530 



NATURE 



[June 30, 1910 



upon my sincere goodwill, and, like King Edward, I shall 

 watch its progress and expansion with lively interest. I 

 am convinced that you will not fail in the responsibilities 

 with which you are charged, and that the zeal for truth, 

 love of learning, and a high ideal of character and conduct 

 wilJ ever be cherished and fostered in your midst." To 

 the Edinburgh University representatives the King said : — 

 " It gave me gicat pleasure to listen to the record which 

 you have recited of the growth and increasing prosperity 

 of the Universitj' of Edinburgh, since the time when, as 

 Prince of Wales, my dear father matriculated as a student. 

 The work of the universities is of far-reaching importance 

 to the welfare of my people, and I feel confident that every 

 extension of the sphere of their influence will be attended 

 with beneficent results. I shall follow with deep interest 

 and continual good wishes the work which is being done by 

 your university in furthering the advance of sound learn- 

 ing and education." The reply to London University in- 

 cluded the words: — "King Edward watched with keen 

 interest the continuing prospority and progress of the 

 London University. He understood, how much the strength 

 and reputation of our country depended upon the moral 

 and intellectual culture of her sons and daughters. He saw 

 with pleasure the distinction and thoroughness with which 

 the London University invested higher education . in the 

 capital. You may be assured that . the fortunes of your 

 university will ever be near my, heart, and that I shall 

 always take a lively interest in your welfare.". 



Queen Alexandra received Captain R. F. Scott at 

 Buckingham Palace on Saturday last, and expressed her 

 deep interest in the forthcoming British Antarctic Expedi- 

 tion. Her Majesty presented Captain Scott with a Union 

 Jack to be carried with the expedition, and to be planted 

 at the most southerly point reached. .'\ telegram from New 

 Zealand announces that the Dominion intends to present 

 the expedition with a quantity of coal and other stores on 

 its arrival at Lyttelton. • The Terra Nova left Madeira 

 on Sunday for Simonstown, where- she is due to arrive on 

 August I. Captain Scott is to sail from Southampton on 

 July 16, and is due to reach Cape Town on August 2, and 

 to leave thereon August 13. The Terra Nova should arrive 

 at Lyttelton on October 14, set sail on November 15 for 

 the Antarctic, and reach the base on King Edward VH. 

 Land on December 15. 



The Times correspondent in Berlin states that the pre- 

 liminary expedition to Spitsbergen for the purpose of study- 

 ing Arctic conditions in connection with the projected 

 Zeppelin airship Polar expedition will leave Kiel on Satur- 

 day next in the North German Lloyd steamship Mainz, 

 which has been specially fitted up for the purpose. It is 

 said that Prince Henry of Prussia, as well as Count 

 Zeppelin, will take part in the expedition, which is expected 

 to last some eight weeks. 



According to a Geneva correspondent of the Times, an 

 important Swiss scientific expedition left last week to make 

 researches in the Cordilleras basin of the Andes. The 

 expedition is in charge of Prof. O. Fuhrmann, of the 

 University of Neuchatel, and it will probably be absent 

 two years. 



Mr. Robert Newstead, lecturer in economic entomology 

 and parasitology at the Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine, and a member of the Entomological Research 

 Committee of the Colonial Office, has gone to Malta to 

 investigate the problem existing there of the menace to 

 health by the sand-fly. The main cost of the expedition 

 will be covered by a special grant from the advisory cbm- 

 NO. 2122, VOL. 83] 



mittee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund (Colonial 

 Office). 



The discovery of an immense reef of free-milling gold 

 ore near Stewart, at the head of Portland Canal, British 

 Columbia, is reported. It is stated that the reef has been 

 traced for nearly twenty miles, and naturally there has 

 been a great rush of miners and others to the locality. 



It is stated in the Scientific American that a fund has 

 been started by Mrs. E. H. Harriman for the collection of 

 complete data on mammals and other animals in the North 

 American continent, and that Dr. C. Hart Merriam, chief 

 of the Biological Survey of the U.S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, is about to resign his position to take charge of 

 the work. 



A Reuter message from Algiers states that two violent 

 earthquake shocks were felt at that place, and throughout 

 the west of the department, at 1.30 on the afternoon of 

 Friday last. Later telegrams received in Paris on Tuesday 

 state that earthquake shocks continue to take place in the 

 district of Aumale, that Dowar el Enoch suffered particu- 

 larly, and that twelve lives have been lost. 



We regret to learn of the death, at eighty-one years of 

 age, of Mr. C. Greville Williams, F.R.S., author of many 

 papers in organic chemistry, and for some years assistant 

 to Lord Playfair in the department of chemistry of the 

 University of Edinburgh. 



The Athenaeum announces the death, at the age of 

 seventy-five years, of Dr. Julius Weingarten, professor of 

 mathematics in the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. 



Mr. S. a. Stewart, whose death at the advanced age 

 of eighty-four occurred through an accident at Belfast on 

 June 15, was a distinguished Irish botanist and geologist, 

 and until recently curator of the Museum of the Belfast 

 Natural History and Philosophical Society. Mr. Stewart 

 contributed valuable papers to the Royal Irish Academy 

 and other scientific societies, and wrote in conjunction 

 with the late Mr. T. H. Corry the standard work " A 

 Flora of the North-east of Ireland," brought out in 1888. 

 Although jointly planned, the early death of Mr. Corry a 

 few years before publication left the chief execution of 

 the project to Mr. Stewart. Nearly seven years later a 

 valuable supplement was published by Mr. Stewart in 

 collaboration with Mr. R. L. Praeger in the Proceedings 

 of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club. Mr. Stewart's 

 contributions to geology were also most original and 

 important. He was an Associate of the Linnean Society, 

 a Fellow of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, an hon. 

 associate of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical 

 Society, and one of the founders of the Belfast Naturalists' 

 Field Club. 



The Times announces that a memorial to Lieut. Boyd 

 Alexander, the explorer, who was murdered in the French 

 Sudan in April, and his brother. Captain Claud Alexander, 

 who also lost his life in Central Africa while engaged in 

 scientific exploration, has just been completed at Wilsley 

 House, Cranbrook. A sheet of water on the estate has 

 been laid out as an exact reproduction in miniature of 

 Lake Chad from plans by Lieut. Boyd Alexander. On the 

 islands and banks of the lake are reproductions of thatched 

 native huts, and there is preserved on the adjacent lawn 

 one of the boats in which the Alexander-Gosling Expedition 

 made its way down the river Yo to the Nile. 



A complimentary banquet to some of the recipients of 

 the Mary Kingsley medal of the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine vas given by ' the chairman of the 



