 president. 



.A NOTAnLE figure in the engineering world passed 

 away on December 14 in the person of Sir John Jack- 

 sen. Born in 1S51, .Sir John was destined to become 



