December 29, 1904J 



NA TURE 



207 



ADMIRAL SIR ERASMUS OMMANNEY, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S. 



A WELL-KNOWN fip^ure has been lost to scientific 

 circles by the death of Admiral Sir Erasmus 

 Omnianney, K.C.B., F.R.S., which occurred on 

 December 21, at ninety years of ajje. 



Erasmus Ommanney was born in London so long 

 ago as the year 1S14. and entered the Navy in 1826. 

 He became' Lieutenant Ommanney in 1S35, and at 

 once volunteered to serve under Sir James Ross in 

 the voyage for the relief of a number of missing 

 whalers reported to be caught by the ice of Baffin's 

 Bay, and on the coasts of Greenland and Labrador. 

 The objects of the expedition were successfully carried 

 out, notwithstanding the extreme danger of the navi- 

 gation during the winter months. 



In 1850 he was appointed second in command under 

 Captain Horatio Austin on the Arctic expedition in 

 search of Sir John Franklin; and in August of that 

 year was the actual discoverer of the first winter 

 quarters of Franklin's ships. He also directed an 

 extensive system of sledge journeys, by which the 

 coast of Prince of Wales Land was laid down. After 

 his return from the Arctic he was elected a Fellow 

 ■of the Royal Society for his services to science. 



.After his retirement in 1877, he threw himself with 

 zeal into the work of numerous learned societies, of 

 which he was an energetic member. ,He was a 

 Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and had 

 been a member of the council. He was also a Fellow 

 of the Royal .Astronomical Society. An active mem- 

 ber of the British .\ssociation, he had served upon its 

 council, and went with it to Canada in 1S84 as 

 treasurer, receiving on that occasion the honorary 

 degree of LL.D. from the McGill University, 

 Montreal. 



The funeral tcKik place at Mortlake Cemetery on 

 Tuesday afternoon. .Among the wreaths placed upon 

 the coffin was one from the president and members 

 of the Royal Geographical Society. 



NOTES. 

 It is proposed to establish in the University of Liverpool 

 a memorial to Mr. R. W. H. T. Hudson, late lecturer in 

 mathematics, whose brilliant career was so tragically cut 

 short at the end of last .September. The memorial will 

 probably take the form of an annual prize in mathematics, 

 to be awarded for distinction in geometry, the subject in 

 which Mr. Hudson's work chiefly lay. For this purpose 

 a sum of 100/. would be required. Contributions to the 

 fund should be sent to Mr. Alexander Mair, the University, 

 Liverpool. 



Dr. J. .MacIntosu Brll, a nephew of Dr. Robert Bell, 

 l-'.R.S., has just been appointed riovernment geologist of 

 New Zealand. Dr. Macintosh Bell has seen much active 

 service on the Canadian (ieological Survey, having worked 

 during four seasons under his uncle, the director. In the 

 spring of iSqc) he went with Dr. Robert Bell to Great Slave 

 L.'ike, where he spent the following winter, and in 1900 

 he was sent to Great Bear Lake, several hundred miles 

 fui'ther north. On his return he was employed in iqoi and 

 rc)(t2 as geologist by the Lake Superior C^ominercial Co., 

 and in 1003 by the Ontario Bureau of Mines. 



Rkflvinc. to a vote of thanks, after laying the foundation- 

 stone of the Chelmsford Free Library, School of .Art, and 

 Museum on December 21, Lord Rayleigh said that the visit 

 to Stockholm from which he had just returned was of great 

 interest. His colleagues and he received almost a royal 



NO. 1835, VOL. 71] 



welcome, and at the banquet which formed part of the pro- 

 ceedings it was very much impressed upon them that what 

 Nobel had in view in providing his prizes was to bring 

 scientific men of the various countries together not merely 

 for the advancement of science, but to promote good feeling 

 imd the cause of peace between the nations of the world. 

 Lady Rayleigh afterwards distributed the prizes to the 

 students of the local science and art classes. 



Lord Kelvin has accepted the nomination of the council 

 for the presidency of the Faraday .Society, in succession to 

 Sir Joseph Swan, F.R..S. 



Tin-; death is announced of the Rev. J. ^L Bacon at the 

 age of fifty-eight. Mr. Bacon had made a number of 

 balloon ascents for scientific purposes, and some of the 

 results of his studies are described in his works " The 

 Dominion of the Air " and " By Land and Sky." 



.\ccoRDiNC. to the Patriti, negotiations have been entered 

 upon by the Italian Minister of Posts and Telegraphs and 

 the British Postmaster-General with a view to establish 

 wireless telegraphic communication between the stations of 

 Poldhu and Bari. 



We are informed that the constitutional amendment 

 exempting Ihe California Academy of Sciences from further 

 taxation was carried at the election, November 8, by a 

 majority of nearly 11,000. 



IiiK bog-slide reported in several newspapers as having 

 occurred on December 7 between Frenchpark and Castlerea, 

 in the north part of the county of Roscommon, appears 

 now to have come to rest, after invading a village and 

 covering a large area of agricultural land. Local inform- 

 ation reaches us to the effect that clefts still remain visible 

 in the bog, but that the hollow formed at the origin of 

 the slide is gradually closing in. The flow is attributed to 

 heavy rain, with which existing means of drainage were 

 unable to cope. Lord de Freyne is erecting huts for the 

 dislodged tenantry, and about twenty men were still 

 engaged at Christmas in clearing the main road from its 

 peaty covering. 



On December 22 the airship Lchaiidy U. made its 

 thirtieth experiment in aerial direction at Moisson, near 

 Mantes. In these voyages the Lchaudy II., the volume of 

 which has been brought up to 2063 metres, returned each 

 time to the shed which shelters it, after having gone away 

 to distances so great as ten miles. The length of the 

 balloon is 64 metres, and its regular crew consists of three 

 people. Several times, however, it has taken passengers, 

 as many as six persons having ascended at one time. The 

 speed attained by its own propulsion, measured with a 

 registering anemometer, may be estimated at 40 kilometres 

 per hour. The airship has been taken out in wind blow- 

 ing at 5 or 6 kilometres, and in rain. It has risen to the 

 altitude of 500 metres. The ascent of December 22 was 

 the last of the autumn campaign, eighteen ascents having 

 been made during the months of November and December. 

 During this season experiments were made to decide 

 whether an astronomer aboard an airship can know the 

 precise geographical position of the balloon when he makes 

 his observation. .\n ascent was made between 1 and 2 a.m. 

 on a foggy morning. In the car had been taken an 

 acetylene searchlight equalling 100,000 lamps of ten candles 

 each, like those at the E.xposition of the Grand Palais. 

 The balloon was invisible to persons on the earth, and the 

 earth itself could not be seen by the aeronauts. But the 

 light could easily be distinguished, and its movements 



