Februarv 7, 1895] 



NATURE 



345 



signal consists of two red flags with black centres, shown one 

 above the other, and will be used to announce the expected 

 approach of tropical hurricanes, and also of those extremely 

 severe and dangerous storuis which occasionally move across the 

 Lakes and the northern Atlantic shore. Whenever instructions 

 are received to show this signal at any station, every effort has to 

 be made to distribute the information, and all vessels have to be 

 notified that it is dangerous to leave port. 



The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, acting 

 on the report of the Committee on the Ilayden -Memorial 

 Geological Award, have voted the ilayden medal, and the 

 accumulated interest on ihe fund, to Prof. G- A. Daubrce. The 

 recipient in 1893 was Prof. Huxley. Prof. IJaubrce was born 

 in Melz, June 25, 1814, and is therefore now in his eighty- 

 second year. He graduated from the Kcole Polytechn.que in 

 1834, and immediately received a commission to assist in the 

 geological exploration of Algeria. He was called to the chair 

 of Geology in Strasbuig in 1839, and was Dean of its Scientific 

 Faculty in 1852. He was appointed Engineer-in-Chief in 1855. 

 In 1861, upon the death of the distinguished Cordier, he was 

 selected to replace him in the Museum of Natural History, and 

 as Professor of Mineralogy in the Ecole des Mines, as well as in 

 the Acadtmie dci Sciences in Paris. His writings have been 

 numerous, oiiginal, and important, and his researches into the 

 intricate causes of crystalline structure, and in the domain of 

 experimental geology, are of exceptional value. 



By the death of Dr. F. Buchanan While, which took place 

 on December 3, 1894, at Perth, in his hfty-third year, Scotland 

 has lost one of her most active naturalists. His special 

 branches were entomology and botany. Dr. White was one of 

 the founders of the Perthshire Sjcitty of Natural Sciences, of 

 the Scottish Cryptogamic Society, and of the East of Scotland 

 Union of Naturalists' Societies ; and was the originator and 

 first editor of the Scottish Naturalist. He left, at the 

 time of his death, a nearly completed " Flora of Perth- 

 shire." The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine notes that his 

 friends are endeavouring to raise a fund to erect a memorial to 

 him. It is proposed to place a mural brass tablet in St. 

 Ninian's Cathedral, and also to procure an enlarged photograph, 

 to be hung in the lecture room of the Perthshire Society of Natural 

 Science. Any who wish to coniribute to this memorial may 

 send subscriptions to either Vincent L. Rorison, Dean of St. 

 Andrews, The Deanery, Perth ; or Henry Coates, President of 



ithe Perthshire Society of Natural Science, Pitcullen House, 

 Perth. 



Dr. Hermann Weber, a Fellow of the Royal College of 

 Phy.'^icians and .Surgeons, gave, last December, the sum of 

 ;^25oo in truvt for the purpose of founding a prize to be called 

 the " Weber-I'arkes " prize, to be given at interv.ils for the best 

 essay on tubercular consumption. It has now been resolved 

 that the prize be awarded triennially to the writer of the best 

 essay upon some subject connected with the etiology, prevention, 

 pathology, or treatment, of tuberculosis, especially with 

 reference to pulmonary consumption in man ; ihat, in making 

 the award, the College have regard to careful collection of facts 

 and original research ; that the value of the prize be 1 50 guineas, 

 or such sum as the interest accrued on the capital, after payment 

 of expenses, will permit ; that a bronze medal be awarded to 

 the holder of the prize, and a similar medal, to be distinguished 

 \ as the " second medal," to the essayist who comts next in order 

 of merit. The competition will be open to members of the 

 medical profession in all countries, the essays lobe type-written, 

 and, if writlen in a foreign language, to be accompanied by a 

 translation in English. It is a condition of the competition 

 ihat each prize essay shall become the properly of Ihe College, 

 though the College may grant its author permission to publish it. 

 NO. I 3 19, VOL. 51] 



On Friday last, a deputation from the British Medical 

 Association and the Ophthalmological Society waited upon Mr. 

 Bryce, President of the Board of Trade, to urge the adoption 

 of more precise tests for eyesight in the examination for the 

 mercantile marine and railway servants. Dr. Macnamara, in 

 introducing the deputation, said that railway and merchant 

 marine authorities did not insist upon proper precautions being 

 taken to exclude men with imperfect eyesight from being 

 employed as signalmen, and in the movement of trains and 

 vessels. Dr. Argyll Robertson held it was necessary that the 

 tests should be adequate and uniform, that they should be 

 skilfully employed, and that they should be applied at regubr 

 intervals. The tests should elicit three conditions: (1) the 

 acuteness of vision possessed by the applicant ; (2) the state of 

 refraction of the candidate's eye ; and (3) his acuteness of colour 

 perception. Mr. Bryce, in Ihe course of his reply, said he was 

 glad to gather from what had been said by members of the 

 deputation, that the tesis embodied in the Board's circular of 

 last September, to be applied to masters and males, were 

 recognised as being satisfactory, except in regard to the 

 question of refraction. He was perfectly certain, however, that 

 if the railway companie-.' examinations did not cover this 

 defect, they would soon take steps to apply ihe test for it. But 

 the Board of Trade had no statutory powers as regarded the 

 companies in this matter, neither had they any power to apply 

 the tests lo all persons entering the merchant service. 



In June of last year, the Society for the Preservation of the 

 Monuments of Ancient Egypt discussed the importance of 

 having a thorough survey made of the Nile Valley from the 

 First to the Second Cataract —that is to say, of the district 

 which will be partially converted into a high reservoir when 

 the dam at -\ssouan, even in its reduced proportions, is con- 

 structed. A draft scheme for such an archaeological survey has 

 been drawn up by the Committee appointed to decide upon the 

 regions to be investigated and the work to be done. A list has 

 been compiled to show the most important antiquities along the 

 Nile Valley which require examination and copying. The 

 Committee propose that the survey should commence with a 

 preliminary reconnaissance, providing a general map and maps 

 of sites, to be followed by plans of ihe buildings and special 

 inquiries indicated in subsequent sections. It is probable that, 

 under the special circumstances of the case, if the maps and 

 plans referred to cannot be prepared for publication in Egypt, 

 application to the Board of .-Vgriculture might secure their 

 multiplication and reduction by the Ordnance Survey. Such a 

 course would secure perfect reproduction and a great economy. 

 It is proposed that illustrations, other than plans, should be 

 based on photographs, to be subsequently processed in printer's 

 ink. This would secure permanency and great economy, and 

 avoid all the expenses of hand illustration, which alone was 

 available in the expeditions of 1789 and 1844. The Committee 

 suggest that a non-commissioned officer of the Royal Engineers, 

 who has passed through the Photographic School at Chatham, 

 should be attached to one of the companies of Royal Engineers 

 stationed in Egypt, and be employed in obtaining the photo- 

 graphs. It is understood that the preliminary reconnaissance 

 is now about to commence, under the direction of the Public 

 Works, Irrigation, and Arch.'eological Departments of the 

 Egyptian Government, very much in accordance with the de- 

 tailed scheme, printed copies of which have been forwarded to 

 Egypt. 



A PAPER on boiler explosions, read at the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers on January 29, by Mr. William H. Fowler, 

 presents some points of interest. The theories, such as 

 "deferred ebullition," "disassociation of water," "spheroidal 

 condition," which have been propounded to account for 



