December 8, 1904] 



NA TURE 



129 



PROF. KARL SELIM LEMSTROM. 



AS has already been announced, Prof. Karl Selim 

 Lemstrom, whose name is known to our readers 

 by his investigations on the aurora borealis and the 

 influence of electricity on plant growth, died on 

 October 2 after a short illness. 



He was born in 183S not far from Helsingfors, and 

 entered the university in 1857, where he devoted him- 

 self to studies of physics and mathematics. His first 

 scientific work, published in 1868, was founded on 

 experiments made in Stockholm under the guidance 

 of the late E. Edlund, the celebrated physicist, and 

 dealt with the intensity curve of induction currents 

 in relation to time, the intensity of the inducing 

 current, &c. A summary was published in French in 

 the Proceedings of the Swedish Academy of Sciences 

 in 1870. 



Lemstrom joined the late Baron A. E. Nordensk- 

 jold's expedition to Spitsbergen in 1868 as physicist. 

 In the two following years he worked in the laboratory 

 of \'. Regnault in Paris; in 1871 he made a journey 

 to Lapland; in 1S72 he continued his researches on 

 the induction currents at the St. Petersburg .Acadeiny 

 of .Sciences. His papers during these years are printed 

 in the Proceedings of the Swedish ."Academy and of the 

 Finland Society of Sciences. 



During the journey to Spitsbergen Lemstrom was 

 engaged in observations on atmospheric electricity, 

 terrestrial magnetism, and the aurora borealis. These 

 observations, continued in Lapland, suggested to him 

 a new theory of the last named phenomenon, so enig- 

 matic even after the investigations of De la Rive, 

 Loomis and others. This theory he expounded in a 

 dissertation entitled " The Electrical Discharge in the 

 Aurora and the Auroral Spectrum " (1873). 



His next work, on the causes of terrestrial mag- 

 netism, was published in 1877. Starting from 

 Edlund's well known theory on the nature of electricity, 

 he argued that the rotation of the earth in an atmo- 

 sphere of non-rotating ether causes the electric 

 currents of which the terrestrial magnetism is a 

 manifestation, and he described several experiments 

 in confirmation of these views. 



.\ppointed in 1878 professor of physics at the 

 Helsingfors University, he continued his investigations 

 on the aurora borealis in Lapland in 1882-4, where he 

 organised two stations for taking part in the inter- 

 national polar exploration of these years. The investi- 

 gations carried on by this expedition were published 

 in a large work, " Exploration internationale des 

 Regions polaires, &c.," of which vol. iii. (1898) con- 

 tains his auroral researches. 



One very interesting work by Lemstrom is devoted 

 to the study of night frosts and the means to prevent 

 their devastations, so frequent in Finland. Lemstrom 

 emphasised the nocturnal radiation of heat as the 

 principal cause of the night frosts, and showed that 

 in calm and clear summer nights the air, cooled by 

 the radiating soil and plants, must remain at the sur- 

 face of the earth, and, flowing like water, gather on 

 lower grounds, which generally are most exposed to 

 frost. He proposed to prevent the radiation by artificial 

 clouds of smoke, and invented for this purpose 

 " torches " or tubes of peat (described in Acta Socie- 

 tali.s Scientianim Fennicae, Tome xx.). 



Moreover, Lemstrom made important experiments 

 on the influence of electricity on growing plants, on 

 which subject he read a paper before the British 

 .\ssociation at Bristol in 1898. The influence in ques- 

 tion was found by exposing the plants to electric tension 

 from a metallic w-ire net, provided with points and 

 connected with the positive pole of a Holtz machine, 

 the negative pole being conducted to the earth. 



NO. 1832, VOL. 71] 



His frost experiments directed attention to the pre- 

 vention of frost damage in several countries, and also 

 gave rise to new scientific investigations (for instance, 

 by Th. Homen). It is to be hoped that further work 

 may be devoted to this important subject as well as 

 to the electrocultural question, which have both but 

 very little advanced from the point to which they were 

 brought by the warm-hearted, indefatigable pioneer, 

 Selim Lemstrom. Arthur Rindell. 



NOTES. 



It was announced last week that the Royal Society cf 

 Edinburgh has awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee prize 

 for 1900-4 to Sir James Dewar, F.R.S. We now learn 

 that the following additional awards have been made : — 

 the Keith prize for 1901-3 to Sir William Turner, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., for his memoir entitled " A Contribution to the 

 Craniology of the People of Scotland," and for his " Con- 

 tributions to the Craniology of the People of the Empire 

 of India": the Makdougall-Brisbane prize for 1902-4 to 

 Mr. J. Dougall for his paper on an analytical theory of the 

 equilibrium of an isotropic elastic plate ; the Neill prize 

 for 1901-4 to Prof. J. Graham Kerr for his researches on 

 Lepidosiren paradoxa. 



A VALUABLE Collection of specimens illustrative of the 

 fauna of the deep sea has recently been received at 

 the British (Natural History) Museum as a gift from 

 H.M. the King of Portugal. The collection is reported to 

 include a number of deep-sea fishes, among which are 

 sharks of considerable size, captured during His Majesty's 

 recent cruise in Portuguese waters. Several of these may 

 prove to have been previously unrepresented in the British 

 Museum collection. King Carlos, like the Prince of 

 Monaco, is much interested in the fauna of the deep sea, 

 of which he himself has done much to increase our know- 

 ledge. The collection sent to the museum is also stated to 

 contain a series of contributions to our knowledge of the 

 deep-sea fauna from the pen of His Majesty. 



The sale of Chartley Park, Staffordshire, the hereditary 

 seat of Lord Ferrers, involves also a change of ownership 

 of the remnant of the celebrated herd of white cattle which 

 have been kept there for the last 700 years. It is much 

 to be regretted that the cattle could not have gone with 

 the park, and have been maintained there by the new 

 owner ; but as this is not to be, it is to be hoped that they 

 will be given a safe home elsewhere, where they will flourish 

 and increase. It was long considered that the lierds of wild 

 cattle in various British parks were direct descendants of 

 the wild aurochs, but it is now generally admitted (largely 

 owing to the writings of Mr. Lydekker) that they are 

 derived from domesticated albino breeds nearly allied to 

 the Pembroke and other black Welsh strains, some of which 

 show a marked tendency to albinism. This view, as pointed 

 out by a writer in the Times of November 29, is strongly 

 supported by the fact that the Chartley cattle frequently 

 produce black calves. The theory advocated by a later 

 writer in the same journal that the British park cattle are 

 the descendants of a white sacrificial breed introduced by 

 the Romans rests upon no solid basis. The Chartley cattle, 

 believed to be reduced to nine head, are to be captured by 

 the purchaser — no easy task. 



The anniversary dinner of the Royal Society was being 

 held last week as we went to press. In proposing the toast 

 of the Royal Society, Mr. Arnold-Forster said that every 

 day he has lived in a public office he has been more and more 

 impressed with the need for a greater knowledge in our 



