434 
NATURE 
[JUNE 25, 1914 
land and among the Eskimo. The expedition, which 
will take provisions for two years, will be provided 
with all modern appliances, and will be accompanied 
by a scientific staff. The base will be at Cape York, 
in Greenland. The expenses are estimated at about 
15,000l. A start will probably be made in the summer 
of 1915. 
Our contemporary, the British Journal of Photo- 
graphy, is this year celebrating its diamond jubilee. 
The journal has been published continuously since 
1854—that is, from the very early days of the wet 
collodion process—so that in its pages the history of 
photography is recorded as the events took place, with 
the exception of the still earlier daguerreotype period. 
It is fitting, therefore, that the diamond jubilee num- 
ber, just issued, should contain a short history of the 
journal with portraits of its successive editors, and 
portraits of twelve ‘‘veterans of photography,” the 
qualification for which class is an age of seventy or 
more, and a lifelong association with photography. 
With the special number is included a twenty-four 
page supplement, which gives an excellent summary 
of the history of photography, with many portraits 
and other interesting illustrations. Among the por- 
traits is one of two of the ‘‘veterans,”’ Sir William 
Crookes and Mr. John Spiller, taken fifty-nine years 
ago. 
Tue council of the Aeronautical Society of Great 
Britain has awarded the gold medal of the society to 
Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., for the great services he 
has rendered to aeronautics by his development of the 
theory of the stability of aeroplanes. Prof. Bryan is 
an old member of the society, to which in 1903 he 
communicated, in conjunction with Mr. Ellis Wil- 
liams, a paper on the longitudinal stability of aero- 
plane gliders, containing the beginnings of the theory 
of stability he has since developed and published in 
his monograph, “Stability in Aviation”? (1911). The 
previous recipients of the gold medal of the society, 
which is the highest award of British scientific aero- 
nautics, are Wilbur and Orville Wright (1909), and 
Octave Chanute (1910). The official presentation of 
the medal to Prof. Bryan will take place next session 
at a date to be announced later. 
THE nineteenth International Congress of American- 
ists (for the study of the ethnology and archeology 
of the Americas), wiil meet at Washington, October 
5-10, under the patronage of the President of the 
United States and with the cooperation of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, the universities, and other learned 
bodies. A full programme has been issued of the 
meetings, entertainments, and of a highly interesting 
excursion for the foreign members, to last rather more 
than two weeks. The principal cities and_ their 
museums will be visited and also New Mexico for the 
cliff-dwellings and pueblos. The Universities of Ox- 
ford and Cambridge have appointed delegates, and it 
is hoped that Great Britain may be fully represented, 
especially as the eighteenth congress was held in Lon- 
don, May, 1912. Members’ fees, 11., and associates, 
Ios., may be sent. by money order to Dr. A. Hrdliéka, 
National Museum, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. The 
proceedings will be issued to members only. 
NO. 2330, VOL. 93]| 
Ir is proposed to erect, by international - subscrip- 
tion a monument to the memory. of Nicolas Louis 
de la Caille, at Rumigny (Ardennes). Among astro- 
nomers who have contributed substantially to the ad- 
vancement of knowledge of the universe, de la Caille 
claims a distinguished place. He was the principal 
collaborator with the third Cassini in the measurement 
of the arc of meridian from north to south of France, 
with the view of settling the question as to whether 
the figure of the earth was oblate or prolate. He 
went on a mission to the Cape of Good Hope, and 
while there determined the positions of ten thousand 
stars, measured an arc of meridian in South Africa, 
thus starting the triangulation to connect the Cape 
with Cairo, his observations, combined with those of 
astronomers in the northern hemisphere, giving in- 
creased accuracy to the determination of the moon’s 
distance. His work, completed in less than four 
years, was commemorated by the Royal Society of 
South Africa in 1901 by the erection of a tablet on 
the house in which he lived in Cape Town. 
He was one of the leading lights of the eighteenth 
century, and his work merits the monument which it 
is proposed to erect. The president of the executive 
committee which is appealing for subscriptions is M. 
Baillaud, director of the Paris Observatory, and the 
members of the honorary committee include many dis- 
tinguished astronomers in France and elsewhere. 
THE International Fire Service Council’s executive 
held a series of meetings in London on June 15-19, 
at the invitation of the British Fire Prevention Com- 
mittee. The meetings have been honoured by his 
Majesty wishing the council success; the delegates 
have been received on behalf of his Majesty’s Govern- 
ment, who have entertained them at luncheon, when 
the Earl Beauchamp, presiding, took the opportunity 
to express his appreciation of their work and its 
beneficial influence, and the London County Council 
has entertained the visitors and afforded them 
numerous facilities. The work of the International 
Council, which was presided over by Commandant 
Meier, of Amsterdam (president of the council), in- 
cluded the technical arrangement of the proposed 
International Fire English-French-German Dictionary 
of 5000 technical terms, which the council will now 
be able shortly to issue, thanks to the liberality of 
an English donor who has offered to bear the cost of 
its production. Arrangements were made for the 
holding of a full meeting of the council and an Inter- 
national Fire Congress at Copenhagen in 1915, when 
questions relating to celluloid dangers, fire on board 
ship, petroleum dangers, and the formation of county 
or district motor fire brigades are to be under con- 
sideration. 
Last Saturday, June 20, the Physical Society held a 
meeting at Cambridge. A party of about one hundred 
travelled from London, and proceeded to the works 
of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co. After 
inspecting the works, the members and their friends 
were entertained by the company at a luncheon in the 
hall of St. John’s College. The president, Sir J. J. 
Thomson, in expressing the thanks of the society for 
the company’s hospitality, directed attention to its’ 
i ree Se 
