June 17, 1897] 



NA TURE 



159 



Clark from that of the firm with which he was associated 

 throughout his life. It would be ungenerous to deny 

 him his share in the success that has attended the use of 

 such astronomical triumphs as the Washington telescope, 

 the Pulkova, or the Lick, because they were completed 

 in his father's lifetime. His practical participation in 

 the work of the firm as far back as 1862, is attested by 

 his discovery of the companion of Sirius in the course of 

 the optical trials to which he was submitting the first 

 large telescope the firm had constructed. Here his 

 capacity to use a telescope is shown as effectually as he 

 afterwards demonstrated his power to make one, and 

 though the opportune discovery may have done much to 

 strengthen the reputation of the firm, it did not tempt 

 him to join the ranks of astronomical observers in pre- 

 ference to those of the practical optician. Possessed 

 with the tradition of the workshop, and inheritor of his 

 fathers skill and experience, he has been content to 

 supply the means for others to use, and in this way has 

 rendered no mean service to astronomical science. 

 None of those who have won an acknowledged position 

 for accurate or for delicate work by means of the instru- 

 ments the famous house of A. Clark and Sons has placed 

 in their hands, would deny the obligation they are under 

 to those who have devoted themselves freely and un- 

 selfishly to secure the best that art can devise, or skill 

 and patience execute. In precisely the same manner 

 Mr. Clark would acknowledge his indebtedness to those 

 who have supplied him with the glass, out of which he 

 has constructed those lenses, wherewith he has broken 

 the record of all previous efforts in the same direction. 

 The house of Feil, among others, has rendered him the 

 same kind of service that he has rendered to astronomy 

 — ^services that are not covered by a mere monetary pay- 

 ment. When we hear of the discovery of some minute 

 speck of light, and admire the skill and dexterity of 

 manipulation of the astronomer who has added another 

 fact to the history of observational astronomy, it is well 

 to remember all the causes that have contributed to his 

 success, not to rob him of his deserved popularity and 

 reputation, but to remind ourselves of the intimate 

 connection pervading many branches of science and 

 industry. 



We have alluded to some of the large telescopes in 

 which the reputation of the son is worthily joined with 

 that of the father. W^e may recall another, the Bruce 

 photographic telescope, whose successful figuring rests 

 entirely with the younger Clark. Here the difficulty of 

 construction was much increased by the fact that the 

 final focal length of the combination was agreed upon 

 between the contracting parties, and that very consider- 

 able accuracy was demanded in maintaining the original 

 agreement. Mr. Clark triumphed over all difficulties, 

 we believe, to the complete satisfaction of Prof Picker- 

 ing, and, if we correctly understood Mr. Clark, without 

 the assistance of the method of "pilot" glasses or small 

 objectives, constructed of similar glass and of like curves 

 to those intended to be used in the construction of the 

 finished lenses. 



America has lost, perhaps, her ablest practical optician. 

 Others starting with his experience and assisted by a 

 lavish generosity will no doubt in time surpass his 

 masterpieces ; but his loss is a great one, and at this 

 particular juncture will be keenly felt in the new 

 crtiifat^'o ( )hservatnrv. 



NOTES. 



The sum of 297,000 francs has been subscribed for the Pasteur 

 statue which is to be erected in Paris. M. Falguieres has been 

 commissioned to design the statue. 



A r the meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences last week, 

 it was announced that subscriptions amounting to twenty-five 



thousand francs had been collected in Russia towards the fund 

 for the erection of a statue of Lavoisier, and that this sum had 

 been forwarded to the Academy. 



The International Postal Union has decided that natural 

 history specimens and objects for scientific collections, shall be 

 regarded as samples, and charged at the rate of a halfpenny for 

 every two ounces. 



We learn from the Bulletin of the Botanical Society of France 

 that it is intended to recognise in perpetuity the services rendered 

 to viticulture in France by the late botanists, M. P. Duchartre 

 and M. F. Laforgue, by placing commemorative marble plates 

 on the houses where they were born, both in the neighbourhood 

 of Beziers. 



It is stated in Science that Miss Catherine W. Bruce, of New 

 York City, has again shown her great interest in astronomy by 

 sending Prof. J. K. Rees, Director of the Columbia University 

 Observatory, a cheque for fifteen hundred dollars. The money 

 is to be used in publishing the observations and reductions for 

 "Variation of Latitude and the Constant of Aberration," made 

 by Profs. Rees and Jacoby and Dr. Davis. 



Dr. G. Sanarelli delivered a lecture at Montevideo on 

 Thursday last, upon the etiology and pathogenesis of yellow 

 fever, with special reference to the yellow fever bacillus dis- 

 covered by him (see Nature, February 18, vol. Iv. p. 370). 

 There was a very large attendance at the lecture, including a 

 number of scientific delegates from all parts of South America, 

 the members of the Diplomatic Body, and the principal authori- 

 ties. Dr. Sanarelli confirmed his previous announcement that 

 the cause of yellow fever is a bacillus named by him icteroid, 

 which is rarely found either in the blood of yellow fever patients 

 or in their bodies after death, because it easily disappears. Dr. 

 Sanarelli said that he would shortly make experiments in pre- 

 ventive vaccination, and hoped to discover a curative serum. 



The Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh have awarded 

 the following prizes : — The Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for 

 1893-96 to Mr. John Aitken, for his brilliant investigations in 

 physics, especially in connection with the formation and con- 

 densation of aqueous vapour ; the Keith Prize for 1893-95 to 

 Dr. Cargill G. Knott, for his papers on the strains produced by 

 magnetism in iron and in nickel ; the Mackdougall-Brisbane 

 Prize for 1892-95 to Prof John G. M'Kendrick, for numerous 

 physiological papers, especially in connection with sound ; the 

 Neill Prize for 1892-95 to Mr. Robert Irvine, for his papers on 

 the action of organisms in the secretion of carbonate of lime 

 and silica, and on the solution of these substances in organic 

 juices. The prizes will be presented by Lord Kelvin at the last 

 meeting of the session, July 5. 



We regret to announce the following deaths :— Dr. Matthew 

 Charteris, professor of materia medica in Glasgow University ; 

 Mr. Alvan Clark, the well-known manufacturer of lenses for 

 telescopes ; Prof Dr. R. Fresenius, the distinguished chemist ; 

 Mr. Ney Elias, who won the gold medal of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society about twenty-five years ago, for his journey 

 from Pekin to St. Petersburg, and since then explored a part of 

 the desert of Gobi, and traversed the Pamirs ; Rev. Alexander 

 Freeman, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical, Mathematical, 

 and Physical Societies, and deputy for the Plumian Professor 

 of Astronomy at Cambridge in 1880-82 ; the distinguished 

 Austrian metallurgist. Prof. Peter von Tunner, at the age of 

 eighty-nine. In 1875 he was elected an honorary member of 

 the Iron and Steel Institute, and in 1878 received from that 

 society the Bessemer Gold Medal in recognition of his im- 

 portant discoveries connected with the metallurgy of steel. 



NO. 1442, VOL. 56] 



