420 



NATURE 



[September i, 1898 



this curve of electromotive forces as ordinates, and 

 ■currents as abscissae, gave just the information required 

 regarding the action of the machine." Dr. Hopkinson 

 also showed how the characteristic curve of the 

 dynamo could be used to give the conditions under 

 which an arc lamp could be made to work. He was, in 

 fact, a pioneer in the scientific study of dynamo-electric 

 •machinery and its uses. In conjunction with his brother, 

 Mr. E. Hopkinson, he was the first to apply the idea of 

 the magnetic circuit, in a consistent manner, to the 

 ■discussion of the results of experiments on different 

 types of dynamo, and his contributions to this subject 

 have been most valuable in suggesting new methods 

 and machines. His papers on the behaviour and capa- 

 bilities of direct current machines, and of alternators, 

 fiave proved- of the greatest service to practical elec- 

 tricians, and aie counted among the classics of the 

 subject 



Dr. Hopkinson was professor of electrical engineering 

 in King's College, London, and a member of the 

 ■Councils of the Institutions of Civil and Mechanical 

 Tlngineers. He was the " James Forrest " lecturer of 

 the former Institution in 1894, and his discourse on the 

 service mathematics has rendered and can render to 

 engineers and engineering was printed at the time in 

 these columns. In himself he represented the rare 

 combination of mathematical and mechanical know- 

 ledge, and the results of his life's work stand out as 

 the clearest evidence of the close relationships between 

 pure and applied science. It is a mournful task to have 

 to chronicle the death, in such tragic circumstances, 

 •of an investigator who has worked so well for the 

 increase of knowledge and the advancement of electrical 

 •engineering. 



NOTE Si 



The Fourth International Congress of Physiologists held its 

 ■meetings with great success at Cambridge last week from 

 .Tuesday, August 23, to Friday, August 27, inclusive. It was 

 probably the largest assembly of the kind that has yet met. 

 Prof. Michael Foster was President. The following nation- 

 alities were represented : Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, 

 Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, Holland, 

 Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Roumania, Russia, Sweden, 

 Switzerland, and the United States. The offer of Profs. Mosso 

 <of Turin), and Golgi (of Pavia), for the reception of the Fifth 

 Congress in Italy in 1901 was cordially accepted. The 

 Organising Committee for the Fifth Congress was elected, to 

 ■consist of the following names : Angelo Mosso (Turin), 

 President. Chr. Bohr (Copenhagen), H. P. Bowditch (Harvard), 

 A. Dastre (Paris), M. Foster (Cambridge), L. Fredericq 

 <Liege), P. Griitzner (Tubingen), P. Heger (Brussels), H. 

 Kronecker (Bern), W. Kuhne (Heidelberg), C. S. Sherrington 

 ^Liverpool), and W. Wedenskij (St. Petersburg). The place 

 of meeting that has been chosen for 190 1 is the Physiological 

 Institute of the University, Turin, and the time the latter half 

 ■of September. The local arrangements for the present Congress 

 proved very satisfactory. The opinion was generally expressed 

 that the simultaneous session of the sister Congress of Zoologists 

 at Cambridge, far from proving inconvenient, considerably 

 enhanced the pleasure of the meeting. 



The Reale Accademia dei Lincei has recently elected the 

 following men of science as associates and foreign members of 

 the Academy : — National Associates : in physics. Profs. A. Righi, 

 A, Roiti, and A. Pacinotti ; in geology and palteontology, 

 Signore G. Scarabelli ; in zoology, Prof. C. Emery. Corre- 

 spondent in mechanics, Prof. C. Somigliana. Foreign Members : 

 in mechanics. Prof. A. G. Greenhill and V. Voigt ; in physics, 

 NO. 1505, VOL. 58] 



Prof. W. C. Rontgen ; in geology and palaeontology. Prof, A. 

 Karpinsky and Sir Archibald Geikie ; in zoology. Prof. E. Ray 

 Lankester. 



In a special number of their Atti, the Reale Accademia dei 

 Lincei, of Rome, announces the recent awards of prizes given 

 by the King of Italy for the period ending in 1895. For the 

 Royal prize for mathematics, eight competitors sent in no less 

 than about ninety written and printed memoirs ; and after a 

 critical examination of these, the judges have now divided the 

 prize equally between Prof. Corrade Segre and Prof. Vito 

 Volterra. The papers submitted appear to have been of a 

 very high standard of excellence, and are stated to form a 

 worthy sequel to the works of Betti, Brioschi, and other 

 illustrious Italian mathematicians. The award of the Royal 

 prize for social and economic science has been deferred for a 

 period of two years. A similar decision has been arrived at in 

 the case of the prize for astronomy, but a sum of 3000 lire has 

 been awarded to Prof. Filippo Angelitti in consideration of his 

 valuable work in editing and discussing the unpublished 

 writings of Prof Carlo Brioschi. The prize for philology has 

 been divided between Prof. Angelo Solerti and Prof. Remigio 

 Sabbadini, and finally a Ministerial prize of 1500 Hre for 

 natural science has been awarded to Prof. L. Paolucci for his 

 monograph on the fossil plants of the Ancona district. 



Prof. Behring's action in applying for a patent in the 

 United States as sole inventor of diphtheria antitoxin excited 

 surprise, but the announcement that the authorities at Washing- 

 ton have recently decided to grant the patent has (says the 

 Lancet) caused a feeling of something like consternation 

 among the American manufacturers of antitoxin. It was in 

 January 1895, that Prof. Behring — his assignees being the 

 Hochst-Farbwerke, the manufacturers of the serum in Germany 

 — first applied for a patent for his diphtheria antitoxin ; the ap- 

 plication was then refused, and has been refused four times since 

 on the ground that Prof. Behring was not the sole inventor of 

 diphtheria antitoxin, and had consequently no right to claim a 

 monopoly of the manufacture and sale of the same. However, 

 in June of this year the patent officials at Washington over- 

 looked their objections and granted the patent. But although 

 Prof. Behring has succeeded in gaining a patent for his diph- 

 theria antitoxin, it is the intention of the American manu- 

 facturers of antitoxin and the several Boards of Health to 

 contest at every step his right to create a monopoly. 



Particulars of the life and work of Dr. William Pepper, 

 whose death at Pleasanton, in California, was recently announced, 

 are given in the Lancet, and are here abridged. William 

 Pepper was born in August 1843, so that at the time of his 

 death he was not quite fifty-five years of age. His father. Dr. 

 William Pepper, was a prominent physician and Professor of the 

 Theory and Practice of Medicine in the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, and in 1881 the son was elected to the same chair. 

 In the same year he was elected Provost of the University, a 

 post which he held until 1894. On his retirement from office 

 he gave practical and munificent effect to his views upon the 

 extension of the medical curriculum by a donation of 50,000 

 dollars, with a promise of 1000 dollars as an annual subscription 

 for five years, towards an endowment fund to pay for greater 

 teaching facilities for science in the University. In the same 

 year the course was extended to four years. Prof. Pepper is 

 known to the medical profession chiefly by his contributions to. 

 and able editing of, the " System of Practical Medicine b/ 

 American Authors." This System, which was published m 

 1885, did for medical knowledge in America what Ziems?;n's 

 Cyclopaedia had done ten years previously in Germanv. It 

 systematised and correlated the varying scientific opinions of 

 persons all chosen to write because of their position and claims 



