March 26, 1903J 



NA TURE 



493 



divisions two papers will be presented — one on the history 

 of that particular department of knowledge during the past 

 one hundred years, and the other on the problems that now 

 present themselves for solution in that field. Profs. Simon 

 Newcomb, of Washington, Hugo Munsterberg, of Harvard 

 University, and A. W. Small, of the University of Chicago, 

 have been entrusted with the arrangement of the details. 

 It is expected that these three American men of science will 

 spend shortly several months in Europe, conferring with 

 leading European men of science with a view to secure their 

 full cooperation. 



The Atti dei Lincei announces that the subject for the 

 Carpi prize for 1903-4 is " Contributions to the Study of 

 the Functions of the Liver in the Animal Series." 



In its Rendiconti (xxxvi. 1), the Reale Istituto Lombardo 

 publishes its annual list of prize awards, and subjects for 

 prizes for future years. The following prizes are un- 

 awarded : — The ordinary prize of the Institution, the 

 Cagnola prizes for essays on the cure of pellagra and the 

 steering of balloons, the Fossati prize, and the Secco Com- 

 meno prize. Under the Cagnola foundation, a prize of 

 2500 lire and a gold medal of 500 lire are awarded to Prof. 

 G. B. Grassi, of Rome, for his works dealing with the 

 nature of miasma and contagion. Under the same founda- 

 tion, no other prizes have been awarded, but special awards 

 of 800 and 700 lire have been made to two anonymous com- 

 petitors on the subject of effect of fumes from manufactories 

 on vegetation, and 1000 lire have been similarly given to 

 one competitor on the subject of prevention of forgery of 

 documents. The Kramer prize of 4000 lire has been awarded 

 to Carlo Valentini, engineer, for his work on the predic- 

 tion of the floods of the Po. In connection with the Zanetti 

 prize for Italian pharmacists, 700 lire have been awarded to 

 Prof. Egidio Pollacci (Pavia), and 300 lire to Edoardo Baroni 

 (Turin). For the Brambilla prize for manufacturers of 

 Lombardy, seventeen competitors have entered, and the com- 

 mission has awarded a gold medal and 600 lire to Dr. 

 Daniele Crespi for mercerisation of cotton, &c, the same 

 to Pastori and Co., steel pen makers, a gold medal and 400 

 lire to Marx and Co. for table cutlery, the same to Besana, 

 Felice, Comi and Co. for hot water and steam heating 

 apparatus, to Ercole Marelli and Co. for electric ventilators, 

 and to M. Boschi and Co. for transparent glass plates for 

 pavements. Awards of 300 lire have been made to Angelo 

 Mantegazza for Italian paste, and to Biagio Bigioggero for 

 seamless upper leathers for shoes. As in previous years, the 

 awards indicate keen competition and progress by rapid 

 strides among the Lombardy manufacturers, while the sub- 

 jects in pure science attract comparatively few competitors. 



For future prize competitions, the Reale Istituto Lom- 

 bardo gives a programme of which the following is a brief 

 summary. The Institution prize for 1903, for developments 

 of Lie's theory of groups; for 1904, on the work of Vittorio 

 Alfieri ; the two triennial medals for 1903, for the pro- 

 motion of agriculture and the introduction of manufacturing 

 industries in Lombardy. The Cagnola prize for 1903, for 

 a monographical study of hypophysis ; and for 1904, on the 

 velocity of kathodic rays. The Cagnola prizes on subjects 

 chosen by the founder, cure of pellagra, nature of miasma 

 and contagion, direction of balloons, and prevention of 

 forgery. The Brambilla prize, for manufacturing indus- 

 tries in Lombardy. The Fossati prize for 1903, on the so- 

 called nuclei of origin or termination of cranial nerves ; for 

 1904, on the localisation of cerebral psychic motory or 

 sensory actions; for 1905, on our state of knowledge in 

 neurology. The Kramer prize for 1903, on systems of 



NO. 1743, VOL. 67] 



electric traction. The Secco Comneno prize, on the virus 

 of rabies ; Ciani prizes, for published books of the following 

 classes — historical for 1903, narrative or dramatic for 1906, 

 scientific (with preference to philosophy and education) for 

 1909, the book in each case to have appeared within the eight 

 years preceding the award ; also an extraordinary Ciani 

 prize for 1904 for an unpublished Italian popular book. The 

 triennial Zannetti prize for 1905, for progress in pharma- 

 ceutical chemistry. Finally, the Tommasoni prize for 1905 

 is for the best history of the life and works of Leonardo da 

 Vinci. 



By the death, at the early age of fifty-eight, of Dr. Gustav 

 Storm, professor of history at the University of Christiama, 

 Norway in particular, and the world of scientific historians 

 in general, have sustained a loss which it will take a long 

 time to repair. In his own university, his superior intel- 

 lectual qualities, his indefatigable energy and high character 

 secured for him a position of unique importance and in- 

 fluence ; while abroad he was looked upon as the typical 

 representative of scientific research in the wide domain of 

 history. As the main task of the man of science is to 

 weigh and measure with the greatest possible accuracy, so 

 Storm made it his chief business to sift with the utmost 

 minuteness the secondary from the primary sources of his- 

 toric evidence, and on the results obtained to measure time 

 and truth in history. The only work of his we know of 

 which, in this respect, fell short of success was his " Critical 

 Contributions to the History of the Viking Age " (1878), 

 directed against the redoubtable author of " Normannerne," 

 Prof. Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, and referring to the ever- 

 lasting contest between Norwegian and Danish historians on 

 the question as to which of their respective nations can lay 

 the best substantiated claim to the lion's share in the glory 

 of the juror Normannorum. At the age of seven-and-twenty 

 (1872), Storm won the gold medal of the Royal Society of 

 Copenhagen for a singularly thorough and lucid treatise 

 on the sources, manner and method of the historical writings 

 of Snorri Sturluson, a work which still maintains its standard 

 authority unimpeached. Two years afterwards he published 

 another work of standard value, in which he submitted to 

 a searching criticism the legendary cycles round Charle- 

 magne and Theodoric the Goth with a view of ascertaining 

 what historical elements lay hidden under the heap of 

 mediaeval romance. In 1877 he was appointed to the chair 

 of history ; in 18S3 he was elected perpetual secretary 

 general of the Royal Society (Videnskubernes Silskab) of 

 Christiania ; in 1886 he became perpetual chairman of the 

 commission for editing the " Fontes " of Norwegian history. 

 He was the author of a large number of important works, 

 and contributed numerous important papers to the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society of Christiania, to Historisk 

 Tidskrift, to Aarbbger for nordisk Oldkyndighed, to Arkiv 

 for nordisk Filologi, besides a yearly review, from 1876, on 

 Norwegian historiography to the Revue Historique. 



A small pamphlet entitled " Uber die neueren Dammer- 

 ungserscheinungen," by Herr P. Gruner (extract from 

 Mitteilungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Bern, 

 1903), contains some facts relating to the appearances of 

 coloured sunrises and sunsets during last year caused by 

 the volcanic eruptions in the West Indies. Herr Gruner, 

 from a discussion of the days in each month when this 

 phenomenon was observed, suggests that they indicate a 

 periodicity corresponding with the times of new moon. 

 That this may be so seems more natural than otherwise, 

 since the bright moon in the sky would most probably have 

 a tendency to render very difficult the observation of this 

 phenomenon. 



