March 17, 19 10] 



NA TURE 



75 



an address on " Tinctorial Chemistry — Ancient and 

 Modern." The presidency of the society is to be taken 

 over by Sir Frederick Cawley, Bart., M.P. 



The President of the Board of Trade has appointed a 

 new Advisory Committee on Commercial Intelligence. 

 The chairman of the committee will be the President of 

 the Board of Trade, or, in his absence, the senior Board 

 of Trade representative present. The committee is to hold 

 office for three years. The committee is appointed to 

 advise the Board of Trade (a) on the work of the Com- 

 mercial Intelligence Branch and on such matters relating 

 to foreign tariffs and other commercial questions as the 

 Board may refer to them, and (fe) as to commercial 

 missions abroad or other means of obtaining and diffusing 

 information for the benefit of British trade. 



.\n international expedition started on March 13 for the 

 Peak of Teneriffe to investigate the effect of high altitudes 

 and sunshine on medical and biological processes. From 

 a note in the Times of March 12 it appears that the party 

 included Prof. Pannwitz, of Charlottenburg, the president 

 of the International Commission for the Study of Bio- 

 logical and Medical Effects of High .Altitudes and Sun- 

 shine ; Dr. Barcroft and Dr. Douglas (Cambridge Uni- 

 versity), representing England ; Prof. Zuntz and Dr. 

 Neuberg, representing Germany ; Dr. Mascat and Dr. 

 Plasse, representing France ; and Prof. During and Dr. H. 

 von Schrotter, representing .Austria. Prof. Zuntz has 

 already done work in this direction on Monte Rosa, and 

 his observations will be elaborated by the expedition. Pre- 

 liminary meteorological work has been done by Prof. 

 Hergesell. Dr. J. Mascat, of Paris, has joined the ex- 

 pedition for the purpose of studying Halley's comet under 

 the favourable conditions afforded by the Peak of Teneriffe. 

 Prof. Miiller and Dr. Kron, of the Potsdam Observatory, 

 are expected to join the expedition within a week or two. 



The annual general meeting of the Ray Society was 

 held on March 10. The report of the council stated that 

 the society's publication for 1909, a supplementary part of 

 the " British Nudibranchiate Mollusca," has been delayed 

 owing to Sir Charles Eliot's absence from England. For 

 the present year the issue will be vol. ii., part ii., of the 

 " British Marine .Annelids," by Prof. W. C. Mcintosh, 

 completing the Polychaeta. Two volumes are in prepara- 

 tion for 191 1, being vol. iv. of the " British Desmidiaceae," 

 by Mr. W. West and Prof. G. S. West, and vol. iii. of 

 the " British Tunicata," containing the composite species 

 and completing the work. This will complete Messrs. 

 .Alder and Hancock's works published by the society. Of 

 other works in preparation, the first instalment of Dr. 

 Malcolm Burr's " Earwigs of the World " will probably 

 be the issue for 1912. .An offer by the Rev. Hilderic Friend 

 to contribute a work on the British earthworms has been 

 accepted. Lord .Avebury, F.R.S., was re-elected president 

 of the society; Dr. S. F. Harmer, F.R.S., was elected a 

 vice-president; Mr. F. DuCane Godman, F.R.S., was re- 

 elected treasurer ; and Mr. John Hopkinson was elected 

 secretary. 



The death of Dr. .A. E. Dolbear, for many years pro- 

 fessor of physics at Tufts College, Massachusetts, removes 

 one of the most remarkable of American thinkers and 

 inventors. His inability to exploit his discoveries is alleged 

 by his friends to be the only reason why his name is not 

 more widely known. In addition to pioneer work on the 

 telephone, wireless telegraphy, electric waves, and Rontgen 

 rays, among inventions to be placed to his credit are a 

 writing telegraph, a spring balance ammeter, an electric 

 gyroscope to illustrate the rotation of the earth, and a new 

 NO. 2107, VOL. 83] 



system of incandescent lighting. The most notable of his 

 books was "Matter, Ether, and Motion." Prof. Dolbear 

 was born at Norwich, Connecticut, in 1837. After serving 

 as a *' bound boy " on a New Hampshire farm, he worked 

 successively in a ship-building yard and a printing office, 

 studying geolog}', mineralog}', and astronomy in his scanty 

 leisure. Later he " taught school " in Missouri, and 

 worked in the U.S. armoury at Springfield. .At the age 

 of twenty-nine he entered the University of Michigan as 

 a student of chemistry, and in six weeks became assistant 

 instructor in that subject. The next year he was appointed 

 an assistant professor in Kentucky University, and then 

 professor of physics and chemistry at Bethany College, 

 West Virginia. While holding the latter post he was three 

 times elected Mayor of Bethany. His main career began 

 in 1874, when the discovery of his scientific ability led to 

 his being called to Tufts College. 



A SUMMARY of gales recorded at anemograi^ stations in 

 1909 has just been issued by the Meteorological Office. . 

 Gales occurred in some part of the British Islands in 

 every month of the year w^ith the exception of June, but 

 naturalh' gales occurred with far less frequency in the 

 summer than during the winter. The most stormy months 

 were January, October, and December. Strong gales, with 

 a mean wind velocity of 47 or more miles an hour, force 9 

 of Beaufort notation, did not occur in May, June, or July. 

 The absolute maximum velocity of wind in a gust was 

 at the rate of 90 miles an hour, at Scilly on October 23, 

 but the maximum velocity for an hour for this gale was 

 only 70 miles. The next highest velocity in a gust was 

 78 miles, at Scilly on January 16, and this was followed, 

 in order, b}' a gust of 76 miles an hour, at Southport on 

 December 3. Gusts of 75 miles an hour occurred at 

 Pendennis on November 18 and December 2, and at Scilly 

 on December 2—3. No anemograph station had a higher 

 wind velocity than 70 miles for an hour during the year. 

 The summary gives the percentage of frequency of each 

 unit of Beaufort notation at several stations grouped 

 separately for the western and southern coasts combined, 

 and for the eastern coasts and inland stations combined. 

 It is comparatively exceptional at any station for winds 

 of 8 and upwards of Beaufort notation to amount to i per 

 cent, of all winds, and winds of gale force are less frequent 

 in the eastern than in the western district. 



Dr. Penck, the president of the Berlin Geographical 

 Society, has rightly protested against the idea that there 

 can be any objection to the expedition of any nation help- 

 ing in .Antarctic research on whatever route it may prefer 

 to adopt. The unknown .Antarctic area is so vast that 

 any overlap and waste of effort would be deplorable, and 

 the four .Antarctic expeditions now being organised will 

 probably be working in sufficiently distant fields to render 

 any formal agreement unnecessary-. The German expedi- 

 tion under Lieut. Filchner proposes to start from the 

 Weddell Sea, which will also be used as the base of the 

 .American and Scottish expeditions. This part of 

 .Antarctica is still absolutely untrodden ; the Scottish ex- 

 pedition under Dr. Bruce, which discovered Coats Land, 

 was not able to land on it, and did not even see a con- 

 venient harbour. Ice navigation in the Weddell Sea is 

 probably very difficult and uncertain, and Coats Land may 

 be inaccessible in some seasons. The three-fold effort, by 

 increasing the chances of success, is therefore to be 

 welcomed, as at present this part of .Antarctica is the 

 most promising of important geographical results. If the 

 three expeditions all establish their landing on this un- 

 known coast, they will each find ample room for in- 

 dependent work. 



