re) 
annual election by the committee of a certain number 
of persons ‘‘of distinguished eminence in science, 
literature, the arts, or for public services.”’ 
Tue death is announced of Mr. John Gott, widely 
known among telegraph engineers and electricians 
by his pioneer work in electrical testing and practical 
telegraphy. 
Tue death is reported, in his forty-seventh year, of 
Dr. A. H. Pierce, professor of psychology since 1900 
at Smith College, Massachusetts. He was editor of 
the Psychological Bulletin, and author of “ Studies in 
Space Perception.” 
Dr. W. W. Battey, professor of botany at Brown 
University, Rhode Island, from 1881 to 1906, has died 
at the age of seventy-one. His publications included 
“Botanical Collector’s Handbook,’ ‘‘Among Rhode 
Island Wild Flowers,” ‘‘ Botanical Note-book,” ‘‘ New 
England Wild Flowers,’ and ‘ Botanizing,” as well 
as a volume of poems. 
It is announced that the Government will ask the 
House of Commons to sanction a grant of 13,000l. for 
special investigation into the movements of ice in the 
North Atlantic. The grant is provided for in the 
Estimates for Mercantile Marine Services for 1914-15, 
and represents an increase of 11,000l. on the sum voted 
for this purpose last year. 
In the Civil Service Estimates for the year 1914-15, 
issued a few days ago, it is announced under the 
head of ‘‘Grants in Aid of Scientific Investigation,”’ 
that the sum of 5o0ool. is to be voted this year towards 
the expenses of the British Transantarctic Expedition, 
which Sir Ernest Shackleton is to conduct across the 
south polar continent. Another 5o00l. is to be voted 
next year. This grant of 10,oool. forms part of the 
sum of 50,000l., which was already guaranteed before 
the public announcement of the expedition. 
A NEW magnetic observatory is being established in 
Swider, near Warsaw, in connection with the mag- 
netic researches now being carried on in Poland by 
Dr. St. Kalinowski. The observatory will be provided 
with registering instruments (Adolf Schmidt’s system), 
and for the absolute determinations a large Sartorius 
magnetic theodolite and an earth inductor will be used. 
Dr. Kalinowski hopes that the new observatory will 
be in active operation in the present year. 
In accordance with the resolution adopted by the 
eighteenth International Congress of Americanists, 
held in London in 1912, the Smithsonian Institution 
have made arrangements for holding the nineteenth 
congress in Washington on October 5-10. The 
organising committee, of which the chairman is Prof. 
W. H. Holmes, head of the department of anthro- 
pology, United States National Museum, has already 
drawn up a provisional programme. This includes an 
archeological excursion to the aboriginal quarries and 
workshops at Piney Branch. A feature of the con- 
gress will be an exhibition of rare Americana and 
other objects and a special exhibition in the museum 
of the daughters of the American Revolution. 
NOW ZeNS, ViOlL.93 | 
36 NATURE 
and so on. 
[MarcH 12, 1914 
On Tuesday, March 24, Mr. A. H. Smith, keeper 
of Greek and Roman antiquities in the British 
Museum, will begin a course of two lectures at the 
Royal Institution on landscape and natural objects in 
classical art, and on Thursday, March 26, Dr. C. W. 
Saleeby will deliver the first of two lectures on the 
progress of eugenics : (1) ‘‘ The First Decade, 1904-14,” 
(2) ‘‘Eugenics of To-day: its Counterfeits, Powers, 
and Problems.”’ The Friday evening discourse on March 
27 will be delivered bv Prof, J. A. Fleming on improve- 
ments in long-distance telephony, and on April 3 by 
Sir J. J. Thomson on further researches on positive 
rays. 
Pror. E. NAVILLE, in the Times of March 6, de- 
scribes a remarkable discovery in the course of excava- 
tion at Abydos. Strabo, in his account of what he 
calls the ‘‘ Fountain of Abydos,” speaks of a labyrinth 
with covered ways roofed with enormous slabs resting 
on pillars. Two gigantic colonnades have now been 
discovered not far from Seti’s temple, leading into a 
great hall, now empty, as it has been a quarry for 
centuries. The texts, however, which survive on the 
walls, copies of the Book of the Underworld, show 
that this was the famious tomb of Osiris. Like the 
pyramids in the case of the monarchs of Egypt, this 
splendid building was a fitting tomb for a god. What 
has become of his body, whether only his head was 
preserved, whether the remains were enclosed in a 
sarcophagus—we shall probably never know. 
Tue Army Estimates for 1914-15 provide a million 
pounds sterling for the air service, of which nearly 
200,0001. is for buildings. | Colonel Seely’s memor- 
andum on the Estimates points out that good progress 
has been made during the past year with the develop- 
ment of the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps. 
By the end of this month the number of officer fliers 
will have grown to about two hundred. During the 
past year an Inspection Department for Aviation has 
been formed and is finding much scope for its activi- 
ties in inspecting new supplies of all kinds, and also 
in overhauling periodically the aeroplanes, engines, 
and so on of the flying squadrons. A special section 
of the Army Ordnance Department is also, about to 
be formed to deal with the storage and supply of the 
highly technical and complicated matériel used in this 
branch of the service. As a general indication of the 
progress made in the past year, it may be said that, 
as compared with 100 aeroplanes in existence on 
March 20, 1913, there were on February 25 last 161 
on hand, and between those dates 87 had been struck 
off as unserviceable and replaced. 
Some of the recent work at Rothamsted in connec- 
tion with the partial sterilisation of soils has found 
application in the Lea Valley district just north of 
London, where a great market garden and glasshouse 
industry flourishes. So much interest has _ been 
aroused among the growers that they have banded 
themselves together to form an Experiment Station 
where the various problems arising out of the industry 
can be investigated in a scientific manner, and where 
advice may be obtained as to plant diseases, pests, 
The growers have raised a large sum of 
