lO 



NATURE 



[November 30, 1899 



fossils was indeed a grand one, and it indicated also that 

 the Morte Slates " vary considerably in different areas, 

 and probably include beds of very different age." 



These, his last researches, were carried out with all the 

 enthusiasm of his earlier work, and when first announced 

 to the Geological Society they roused as much oppo- 

 sition. The fact is that when he read the first paper 

 only one Lingula had been found in the Morte Slates, 

 and it was felt that the conclusions drawn by the author 

 were not justified. Undaunted, he returned again and 

 again to the field ; he reaped a rich harvest where others 

 had altogether failed, and if he did not succeed in 

 demonstrating that Silurian rocks occur in North Devon, 

 he at any rate made manifest that until better preserved 

 fossils are obtained it is not safe to say they are not 

 there. 



Dr. Hicks became a Fellow of the Geological Society 

 in 1 87 1 ; for many years he served on the Council, he 

 was one of the honorary secretaries from 1890-93, and 

 president from February 1896 to February 1898. The 

 Bigsby Medal was awarded to him by the Council in 

 1883. Dr. Hicks had also been President of the Geolo- 

 gists' Association, 1883 to 1885. He was elected a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society in 1885. In his busy professional 

 life he found geology a " means of recreation and 

 of much intellectual enjoyment " ; and until near the 

 close of his life he maintained a youthful energy and 

 vivacity, and looked the picture of health. To his many 

 friends the sad tidings of his death at Hendon on 

 November 18, at the age of sixty-two, came as a surprise, 

 and everywhere raised feelings of the utmost sorrow. 



H. B. W. 



NOTES. 

 The sum of fifteen thousand marks appears in the Budget of 

 the German Imperial Home Office as Germany's contribution 

 towards the preparation of an international catalogue of science. 



The Electrician states that a school for wireless telegraphy 

 is being established on one of the Government hulks in Ports- 

 mouth harbour. 



M. DE COPPET has forwarded to the treasurer of the French 

 Physical Society a cheque for 1000 francs towards meeting the 

 expenses of printing the " Receuil des Constantes Physiques." 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Institution of Cornwall 

 held at Truro on November 21, under the presidency of the 

 Rev. S. Baring^Gould, the Henwood Gold Medal was pre- 

 sented to Mr. Rupert Vallentin for his observations on the fauna 

 of Falmouth, accounts of which are published in the last three 

 numbers of the Jourtial of the Institution. 



The Walsingham Gold Medal of the University of Cam- 

 bridge has been awarded to Mr. H. H. W. Pearson, Assistant 

 for India in the Kew Herbarium. This medal is obtained by 

 competition in original essays on any branch of biological 

 science. Mr. Pearson's essay was on the botany of the Ceylon 

 Patamas, recently published in the Journal of the Linnean 

 Society. 



Prof. Karl Pearson, F.R.S., will deliver a lecture entitled 

 " Matter and Motion " in the chemical theatre of University 

 College, Gower-street, on December 6 at 5 p. M. The members 

 of the Chemical and Physical Society invite the presence of all 

 who are interested in the subject. 



The fourth international congress of psychology will be held 

 at Paris, in connection with the international exhibition, on 

 August 20-25, 1900- It is hoped that all who are interested 

 in the study of psychology in its various aspects will take part in 

 the congress. The general secretary is Dr. Pierre Janet, Rue 



NO. 1570, VOL. 61] 



Barbet-de-Jouy 21, Paris, to which address all communications 

 concerning membership should be sent. 



We regret to learn, from the Botanisches Centralblatt, of the 

 death of Prof. P. Knuth, at Kiel, on October 30, in the forty- 

 fifth year of his age, shortly after his return from a long journey. 

 Dr. Knuth had worked on the same lines as the late Dr. 

 Hermann Miiller, in collecting an immense amount of inform- 

 ation respecting the visits of insects to flowers and their agency 

 in cross-fertilisation. Only last year he published the first and 

 second volumesiof his " Handbuch der BlUtenbiologie," in which 

 every observation of importance made by himself or others 

 recorded during the last quarter of a century, since the public- 

 ation of Miiller's " Befruchtung der Blumen," is collated. A 

 third volume remained unpublished at the time of his death. 



It appears from a detailed article in Engineering that the 

 British display at the Paris International Exhibition next year 

 will be quite unworthy of the manufacturing power of this 

 country. This, we need hardly remark, is a matter for deep 

 regret, especially as our chief competitors are arranging for 

 exhibits on a very large scale. The German display will be of 

 the first magnitude. Thus the German exhibit in the group of 

 appliances and general processes relating to literature, science 

 and art, will be contained in a separate pavilion, the contents of 

 which will be valued between three and four million marks. In 

 the group devoted to decoration of buildings, furniture, &c., the 

 value of exhibits is estimated at 150,000/., and a similar value 

 is set on Germany's electrical exhibits. The value of exhibited 

 general machinery is stated to be 35,000/. ; agricultural exhibits 

 20,000/. ; the naval and military exhibit 30,000/., and so on. 

 The total value of German exhibits is estimated at a million 

 sterling. British industries and science will only be represented 

 by 642 exhibitors. Referring to the inferiority of the repre- 

 sentation of Great Britain at the Exhibition in comparison with 

 other countries, Engineering remarks : " Manufacturers best 

 know what are their own interests, and they have presumably 

 come forward in such small numbers only after careful con- 

 sideration. Possibly this apparent indifference is partly due ta 

 the remarkable absence of information available about the 

 Exhibition, and partly because of the unsatisfactory arrange- 

 ment, from an exhibitor's point of view, by which exhibits will 

 be scattered over a large area, instead of being concentrated 

 into a British section. But whatever the causes, we must be 

 prepared to meet our chief competitors in as many thousands as 

 we number hundreds ; if manufacturers are then disappointed > 

 they will only have themselves to blame. One reason of our 

 inferiority in numbers is, no doubt, to be found in the antipathy 

 of the British industrial to co-operate in industrial exhibits. He 

 stands alone in this prejudice, and has, of course, to pay the 

 penalty." 



The claims of inorganic chemistry to increased attention 

 have recently been urged in Germany on two important 

 occasions. Addressing the Naturforscher-versammlung at 

 Diisseldorf last year, Prof, van 't Hoff gave a most interest- 

 ing review of the recent achievements of inorganic chemistry, 

 and made a strong plea for the cultivation of this branch of the 

 science. This plea has been put in a more concrete form at 

 the Gottingen meeting of the German Electrochemical Society. 

 The subject was introduced on this occasion by Prof. W. 

 Hittorf, and the proceedings culminated in a letter addressed 

 to the Minister of Education asking definitely for the establish- 

 ment of professorships and laboratories for inorganic chemistry. 



Prof. Hittorf points out how largely German chemists 

 have deserted inorganic for organic chemistry ; how, with the 

 exception of the late Victor Meyer, hardly an organic chemist 

 of the later school has made important contributions to inorganic 



