6o 



NATURE 



[November 17, 1892 



combinations or solution ; because undoubtedly these are 

 formed. 



Granting that chemical combinations likewise take 

 place, does it not seem probable that when these latter 

 are present they may be strictly termed impurities? 



If so, iron alloys may be divided into two classes — (i) 

 those in the homogeneous or fourth state, " the true 

 alloys," (2) those in which chemical combinations or 

 solution only takes place ; and this latter class may be 

 termed impure metal, in contradistinction to the first or 

 quasi elementary body. 



In conclusion it is urged that m=iny of our most emi- 

 nent metallurgists and men of science have " by very 

 different modes of investigation " come to the conclusion 

 that iron itself is a compound very complex body. It is 

 true that we have only indirect proof of this, but it only 

 remains to find methods of isolating these bodies from 

 each other. 



NOTES. 



The medals of the Royal Society are this year awarded as 

 follows : — The Copley Medal to Prof. Rudolph Virchow, For. 

 Mem.R.S., for his investigations in Pathology, Pathological 

 Anatomy, and Prehistoric Archaeology ; the Rumford Medal to 

 Mr. Nils C. Duner, for his Spectroscopic Researches on Stars ; 

 a Royal Medal to Mr. John Newport Langley, F. R.S., for his 

 work on Secreting Glands, and on the Nervous System ; a 

 Royal Medal to Prof. Charles Pritchard, F.R.S., for his work 

 on Photometry and S'ellar Parallax ; the Davy Medal to Prof. 

 Fran9ois Marie Raoult, for his researches on the Freezing 

 Points of Solutions, and on the Vapour Pressures of Solutions ; 

 the Darwin Medal to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, F.R.S., on 

 account of his important contributions to the progress of Syste- 

 matic Botany, as evidenced by the "Genera Plantariim " and 

 the "Flora Indica," but more especially on account of his 

 intimate association with Mr. Darwin in the studies preliminary 

 to the "Origin of Species." The award of the Royal Medals 

 has been graciously approved by the Queen. 



The American Ornithologists' Union has been holding its 

 t«nth congress at Washington. The meetings began on Tuesday, 

 and were held in the U.S. National Museum. 



James Plant, F.G.S., of Leicester, who has just died in 

 his seventy-fifth year, was well known as a local geologist in 

 the midland counties, and as a member for some years of the 

 Committee of the British Association on Erratic Blocks. Such 

 blocks are numerous in Leicestershire, those on the southern 

 side of the county being chiefly derived from the Charnwood 

 ran^je, and Mr. Plant was diligent in searching out and record- 

 ing I lie more important of them. Several large boulders 

 siriaieil and partially polished stand in the grounds of the 

 Leice-ier Museum, rescued by him from various railway 

 cuiiiiigs. In 1868 he collected a very fine series of massive 

 speciaiens representing all the hard rock formations of his 

 native county, for exhibition at the meeting of the Royal Agri- 

 cult u al Society. These were afterwards built up into a great 

 cone about 8 feet in diameter and 15 feet high in the museum 

 grounds, and when the enlargement of the building necessitated 

 its removal they were formed into a diagrammatic geological 

 section on another site. Having to be again removed two years 

 ago some of them were used to form a rough geological model 

 of Charnwood Forest in the Abbey Park. In his latter years 

 Mr. Plant acted as consulting geologist in several important 

 borings for water and coal. The curious concentric rings on 

 the face of a rock in Charnwood Forest interested him greatly, 

 and with much trouble and labour he succeeded in obtaining 

 plaster casts of them. He was active also in procuring photo- 

 graphs of many of the most remarkable geological features of 

 the district. 



NO. 1203. VOL. 47] 



Dr. R. v. Wettstein, of Vienna, editor of the Oesterreich- 

 ische Botanische Zeitschrift, has been appointed ordinary Pro- 

 fessor of Botany at the University of Prague. 



The Prussian Government has decided to introduce the use of 

 the Centigrade thermometer instead of that by Reaumur, which 

 is still in use in some parts, and no further Reaumur thermometers 

 are to be supplied to any public officials. The Centigrade thermo- 

 meter has long been in use in Germany for scientific purposes. 



A VALUABLE coUectiou of fossils, minerals, and shells, com- 

 prising several thousand specimens, and particularly rich in 

 specimens from the carboniferous formation, has just been pre- 

 sented to the University College of North Wales by Mr. Evan 

 Roberts, of Manchester. It is hoped that this gift will become 

 the nucleus of an important geological collection suited to the 

 educational requirements of a University College, and that similar 

 gifts will from time to time be made to the College by those 

 interested in the progress of geological study. 



The Oxford Medical Society held its first meeting on Satur- 

 day last, at the University Museum. Sir Henry Aclrnd 

 presided. The inaugural address was delivered by Sir James 

 Paget. He said they all knew that the practice and science 

 of medicine, or, as it was sometimes called, the science and art of 

 medicine, were by some regarded as things quite distinct, wide 

 apart, and in study almost incompatible. A fe^v there were 

 who had the capacity of pursuing both. The great mass of those 

 engaged in the pursuit of medicine were either practitioners or 

 men devoting themselves to science. Each method of work was 

 essential to the practice of the other. It might be asked how 

 could practitioners work as men of science even where they had 

 the time for it ? He believed that would come about by the in- 

 crease in the teaching of science in all medical schools and 

 Universities. He pointed out the work which might be under- 

 taken by the society, and spoke at length on various subjects 

 which might be studied with advantage. Prof. Burdon-Sander- 

 son said the society had been established for the furtheiance and 

 promotion of science, and they wished to make an advance, so to 

 speak, towards the University. There was a yearning in the 

 minds of the medical profession in Oxford to unite itself more 

 closely than it had hitherto with the scientific studies of the 

 University which depended immediately on medicine. 



The weather has continued very unsettled during the past 

 week, the most notable features being the prevalence of fog and 

 abnormally high temperature. During the latter part of last 

 week fog extended over nearly the whole of England, as well as 

 a large part of the Continent. In London and the suburbs in- 

 tense darkness occurred on several days, interspersed with veiy 

 short intervals of sunshine, but in the north-western parts of the 

 kingdom the weather was generally fair. These conditions were 

 due to the distribution of pressure, which was cyclonic over the 

 western portion of these islands, but anti-cyclonic over western 

 Europe. Temperature was uniformly high for the season, the 

 daily maxima ranging from about 50° to 60°, and reached 62° 

 in several places in the southern counties on Monday. This 

 maximum is the highest that has been recorded in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London during the last ten years. In the early part 

 of the present week a deep depression passed to the westward 

 of lielandfrom the Atlantic, causing southerly gales in the north 

 and west, with rain in all pans of the country, the amount 

 measured at Valencia Observatory on Monday exceeding an inch. 

 On Tuesday afternoon a fresh depression reached our south-west 

 coasts from the south-eastwards, while a trough of low pressure lay 

 over the Bay of Biscay and France, causing further heavy rains and 

 local fogs. For the week ending the 12th instant the reports show 

 that bright sunshine was, as might have been expected, very de- 

 ficient generally, especially over northern and eastern England, 

 where the percentage of possible duration was only 9 ; the lowest 



