FEBRUARY 28, 1907 | 
NATURE 
42[ 
remains of Emanuel 
Princes Square, 
mission for the removal of the 
Swedenborg from the Swedish Church, 
Ratcliff Highway, to Stockholm in order that they may 
be re-interred there by the side of the remains of the 
celebrated chemist, Berzelius. 
In the House of Commons on Tuesday, the Secretary 
of State for War was asked ‘‘ whether he was aware that 
the Army Medical Department and the entire medical pro- 
fession in this country were mainly dependent on foreign 
manufacturers for the supply of tubes for X-ray examin- 
ations.’” In reply Mr. Haldane said :—‘‘ The X-ray tubes 
required for military hospitals are purchased from con- 
tractors in this country who obtain many of their supplies 
from Continental manufacturers. The few glass-blowers 
in this country who make X-ray tubes are unable at the 
present time to produce tubes in sufficient number to meet 
the demand or to equal in quality and price those manu- 
factured abroad.” 
Tue Royal Academy of Sciences of Turin has announced 
the conditions under which the Vallauri prizes will be 
awarded. One prize of 28,000 francs is offered to the 
Italian or foreign man of science who, between January 1, 
1907, and December 31, 1910, publishes the most important 
work in the domain of the physical sciences, using the 
expression in the widest sense. 
Dr. H. M. Brrpwoop, whose death on February 21 
has been received with regret, followed the example of his 
brother, Sir George Birdwood, by using his botanical and 
horticultural interests for the public benefit while officially 
connected with India. He was the author of a ‘‘ Cata- 
logue of the Flora of Matheran and Mahableshwar,’’ two 
of the Bombay hill stations, and was a syndic of the 
Bombay University. 
Aw article in the Times of February 22 urges that the 
Explosives Research Committee is culpably responsible for 
the violent explosion at Woolwich a few weeks ago. The 
explosion totally annihilated the magazine in which it 
occurred, wrecked a large number of houses in the vicinity, 
caused minor damages over a wide area, and produced a 
shock which was felt thirty miles away. It is said that 
the research laboratory was improperly used for storing 
large quantities of dangerous compounds which ought not 
to have been near a place where experiments with ex- 
plosives of unknown properties are carried on. A _ letter 
signed “* Scrutator’’ in the Times of February 12 states 
that the laboratory contained shells filled with condensed 
phosphuretted hydrogen and a gasometer full of this gas; 
and the article on February 22 asks, ‘‘ what has become 
of the two kilograms of iodide of nitrogen, the existence 
of which is common knowledge? ’? The suggestion that the 
explosion was due to recklessness and negligence in the 
research department at Woolwich is damaging to scientific 
interests, and it is to be hoped that the research board 
will afford the information required without delay. 
THE council of the Society of Arts is prepared to award. 
under the terms of the Benjamin Shaw trust, a gold 
medal, or a prize of 2o0l., ‘for any discovery, invention, 
or newly-devised method for obviating or materially 
diminishing any risk to life, limb, or health, incidental to 
any industrial occupation, and not previously capable of 
being so obviated or diminished by any known and _prac- 
tically available means.’’ Intending competitors should 
send in descriptions of their inventions not later than 
December 31, 1907, to the secretary of the Society of 
Arts, Adelphi, London, W.C. 
NO. 1948, VOL. 75] 
Leipzig on February 8 at the age of sixty-nine. 
ANOTHER of the great teachers who have made Germany 
famous as a centre of geographical studies has passed 
away in the person of Dr. Alfred Kirchhoff, who died at 
Only two 
years ago Kirchhoff was compelled by failing eyesight, 
amid universal regret, to resign the professorship of geo- 
graphy at Halle University, where his fruitful and 
stimulating labours extended over more than __ thirty 
years. He wrote various educational works, and only 
S. Giinther, 
education to 
with Dr. 
geographical 
last year supplied, in association 
a valuable treatise on 
Baumeister’s ‘* Handbuch der Erziehungs- und Unterrichts- 
lehre fiir héhere Schulen.’’ His bent lay naturally in the 
direction of geography, which full 
to the many-sided character of his knowledge, and perhaps 
editor (among other 
“ Forschungen zur 
deutschen now 
reached its sixteenth volume. the 
relations between man and his environment attracted wide 
attention, and were published in a collected volume, which 
only last year was made available to English readers in 
regional gave scope 
one of his greatest services was as 
important works) of the series entitled 
und Volkskunde,’’ 
Some of his studies on 
Landes- which has 
Routledge’s ‘‘ Universal Library.”’ 
Tne Association of Italian Manufacturers has issued 
particulars cf an international competition for prizes to 
be awarded for the prevention of accidents in factories. 
Applications must be made before June 30, 1908, to the 
association, 61 Foro Bonaparte, Milan. The nature and 
value of the prizes offered are as follow :—(1) A _ gold 
medal and 8000 lire (320l.) for a system to eliminate the 
danger of a contact (of whatever resistance) between the 
primary and secondary circuit of alternate-current trans- 
formers and their respective lines. (2) A gold medal and 
1000 lire for a hand-crane or winch so constructed that 
without sensibly reducing the efficiency or speed of lower- 
ing, as compared to ordinary types, any danger due to 
the rotation of the handles by the descending load is 
avoided. Means must be provided to prevent the rotation 
of the handles during the descent of the load. With each 
system competing for the prize an apparatus must be sup- 
plied which will enable it to be submitted to practical tests. 
EnGLisH geologists lament the death, on February 15, 
of a well-known amateur, Miss Caroline Birley. Miss 
Birley was born in Manchester in 1851, and became 
interested in geological studies at an early age. She 
travelled extensively in search of fossils and minerals, and 
made a large collection, which was placed at the disposal 
of all to whom it could be of use for purposes of research. 
Her more important fossils were Cretaceous Invertebrata 
from Faxe, Denmark, Pliocene shells from Bordighera, 
and Pliocene shells in nodules from the Mekran coast, 
Baluchistan. Her collection of minerals included some 
fine zeolites obtained from the Far6ée Islands. All the 
specimens desired by the British Museum are bequeathed 
to the nation, while the residue of the collection is given 
to the Manchester Museum. Though herself a diligent 
and accomplished student, Miss Birley rarely published 
any notes of her work; but an interesting account of the 
Chalk section at Faxe from her pen prefaces Dr. Henry 
Woodward’s paper on Faxe fossils in the Geological 
Magazine for November, 1901. Miss Birley attended all the 
meetings of the British Association from 1887 onwards, 
and she was also an active member of the Geologists’ 
Association. The president of the Geological Society and 
the keeper of geology in the British Museum were present 
among a large circle of friends at her funeral, which took 
place at Lingfield, Surrey. 
