mo NATURE 
[Marcu 26, 1914 
ee ee 
own activities contributed not a little to the high 
estimation in which the observatory was_ held. 
Foremost, perhaps, should be placed his mono- 
graph on the nebula of Orion, a useful and pains- 
taking piece of work. Of more originality were 
his studies of the physical constitution of the sun 
and its surroundings, the outcome of several 
eclipse expeditions, some earlier than the appoint- 
ment to the Lick Observatory. Planetary mark- 
ings and close examination of the surfaces of such 
minute discs as those of Jupiter’s satellites or the 
planet Uranus also engaged his attention. The 
helical forms of nebulae were the subject of inti- 
mate study, and in other directions Prof. Holden 
displayed equal energy and ability. 
Considering the difficulty of getting a new 
observatory into efficient working order, increased 
as these difficulties were by the inaccessibility of 
the situation, it will be admitted that the twelve 
years’ direction from 1885 to 1897 accomplished 
much useful work. In the latter year Prof. 
Holden resigned the position of director of the 
Lick Observatory, and his scientific activities 
apparently ceased. WES: 
NOTES. 
Tue Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society will be 
delivered by Prof. A. Fowler on Thursday next, April 
2, upon the subject of ‘Series Lines in Spark 
Spectra.” 
WE announce with regret the death on March 23, at 
sixty-eight years of age, of Prof. G. M. Minchin, 
F.R.S., formerly professor of mathematics, Royal 
Indian Engineering College, Coopers Hill. 
WE regret to see the announcement of the death on 
February 17, at sixty-two years of age, of Dr. G. J. 
Burch, F.R.S., formerly professor of physics at Uni- 
versity College, Reading, and the author of a number 
of papers upon electrical subjects and physiological 
optics. 
Tue eighth annual meeting of the British Science 
Guild will be held at the Mansion House on Friday, 
May 22, at 4 o’clock p.m., when the Lord Mayor, 
the Right Hon. Sir T. Vansittart Bowater, Kt., will 
preside. The annual dinner will be held at the Troca- 
dero Restaurant on the same date, at 7.30 p.m., under 
the chairmanship of the president of the guild, the 
Right Hon. Sir William Mather, P.C. 
THE enormous drain on the mammalian life of the 
world caused by the fur-trade is strongly emphasised in 
the following extract from an article in the Times of 
March 19 on the London spring fur-sales :—‘* Yester- 
day there were sold in the morning 183,754 skunk 
skins; in the afternoon 136,623 American opossum and 
80,242 raccoons, as well as 3,602 civet cats. To-day 
will be offered 430,401 skunks, and to-morrow 
2,500,000 musquash of various classes. In all there 
will be sold more than 44 millions of musquash skins; 
and it is no wonder that the once familiar musk-rat 
‘houses,’ which used to dot every lake and pond all 
over the United States, looking like great mole-hills 
NO: 220r7— Vel..03)| 
sticking up from among the rushes, are growing 
scarce.” During the three weeks of the sale it is 
probable that 10 or 12 million skins. will have been 
sold. 
Tue discovery of ancient human remains in German 
East Africa by Dr. Hans Reck, of the Geological 
Institute of Berlin University, may prove to be an 
event of some importance to anthropologists. The 
report of the discovery, published in the Times of 
March 19, leaves us in some doubt as to the antiquity 
and racial characters to be assigned to these East 
African human remains, but apparently they are of 
mid-Pleistocene date, and show the distinctive features 
of the negro. If such prove to be the case, we must 
conclude that the negro race was already evolved in 
Africa at an earlier date than is now generally sup- 
posed. The Times report also informs us that the man 
thus discovered had thirty-six teeth—four more than 
is given to human and anthropoid races. The teeth 
are also said to show marks of filing; it would indeed 
be a remarkable fact if the habit of filing the teeth, so 
common in modern African races, should have been 
in use at the early date assigned to these prehistoric 
remains. 
Tue International Phytopathological Conference 
summoned by the French Government in conjunction 
with the Italian Government to meet at the Inter- 
national Institute of Agriculture was inaugurated by 
his Majesty the King of Italy on February 24, and 
was brought to a conclusion on March 5, in the pre- 
sence of all the fifty delegates, who represented the 
thirty-five States which took part in the conference. 
By the proposed International Convention adhering 
States pledge themselves in the first place to take 
whatever legislative and administrative measures are 
necessary to prevent the distribution of all diseases 
of plants in their own countries, but specially to 
organise an effective service of supervision over 
nurseries, gardens, glasshouses, and other establish- 
ments which carry on a trade in living plants. The 
measures which adhering States would pledge them- 
selves to take include (a) the erection of one or more 
institutes for scientific studies and research; (b) the 
organisation of an effective service of supervision over 
nurseries, including the packing and dispatch of 
plants; (c) the issue of phytopathological certificates. 
They would bind themselves only to admit plants 
accompanied by phytopathological certificates issued 
by or from a competent official authority, except in the 
case of plants which are imported for scientific re- 
search at an institute authorised by the Government. 
Marcu bids fair this year to establish a record for 
rainfall, and at Greenwich, where the aggregate rain- 
fall to the morning, March 23, was 3-54 in, the total 
for the whole month has only been greater in two 
years during the last century, from 1815. The 
heaviest record fall.is 4-05 in. in 1851, and in 1905 the 
measurement was 3:57 in.; the latter was exceeded 
by rain during the day, March 23, and there are nine 
days which seem likely to be wet, to secure a total 
of 0-52 in., which will render the present month the 
wettest March on record for the. last one hundred 
