3oS 



NATURE 



[JUNE 8, I916 



nothing is lightly prized by the British mind, which 

 measures the importance of advice by the amount 

 paid for it. If science were a lucrative profession, it 

 could command high fees for national services ; but 

 as it is not, scientific men commonly permit them- 

 selves to be exploited, and are expected to find their 

 own reward in the interest of their work. 



The adjourned extraordinary general meeting of the 

 fellows of the Chemical Society to consider the ques- 

 tion of the removal of the names of nine alien enemies 

 from the list of honorary and foreign members of the 

 society will be held on Wednesday, June 21, at 8 p.m., 

 in the theatre of the Civil Service Commission, Burling- 

 ton House, W. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times, in a message 

 dated June 4, states that the Committee of the French 

 Senate appointed to consider the Daylight Saving 

 Bill has, after hearing a statement submitted by M. 

 Painleve, adopted a resolution which empowers Par- 

 liament to advance legal time by one hour until 

 October i, and not for the duration of the war. The 

 Rome correspondent of the Times reports that the 

 new Summer Time came into operation throughout 

 Italy at midnight on June 4. 



The second Japanese Supplement of the Times, 

 issued on June 3, contains contributions from eminent 

 Japanese and European authorities on Japan, among 

 them some of scientific interest. Prof. F. Omori 

 describes the work carried out in recent }'ears in the 

 investigation of volcanic and seismic phenomena in 

 Japan. In reference to the Sakurajima eruption, in 

 January, 1914, he notes that the total amount of ejecta 

 from the volcano, which is only 3700 ft. in height, 

 w^as sufficient to have buried the entire city of Tokyo, 

 31 square miles in area, to a depth of about 103 ft. 

 An article by Mr. Robertson Scott, on enthusiasm for 

 rural instruction, refers to the Japanese zeal for educa- 

 tion and progress, which finds expression in the Young 

 Men's Associations. These associations, a feature of 

 every village, have for their object the intelligent 

 organisation of local resources. Technical instruction 

 is very thorough. On the subject of rice-growing, for 

 example, Japanese authorities know not only all the 

 East knows, but all that is known in the rice tracts of 

 Italv and Texas. The rapid development in the past 

 few years in the application of electricity to mechanical 

 power, lighting, and locomotion in Japan is another 

 illustration of the same spirit, and is dealt with by 

 Prof. Abe. of Waseda University, writing on muni- 

 cipal problems. Baron Kikuchi writes in favour of 

 the adoption of Romaji, or Roman letters, in place of 

 the Chinese characters with which Japanese is now 

 written. This reform is rendered difficult by the fact 

 that the language is developing- along ideographic, 

 rather than phonetic, lines. New words are formed 

 wholesale by the simple juxtaposition of Chinese char- 

 acters with reference to their pictorial or symbolic 

 meanings, and regardless of their sounds. The result- 

 ing homonymy in the literary language is the focus 

 of the problem. 



Dr. J. E. Sweet, whose death is reported at the 

 age of eighty-five, was president of the American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1883, and was 

 the first president of the Engine Builders' Association 

 of the United States. From 1873 to 1879 he occupied 

 the chair of practical mechanics at Cornell University. 



Mr. W. Stanley, known by his work on long-distance 

 light and power transmission by alternating currents, 

 has died at his home at Great Barrington, Mass.. 

 at the age of fifty-seven. He was successively chief 

 engineer of the Westinghouse Electric Co., the Stanley 



NO. 2432, VOL. 97] 



Electric Manufacturing Co., and the Stanley Instru- 

 ment Co. He had been vice-president of the American 

 Institute of Electrical Engineers. 



The death is announced, in his seventy-sixth year, 

 of Mr. E. L. Corthell, president of the American 

 Society of Civil Engineers, and of the American Insti- 

 tute of Consulting Engineers. He had been connected 

 with some of the most important engineering enter- 

 prises, not only in the United States, but in Latin 

 America. He was formerly consulting engineer of the 

 Department of Public Works in the Argentine Govern- 

 ment. One of his most conspicuous achievements was 

 { the designing of the harbour works at Tampico, which 

 I raised that port to the first rank in Mexico. As a trustee 

 of the University of Chicago, Mr. Corthell played 

 an important part in the foundation of the school of 

 engineering and architecture at that institution. 



The ninety-eighth annual meeting of the Societe 

 Helv^tique des Sciences naturelles will be held on 

 August 6-9 at Tarasp-Schuls-Vulpera, in the Lower 

 Engadine, north-east of St. Moritz, in order to facili- 

 tate visits to the Swiss National Park. There will be 

 the following sections, as well as several general 

 conferences : — Mathematics and astronomy ; physics ; 

 geophysics and meteorology ; geology and mineralogy ; 

 chemistry ; botany ; zoology ; entomology ; anthropology 

 and ethnography ; physiology and medicine. Persons 

 proposing to communicate papers to any of the sec- 

 tions should write, before July i, to the president, 

 M. le Dr. Chr. Tarnuzzer, Chur, Switzerland. 



Sir Oliver Lodge has sent to the Times a trans- 

 lation of the letter sent by Prof. Max Planck, of the 

 University of Berlin, to Prof. H. A. Lorentz, of the 

 University of Leyden, in March last upon the subject 

 of the manifesto signed by ninet\'-three German 

 scholars and artists, published in August, 19 14. Prof. 

 Planck says that the terms in which the appeal was 

 drawn up "led to mistaken conceptions as to the 

 attitude of the signatories, as I have repeatedly dis- 

 cov^ered to mv regret." As the letter has been pub- 

 lished in Holland, it is of interest to place a full 

 translation on record. The substance of the letter 

 appeared, however, in the Daily Chronicle of April 24, 

 and was given in Nature of April 27 (p. 186). 



Miss E. G. Everest, of Chippens Bank, Hever, 

 Kent, whose bequests for a home of rest and a bird 

 sanctuary are announced in the Times of June 5, was 

 a daughter of the late Col. Sir George Everest, C.B., 

 F.R.S., Surveyor-General of India, in honour of whom 

 Mount Everest was named in 1856. From the terms 

 of the will we learn that Miss Everest left her house 

 to the National Trust to be used as a home of rest 

 for tired brain-workers, particularly writers and artists. 

 The land round the house has also been bequeathed 

 to the National Trust to be used as a public park 

 for the use of the nation, and as a bird sanctuary, 

 where bird-life shall be encouraged, together with 

 8oooi. for the maintenance of the estate. Miss 

 Everest also left the residue of her estate, after pro- 

 viding for some legacies to relatives and others, for 

 the formation and maintenance of a college in India, 

 on lines approved by the natives, for the education of 

 natives by natives. 



A pamphlet on the urgent necessity of establishing 

 an Imperial School of Technical Optics in this country 

 has recently been issued, with a foreword by the 

 Minister of Munitions commending the scheme to the 

 generous consideration of all patriotic citizens who 

 can assist in providing the requisite funds. The 

 scheme was originally submitted by the governing 

 body of the Northampton Polytechnic to the Technical 



