August 12, 1897] 



NATURE 



347 



Owing to the advance of areas of low barometric pressure 

 over our islands from the Atlantic since the beginning; of the 

 month, the weather, which for a considerable period had been 

 very fine, under the influence of an anti-cyclonic system, became 

 very unsettled, and thunderstorms were experienced in nearly all 

 parts. The reports issued by the Meteorological Office show that 

 some high temperatures were registered : on the 4ih and 5th, 

 readings of 90° (in shade) were recorded in the east of England, 

 and 88° in the southern parts of the country. On the latter 

 day rain fell heavily over the northern parts ; at St. Helens 

 (in Lancashire) 2*28 inches were measured in three-quarters of 

 an hour. The disturbance on Sunday, the 8th inst., caused 

 further thunderstorms and rainfall in the southern parts of the 

 country, 0'8 inch being measured at Oxford and 07 inch in 

 London. This is the heaviest fall in London in one day since 

 January 8 last. 



About this time every year the Societe Industrielle de Mul- 

 house issues a " Programme des Prix " to be awarded in the 

 following year. The list of prizes to be awarded in 1898 has 

 just been received, and it contains no less than 144 prize-subjects. 

 No useful purpose would be served by describing all these 

 subjects, but attention may profitably be called to the following 

 among them : — 5000 francs for discoveries or inventions which 

 in the preceding ten years have been most useful to industries in 

 the district of the Upper Rhine ; a medal and 1000 francs for 

 the best memoir upon the combing of textile materials ; a medal 

 and 1000 francs for the production of a substance to replace the 

 albumen of eggs in making painters' canvas ; icxxj francs for an 

 albumen to replace the white of eggs in all industrial uses of the 

 same; a silver medal and 500 francs for the best memoir on a 

 new and advantageous method of constructing factory buildings ; 

 a silver medal and 500 francs for new theoretical and practical 

 researches on the movement of steam in pipes ; a silver medal 

 and 500 francs for the invention and application of a registering 

 pyrometer intended to show the temperature of the gaseous pro- 

 ducts of the combustion of coal in steam engines ; a medal and 

 500 or 1000 francs (according to the importance of the work) 

 for a memoir on electromotive force in mono- or poly-phase 

 alternators. The remaining prizes are mostly medals, which 

 will be awarded for advances in the industrial arts and for long 

 service. All the prizes are open to every one except the members 

 of the committees of the Societe industrielle and the Council 

 of administration. Competing memoirs must be sent, before 

 February 15, 1898, to the President of the Society. A copy of 

 the Programme des Prix will be sent upon application to the 

 Secretary. 



Jersey offers many opportunities for workers in the wide 

 field of natural science. The Jersey Natural Science Associa- 

 tion, which was founded on Thursday last, ought therefore, by 

 organising the studies of the naturalists of the Island, to be of 

 real assistance in scientific progress. The Island presents many 

 important sections for the student of geology and mineralogy, 

 while the work already done, in a quiet way by some of its 

 inhabitants, indicates how a properly organised body of workers 

 can advance natural knowledge. The new association has been 

 instituted for the purpose of carrying on scientific research and 

 cultivating the spirit of investigation by : (a) original papers or 

 communications ; i^b) field work and excursions ; (<:) the delivery 

 of popular scientific lectures when such can be arranged ; (<f) the 

 formation of a museum and lending library for the use of 

 members. The patron of the Association is Major-General E. 

 Hopton, C.B. (the Lieut. -Governor of Jersey), and the officers 

 are :— President, Dr. A. G. Godfray ; Vice-Presidents, Mr. R. 

 R. Lempriere (Viscount of Jersey), and Mr. H. E. Le V. dit 

 Durell (Connetable of St. Helier) ; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. P. 

 Asplet ; Hon. Secretary and Librarian, Mr. C. A. Snazelle. 

 NO. 1450, VOL. 56J 



The death of Prof. Alfred Marshall Mayer, jjrofessor di 

 physics in the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken,. 

 N.J., on July 13, has already been announced in these columns. 

 From an obituary notice in the American Journal of Science we 

 extract the following particulars of J'rof. Mayer's life and 

 scientific work : — Prof. Mayer was born in Baltimore, Md.^ 

 November 13, 1836, and received his education at St. Mary's 

 College, Baltimore. After leaving this institution, in 1852, he 

 spent two years in the office and workshop of a mechanical 

 engineer, where he acquired a knowledge of mechanical pro- 

 cesses and the use of tools, for which he had a natural apti- 

 tude. This was followed by a course of two years in a chemical 

 laboratory, where he obtained a thorough knowledge of analytical 

 chemistry. In 1856 he was made professor of physics and 

 chemistry in the University of Maryland, and three years later 

 he entered upon a similar position in Westminster College, Mo., 

 where he remained two years. In 1863 he went abroad, and 

 entered the University of Paris, where he spent two years in the 

 study of physics, mathematics and physiology. While in Paris- 

 he was a pupil of the distinguished physicist Regnault. After 

 his return to America he occupied a chair in Pennsylvania 

 College, Gettysburg, and later in Lehigh University, Bethlehem, 

 where he was in charge of the department of astronomy, and 

 superintended the erection of an observatory. In 1869, aA 

 expedition was sent by the U.S. Nautical Almanac Office to- 

 Burlington, Iowa, to observe the eclipse of August 7. Prof. 

 Mayer was placed in charge of the expedition, and obtained a 

 large number of successful photographs. In 187 1 he was 

 called to the professorship of physics in the Stevens Institute of 

 Technology, which position he held until the close of his life. 

 Prof. Mayer was an enthusiastic and active investigator, and a 

 prolific writer upon scientific subjects. He made numerous- 

 contributions to various journals, cyclopredias, and other scien- 

 tific publications, but the memoirs in which he embodied the 

 results of his own researches were chiefly published in the 

 American Journal of Science. His papers published in that 

 journal, since 1870, number forty-seven titles, covering nearly 

 four hundred closely printed pages, not counting various notes 

 and minor contributions. While embracing a great variety of 

 topics in physics, his studies were more actively pursued in the 

 departments of electricity and electro-magnetic phenomena, ia 

 optics, especially photometry and colour-contrasts, but more par- 

 ticularly in acoustics, which was a favourite field of research, in 

 which his discoveries gave him the prominence and authority of 

 a specialist. His acoustical researches form a connected series 

 of papers, which together amount to nearly one-half the 

 total volume of his contributions. Prof. Mayer received the 

 degree of Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania College in 1866. In 

 1872 he was elected a member of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, and was connected with many other scientific societies. 

 He possessed great ingenuity and skill in construction, and a 

 remarkable degree of delicacy and precision as an experimenter, 

 which enabled him to obtain results that will have a high and 

 permanent value in science. 



A SLIGHT earthquake was felt at Hereford on Monday morn- 

 ing, July 19, between half-past three and four. Mr. E. Armit^e, 

 writing from Dadnor, Ross, Herefordshire, says that the dis- 

 turbance was felt at 3.50 a.m. He adds : " The rumbling sounc;! 

 was accompanied by a distinct shock of momentary duration, 

 sufficiently strong to awaken sleepers. The direction of the 

 seismic wave was from east to west." 



Mr. R. J. UssHER records in the Irish Naturalist the dis- 

 covery of bones of the Great Auk in kitchen-midcleas on the 

 coast of County Waterford. The bones have been determined 

 as belonging to the Great Auk by Prof. Newton and Dr, 

 Gadow : with them were found bones or horns of ox, goat» 



