466 



NA TURE 



[March i6, 1905 



It is announced that Prof. Albert B. Prescott, professor 

 of organic and applied chemistry, dean of the school of 

 pharmacy and director of the chemical laboratory of the 

 University of Michigan, died on February 26 in his seventy- 

 third year. 



We learn from the Times that negotiations are in active 

 progress for the amalgamation of the Society of -Arts and 

 the London Institution. A scheme has been prepared bv a 

 joint committee, and it only remains to be submitted to 

 the general body of the members, whose assent in all 

 likelihood will be given. 



A coM.MiTTEE of the French Physical Society has arranged 

 to have a medal struck in commemoration of M. Alfred 

 Cornu. 



The Royal Society of Naples (mathematical and physical 

 section) has awarded its prize of 40/. to Prof. E. Pascal, 

 the subject being the theory of the invariants of the ternary 

 quartic with special reference to the conditions for splitting 

 into inferior forms. A prize of 20/. is now offered for the 

 best essay in Italian, Latin or French on " The theory of 

 electrons and the dispersion of light." The last dav for 

 sending in is June 30, 1906, and the essays are to be sub- 

 mitted under a pseudonym. 



SiN-CE our note on the late Prof. Emilio Villari appeared 

 in last week's N.ature, we have received a copy of the 

 Reudiconto of the physical and mathematical section of the 

 Neapolitan Royal Society (.\., 8-1 1) containing another 

 notice of Prof. Villari by Prof. L. Pinto. It differs from 

 the previous notices in containing a general summarv 

 of the scope of Villari's works, classified under the 

 various headings of acoustics, molecular mechanics, heat, 

 light, electricity, and Rdntgen rays, and it will be found a 

 very useful notice for purposes of reference, especially for 

 physicists, whose time is limited, interested in Villari's 

 researches. 



The Lancet states that the King has acceded to a 

 suggestion that the skeleton of Ambush II., the famous 

 steeplechaser from the Royal Stables which died some 

 weeks ago, should find a place in the Museum of Veterinary 

 .\natomy at the University of Liverpool. The skeleton will 

 be mounted and placed in a prominent position at the 

 I niversity mussum, and a plate will be affixed giving a 

 short history of the well-known horse. 



It is announced in the Electrician that Lord Kelvin will 

 be the recipient of the first John Fritz gold medal awarded 

 by the joint committee of the four national .American 

 engineering societies, under the deed of gift, to the man 

 most representative of, and eminent in, scientific advance 

 in the engineering field. This medal was founded three 

 years ago on the occasion of the eightieth birthday of John 

 Fritz, the famous inventor and engineer in the iron and 

 steel industry, who is still enjoying excellent health. 



On Tuesday next, March 21, Prof. W. E. Dalby will 

 deliver the first of a course of two lectures at the Royal 

 Institution on " Vibration Problems in Engineering," and 

 on Thursday, March 23, Mr. Thomas G. Jackson will begin a 

 course of two lectures on " The Reasonableness of Architec- 

 ture." The Friday evening discourse on March 24 will be 

 delivered by Sir Oliver Lodge, his subject being " A Per- 

 tinacious Current," and on March 31 bv Prof. J. Wright on 

 "The .Scientific Study of Dialects." Prof. Meldola will 

 give the first of his two lectures on " Synthetic Chemistry " 

 (experimental) on Thursday, April 6. 



The Liverpool correspondent of the Lancet states that 

 ^''' J. E. S. Moore, who has become director of 

 1 research in succession to Prof. A. S. F. Griinbaum, 

 NO. 1846, VOL. 71] 



has also been appointed a member of the staff of the Royal 

 Infirmary, Liverpool, in accordance with the terms of the 

 donation that the research work in cancer should be carried 

 on at that infirmary. From the same source we learn 

 that, in response to an appeal made for funds to initiate a 

 permanent memorial to the late Sir W. M. Banks, the 

 sum of 5523/. has been subscribed. Of this amount, the 

 sum of 1500/. is to be devoted to founding a lectureship, to 

 be attached to the University of Liverpool, and to be called 

 the " Mitchell Banks lectureship." The Universitv author- 

 ities will be enabled to invite yearly a distinguished 

 surgeon, pathologist, or anatomist to treat of the latest 

 investigations and discoveries in medical science. 



At the Optical Convention to be held in May next at 

 the Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, to which attention 

 has already been directed in these columns, the following 

 amongst other papers will be read. Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 

 F.R.S., will deliver the presidential address. Mr. H. 

 Dennis Taylor will read a paper on some properties of 

 lens systems ; Mr. Walter Rosenhain will deal with two sub- 

 jects — the mechanical design of instruments, and some 

 problems relating to optical glass ; Dr. C. V. Drysdale 

 will discuss binoculars, and, in collaboration with Mr. 

 S. D. Chalmers, will introduce a discussion on aberration ; 

 Mr. J. Gordon will take up the question of diffraction in 

 optical instruments; Mr. J. Blakesley, some optical 

 measurements: Mr. J. H. Sutcliffe, ophthalmometers; Dr. 

 R. M. Walmsley, education in optics ; Prof. Forbes, spectro- 

 scopic vision; Prof. Poynting, F.R.S., a parallel plate 

 micrometer ; and Dr. W. Watson, F.R.S., fused quartz for 

 optical ijurposes. Full particulars of the convention can be 

 obtained from the secretary, Mr. C. L. Redding, at the 

 Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, E.C. 



The March number of the American Journal of Science 

 contains a short account of the work of Prof. A. S. 

 Packard, who died in Providence, R.I., on February 14, 

 at the age of nearly sixty-si.x years. Prof. Packard was 

 graduated from the Maine Medical School and the Law- 

 rence Scientific School in 1S64. At Cambridge, Mass., ho 

 was one of that remarkable group of students — Hyatt, 

 Morse, Packard, Putnam, Scudder, Shaler and Verrill — 

 associated with the elder Agassiz in the early 'si.xties. Ho 

 served for a time in 1864-5 ^^ assistant surgeon in the 

 U.S. Army, but never became a regular practitioner of 

 medicine, his life being devoted to his chosen work ir 

 zoology and geology. He was specially distinguished as 

 an entomologist, and he was an enthusiastic field naturalist, 

 collector, and explorer, and a voluminous author who wrote 

 on a remarkably wide range of subjects. He will probablv be 

 longest remembered for his original work on insects and 

 his several text-books on entomology and zoology. Early 

 in his career he accepted the theory of evolution and later 

 became an ardent neo-Lamarckian. One of his last works 

 was " Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution, his Life and 

 Work." He was one of the founders of the American 

 Naturalist, for twenty years its chief editor, and a constant 

 contributor to its pages. Prof. Packard was a member of 

 the National Academy of Sciences and of manv other 

 scientific societies. 



The ceremony of transferring the museum of the 

 Hastings and St. Leonards Museum Association to the 

 Corporation of Hastings took place on March i. The 

 museum is a representative one, and is divided into several 

 sections. The anthropological section includes a cosmo- 

 politan ethnological collection, geographically arranged. In 

 it are some good local bronze and bone objects, a series c: 



