FEBRUARY 14, 1907 | 
NATURE 3 
5 
a I 
and 8 p.m. some more red and rosy glows were seen in 
the N.W., but the prevailing colour was greenish-white. 
At frequent intervals after 8 p.m. the sky at the zenith 
was occupied by very rapidly moving wavy bands of pale 
white, which, though rather confused in direction, yet 
seemed to possess a distinctly undulatory motion towards 
the S. The streamers continued to shoot upwards with 
varying brightness, the points of maximum brilliance being 
in the N.W. and N.E., and occasionally a slight corona 
formed overhead. Probably the most noteworthy 
feature of the display was the fact that it continued from 
about 6 p.m. until after midnight.” 
Was 
We record with regret the death of Lord Goschen on 
February 7 at seventy-six years of age. The 
statesman’s reputation was chiefly gained in the world of 
politics, though he well known as an author, 
economist, and educationist. His masterly boolk on ‘*‘ The 
Theory of the Foreign Exchanges’’ still remains the 
highest authority on the subject. Another volume, ‘‘ Essays 
and Addresses on Economic Questions,’’ was published as 
recently as 1905. Lord Goschen showed a keen 
in educational matters; he was an early promoter of uni- 
versity extension, and took a leading part in the move- 
ment for the abolition of tests in the universities. He 
was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1872. He 
was twice Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen, and 
once of the University of Edinburgh. In 1903 he was 
elected Chancellor of Oxford University in succession to 
the late Lord Salisbury, an honour he enjoyed until his 
death. 
deceased 
Was 
interest 
Tue gold medal of the Roval Astronomical Society was 
presented on February 8 to Prof. E. W. Brown, F.R.S., 
for his “‘ Researches in the Lunar Theory.’’ Mr. H. F. 
Newall, F.R.S., was elected president of the society in 
succession to Mr. W. H. Maw. 
Tue Chemist and Druggist announces that the Paris 
Municipal Council has voted a credit of 3800 franes (1521.) 
toward a monument to the late Prof. Curie in the Paris 
School of Physics and Chemistry. 
Revuter’s Agency states that Major Powell Cotton has 
sent home a complete skeleton of an okapi, the skull of 
which is said to be probably one of the most remarkable 
specimens ever brought to this country. In addition, there 
is a beautifully marked and perfect skin in a better con- 
dition than that now in the national collection. Major 
Powel! Cotton has also sent to England the skin of a 
young okapi. All are now at the British Museum. 
Tue American Geographical Society has awarded the 
Cullum medal for the year to Dr. Robert Bell, F.R.S., 
chief geologist of the Geological Survey of Canada, as a 
mark of its appreciation of the great value of his extensive 
surveys and explorations during a long period. This is 
the first time the medal has been presented to a geographer 
who is not a citizen of the United States, and this fact 
gives additional value to the award. 
At a general meeting on January 25 of the Paris Société 
d’Encouragement pour I'Industrie nationale, the gold 
medal of economic arts for the year 1906, on which is an 
effigy of Ampére, was awarded to M. d’Arsonval for his 
investigations in electricity. The society awards every 
year, on the recommendation of one of the six committees 
of the council, a gold medal carrying the likeness of some 
feader distinguished in science or art, to the authors— 
NO. 1946, VOL. 75 | 
French or foreign—of works which have exercised the 
greatest influence on the progress of French industry during 
the six years preceding the award. 
WHEN attention was directed last summer to the 
threatened danger to the continued efficiency of the Royal 
Observatory, Greenwich, likely to be caused by the London 
County Council electrical generating station erected half 
a mile due north of the observatory (Nature, June 28, 
1906, vol. Ixxiv., p. 200), a special committee was appointed 
by the Admiralty to inquire into the working of the station. 
The committee, which consisted of Lord Rosse, represent- 
ing the Royal Observatory, Prof. J. A. Ewing, representing 
the Admiralty, and Sir Benjamin Baker, representing the 
Council, has now issued its report, and the conclusions 
arrived at are contained in the following recommend- 
ations :—(a) The question, both as regards effects of vibra- 
tion and obstruction through chimneys or discharge from 
chimneys, to be further reviewed after, say, two years, by 
which time experience should be obtained with the second 
portion of the station at work. (b) The generating plant fer 
the second portion to be turbines, which, as well as the 
dynamos, must be of a perfectly balanced type, such as 
has been proved by trial not to cause vibration. (c) An 
undertaking to be obtained that when the plant in the 
second portion is available for the 
engines of the first portion shall not in ordinary circum- 
stances be used after 10 p.m., and their use shall be 
restricted as far as possible after 8.30 p.m. (d) The two 
chimneys of the second portion, at present incomplete, to 
be not higher than 204 feet above Ordnance datum. 
(e) The discharge of gases both from these and from the 
existing chimneys not to be materially hotter than the dis- 
charge is now from the existing chimneys—namely, about 
250° F. (f) No further extension of the station to be made 
beyond the 20,000 kilowatts now contemplated in the 
equipment of the second portion. 
use, reciprocating 
Tue annual dinner of the students’ union of the London 
School of Economics took place on February 9. Mr. 
Haldane, in proposing the toast of the school, said that 
idealism is the source of power in religion, in war, in 
science, in organisation, and the London School of 
Economics owes its strength and vitality to-day to the fact 
that it was founded by men who believed in large concep- 
tions, and who put them into execution without looking 
to the consequences. Modern applied economics penetrates 
into every sphere of public life. The result is that the 
work of such a school as this is not merely to teach, but 
to train. The Chinese Minister, responding, through his 
interpreter, to the toast of ‘* The Visitors,’’ said when he 
came to this country, three years ago, there was only a 
handful of Chinese students here, but now there are more 
than ten students in the University of London alone, and 
more than roo in the whole of Great Britain. Chinese 
civilisation, he continued, can boast of the three greatest 
inventions which have revolutionised the whole world— 
printing, gunpowder, and the mariner’s compass. We have 
improved those inventions with our Western skill, and 
have gradually built up what may be roughly called modern 
science. It is now the turn of the Chinese, he remarked, to 
learn modern science from us, and with their Eastern skill 
to build up the science of the future. Dr. Nansen, who also 
responded, said there has been a remarkable rapproche- 
ment between science and practical life as the centuries 
have marched on. If we go back some centuries we find 
science living its life to itself without being in touch with 
practical life at all; but as time passed on science became 
