March 9, 19 16] 



NATURE 



43 



in 1892 he was transferred to Florence. The Floren- 

 tine school enjoyed his special care and generosity, 

 founding as he did, mainly from his own resources, the 

 Istituto Antirabico on the lines of Pasteur, and making 

 the thermal waters of the neighbouring Montecatini 

 a balneary centre in practical connection with his 

 courses on the vast group of rheumatoid maladies. 

 In 1905 he was made a senator of the kingdom, in 

 accordance with Italy's custom to promote men of 

 scientific distinction to the Upper Chamber, and here 

 again his advice on intervention was of public benefit 

 in more than one hygienic departure. 



The death is announced, at seventy-two \'ears of 

 age, of Prof. E. Heckel, professor of botany in the 

 University of Marseilles. We learn from the Chemist 

 and Druggist that after the war of 1870 he became 

 head pharmacist at Montpellier and assistant-professor 

 at the local School of Pharmacy. Five years later he 

 accepted the post of professor of natural history- at 

 the Nancy School of Pharmacy, but his stay there was 

 short. After a few months at the Grenoble Faculty of 

 Sciences, Heckel obtained two professorial chairs at 

 Marseilles, teaching botany at the Faculty of Sciences 

 and materia medica at the School of Medicine. To 

 these double duties he added those of director of the 

 Botanic Garden of Marseilles. In 1880 his contribu- 

 tions to science were recognised by his election to the 

 corresponding membership of the Paris Academy of 

 Medicine, and later by a similar election at the 

 Academy of Sciences. It was in 1892 that he founded 

 the Colonial Institute, where he placed his collections. 

 He specialised in the study of such tropical plants as 

 were likely to be of value for alimentary purposes or 

 local industr}', and his name is associated with the 

 introduction of several of them into France. 



The Times of March 2 reports the death of Ernst 

 Mach, once professor of physics in the Uni\-ersity of 

 Prague, but for the greater part of his academic life 

 professor of the history and theory of inductive science 

 at Vienna. The news will cause widespread regret, 

 for, though Mach was not a great investigator or con- 

 structive thinker either in positive science or in philo- 

 sophy, he did admirable secondary work for both by 

 his illuminating interpretations of the history of 

 physics. His psychological investigations, best repre- 

 sented by his book on "The Analysis of Sensations," 

 had technical merits which earned high praise from 

 so competent a judge as William James. They are 

 interesting chiefly, however, as "studies" in the radi- 

 cal empiricism that found its most characteristic ex- 

 pression in his epistemological essays — particularly in 

 his "Science of Mechanics." The essential positions 

 of this famous work were (as Mach pointed out 

 pathetically) published so long ago as 1868, that is, six 

 years before Klrchhoff astonished the scientific world 

 by the announcement of similar but less thoroughgoing 

 views. The book Itself appeared In 1883. It has un- 

 doubtedly had great influence not only upon current 

 I views as to the real nature of science, but also upon 

 j the actual development of mathematical physics from 

 I Hertz down to the relativists of the present day. In 

 j a farewell communication which the unhappy state of 

 Europe makes the more dignified and touching. Prof. 

 Mach " sends greetings to all who knew him and asks 



for serene remembrance." Men of good will in all 

 countries will respond to the wish, for no chauvinistic 

 bias distorted Mach's vision of the progress of the 

 human spirit, and none has shown more clearly than 

 he that in the disinterested pursuit of knowledge men 

 of all times and tongues are members one of another. 



The recent completion, almost simultaneously, of 

 three masonry dams for the main imjxiundlng reser- 

 voirs of important water supply systems In this countr\ 

 is an event somewhat unique in Its way. None of the 

 three structures — the Angram, the Derwent, and the 

 Alwen Dams — is perhaps of such magnitude as the 

 Kensio") Dam in the United States, to which reference 

 was made in our Issue of January 27 (p. 602), but they 

 are all noteworthy examples of this department of 

 waterworks engineering. The Angram Dam, in York- 

 shire, holds up 1250 million gallons of water derived 

 from the river Nidd and the Stone Beck, for the supply 

 of the town of Bradford. The capacity of the reservoir 

 formed by the Derwent Dam is 2000 million gallons ; 

 it forms the second instalment of a great scheme 

 destined to serve the Derwent Valley, Including the 

 towns of Leicester, Derby, Sheffield, and Nottingham, 

 and the counties of Derby and Nottingham. There 

 are to be five dams in all in this undertaking, and the 

 first, the Howden Dam, of about equivalent storage 

 capacity with the Derwent Dam, was completed some 

 few years back. The third dam of the three forming 

 the subject of our note, the Alwen Dam for the Birken- 

 head Corporation Water Supply, holds up 3000 million 

 gallons from the river Alwen. The reservoir capacity 

 is thus much greater than that of either of the other 

 two dams, but the structure itself Is smaller, both as 

 regards length and height. The crest is only 458 ft. 

 long, and the height from the river bed 90 ft., whereas 

 the crest of the Derwent Dam is mo ft. in length and 

 114 ft. in height, and the crest of the Angram Dam 

 1200 ft. long, and its height 130 ft. 



The Madras Museum has done good service to the 

 study of Indian antiquities by publishing a new edition 

 of the catalogue of prehistoric antiquities col- 

 lected by the late Mr. R. B. Foote, which forms the 

 most valuable portion of the museum collections. To 

 this has been added a catalogue of the prehistoric 

 antiquities, collected by Mr. A. Rea, of the great 

 burial grounds of Adichanallur and Perumbair. These 

 collections contain a large number of specimens of 

 objects In metal and pottery, which are of the highest 

 value for the study of the early histor\' of the Dravidian 

 races. 



In his presidential address to the Hellenic Society, 



published in part ii. of the Proceedings of the Society 



in 1915, Dr. W. Leaf discussed the history of Greek 



commerce, a subject dealt with in his important work 



on Homer and history, recently reviewed in these 



columns. He made the interesting suggestion that 



the society should undertake an edition of at least 



the three books of "Strabo's Geography" describing 



Asia Minor. This should be on the lines of Sir James 



Frazer's edition of " Pausanias," dealing in the first 



! Instance with topography, and summarising the stores 



j of epigraphic and numismatological information, with 



I an account of the many characteristic religions and 



! myths of that region. Sir William Ramsav and Mr. 



