230 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[OCTOBEB 1, 1900. 



disc. My original figiu'es were correct, but in the wash- 

 copies made from them at your office for purposes of 

 reproduction the shape was altered, and when examining 

 the proofs I failed to notice the change, my attention 

 being riveted on the markings. The responsibility for 

 the mistake rests entirely with me, and no doubt it 

 would have been rectified but for the very ill-health 

 from which I suffered, and which made work very 

 difficult for me at about the time I had the 

 proofs. The shape of the planet as represented does 

 not affect the general accuracy of the details shown, 

 but the object ought to have been delineated in 

 his natural figui'e, and I have thought it worth while 

 to make these few remarks in explanation. 



On September 3 I observed Jupiter with a 4 inch 

 Cooke refractor, power 235, and found the hollow in 

 the great southern equatorial belt, north of the red spot 

 central at 7h. 10m., so the longitude of this feature was 

 44°. 4, for it followed the zero meridian (system II.) of 

 Mr. Crommelin's ephemerides lb. 13.4m. 



Bishopston, Bristol, W. F. Denning. 



1900, September 6th. 



♦ 



Among the new committees appointed by the British 

 Association at Bradford is one to assist Mr. Vaughan 

 Cornish in his investigation of terrestrial sui-face waves 

 and wave-like surfaces. It will be remembered that 

 Mr. Cornish contributed a series of articles on " Waves " 

 to these columns in 1896, and he has lately received 

 the " Gill Memorial " for his work in connection with 

 the subject. 



The following awards at the Paris Exhibition were 

 made to British Scientific and Photogi-aphic Instniment 

 Makers : — James J. Hicks, London, two gold, two silver, 

 and four silver to employees ; Cambridge Scientific 

 Instrument Company, Limited, Cambridge, grand prix 

 and silver — one gold and one silver to employees ; Ross, 

 Limited, London, gi-and prix; James White, Glasgow, 

 grand prix; Negretti & Zambra, London, two gold; 

 W. Watson ife Sons, London, two gold ; Newman & 

 Guardia, Limited, London, gold ; J. H. Dallmeyer, 

 Limited, London, gold : Crompton & Company, Limited, 

 London, gold; Kodak, Limited, London, grand prix; 

 also to J. Defries & Sons, London, 2 grands prix ; Smith- 

 Premier Typewriter Company, London, grand prix. 



# t iluar g. 



We regret to record the death, on the 31st August, 

 of Sir John Bennet Lawes, Bart., d.c.l., ll.d., f.r.s., 

 our pioneer of scientific agriculture. He was born at 

 Rothamsted in the year 1814, and educated at Eton and 

 Oxford. At an early period of his life he succeeded to 

 the family estates, and commenced the series of experi- 

 ments which have since made him world famous. He 

 discovered the value of bones for fertilizing the soil, 

 but the process of breaking these up was a laborious one, 

 and the fragments were long in being absorbed by the 

 soil. In 1842, however, after many experiments in the 

 field, a patent was taken out for treating mineral phos- 

 phates with sulphuric acid, and a small industry was 

 commenced at Harpenden. The success of this under- 

 taking led Sir John to enlarge the manufactoi-y, and a 

 place was selected at Barking. After many years of 

 prosperity the whole business was 9old for £300.000. 

 thua testifying to the enormous value of artificial 



manures as fertilisei-s of the soil. In 1843, Dr. (now 

 Sir) Henry Gilbert became associated with Sir John 

 Lawes, and the^e two worked together for upwards of 

 fifty years. It is impossible to indicate here the vast 

 amount of work done by Sir John and his colleague, 

 but the results of the investigations would form a com- 

 plete history of scientific agriculture during the last 

 half century. The memoirs published by these experi- 

 menters from the year 1847 onwards number 130, and 

 include the results of a great many classical investi- 

 gations on many such questions as wheat production, 

 beet sugar manufacture, and the sources of the nitrogen 

 of vegetation. The late Sir John was elected Vice- 

 President of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1878, 

 and a ti'ustee in 1891 ; was elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society in 1854, while in 1882 the Queen created 

 him a baronet. 



It is with great regret that we leam of the death, 

 in San Francisco, on August 12th, of James Edwaed 

 Keeler, A.B., sc.D., Director of the Lick Observatory 

 and Astronomer. 



BRITISH 



V ^ 



OPxNiTHOLOGiCAl^ 



Conducted hy Harry F. Witherby, f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 



Re-inteoduction of the Great Bustard. — Whether 

 the re-introduction of the Great Bustard in England will 

 be a successful experiment or not it is at all events a 

 most interesting one. Several Great Bustards have 

 been impoiii-ed and liberated on the borders of the 

 Norfolk fens. '' This effort is due," Lord Walsingham 

 informs us, "to the public spirit of an English gentle- 

 man resident abroad." The introduction of creatures 

 in a wild state into a country altogether foreign to 

 them is from every point of view deplorable, but we 

 shall all look forward to the success of this experiment 

 to re-introduce the Great Bustard — once the pride of our 

 indigenous avifauna. 



The success of the experiment depends we are afraid 

 in a large measure to the good fortune of the birds 

 themselves. 



How ever much may be done, and we are glad to say 

 that much has been done, in publishing the facts about 

 these birds, what will prevent their desti-uction if once 

 they come within easy range of the ignorant villain 

 who goes out to kill, no matter how, or what, as long 

 as he can safely boast of it? 



Let us hope that these bustards from a sunnier clime, 

 but we are afraid no less barbarous country than ours, 

 are amongst the wiliest of their crafty race, and will 

 thus survive. We can hardly expect them to increase 

 greatly, and become what they were a hundred years 

 ago, for since then railways, roads, houses, trees and 



