March 23, 1916]] 



NATURE 



8^ 



AftOT his retirement from the. Army, in 1902, 

 he org-anised the British Section of the St. Louis 

 International Exhibition in 1904. His interest in 

 Eg^vpt and the Sudan never waned, and in 1912 

 the latter was the subject of an address which he 

 ^ave as president of the Geog-raphy Section of 

 he British Association. His interest in the East, 

 and in the scientific study of it, led to his accept- 

 ing the presidency of the Palestine Exploration 

 Fund in succession to his friend and brother^ 

 officer, Sir Charles Wilson, and in this position 

 he not only supported the prosecution of scientific 

 archaeology, but also advanced our knowledge of 

 the topography of southern Palestine. 



Interested in metrology, he championed, in a 

 work on the subject, the cause of British weights 

 nd measures as preferable to those of the metric 

 -vstem. His inquiries into the various standards 

 of length led him into an interesting bye-path of 

 history, and it was only last week that we pub- 

 lished a paper by him wherein he showed the 

 close connection of our present standards of 

 length and area with the old Egyptian and Baby- 

 lonian measures. 



NOTES. 



On account of the restrictions imposed by the 

 Government on the importation of wood-pulp and 

 other materials used in paper manufacture, the supply 

 of paper has been compulsorily reduced. In common 

 with other periodicals, we are, therefore, under the 

 necessitj' of reducing the size of Nature ; and we ask 

 the indulgence of our readers for the cultailments 

 which must be made while the limitations of paper- 

 supply exist. It is particularly desirable that all con- 

 tributors should confine themselves to essentials, points 

 of prime importance, in order that our record of scien- 

 tific work and events may still be as extensive as pos- 

 sible, though it must necessarily be less detailed.' We 

 trust that the present conditions are only temporar}', 

 and need scarcely say that immediately the normal 

 supply of paper is available we shall revert to the usual 

 number of columns. 



The London Gazette of March 13 notifies the ap- 

 pointment of 2nd Lieut. G. I. Taylor, R.F.C., to the 

 temporary- rank of Major in the Royal Flying Corps, 

 while performing the duties of professor of meteoro- 

 logy-. Major Taylor is a fellow of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, to whom the Adams prize was recently 

 awarded. He is the author of the valuable report on 

 meteorology in the voyage of the Scotia, undertaken 

 for the Board of Trade. Up to the outbreak of war 

 he held the Schuster readership of the Meteorological 

 Office at the University- of Cambridge. His pre- 

 decessor in that appointment was Mr. E. Gold, now 

 Commandant of the Meteorological Section, R.E., who 

 was mentioned in Lord French's despatches, and has 

 been nominated for the D.S.O. The professorship of 

 meteorology to which Major Tavlor is appointed is a 

 new establishment, for which the' Meteorological Office 

 IS responsible, for instruction and special researches 

 in the structure of the atmosphere in the interest of 

 the Royal Flying Corps. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 March 16, of Lady Kelvin : she survived bv nine vears 

 her husband, who died on December 17, '1907. Ladv 

 Kelvm (nee Frances Anna Blandy) was a daughter of 

 the late Charles R. Blandy, one 'of the principal resi- 

 NO. 2421, VOL. 97] 



dents of Madeira^ Lord Kelvin, then Sir William 

 ITiomson, first met her during one of the submarine 

 cable-laying expeditions^ in June, 1873. The 

 acquaintance then made ripened into more than 

 friendship, and a year later Sir William sailed to 

 Madeira in his yacht, the Lalla Rookh, to claim Miss 

 Blandy as his wife. They were married on June 24, 

 1874, and sailed back in the yacht. Early in August 

 Ladv Thomson was welcomed into the circle of family 

 relations and university colleagues at Glasgow, and 

 directed his household with dignitj'- and grace. She 

 became the inseparable companion of his after life, and 

 accompanied him not only in his many summer voyages 

 on his yacht, and on two trips to the United States, 

 and on visits to foreign academies, but became a fami- 

 liar figure at British Association meetings and other 

 scientific gatherings. Soon after their marriage Sir 

 W'illiam and Lady Thomson busied themselves over 

 the building of his country house, " Netherhall," near 

 Largs, in Ayrshire, the scene in after years of many 

 family reunions and of extended hospitalities. It was 

 to this house that Lord Kelvin withdrew when he 

 retired in 1899 from his professorship at Glasgow ; it 

 was there that he died, and there also Lady Kelvin 

 has died. Lady Kelvin from about twenty years ago 

 had suffered from rheumatic troubles, and was accus- 

 tomed to pay an annual visit to Aix-les-Bains for a 

 course of treatment. It was during her return from 

 that resort in September, 1907, that she was struck 

 down by a severe paralysis, from which she had not 

 recovered when Lord Kelvin died, and which left her 

 infirm for the rest of her life, which she spent between 

 the home at Netherhall and the residence in Eaton 

 Place, Belgravia, which Lord Kelvin had taken after 

 his elevation to the peerage in 1892. Lady Kelvin was 

 fond of society, and played the part of hostess with 

 stately dignity. She was president of the West of 

 Scotland Women's Unionist Association, but other- 

 wise took no considerable part in politics. The assidu- 

 «ius care and thought with which she devoted herself to 

 Lord Kelvin during his declining vears are known to 

 all. 



Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., has been elected a foreign 

 member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in 

 succession to the late Count Solms-Laubach. 



The anniverary meeting of the Chemical Society will 

 be held on Thursday, March 30^ when Dr. Alexander 

 Scott will deliver his presidential address, entitled 

 "Our Seventj"-fifth Anniversars"." 



The Right Rev. Dr. J. H. Bernard, Archbishop of 

 Dublin, has been elected president of the Royal Irish 

 Academy in succession to Prof. J. P. Mahaffy, Provost 

 of Trinity College, Dublin. 



The Morning Post of March 20 announces that 

 Thursday last, being the seventieth birthday of the 

 distinguished Swedish mathematician. Prof. M. G. 

 Mittag-Leffler, he and his wife bequeathed their entire 

 fortune to the foundation of a new International Insti- 

 tute for pure mathematics. 



The Secretary of the War Office announces that 

 Surgeon-General W. Babtie, V.C., has been appointed 

 to assist Surgeon-General Sir A. Keogh, Director- 

 General Army Medical Services, especially in the work 

 of supervision of invaliding and all questions con- 

 nected with the physical fitness of the troops at home. 



We learn from the American Journal of Science that 

 Prof. J. C. Moberg, of the Universitj' of Lund, 

 Sweden, the distinguished palaeontologist and strati- 

 grapher, died on December 30, rgis, at the age of 

 sisU'-one years. His scientific work related in the 

 main to the older Palaeozoic formations of Sweden. 



