li 



MATURE 



[March 2, 1916 



NOTES. 

 T^iE following fifteen candidates have been selected 

 by the council of the Royal Society to be recom- 

 mended for election into the society : — Prof. E. H. 

 Barton, Mr. W. R. Bousfield, Mr. S. G. Brown, Prof. 

 E. G. Coker, Prof. G. G. Henderson, Mr. J. E. Little- 

 wood, Prof. A. McKenzie, Prof. J. A. MacWilliam, 

 Mr. J. H. Maiden, Prof. H. H. W. Pearson, Prof. 

 J. A. Pollock, Sir L. Rogers, Dr. C. Shearer, Ptx)f, 

 D'Arcy W. Thompson, Mr. H. Woods. 



Sir Ray Lankester writes : — " The serious illness of 

 Prof. Metchnikoff, of the Institut Pasteur, has been 

 briefly noticed by some of the daily papers. Your 

 readers include many friends and admirers of my 

 friend, who will be glad to have accurate information 

 on the subject. It commenced some time before 

 Christmas with distressing symptoms, which were 

 described as * une crise du cceur.' In order to avoid 

 the daily journey from Sevres, where he usually re- 

 sides, and the climbing of the stairs leading to his 

 laboratory, Prof. Metchnikoff, accompanied by 

 Madame Metchnikoff, took up his residence 

 in rooms in the Institut Pasteur which were 

 placed at his disposal, and so he was able to 

 continue his work with the least possible fatigue. 

 But trouble in the lungs now appeared, and developed 

 into an attack of pleurisy and pneumonia, which neces- 

 sitated his removal to the hospital of the Institut. 

 There he has been for some weeks in a very serious 

 condition. To-day, however (February 26), I hear 

 from Madame Metchnikoff that there is better news. 

 For the third time the pleural cavity has been tapped 

 and a litre of liquid removed, which has given great 

 relief. His medical attendants believe that the pleurisy 

 will now soon disappear. The pulmonary congestion 

 has already disappeared. I will let you know when 

 I hear again from Paris." 



Mr. Douglas W. Freshfield, president of the 

 Royal Geographical Society, M. Henri Curdier, the 

 French Orientalist, and General Schokalski, the Rus- 

 sian oceanographer, have been elected honorary mem- 

 bers of the Italian Royal Geographical Society. 



We learn from Science that the Bruce gold medal 

 of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has been 

 awarded to Dr. G. E. Hale, director of the Mount 

 Wilson Solar Observatory. 



The King's prize of 400Z. for human physiology 

 has been awarded by the Accademia dei Lincei of 

 Rome to Dr. Filippo Bottazzi, who holds the chair of 

 physiology in the University of Naples. 



Dr. C. W. Hayes, who was chief geologist to the 

 U.S. Geological Survey from 1902 to igii, has died at 

 Washington in his . fifty-seventh year. He was geo- 

 logist to the Nicaraguan Canal Commission in 1898-9, 

 and had written largely on theoretical and economic 

 geology. 



Dr. J. D. Falconer, lecturer in geography in Glas- 

 gow University and Swiney lecturer in geology at the 

 British Museum, has been selected by the Secretary of 

 State for the Colonies for the post of temporary assist- 

 ant district officer in the northern provinces of Nigeria. 

 NO. 2418, VOL. 97] 



Dr. Falconer has been granted leave of absence from 

 the University from the end of the present term. 



Mr. Harold Cox will give an address on " Indus- 

 trial Development," before the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers on March 7. In inviting Mr. Cox to 

 address the institution on this subject, the council 

 has considered that the present time calls for some 

 earnest attention on the part of engineers to the 

 economic issues which, after the war, must influence 

 profoundly the future of engineering, as well as the 

 industrial and commercial enterprises which are vital 

 to its progress both in this country and abroad. 



Some of the bones of the gigantic fossil elephant 

 (Elephas antiquus) obtained last summer from Chat- 

 ham have just been placed on exhibition in the Geo- 

 logical Department of the British Museum (Natural 

 History). With the humerus and scapula have been 

 arranged the corresponding bones of the mammoth 

 from Ilford to show the comparatively small size of 

 the latter. The massive fore foot of the Chatham 

 specimen is especially impressive. The relative small- 

 ness of the molar teeth is also noteworthy. 



The death is announced, at Streatham, on 

 February 18, of Prof. R. H. Smith. Accounts of his 

 career appear in Engineering and the Engineer for 

 February 25. He was born in 1852 in Edinburgh, 

 where he completed his scientific training at the Uni- 

 versity. His practical training was obtained during 

 an apprenticeship with Messrs. Tennant and Co., of 

 Leith ; he had further experience in the Whitworth 

 works, and in the drawing office of Messrs. W^ohlers, 

 Berlin. He was appointed professor of civil and 

 mechanical engineering at the Imperial University, 

 Tokio, and afterwards held the professorship in civily 

 mechanical, and electrical engineering at the Masor> 

 College, Birmingham. Prof. Smith contributed many 

 articles on engineering subjects to the technical Press, 

 and was the author of numerous books on commercial 

 economy in steam, heat, and power plants, electric 

 traction, etc. 



We regret to announce the death of Richard Dede- 

 kind, which occurred on February 11, at Brunswick, 

 his birthplace (1831) and residence for the greater part 

 of his life. Dedekind is best known by his two arith- 

 metical tracts, "Was sind u. was soUen die Zahlen? " 

 and " Ueber Stetigkeit u. irrationale Zahlen," and by 

 his supplements to successive editions of Dirichlet's 

 " Zahlentheorie." In the latter he developed the 

 theory of ideal primes, invented by Kummer^ so as to 

 make it applicable to any fifeld of algebraic numbers 

 whatever. In his two tracts he applies the notion of 

 a cut (Schnitt) so as to give an exact definition of an 

 irrational number, and a precise explanation of the 

 continuity of the ordered set of real arithmetical 

 quantities. Each of these achievements is enough to 

 place him in the first rank of pure mathematicians for 

 all time. Not a voluminous writer, his briefest note 

 invariably bears the stamp of his profound and original 

 genius ; and, like Dirichlet and Hermite, with whom 

 he may be aptly compared, he wrote with a com- 

 bination of clearness and elegance difficult to equal, 

 and impossible to surpass. 



