64 



NATURE 



[March i6, 1916 



connection with the war. It has been shown how we, 

 the successors of Newton, Young, Herschel, and other 

 leaders in the early development of the science of 

 optics and its applications, have allowed our German 

 rivals to occupy the ground during the last twenty 

 or thirty years. Not that we have been idle during 

 that time, but that our efforts have not been com- 

 mensurate with the ever-growing importance of the 

 subject. For instance, we have anticipated our American 

 cousins in this very matter, for we have had since 

 1902 a scientific society, "The Optical Society," the 

 work of which completely covers the ground planned 

 out for the new association in America. Its new 

 president, Mr. W. J. Cheshire, a well-known worker 

 in optics, has just succeeded the retiring president, 

 Dr. W. Ettles, a well-known ophthalmologist, and ' 

 its list of past presidents includes the familiar names 

 of Dr. Silvanus P. Thompson and Dr. R. T. Glaze- 

 brook. What is wanted here is a keener appreciation 

 by the scientific and general public of the importance 

 of the work to be done. We venture to hope that 

 the action of our American colleagues will stimulate 

 interest here, and we wish the new association a suc- 

 cessful career, especially as from the inaugural address 

 in our contemporary we find that its founders are 

 fully alive to the far-reaching ramifications of applied 

 optics. 



With the death in France of Mr. Frank Southgate 

 a unique personality in the world of bird-men has 

 passed away. As a landscape painter of the coast 

 of Norfolk and the broads (the delicate atmospheric 

 effects of which he could catch in a magic way), he 

 is of course most widely known. Here we are only 

 concerned with his life studies of birds, although his 

 ability to paint the scenes in which these birds live 

 adds greatly to the beauty of his pictures. A sports- 

 man and a naturalist, no one knew better than he 

 did the appearance, the movements, and the attitudes 

 of those marsh-, shore-, and sea-birds which he de- 

 lighted to study. But no one else has ever been 

 able to reproduce them In pictures so successfully. 

 Perfectly able, as he was, to draw and paint a de- 

 tailed portrait of a bird, he aimed rather at showing^ 

 us exactly what the birds looked like at a. little dis- 

 tance in their natural haunts. Who among those 

 who are familiar with the east-country books which 

 he illustrated has not delighted In "The Fringe of 

 the Shore," the "Stricken Mallard," and "A Corner 

 in Broadland," for instance, to be found In "Notes 

 of an East-coast Naturalist." But it was perhaps in 

 depicting- birds in flight that his gift of painting live 

 birds was most remarkable. " Smack putting up 

 Common and Velvet Scoters," in the last-named book, 

 is a good instance of his powers. No subject of this 

 kind was too darmg for him to attempt, or too diffi- 

 cult to surmount. But we think that when he 

 painted the heron dropping down to alight "In the 

 old fen" ("Wild Life in East Anglla "), he probably 

 reached the climax in this kind of Illustration. As 

 we look at the picture once more we marvel again 

 at any artist daring to make the attempt — and at his 

 success. 



NO. 2420, VOL. 97] 



The Paris Academy of Sciences awards each year 

 a certain number of prizes to authors of important 

 contributions to science. At the recent annual meeting 

 of the academy, the president, M. Gaston Darboux, 

 gave an account of the careers of men, for the most 

 part young, to whom these prizes had been awarded, 

 but who have fallen in the service of their country. 

 M. Marty (Francoeur prize), killed September lo, 1914, 

 at the battle of the Meuse, was distinguished by his 

 contributions to mathematics. M, R. Marcelin (Hughes 

 prize), killed near Verdun, in September, 1914. His 

 work on kinetic physical chemistry was remarkable, 

 both in theoretical treatment and on the experimental 

 side. M. Marcel Moulin (Gaston Plants prize), killed 

 at the battle of the Marne, September 6, 19 14, founded 

 the Institute of Chronometry at Besan^on. M. 

 VIguier (Cahours prize), killed at Beaus^jour, March 

 5, 1915, made his mark in the field of organic chem- 

 istry. M. Albert de Romeu (Delesse prize), killed 

 January 12, 1915, at Bucy-le-Long, near the Aisne, 

 was the author of noteworthy petrographic work. M. 

 Rene Tronquoy (Joseph Labbe prize), wounded and 

 missing, February 20, 1915, was proposed for the 

 Cross of the Legion d'honneur, and was well known 

 for his mineraloglcal work. M. Blondel (Saintour 

 prize), wounded and missing, September 8, 19 14, at 

 Fere-Champenolse, was distinguished for his work on 

 the theory of tides. M. Georges Lery (Gustave Roux 

 prize), killed at the battle of the Marne, September 10, 

 1914, was a geometer of great promise. Lieut. -Col. 

 Arnaud (Henri Becquerel prize), aged sixty years, 

 died of Illness contracted on active service. M. Jean 

 Merlin (Becquerel prize), on the staff of Lyons Ob- 

 servatory, killed at Arrozel, August 29, 1914. He was 

 known by his researches dealing with the theory of 

 numbers. M. Rabloulle (Becquerel prize), on the staff 

 j of the Algiers Observatory, killed in the battle of the 

 I Aisne, September 21, 19 14. M. Jean Chatlnay (Fanny 

 Emden prize), killed at Vermelles, October 15, 1914. 

 Commandant Henri Batailler (Wilde prize), killed 

 June 9, 19 15, well known for his researches In ballis- 

 tics. 



It Is announced In the Morning Post that Mr. Knud 

 Rasmussen, the Danish Arctic explorer, is planning a 

 new expedition to northern Greenland. Mr. Ras- 

 mussen 's previous work In Greenland is well known. 

 In 1902 he took part in the Danish Llterarj' Expedi- 

 tion with Mylius Ericksen, and in 1908-9 he explored 

 from Cape York to EUesmere Land. His work has 

 been mainly ethnographical, a task for which Mr. 

 Rasmussen is well suited, as he spent all his boyhood 

 In Greenland, and speaks the Eskimo tongue with 

 fluency. In his " People of the Polar North " he made 

 an exhaustive study of the polar Eskimo from Cape 

 York to Cape Alexander, and probably In this new 

 expedition he means to continue his ethnographical 

 studies. It is proposed that the expedition should 

 start this spring to explore the unknown region be- 

 tween Peary Land and Greenland, or, if ice prevents 

 this, the expedition will first work around Melville 

 Bav. In 1892 Peary, reaching the east coast across 

 the inland ice of Greenland, discovered Independence 



