I ^6 



NATURE 



[Marcu 31, 1 9 10 



■by great explosions and rumbling. Five new craters on 

 the south declivity of the mountain, in the same place as 

 those of former eruptions, have been reported. Though 

 on this day the lava stream was larger, it was descending 

 more slowly. The Times Rome correspondent reported 

 that on March 27 the activity of the eruption had 

 ■diminished considerably, and that the lava streams had 

 ceased to flow. The lava appears on this occasion to have 

 flowed farther than in the eruption of 1892. There was 

 renewed activity in the craters on March 28, and a fresh 

 ■descent of lava, though in more moderate quantities. As 

 yet there is no real anxiety for the safety of Nicolosl or 

 Borello. 



The Reale Istituto Lombardo has awarded the following 

 prizes : — the mathematical prize for an essay on theory of 

 transformation groups is awarded to Prof. Ugo Amaldi, of 

 Modena, for his essay on the determination of all the 

 infinite continuous groups of analytic point transformations 

 In three-dimensional space ; the Cagnola prize, relating to 

 miasma and contagion, is awarded to Prof. Aldo Castellani, 

 of the hospital for tropical diseases at Colombo (Ceylon). 

 From the Brambilla foundation for industrial prizes, awards 

 have been made to Elia Bianchi, for his system of con- 

 structing dwelling houses formed of hollow concrete blocks, 

 and to Renaldo Rossi, for whole-meal and anti-diabetes 

 bread. The Fossati prize is awarded to Prof. Giuseppe 

 Sterzi, of Padua, for his two published volumes on the 

 central nervous system of vertebrates. 



Prof. J. W. H. Trail, F.R.S., recently offered to the 

 council of the Linnean Society a sum of money for the 

 purpose of encouraging the study of protoplasm by means 

 of an award to be made periodically. This generous offer 

 has been gratefully accepted, and a special medal has been 

 struck in bronze for presentation with the award, bearing 

 on the obverse a portrait of Linnaeus and on the reverse 

 the words " Trail Award " and the name of the recipient 

 in a wreath. It is proposed to make an award about once 

 in every five years for original work bearing directly or 

 indirectly upon the " physical basis of life," and, in accord- 

 ance with the wishes of the donor, a wide interpretation 

 will be given to the scope of the investigations. The first 

 recipient of the award will be Prof. E. A. Minchin, pro- 

 fessor of protozoology in the University of London, whose 

 researches on sponges and protozoa have done so much 

 to advance our knowledge of protoplasmic structures, and 

 who is, also the translator of Prof. Biitschli's well-known 

 work on protoplasm. 



The February Bulletin of the Soci^t^ d 'Encouragement 

 pour rindustrie nationale contains the president's address 

 delivered by M. Bertin at the general meeting in January 

 last, and particulars concerning the award of prizes and 

 medals on the same occasion. We notice that a grand 

 gold medal was awarded to Sir Robert Hadfield, F.R.S. 

 M. L. Bacl6, representing the association's committee of 

 chemical arts, points out that Sir Robert Hadfield has at 

 least thirty-one memoirs to his credit extending over the 

 period 1888 to 1909, and that these have been presented 

 to various learned societies in England and America. 

 Among the numerous other awards, we notice that the 

 Lavoisier medal was awarded to M. le Comte de Char- 

 donnet, for the creation of a new industry — that of arti- 

 ficial silks — and that the first award of the recently estab- 

 lished Michel Perret medal for scientific workers, who by 

 their researches have contributed to the progress of indus- 

 trial chemistry, was made to MM. Gall and de Montlaur, 

 for their electrochemical work. 

 NO. 2109, VOL. 83] 



The New Zealand Survey Department is undertaking, 

 in conjunction with the Marine Department, an inquiry 

 into the tides of New Zealand. Hitherto the tide-tables 

 for New Zealand in the New Zealand " Nautical 

 .Almanac ''' have been supplied by the U.S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, there having been no facilities in New 

 Zealand for the necessary work. We learn from the New 

 Zealand Times that the New Zealand Government has 

 been invited by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to 

 supply particulars as to the tides for insertion in the 

 Britfsh Admiralty manuals for the use of the Navy and 

 mercantile marine. It is hoped that the results from New 

 Zealand, Australia, and other parts of the Pacific will 

 lead to the thorough investigation of the tides of the Pacific 

 Ocean, of which the available information is at present 

 meagre. The latest scientific apparatus is being obtained 

 from England, and the work has been placed in charge of 

 Mr. C. E. Adams, secretary of the New Zealand Surveyors' 

 Board, and is to be carried on actively at once. 



In the year 1891 Prof. Flinders Petrie found a curious 

 mummy in a plundered tomb (supposed — though there is 

 no positive proof — to have been that of a certain Ranefer 

 or Ranofir) in the neighbourhood of the Medum Pyrarpid 

 of King Snefru (circa 2900 B.C.). The fact that this was 

 the oldest known mummy was duly recognised at the time, 

 not only by its discoverer, but also by Prof. Maspero (see 

 " The Dawn of Civilisation," p. 362), and with due care it 

 was transported to England and lodged in the Museum of 

 the Royal College of Surgeons. The significance of this 

 mummy was not fully realised at the time, because it was 

 generally supposed that the practice of embalming was as 

 old as the history of Egypt, and many museums contained 

 so-called " mummies " almost, if not quite, as ancient ; 

 and the importance attached to it seemed to diminish during 

 the following decade, when some archaeologists began 

 describing earlier, even pre-dynastic, "mummies" (see, 

 " Guide to the First and Second Egyptian Rooms," British! 

 Museum). When, however, it was discovered (see Cairo 

 Scientific Journal, May, 1908, p. 205) that there were no 

 genuine' mummies in the Cairo Museum (or in the British 

 Museum) earlier than the time of the New Empire {circa 

 1580 B.C.), and that the bodies embalmed in the times of the 

 tenth dynasty (circa 2200 B.C.) and twelfth dynasty (circa 

 2000 B.C.), found in 1907 by Mr. Quibell and Messrs. 

 Lythgoe and Mace, respectively, were so fragile that they 

 could not be moved without becoming reduced to mere 

 bones and powder, the importance of the Medum mummy 

 was more than rehabilitated, as was pointed out in Nature 

 in 1908 (vol. Ixxviii., p. 342). The age of a mummy such 

 as this was always open to question, seeing that it was 

 found in a plundered tomb ; but the important researches 

 carried on by Dr. George A. Reisner at the Giza Pyramids 

 during the last few years have now supplied the data which, 

 when applied to the curious distinctive features of the 

 Medum mummy, fix its age definitely at the period of the 

 fifth dynasty (circa 2700 B.C.). Thus the specimen in the 

 Royal College of Surgeons is of the utmost importance to 

 the student of the history of embalming in Egypt, for it 

 is more than 1100 years older than any actual mum.my 

 exhibited in any other museum, and 500 years older than 

 any other mummy ever found. 



Mr. C. Peabody has reprinted from the Putnam anni- 

 versary volume a valuable paper on certain quests and 

 doles. He deals first with the rite of Hogmanay practised 

 throughout western Europe, from the Isle of Man to 

 France, in the period extending from late Advent tc 

 January. He connects it with a pre-Christian solstitial 

 ceremony prevailing throughout northern and western 



