December 25, 1919] 



NATURE 



417 



with aspects of medicine which are not catered for 

 by the ordinary medical societies, but are of great 

 importance to' medical men in their relationship 

 to the general public. It is eminently desirable that 

 the excellent example which the council has set should 

 be followed by other branches of medicine. 



The last day of this year marks the bicentenary of 

 the death of John Flamsteed, first Astronomer Royal 

 of England, and the rector of the parish of Burstow, 

 Surrey, where he is buried, uncommemorated, we 

 understand, by any monument. Flamsteed was born 

 four vears after Newton, and was a native of Derby- 

 shire, being the son of a well-to-do maltster. Though 

 prevented by illness from attending a university, he 

 was devoted to mathematical studies, and in 167 1 

 sent a paper to the Royal Society. Three years later 

 he published his " Ephemerides," a copy of which, being 

 presented to Charles II. by Sir Jonas Moore, led to 

 Flamsteed being appointed on March 4, 1675, "our 

 Astronomical Observer" at a salary of looi. per 

 annum, his duty being "forthwith to apply himself 

 with the most exact care and diligence to the rectify- 

 ing the tables of the motions of the heavens and the 

 places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much 

 desired longitude of places for the perfecting the art 

 of navigation." The observatory at Greenwich, con- 

 structed partly of brick from old Tilbury Fort and 

 of timber and lead from the Tower of London, was 

 designed by Wren and built at a cost of 52oL, the 

 monev being derived from the sale of spoilt gun- 

 powder. The struggles and disputes, the dogged per- 

 severance, and the memorable achievements of Flam- 

 steed have their place in the history of astronomy, 

 but it. mav safelv be said tkat never has king or 

 Government made a better investment than when 

 Greenwich was built and Flamsteed made passing rich 

 on 100/. a year. 



.\t the general meeting of the Association of 

 Economic Biologists on December 10 and 11 more 

 than seventv new members were proposed, and Sir 

 David Prain was elected president for the forthcoming 

 vear. Exhibits were made bv Messrs. W. F. Bewley, 



E. E. Green, K. D. Cotton, and W. B. Brierley. 

 Papers were read bv Mr. W. F. Bewley on "Sleepy 

 Disease, or Wilt of Tomato," Mr. W. E. Hiley on " .V 

 New Instrument for Measuring the Light Intensity in 

 Woods." and Mr. F. R. Petherbridge on "The Life- 

 history of the Strawberry Tortrix, PicaWa comariana." 

 Deceriiber 1 1 was devoted to a symposium on " The 

 Integration of Mvcological Research with Practice in 

 Agriculture, Horticulture, and Forestry." Sir Daniel 

 Hall discussed the administrative problems involved 

 and the organisation which the Board of .Xgriculture 

 proposes in this connection. The training of investi- 

 gators was treated bv Prof. V. H. Blackman. The 

 special needs and difficulties of agriculture were dealt 

 with bv Dr. E. J. Russell, of horticulture by Mr. 



F. J. Chittenden, and of forestry by Prof. W. .Somer- 

 ville. Sir David Prain discussed the part which the 

 newlv formed Imperial Bureau of Mycology will play 

 in linking the investigator with the practical man. 

 The meeting was presided over by Prof. F. ^^' . Keeble, 

 and in the discussion following the principal speakers 

 a large number of members took part. The sym- 

 posium was of great value in co-ordinating many 

 divergent lines of thought, and there can be little 

 doubt that the more frequent adoption of this method 

 at scientific meetings would be conducive to that syn- 

 thesis which is so great a desideratum in all natural 

 science. 



.\x interesting and valuable gift which has more 

 than a local interest has just been received by the 

 Plymouth Institution. This is the fine vase presented 

 NO. 2617, VOL. 104] 



to Sir William Snow Harris in 1845 by the Emperor 

 Nicholas I. of Russia. Harris, who was born 

 in Plymouth and educated at the Grammar School 

 there, was trained as a doctor in Edinburgh, and for 

 a time practised in his native town. After his mar- 

 riage in 1824, however, he abandoned his profession 

 to devote himself to the study of electricity. From 

 1819 onwards he was a frequent lecturer at the Ply- 

 mouth Institution, where in 1822 his subject was "The 

 .\pplication of Fixed Conductors to Ships' Masts." In 

 1827 the Lord High Admiral— afterwards William IV. 

 — while on a tour of inspection to the dockyards, 

 visited the institution, and with some naval officers 

 witnessed Harris's experiments. Two years later a 

 Royal Society committee under Davy reported favour- 

 ably on the proposals, but it was not until 1839, 

 when the matter was referred to another committee, 

 that Harris's new conductors were introduced into 

 the British Navv, although the Russian Navy was 

 alreadv using them. The Copley medal had been 

 given to Harris in 1835, and other honours followed. 

 He was awarded a Civil List pension in 1841 ; the 

 Emperor of Russia gave him a valuable ring and the 

 vase in 1845; two years later he was knighted, and 

 the Government afterwards made him a grant of 

 5000L He died in the house overlooking the Hoe in 

 1867, and his name is inscribed on one of the panels 

 in the Plvmouth Guildhall. Harris's fixed conductors 

 replaced 'the temporary conductors introduced by 

 Watson in 1762, and led to a great diminution in the 

 loss of ships through lightning. His scientific work 

 and his improvements are a notable instance of the 

 benefits conferred upon the community by local 

 scient,ific societies, and no fitter place for the pre- 

 servation of the beautiful vase presented to Hams 

 could be found than the institution which saw the 

 birth of his discoveries. 



It is announced in Science that Dr. Frank 

 Schlesinger, director of the Allegheny Observatory of 

 the Universitv of Pittsburgh, has been elected director 

 of the Yale Observatory. 



The Phvsical and Optical Societies' annual 

 exhibition to be held on Wednesday and Thursday, 

 Januarv 7 and 8, 1920, at the Imperial College of 

 Science, South Kensington, will be open both in the 

 afternoon (from 3 to 6 p.m.) and in the evening (from 

 7 to 10 o.m.). Prof. F. J. Cheshire will give a dis- 

 course on "Some Polarisation Experiments at 8 p.m. 

 on Januarv 7 and at 4 p.m. on January 8, and Prof. 

 \ O Rankine will give a discourse on " I he Use ot 

 i ight in the Transmission and Reproduction of 



Speech" at 4 P-m. on January 7 ■'"^„'''' ^ P'T.' ,°" 

 lanuarv 8. Admission in all cases will be by ticket 

 onlv, obtainable bv members of various societies 

 through the secretaries. Others interested should 

 applv direct to the Secretary of the Physical Society, 

 National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, S.W. 



The weather of the past autumn was so abnormal 

 that a few facts concerning it are worth recording. 

 \t Greenwich for the whole autumn the mean tem- 

 perature was 477°, ^vhich is 30° below the normal 

 There are onlv three autumns in the last hundred 

 vears with lower means— 468° in 1829, 474 m i°40. 

 and 470° in 1887. The autumn rainfall w;as 323 in., 

 which is 49 per cent, of _ the average There have 

 been onlv two autumns in the last hundred years 

 with a s'maller rainfall— 1834 with 284 in., and 1858 

 with 280 in. October was the driest month of the year 

 with the exception of May, whereas it is normally 

 the wettest of the twelve months. From Octo- 

 ber 26 to November 16 inclusive, twenty-two days, 

 the maximum temperature at Greenwich was 



