May 19. 1910] 



NATURE 



14 S 



k^re discovered, and their importance appreciated, by 

 an Beneden. 



Finally, and this, perhaps, is the greatest discovery 

 ssociated with his name, he showed, in 1883, that in 

 he last gametogenic divisions by which the ovum is 

 reduced, the number of chromosomes of the nucleus 

 )ecomes reduced to one-half the original number, 

 nd the like fact for the spermatozoon was dis- 

 overed in 1884 by him, working in conjunction with 

 1. Julin. Though it cannot be asserted that he was 

 he first to give a complete account of the morphology 

 f fertilisation, yet it may fairly be said that he went 

 IS near to that as any other worker, and that he was 

 )ne of the three zoologists whose discoveries led to 

 he complete elucidation of that phenomenon. Lastly, 

 ve must not forget to mention that he founded and 

 idited the Archives de Biologic, in which some of his 

 nost important work was published. 



Van Beneden was a strikingly handsome and dis- 

 inguished-looking man. His splendid figure will not 

 ■eadily be forgotten by those who were present at 

 he Darwin centenary celebration at Cambridge last 

 .ear. He was a keen and active sportsman, and his 

 aroclivities in this direction often led him far afield — 

 o Sweden for reindeer and, as we have seen, to 

 Switzerland for climbing. He was a laureat and 

 :orrespondant of the Institut de France, correspondant 

 3f the .Acadamies of Berlin, Vienna, and St. Peters- 

 burg, foreign member of the Academy " Dei Lincei " 

 of Rome, and an honorary- member . of many 

 Dther similar institutions in different parts of the 

 ftorld. He was an honorary doctor of inany univer- 

 sities, including those of Oxford and Cambridge, and 

 had manv other titles and honours. A. S. 



NOTES. 



The next meeting of the Royal Society will be held on 

 Thursday, May 26, when the Croonian lecture will be 

 delivered by Prof. G. Klebs on " Alterations of the 

 Development and Forms of Plants as a Result of Environ- 

 ment." 



Owing to the lamented death of King Edward, the 

 Chemical Society's banquet to the past-presidents who have 

 completed their jubilee as fellows has been postponed from 

 May 26 to the autumn. We are also asked to announce 

 that the conversazione of the Entomological Society of 

 London, fixed for Friday, Maj- 27, is postponed in^ 

 definitely. 



The annual May lecture of the Institute of Metals will 

 this year be delivered by Prof. Gowland, F.R.S., vice- 

 president of the institute, who will take as his subject 

 "The -Art of Working Metals in Japan." The lecture 

 will be given on Tuesday, May 24, at 8.30 p.m., at the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Storey's Gate, West- 

 minster, S.W. Tickets admitting visitors may be had 

 gratuitously on application to the secretary of the insti- 

 tute, Mr. G. Shaw Scott, Caxton House, Westminster, 

 S.W., to whom applications should be made not later than 

 Saturday next. 



Two meetings — the first with Lord Verulam in the 

 chair — were held on Friday in St. Albans to support the 

 scheme of the society for excavating the site of Verulam 

 during the ensuing summer and autumn. The site covers 

 close on 200 acres, and although the Roman walls and 

 other buildings were used as a quarry in obtaining 

 materials with which to construct St. Albans Abbev, the 

 greater part of Verulam is unique in that it has never 

 been built upon. The beheading of the proto-martvr 

 .Alban, together with other circumstances, suggests that 

 NO. 2 1 16, VOL. 83] 



remains of early Christian churches may be discover^ ; 

 and, in any case, the theatre and forum are known to 

 have been larger than any other similar buildings in 

 England. 



Ox Tuesday, May 24, Prof. Love will begin at the 

 Royal Institution a course of two lectures on " Earth 

 Tides," the second to be delivered on Monday, May 30, 

 and on Thursday, May 26, Dr. W. Rosenhain will deliver 

 the first, and on Wednesday, June i, the second, of two 

 lectures on "Alloys"; on Friday afternoons May 27 and 

 June 3 Dr. D. H. Scott will deliver the remaining two 

 of his course of three lectures on " The World of Plants 

 before the Appearance of Flowers." The Friday evening 

 discourse on May 27 will be delivered by Captain R. F. 

 Scott on " The Forthcoming Antarctic Expedition." and 

 on June 10 by Dr. H. Deslandres on "The Progressive 

 Disclosure of the Entire Atmosphere of the Sun " (in 

 French). 



Fran'ce seen»s inclined to follow the example of Prussia 

 in forming a Government Department for the Preservation 

 of Natural Monuments. Last October an International 

 Congress for the Protection of Landscape was held in 

 Paris, the German Ambassador being one of the vice- 

 presidents. The Prussian organisation for the preserva- 

 tion of nature — the term " Natural Monuments " referring 

 to natural scenery and indigenous fauna and flora — was 

 highly praised by French men of science, and it was pro- 

 posed to take steps for the institution of a similar system 

 in France. Prof. Miyoshi, of Tokyo, in a brochure laid 

 before the conference, speaks highly of the Prussian move- 

 ment, and invites Japan to take a similar precaution. 

 Prof. Kumm, of Danzig, illustrated the working of the 

 statute against disfiguration of scenery. Of particular in- 

 terest was Dr. Hermann's paper on natural parks for the 

 protection of animal and plant life, which have long been 

 a German institution. The second Conference for the 

 Preservation of Natural Monuments in Prussia has also 

 just been held at Berlin. It is worth remark that the 

 German Press and public take a keen interest in this useful 

 work. There is, we may add, plenty of scope for such 

 work in the United Kingdom ; but it must be done soon, 

 before the building speculator and the municipal engineer 

 have quite exterminated nature in these islands. 



The number of L'Anthropologie for March-April, under 

 the title of " Les Sofs chez les Abadhites," of North 

 •Africa, contains the first portion of an important studv of 

 tribal sociology by Dr. J. Huguet. The vague term Sof 

 is defined by the writer as " the reunion of all those 

 individuals who, by reason of communitj- of origin, needs, 

 and political interests, have been forced to associate for 

 purposes of attack and defence." The political influence 

 of associations such as these has recently attracted much 

 attention from the officers responsible for the control of 

 these often unruly tribes. , 



In the May issue of Travel and Exploration Miss 

 E. C. M. Browne" describes an adventurous journev bv 

 two ladies to the famous sacred lake Manasarowar, in 

 Tibet, which has been hitherto visited only by a compara- 

 tively small number of Europeans. Evidently recent British 

 action in Lhasa has borne fruit so far west as 

 Manasarowar. The head Lama of the local Gomba was 

 very friendly, and went so far as to allow the Bhotiya 

 coolies following the camp to shoot birds in the holy 

 waters, an unusual concession on the part of a Tibetan 

 Buddhist, who, in theory at least, is much opposed to 

 taking animal life. 



