268 



NATURE 



[May 31, 19 1 7 



the North Sea. He was delegate to the Fishery Con- 

 gress at Dieppe, and to the second conference on the 

 International Catalogue of Scientific Literature held in 

 London in 1898. Virile and straightforward in 

 manner, of keen intelligence and wide sympathies, 

 Brunchorst will be much regretted by those friends in 

 this country from whomjie has been taken at an age 

 so unexpectedly early. 



Engineer Rear-Admiral G. G. Goodwin, C.B., has 

 been appointed Engineer-in-Chief of H.M. Fleet, with 

 the rank of Engineer Vice-Admiral, in succession to 

 Engineer Vice-Admiral Sir Henry J. Oram, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S. 



Dr. C. D. Walcotx, secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, has been elected president of the U.S. 

 National Academy of Sciences, in succession to Prof. 

 W. H. Welch, of the Johns Hopkins University; and 

 Dr. A. A. Michelson, of the University of Chicago, 

 has been elected to succeed him as secretary of the 

 academy. 



The annual meeting of the Institution of Gas 

 Engineers is to be held on Tuesday, June 5, at the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, when reports will be 

 presented of the research committees on, respectively. 

 Refractory Materials, Gas Lighting, Heating and 

 Ventilation, and Life of Gas Meters. Lord Moulton, 

 F.R.S. , has "been nominated for election as president 

 of the institution for the 3'ear 1917-18. 



At the monthly general meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London, held on May 16, his Grace the 

 Duke of Bedford in the chair, it was announced that,' 

 in comparison with the corresponding period in 19 16, 

 there was a decrease in the rtumber of visitors of 

 75'.353. and a decrease in the receipts of 1756Z. The 

 additions to the society's collections during the month 

 amounted to 130, of \vhich special mention may be 

 made of a female chimpanzee from West Africa, two 

 pandas (Aelurus fulgens) from Nepal, and a Demidoff's 

 galago (Hetnigalago dentidoffi) from Ashanti. 



While we are glad to know that it has been decided 

 to establish a National War Museum, we are not a 

 little alarmed at the many impracticable and sometimes 

 fatuous suggestions as to the nature of the objects 

 which should find a place there. We do not, for 

 example, consider that ornaments made of chewed 

 bread, even though they were made by prisoners of 

 war in internment camps, are worthy of a permanent 

 place in such a collection. As well might we add a 

 lump of mud from the wheel of a limber in Flanders ! 

 The writer of a long article on this theme in the 

 Museums Journal for May expresses a hope that the 

 Tower of London may be used -as the repository of 

 this collection, and there are even people who seem 

 to agree with him. But if a tithe of the things he 

 proposes to admit are collected, an annexe several 

 times the size of the Tower will have to be provided. 

 By all means let us have this museum, but let 

 a little judgment be exercised in its formation. 



It is announced from New York by the Exchange 

 Telegraph Co. that the members of the Crocker Land 

 Expedition are safe at Etah. The expedition sailed for 

 the Arctic in July, 1913, under the auspices of the 

 American Museum of Natural History of New York,_ to 

 explore the land supposed to lie north-west of the line 

 of islands stretching from Grant Land to Prince 

 Patrick Land. Two years later, however, Mr. Donald 

 B. Macmillan, the leader, sent a message which, after 

 recording several misadventures which the expedition 

 had encountered, announced that Crocker Land did not 

 exist. He and his companions have since remained in 

 the Arctic, mapping uncharted coast lines and carrying 

 on other scientific work. 



NO. 2483, VOL. 99] 



The fifteenth annual session of the South African 

 Association for the Advancement of Science will be 

 held at Stellcnbosch, from Monday, July 2, to Satur- 

 day, July 7, inclusive, under the presidency of Prof- 

 J. Orr. The sectional committees and their presidents 

 will be as follows :■ — A : Astronomy, Mathematics,. 

 Physics, Meteorology, Geodesy, Surveying,^ Engineer- 

 ing, Architecture, and Irrigation, Prof. W. N. Rose- 

 veare ; B : Chemistry, Geology, Metallurgy, Minera- 

 logy, and Geography, Prof. M. M. Rindl ; C: Bac- 

 teriology, Botany, Zoology, Agriculture, Forestry,. 

 Physiology, Hygiene, and Sanitary Science, J. Burtt- 

 Davv; D: Education, History, Mental Science, Poli- 

 tical Economy, General Sociology, and Statistics, Rev.. 

 Prof. N. J. Briimmer; E: Anthropology, Ethnology, 

 Native Education, Philology, and Native Sociology, 

 Rev. N. Roberts. The local secretary is Prof. B. van 

 der Riet, Victoria College, Stellcnbosch. 



There lately passed away a notable public servant in 

 the person of Mr. Alexander Gibson, late Senior Chief 

 Cartographer at the Admiralty. The public hears 

 much of some of its prominent officials, but is un- 

 aware of the existence of many highly technical ser- 

 vices that are silently rendered to the State, without 

 public recognition, and sometimes without much 

 official encouragement. Mr. Gibson was, however, well 

 known in that circle of scientific interests concerned 

 with geographical and cartographical work, and had 

 been a distinguished occupant of the official position 

 referred to, from which he retired in 19 14, after forty 

 years' service at the Admiralty. When the war com- 

 menced he was recalled to continue his services, and 

 was at work until a few days before his death. Mr 

 Gibson's long and continuous service at the Admiralty 

 had made him an unequalled authority upon the charts 

 of the coasts and waters of the world, both British 

 and foreign, and with his great capabilities for critical 

 examination and research he contributed many impor- 

 tant records of high value to the work of accurate 

 chart construction. 



Dr. George Sarton will be known to many readers 

 of Nature as the editor of the excellent quarterly, his, 

 which was published near Ghent until the war stopped 

 publication. Dr. Sarton is at present lecturing at 

 Harvard University, and is continuing with his usual 

 vigour his important work in organising the history 

 and use of science in civilisation. In Science for 

 March 23 last he published a very interesting proposal 

 for an American Institute for the history of science and 

 civilisation, which appeals "to those interested in 

 placing before American students advantages not only 

 greater than are now offered in this country (America), 

 but greater than those offered abroad." "Science," 

 says Dr. Sarton, "is the strongest force that makes 

 for the unity of our civilisation, "and it is also essen- 

 tially a cumulative process, and hence no history of 

 civilisation can be tolerably true and complete in 

 which the development of science is not given a con- 

 siderable place." Particularly interesting among the 

 activities of the proposed institute is that of publishing 

 two journals, one of a popular nature, and the other 

 of the highest scientific character. The scientific 

 journal might be a series of editions of important 

 scientific manuscripts, or a journal of the type of Isis, 

 which should record the world's work on the subject. 

 It may be added that perhaps this scheme might fit in 

 with the admirable suggestion made by Prof. Rignano 

 in Nature of January 2.1; last of a quadruple scientific 

 " Entente." Now America has jointed the Entente, 

 our scientific future is certainly rosier. Dr. Sarton 's 

 note concludes with an imposing list of American men 

 of science who are in sympathy with his project. 



x^T the May meeting of the Society of Glass Tech- 

 nology Prof. Herbert Jackson gave a short account 



