July 6, 191 6] 



NATURE 



385 



at least once in every six years, which is open 

 to the whole world. The only express condition 

 is that the award is to be for discoveries of real 

 importance in the domain of pure mathematics. 



It is intended that the director of the institute 

 should be an eminent, and at the same time sym- 

 p>athetic, mathematician. The library will be 

 available for all serious students, and they will 

 have the privileg-e of consulting- the director. Part 

 of his duties will consist in giving courses of 

 lectures to a limited number of " really gifted 

 auditors, keenly interested in his discourses." 

 Prof. Mittag-Leffler states that, in making his 

 arrang-ements, he has taken as his model the 

 Pasteur Institute; and the final clause of this 

 enlightened and far-seeing document is as 

 follows : — 



Our will owes its origin to the lively conviction 

 that a people which does not hold Mathematics in 

 high esteem will never be able to fulfil the loftiest 

 duties of civilisation ; and that consequently it will 

 fail to enjoy that international consideration which, 

 in the long run, forms an effective means of preserv- 

 ing our status in the world, and of maintaining our 

 right to live our individual life.* 



We have only to add that in our opinion this 

 is a noble example of well-directed pjatriotism and 

 philanthropy which ought to lead to many imita- 

 tions. 



NOTES. 



We learn with much regret that Prince Boris 

 Galitzin, professor of physics in the Impterial Academy 

 of Sciences, Petrograd, and a distinguished worker in 

 seismology, died on April 21/ May 4. 



We notice with deep regret the announcement of 

 the death on June 30, at seventy years of age, of Sir 

 Gaston Maspero, the well-known Egyptologist and 

 permanent secretary of the Acad^mie des Inscriptions 

 et Belles-Lettres, Paris. 



The twenty-seventh annual meeting of the Museums 

 Association will be held at Ipswich on Tuesday and 

 Wednesday, July 11 and 12, under the presidency of 

 Mr. E. Rimbault Dibdin, Curator of the Walker Art 

 Gallery, Liverpool. 



The annual general meeting of the Eugenics Educa- 

 tk)n Society will be held at the Grafton Galleries, 

 London, W., to-day (July 6), at 4 p.m., when the 

 presidential address wiU be delivered by Mr. Leonard 

 Darwin. 



A SPECIAL Prize Fellowship of looZ., offered by the 

 Federation of University Women to encourage research 

 on some questions of special interest in the present 

 national crisis, has been awarded by the Federation 

 to Dr. Alice Lee, Fellow of University College, 

 London. Miss Lee has collaborated for some years 

 with Dr. Karl Pearson in many statistical investiga- 

 tions, and is also the author of several independent 

 communications. She is about to undertake an in- 

 vestigation into the birth-rate as affected by present 

 conditions. 



In the Times of July 3 its special correspondent, 

 in describing the battle on the Somme, refers to the 



^ " Notre testament doit son origine a la Tivante conviction qu'un peuple 

 qui n'accorde pas aux Matbematlqoes un rang elev6 dans son estime, ne sera 

 iamais en etat de remplir le? plus hautes taches civilisatrices et de jouir, par 

 SBite, de la consideration Internationale qui, elle au^si, constitue a la longn« 

 un moyen eflicace de conserver notre situation dans le monde et de sauve- 

 garder notre droit a vivre notre propre vie." 



occasional inaudibility of the gun-firing at short 

 distances. "Last night" (June 29), be says, "I 

 watched the bombardment from a p>osition commandr 

 ing a view of a large section of the front. ... It 

 was a soft dark night, with a light westerly wind. 

 . . . The comparative noiselessness of the bombard- 

 ment from near at hand last night was very curious." 

 On the hilltop where he stood he was unable to hear 

 " any sound save of the guns immediately by us, 

 with occasional bursts of sound coming quite illogic- 

 ally from far away. And all the while the flare and 

 flashing of the shells was continuous." 



We regret to announce that M. Emile Waxweiler, 



who before the war was the director of the Solvay 



Institute of Sociology at Brussels University, was 



killed in London on June 26 by a motor-car. An 



appreciative account of M. Waxweiler's work, in the 



i Times of June 29, points out that the sociological 



I studies produced by him and under his direction were 



j models of scientific inquiry. Among his best-known 



j works before the war are his '"High Wages in the 



I United States" and '^Profit Sharing." He was 



j recently apqjointed director of the Belgian Office of 



I Economic Studies, established in London to ascertain 



j the needs of Belgian trade and industry- ; and he was 



i also chosen as a delegate to the recent Economic 



I Conference at Paris, where he was the right hand of 



I the Belgian Premier, M. de Broque\ille. 



A DEPUTATION from the Royal Scottish Arboricul- 

 tural Society met a number of Scottish members at 

 the House of Commons on July 4 and laid before 

 them the case for the creation of a Department of 

 Forestry connected with the Board of Agriculture, 

 for the development of forestry' in Scotlan<^ and the 

 preparation of schemes of afforestation. In connection 

 with this subject the Parliamentary correspondent of 

 the Times states that the Government has decided bo 

 conduct an inquuy- into the subject of afforestation 

 after the war. The inquiry has been entrusted to a 

 sub-committee of the Reconstruction Committee of 

 the Cabinet. 



The failure of the L"ruguayan trawler Instituto 

 Pesca to reach Sir Ernest Shackleton's men on 

 Elephant Island was not surprising in view of the 

 fact that she is an unprotected vessel and made the 

 attempt in the Antarctic midwinter. The Uruguayan 

 Government, however, has ordered her to lie at Punta 

 Arenas awaiting a more favourable opportunity. 

 Meanwhile the damage she sustained in the ice is 

 being repaired. Open water up to Elephant Island 

 is quite possible .in any month of the year, but it can 

 never be relied on, and so the chances of the Instituto 

 Pesca succeeding are most problematical. The Argen- 

 tine sloop Uruguay, which rescued the wTecked 

 Swedish exf>edition in 1903, is unfit for service. But 

 it is reported that the Chilian Government has a 

 wooden whaler, which has been offered to Sir Ernest 

 Shackleton. If she is in good repair, this vessel 

 should be able to reach the marooned men, for even 

 if heavv pack is encountered a strong wooden ship 

 could either force a passage or lie and wait for the 

 pack to slacken. This appears to be the only possible 

 ship in South American waters. A suitable ship could 

 be secured in this country, but, at the earliest* could 

 not reach Elephant Island before the end of August. 

 If, however, Sir Ernest Shackleton reports that the 

 shipping resources of South America cannot meet the 

 demand, a vessel will be sent from home. 



The Manchester City Council (governing bodv of 

 the Manchester School of Technology) has just decided 

 to establish forthwith a new sub-apartment of the 

 school for post-graduate studv and research in coal- 



NO. 2436, VOL. 97] 



