494 
NATURE 
| MARCH 21, 1907 
April 746 
west will be able to study the rocks and deposits of the 
Plymouth and Cornish areas under very pleasant conditions. 
so that members who can spend Easter in the 
The excursion secretary is Mr. G. E. Dibley, 7 Champion 
Crescent, Lower Sydenham, S.E. 
Eart Carrincron, President of the Board of Agriculture, 
has accepted the invitation to open the second National 
Poultry Conference at Reading on Monday evening, 
July 5. The Mayor of Reading (Mr. E. Jackson) has 
intimated his intention to give a reception to delegates and 
the Hall, Reading, cn that~ evening, 
when the official opening of the conference wi!l tale place. 
members in Town 
A PRELIMINARY announcement has been issued regarding 
the the fourth International Mathe- 
matical Congress, which is to be held in Rome on April 
arrangements for 
6-11, 1908. A large general committee has been formed 
tepresenting the Reale Accademia dei Lincei and the 
Circolo matematico di Palermo. <A special feature will 
be the organisation of lectures, or, to use the American 
term, colloquia, each embracing the survey of an extended 
region of mathematical science, and the ‘ollowing mathe- 
maticians have promised to lecture :—Prcfs. G. Darboux, 
A- R. Forsyth, D: Hilbert, EF. Klein; Hi: A. Lorentz, 
G. Mittag Leffler, S. Newcomb, E. Picard, H. Poincaré. 
The subscription is 25 francs for members, 15 francs for 
ladies’ tickets. The treasurer is Prof. Vincenzo Reina, 
5 Piazza S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, while Prof. G. 
Castelnuovo, at the same address; is general secretary of 
the organising committee. 
Tue sixtieth annual meeting of the Palaontographical 
Society was held at the apartments of the Geological 
Society, Burlington House, on March15. The report of the 
council referred to the activity of students of palzontology 
in Great Britain at the present time, as witnessed by the 
number and variety of the memoirs offered for publication. 
Among instalments of monographs issued in 1906, one 
completed Mr. Reed’s description of the Girvan Trilobites 
and another began a new monograph of Cambrian Trilo- 
bites by Mr. Lake. The Carnegie trust for the universities 
of Scotland had defrayed the cost of five plates of Old 
Red Sandstone fishes described by Dr. Traquair. The 
society lost several subscribers by death in 1906, among 
these the Rev. J. F. Blake, who left his monograph of 
Cornbrash unfinished. The funds had been 
augmented by a special sale of back stock to members, but 
many new subscribers 
fossils 
were needed to raise the normal 
income to the amount received by the society ten years 
ago. Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., Dr. G. J. Hinde, 
F.R.S., and Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., were re- 
elected president, treasurer, and secretary respectively. 
Messrs. J. Hopkinson, W. D. Lang, H. Woods, and G. W. 
Young were elected new members of council. 
Tue Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain has on 
several occasions benefited by the generosity of Sir Thomas 
Hanbury, whose death was announced in last week's 
Naiurr. To the museum of the society he presented the 
valuable collection of rare ancient and modern materia 
medica made during many years by his brother Daniel, 
as well as the whole of the medicinal plants of his rich 
herbarium. These now special 
named the Hanbury Room. To the library of 
the society he presented a fine collection of and 
valuable works on materia medica and botany, many of 
which are now extremely difficult to obtain. At the re- 
opening of the School of Pharmacy in 1903, at which he 
NO. 1951, VOL. 75] 
occupy a room of the 
museum, 
scarce 
was present, Sir Thomas expressed the wish that his name 
should, in future, be associated with the Daniel Hanbury 
gold medal, which is offered biennially by the Pharma- 
ceutical Society for original research in the natural history 
and chemistry of drugs, and he handed to the society 
securities, so that each recipient of the gold medal should 
at the same time be presented with the sum of fifty pounds. 
His generosity extended even to the School of Pharmacy, 
the silver medallists of each session receiving copies of 
““Pharmacographia’’ and ‘‘ Science Papers,’’ in which 
the life-work of the late Daniel Hanbury are 
It is interesting to note that the munificence 
His gifts 
were intended to help and stimulate personal effort, and 
were always given with discrimination after due consider- 
ation. 
volumes 
embodied. 
of Sir Thomas always had a practical aspect. 
A SCIENTIFIC expedition under the auspices of the Royal 
Geographical Society, the funds for which had been found 
by the Alpine Club, had been arranged to explore Mount 
Everest from the Tibetan side. It was proposed that the 
party, under the command of Major the Hon. Charles 
Bruce, M.V.O., of the 5th Gurkha Rifles, should travel 
from Darjeeling north to Kampadzong, just on the Tibetan 
side of the Indian frontier. There it would have turned 
sharply and nearly due west to Kharta, from near which 
point the ascent was to have been commenced. Nepaul 
territory would nowhere have been violated. It was pro- 
posed, moreover, that the natives should have been dealt 
with direcuy by the English leaders, and that every pre- 
caution should be taken to avoid any cause of friction. 
The Home Government, however, refused the necessary 
permission. Mr. Morley, replying to a letter from Sir 
George Goldie, K.C.M.G., president of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society, said it was not possible, consistently 
with the interests of the policy of the Government, for 
the Government of India to give encouragement or help to 
exploration in Tibet. Mr. Morley later in his letter made 
the unfortunate assumption that it was proposed to proceed 
““furtiveiy ’’ through Tibetan territory, a suggestion which 
Sir Geerge Goldie repudiates very emphatically. It is 
conceivable that high Imperial policy should lead the 
Government to decide that the expedition was inexpedient, 
but it is difficult indeed to realise that Mr. Morley should 
have supposed that a body of distinguished geographers 
could countenance for an _ instant 
““ furlive *’ character. 
any scheme of a 
Tne annual dinner of the Institution of Civil Engineers 
was held on March 13, when the president, Sir Alexander 
Kennedy, F.R.S., was in the Lord Kelvin re- 
to the toast ‘* Science and Literature,’’ and is 
reported by the Times to have said it is interesting to 
remember that science has touched some of the noblest 
departments of art, for Leonardo da Vinci was one of 
the greatest engineers as well as one of the greatest artists 
of all times. Lord Kelvin also referred to the great 
achievements of Smeaton, the engineer of the Eddystone 
Lighthouse, and remarked that scientific engineering has 
grown up since the middle of the nineteenth century. 
About 1838 or 1539 the first professor of engineering in 
the British Empire was appointed, his chair being one 
established in the University of Glasgow. The demand of 
engineers for improved training in science has never flagged 
since then, and all our universities now have engineering 
schools. Lord Tweedmouth, in responding to the toast of 
“The Guests,’’ remarked that the engineering profession 
chair. 
sponded 
