574 



NATURE 



[October 15, 1891 



struck in disregard of the zeros, is totally mislead- 

 ing ; while the account is no sooner made exhaustive 

 than its anomalous character becomes largely modified. 

 Yet it does not wholly disappear. There is some warrant 

 for it in nature. And its warrant may perhaps consist 

 in a preponderance, among suns endowed with high 

 physical speed, of small, or slightly luminous, over power- 

 fully radiative bodies. Why this should be so, it would 

 be futile, even by conjecture, to attempt to explain. 



A. M. Clerke. 



NOTES. 



The respect in which science is held in Germany was strik- 

 ingly displayed on Tuesday, when Prof. Virchow celebrated his 

 seventieth birthday. The occasion was regarded as one of 

 national importance, and much honour was done to the inves- 

 tigator who, in the course of his great career, has given a fresh 

 impetus to so many departments of research. In the morning, 

 congratulations were offered to him in the large hall of the 

 Kaiserhof Hotel, Berlin. The room was crowded with pro- 

 fessors, academicians, and men of science from all parts of 

 Europe ; and on a long table were innumerable presents, medals, 

 diplomas, and addresses. Short speeches were delivered on 

 behalf of a series of deputations, the first of which was headed 

 by Dr. Bartsch, one of the chief officials of the Ministry. A 

 deputation, consisting of the professors of the Medical Faculty 

 of the University of Berlin, and headed by Prof. Hirsch, the 

 Dean, was followed by another from the Berlin Academy of 

 Science, for which Prof, von Heltnholtz spoke. Dr. von 

 Forckenbeck, the Burgomaster of Berlin, heading a deputation 

 from the Municipality of the capital, presented Prof. Virchow 

 with the freedom of the city, referring gratefully to all that he 

 had done to improve the health of the community. An address 

 and medal, sent by English scientific bodies, were presented by 

 Dr. Simon and Mr. Horsley, and then came congratulatory 

 addresses from the Medical Faculties of many foreign cities, 

 including Amsterdam, Brussels, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, 

 Moscow, Pavia, and Tokio. The Virchow gold medal, for 

 which contributions had been sent from all sections of the 

 medical world, was presented by Prof. WaMeyer. Frau Vir- 

 chow received a silver replica, and bronze copies were given to 

 the other members of the family and to the scientific bodies 

 which had subscribed for the medal. In the afternoon, a 

 second meeting was held in the large hall of the Pathological 

 Institute, where, as the Berlin correspondent of the Titiies says, 

 " an almost endless procession of learned bodies and other 

 corporations, presenting gifts and addresses, defiled before Prof. 

 Virchow." The day's proceedings lasted from lo a.m. to 4 

 p.m. ; but it was noted, we are glad to say, that Prof. Virchow 

 "seemed in no way fatigued by his exertions." More speeches 

 were delivered in the evening, when a " Commers," or reunion, 

 of his friends and admirers was held in Kroll's Theatre. 



The ordinary general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers will be held on Wednesday evening, October 28, and 

 Thursday evening, October 29, at 25 Great George Street, 

 Westminster. The chair will be taken at half-past seven p.m. 

 on each evening by the President, Mr. Joseph Tomlinson. The 

 ballot lists for the election of new members, associates, and 

 graduates having been previously opened by the Council, the 

 names of those elected will be announced to the meeting. The 

 nomination of officers for election at the next annual general 

 meeting will take place. The following papers will be read and 

 discussed, as far as time permits : — On some details in the con- 

 struction of modern Lancashire boilers, by Mr. Samuel Boswell 

 (Wednesday) ; First Report to the Alloys Research Committee, 

 by Prof. W. C. Roberts- Austen, C.B., F.R.S. (Thursday). 

 NO. II 46, VOL. 44] 



The anniversary meeting of the Mineralogical Society will be 

 held in the apartments of the Geological Society, Burlington 

 House, on Tuesday, November 10, at 8 p.m. 



The International Congress of Analytical Chemists and 

 Microscopists met at Vienna on October 12 and 13. The sub- 

 ject discussed was the adulteration of food-stuffs. 



Great preparations are being made for the meeting of the 

 Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science which 

 is to be held at Hobart, Tasmania, in January next. It is 

 expected that the meeting will be most successful. The 

 members of the Royal Society of Tasmania are congratulating 

 themselves that Mr. Giffisn, the eminent statistician and political 

 economist, proposes to attend the meeting and to read a paper. 

 His Excellency Sir R. G. C. Hamilton, who will preside, tried 

 some time ago to secure the presence of Prof. Huxley also. 

 Prof. Huxley replied that he had pleasant recollections of 

 Tasmania as it was forty-three years ago, and it would have 

 interested him very much to revisit the colony and compare the 

 present with the past, but he regretted that the state of his health 

 prevented him from accepting the invitation. 



One of the last surviving pupils of Dalton died at Bolton on 

 October 6. Mr. William B. Watson was born at Bolton in 

 January 1812, and educated at the local grammar-school. He 

 afterwards studied for some years under Dalton at Manchester, 

 and became so devoted to his teacher that he was chosen 

 to help in the nursing of Dr. Dalton during the illness 

 following his first paralytic seizure. Mr. Watson also assisted in 

 many of Dalton's researches, and is mentioned by name in his 

 papers in the Philosophical Transactions on the composition of 

 the atmosphere as " an ingenious pupil of mine, Mr. WiUiam 

 Barnett Watson." Mr. Watson had a wonderful store of 

 anecdotes about his old master, and used to speak with pride of 

 the great care he took in all his work. As an instance may be 

 mentioned the pains he took to compensate for his colour- 

 blindness. Dalton used to say that the bloom on a maiden's 

 cheek and the colour of a faded green table-cloth seemed to him 

 one and the same, and that he could only distinguish between 

 the fruit and leaves on an apple-tree by their difference in shape. 

 Dalton had a book containing different colours of floss silk, 

 and below these he carefully noted the names given to- 

 them by non-colour-blind people, adding what the colour 

 appeared to him to be. Careful methods such as these enabled 

 him generally to give an accurate description of the colour of a 

 precipitate. Mr. Watson carried on, together with his elder 

 brother, Mr. H. H. Watson, a very extensive practice as an 

 analytical chemist, and was much consulted in legal and com- 

 mercial cases. 



The death of Mr. Charles Smith Wilkinson, the Government 

 Geologist of New South Wales, will be felt as a great loss, 

 especially in his own colony. His enthusiasm in the cause of 

 geological science, his extensive knowledge of the geological 

 features of Eastern Australia, and his admirable personal 

 qualities had made him greatly valued. Mr. Wilkinson was an 

 original member of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 

 and president of that Society in the years 1883 and 1884. His 

 death, which took place at the age of forty-seven, on the 26th of 

 August, was announced to the Society on the evening of the 

 same day. 



La Nature announces the death of Prof. Edouard Lucas, wh» 

 presided over the Sections of Mathematics and Astronomy at the 

 recent meeting, at Marseilles, of the French Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. A pile of plates fell one day after 

 dinner while he was at Marseilles, and he happened to be struck 

 in the cheek by a fragment of the broken earthenware. The 

 hurt became more and more troublesome, and after his return 



