562 



NATURE 



[April 1;^, 189: 



The Council of the Marine Biological Association of the 

 United Kingdom have appointed Mr. Edward J. Bles director 

 of the Laboratory at Plymouth. Mr. Bles has held an honorary 

 research fellowship in zoology at the Owens College, Man- 

 chester. 



The seventh annual photographic conference, organised by 

 the Camera Club, was opened yesterday in the theatre of the 

 Society of Arts, under the presidency of Captain Abney. 

 Various papers were read, and others are to be read to-day. 

 The annual exhibition of photographs by members will be on 

 view at the club after conference week, and will remain open 

 for about six weeks. 



The thirteenth annual general meeting of the Essex Field 

 Club will be held at Chelmsford on Saturday, April 15. It is 

 proposed that before the meeting the members shall have a 

 ramble in the neighbourhood of Chelmsford, and thus open the 

 field meetings for the season. After the transaction of official 

 business an address will be delivered by Dr. Laver, the retiring 

 president, on "periodicity in organic life." His object will be 

 to show that animals have periods of abundance and rarity, and 

 that this is not due either to meteorological causes or to the 

 agency of man. 



The Council of the City and Guilds of London Institute, 

 recognising the increasing importance in the mechanical repro- 

 duction of pictures, will, in the forthcoming examinations, to be 

 held on May 3 and 13 next, give special importance to this 

 branch, by dividing the examination in the Honours Grade into 

 two classes, one for pure Photography, and the other for photo- 

 mechanical Photography. Special examiners have been 

 appointed for each branch, and candidates have the option of 

 declaring in which branch it is their intention of entering. They 

 will not, however, be allowed to compete in both -branches. 

 The certificates granted will show in which of the two divisions 

 the candidate has passed. The Council of the Institute hope 

 that the encouragement thus given to the photo-mechanical 

 division will tend to form in this country a school of competent 

 craftsmen in this branch of photographic work. 



The twenty-fourth annual meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society was held recently at the Museum, Norwich, 

 the president (Mr, H, B. Woodward) in the chair, Mr. T. 

 Southwell was elected president for the ensuing year, and after 

 the usual routine business the retiring president delivered the 

 annual address. After giving some account of the work of the 

 society during the session, he remarked that there was a slight 

 increase in the number of members ; also that the financial 

 position was satisfactory. Turning attention to the geology of 

 Norfolk, he expressed regret that the gaps left by the deaths of 

 the older geologists were not filled by new-comers. Even 

 collectors of fossils, who rendered such good service, were not 

 nowadays so plentiful as formerly. Enthusiasm was damped by 

 the difficulties in naming specimens, and these difficulties were 

 increased by modern palasontological work. There were 

 varieties of species which co-existed with the type ; and there 

 were variations which followed the type in chronological suc- 

 cession, and to the latter the name " mutations " had been given. 

 He regarded the giving of specific names to these mutations as 

 the most serious obstacle ever placed in the pathway of the 

 student of nature. Allusion was made to the subject of geo- 

 logical "zones," and mention was made of the discovery of 

 layers of phosphalic chalk in Buckinghamshire, and to their 

 possible occurrence in Norfolk, Having referred to various 

 other matters, Mr. Woodward expressed a hope that some day 

 Norwich might have a university college, where prDminence 

 would be givdn to subjects of special practical importance in East 

 Anglia. 



NO. 1224, VOL. 47J 



Sir Thomas Grksham's Reader in Geometry at Gresham 

 College being unable, owing to ill-health, to give the Easter 

 course of lectures, the City Side of the Gresham Committee 

 have permitted their delivery by deputy. The following course 

 of lectures on special applications of the laws of chance is to be 

 given :— April 18, "On Frequency Curves, their Nature, 

 Variety, and Use," by Dr. John Venn, F.R.S. ; April 19, 

 " Chance in the Field of Biology," by Prof. W. F. R. Weldon, 

 F.R.S. ; April 20, "On some Points in the Philosophy of 

 Chance," by the Rev. W. A. Whitworth ; April 21, "Proba- 

 bility as the Guide of Astronomers," by Sir Robert S. Ball, 

 F.R.S., Lowndean Professor of Astronomy in the University 

 of Cambridge. The lectures are free to the public, and begin 

 at six o'clock p m. 



Miss Caroline A. Foley contributes to the new number 

 of Mind a vivid and very interesting account of the late Prof. 

 Croom Robertson as a teacher. No one who reads it will have 

 any difficulty in under-standing the affection and respect with 

 which his memory is cherished by his old pupils. Miss Foley, 

 while regretting, as many others have done, that Prof. Robert- 

 son did not live to present " an integral view of his thoughts on 

 any great questions of philosophy," suggests that some who 

 heard him give expression to his ideas may have in their posses- 

 sion as much recorded material as would enable "any of his 

 more competent contemporaries to synthesise and perpetuate 

 what of it is chiefly and worthily distinctive." The editor of 

 Mind, in a note, states that " this suggestion will probably be 

 carried out." 



A RKi'ORT of the first annual meeting of the Association ot 

 Head Masters of Higher Grade and Organised Science Classes 

 has been issued. The meeting was held lately at Manchester, 

 the chair being occupied by Mr. James Scotson, of the central 

 higher grade school, Manchester. The report includes not 

 only Mr. Scotson's address, but a vigorous paper by Dr. David 

 Forsyth, head master of the central higher grade school, Leeds, 

 on " higher education for the children of the people, ' 



On April 8 several shocks of earthquake were felt over a wide 

 area of south-eastern Europe. They were especially severe in 

 western Servia. Shocks were also felt in Bulgaria and at 

 various places in Hungary. They are said to have occurred in 

 Hungary between 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon, in Servia at 

 2.55 p M., at Sofia about 4 o'clock p.m. From Sofia the move- 

 ment is reported to have been of an undulatory character and 

 to have lasted about thirty seconds, the direction being from 

 west to east. On Sunday and Monday fresh shocks were ex- 

 perienced in various parts of western Servia, but they were 

 less severe than those of the previous day. According to a 

 Renter's telegram from Belgrade, the districts most seriously 

 affected by the earthquake of Saturday are those of Morava and 

 Pozarevac. Great damage was done in the towns of Svilajinac 

 and Gradista, where the shocks followed one another in quick 

 succession. At Livadica-Cuprija, as well as at Svilajinac, great 

 fissures were opened in the earth, whence streams of water and 

 quantities of yellowish matter were still issuing forth on Monday. 

 Thousands of houses and a great number of churches are either 

 in ruins or have become so severely cracked that the people are 

 afraid to enter them. So great is the panic in the two districts 

 named that not a single person ventures to sleep indoors. 



Mr. W. R. Elliott, writing to us from Prince Ruperts, 

 Dominica, W.I., on March 19, says that the northern end of 

 the island of Dominica had for some time been the scene of 

 what he calls " a most extraordinary display in the way of 

 earthquakes." The house in which he was staying at the time 

 is situated on a spur off the main ridge ot the island, and, there- 

 fore, somewhat in the direct line of volcanic action in these 

 islands. The shocks began on February 17, and were felt 



