278 



NA TURE 



[January 19, 1905 



Tanjj;anyika, and, as he passed up Lake Nyassa, 

 beg;an his investigations in that lal<e, in order to be 

 able to compare its products with those of Tanga- 

 nyika. On Lake Nyassa Mr. Cunnington was able 

 to get a good number of tow-nettings from different 

 parts of the lake's surface, and obtained, on the 

 whole, a large quantity of its characteristic phyto- 

 plankton, besides a considerable amount of zoo- 

 plankton, consisting mostly of Copepoda, Cladocera, 

 and insect-larvae. The temperature of the water of 

 Lake Nyassa was observed to fall seldom below 70°, 

 while the temperature at 76 fathoms below the surface 

 was ascertained to be about three degrees higher. 



Mr. Cunnington arrived at Karonga, at the head 

 of Lake Nyassa, at the end of June, 1904, and 

 travelled on to Tanganyika by the ordinary route of 

 the Stevenson road. His last letters from Tanga- 

 nyika are dated at Vua, on October 29, 1904. He 

 had obtained a dhow from Ujiji, which enabled him 

 to make his stay at different places on the lake 

 longer or shorter according as he found much or 

 little to collect. A good series of fishes had been 

 preserved, and many freshwater crustaceans. As re- 

 gards the vegetable life, Mr. Cunnington had been 

 much struck by the near resemblance of all the forms 

 obtained in Tanganyika to those which he had 

 collected in Nyassa, though he could not, of course, 

 say that they were specifically identical. From Vua, 

 Mr. Cunnington had arranged to cross to the east 

 coast of the lake, and to go some distance further 

 north before returning to the western shore. Mr. 

 Cunnington may be expected to return to England 

 before the end of the year. 



NOTES. 

 Sir James Devvar has presented the proceeds of the 

 Gunning prize, amounting to one hundred guineas, recently 

 awarded to him by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, as 

 a contribution to the fund for the encouragement of re- 

 search, now being founded in the University of Edinburgh 

 in memory of the late Prof. Tait. 



We regret to learn from the London branch of the 

 Zeiss optical firm that Prof. Abbe, of Jena, died a few 

 days ago. We also announce with regret the death of 

 M. Paul Henry, astronomer at the Paris Observatory. 

 His brother, M. Prosper Henry, with whom he was 

 associated for many years in celestial photography, died 

 about eighteen months ago. 



The Paris Soci^t^ d 'Encouragement pour I'lndustrie 

 nationale has awarded the grand prize of the Marquis 

 d'.\rgenteuil to MM. Auguste and Louis Lumifere for their 

 photographic discoveries. M. Hiroult has been awarded 

 a grand gold medal for his works on electro-metallurgy. 



The two Antarctic ships Terra Nova and Morning were 

 sold at Portsmouth on January 11. Messrs. W. Ziegler 

 and Co., New York, bought the Terra Nova for 9600!., 

 and she will probably be used for North Polar exploration. 

 The Morning was sold for 1600/. The Discovery has been 

 sold privately to the Hudson's Bay Company for lo.ooof. 



M. L. BoNNAM^RE has been elected president for 1905 

 of the Prehistoric Society of France. 



The death is announced of Dr. Anton Miittrich, pro- 

 fessor of physics and mathcmatiis in the .Academy of 

 Forestry at Eberswald. 



Sir William Tiiiselton-Dver, K.C.M.G., will take the 

 chair at a lecture to be delivered at the West India 



N O. 1838, VOL. 71] 



Committee Rooms, Seething Lane, on Wednesday, 

 January 25, by Mr. W. G. Freeman, superintendent of 

 the colonial economic collections at the Imperial Institute, 

 on " The West Indian Fruit Industry." 



The next competition for the Howard medal of the 

 Royal Statistical Society will take place in the ensuing 

 session. The essays must be sent in on or before June 30. 

 In addition to the medal, a grant of 20/. will be awarded 

 to the successful competitor. The subject is: — " A Critical 

 Inquiry into the Comparative Prevalence of Lunacy and 

 other Mental Defects in the United Kingdom during the 

 Last Fifty Years." 



The death is announced of Mr. T. W. .Shore, author 

 of a number of papers on geological and archaeological 

 subjects. Mr. Shore was for a long time resident at 

 Southampton, where he acted as curator of the Hartley 

 Institution and secretary of the Hampshire Field Club. 

 At the Southampton meeting of the British Association in 

 1882 he was one of the secretaries of the section of 

 geology. On removing to London, he founded the Balham 

 Antiquarian Society, and became its secretary ; he was 

 also secretary of the London and Middlesex Archaeological 

 Society. 



We have received a letter from Mr. C. E. Stromeyer, of 

 Manchester, in which he suggests that irregularities of 

 the earth's surface might be detected by special observ- 

 ations for determining the position of the northern and 

 southern limits of totality during the coming total solar 

 eclipse of August next. Unfortunately there are many 

 practical difficulties in the way which the author has not 

 discussed, but he makes one suggestion which might be 

 carried out. He proposes to place soldiers at short dis- 

 tances along the northern and southern borders of the 

 shadow's path, who, by marking the positions where 

 the eclipse was total, might determine with greater 

 accuracy than is known the breadth of the moon's shadow. 



.\ CORRESPONDENT writes : — The death of Dr. Thomas 

 Woods occurred on January 5 in Birr (or Parsonstown). 

 Dr. Woods was born in February, 1815, and graduated as 

 doctor of medicine in Glasgow in 1838. He spent all 

 his long life as a medical practitioner and as medical 

 officer of the union and dispensary in Birr. So it is, 

 perhaps, not to be wondered at that his scientific work 

 belonged largely to a former generation. He was a 

 chemist, and as such took part in the early development 

 of photography, originating in the 'forties a new wet 

 plate process, the " catalysotype," a detailed description 

 of which may be found in Hunt's " History of Photo- 

 graphy." In 1852 and 1853 he published in the Philo- 

 sophical Magazine .some original observations on the heat 

 developed by chemical combination, and defended with 

 considerable success his claim of priority against .Andrews 

 and Joule. He was a man of remarkable ability and 

 astoundingly general scientific interest, and it is much 

 to be regretted that circumstances kept him in a small 

 country town, and that his professional duties prevented 

 him from adding further to scientific knowledge. He 

 continued mentally and bodily fresh to the very end. ever 

 eager to hear of the latest scientific discoveries, and Birr 

 feels distinctly the poorer for his loss. 



.'\ Reuter message from Christiania states that at 

 Nesdal, north of Bergen, on Sunday, a mass of rock 

 slipped into the Loenvand Lake. A wave of water twenty 

 feet high, which resulted from the fall, swept the neigh- 

 bourhood, carrying away houses, people, .ind cittle. 



