540 
NATURE 
[APRIL 4, 1907 
vania. A large contingent of thé party left Liverpool on 
Wednesday last for New York by the White Star steamer 
Baltic, among them being Sir Robert Ball, Provost and 
Mrs. MacBeth, Prof. Rhys, Principal of Jesus College, 
Oxford, Mr. and Mrs. John Robertson, and Dr. John 
Ross. 
Tue death is announced of Prof. J. K. Rees, formerly 
professor of astronomy in Columbia University, New York. 
Prof. Rees was for two years president of the New York 
Academy of Sciences, and for fourteen years secretary of 
the American Meteorological Society. His principal observ- 
ational research was a study of the variation of terrestrial 
latitudes and the aberration of light, made in cooperation 
with the Royal Observatory, Naples. This work was 
continued from 1893°to 1900, and was the first application 
of the method of simultaneous observations at two stations 
situated on the same parallel of latitude, but separated 
widely in longitude. It was during Rees’s 
that Columbia University undertook the publication of 
Rutherford’s series of star photographs. He also estab- 
lished the Columbia summer school of geodesy, and early 
recognised that practical field work in this subject is an 
indispensable adjunct in the training of civil engineers. 
professorship 
AmonG the scientific subjects for which prizes are offered 
by the Reale Istituto Lombardo, we note the follow- 
ing :—for the Cagnola prize, April, 1907, on the discovery 
of radio-activity and its on modern physical 
and chemical theories; for 1908, on the present state of 
metallography in relation to the physical properties of 
metals, particularly iron and steel, a general summary 
including some original for the Fossati prize 
for 1907, on the so-called nuclei of origin and termination 
of the cranial nerves; for the Kramer prize for 1907, a 
discussion with certain practical applications of Gugliel- 
mini’s hydraulic theories ; for the Seceo Comneno prize for 
1907, a discovery relating to the virus of rabies; for 1911, 
on the physiological action of high-frequency currents. As 
in previous years, other prizes are offered for literary and 
commercial subjects and subjects which are the 
same every year. For the present year the prize awards 
of the Reale Istituto Lombardo include a Cagnola prize 
of rool. and medal of value 2o0l. to Dr. Augusto Moschini, 
of Pavia, for his essay on the pathology of the supra- 
renal capsules; a prize of 80]. to Dr. Guido Sala, of 
Pavia, and awards of 201. to Prof. Domenico Lo Monaco 
and G. Pitd, of Rome, for essays on the anatomy of the 
visual centres of higher vertebrates under the Fossati 
foundation; and Kramer prizes of 801. each to Ernesto 
Canalli, of Naples, and Mario Baroni, of Milan, 
essays on the resistance of structures in cement. 
A REUTER message that Mr. Walter Wellman 
will again attempt to reach the North Pole by airship 
during the coming summer. The expedition steamer 
Frithjof, which is now at Trondhjem, is to be ready to 
leave Tromso, with the expedition on board, for Spits- 
bergen, on June 1. The party will consist of about thirty- 
five men, and will proceed at once to the expedition base 
at Dane’s Island, established last year, where three men 
are now living. The balloon part of the airship America 
has been rebuilt in the ateliers of M. Mallet, Paris. The 
airship is 183 feet in length, with a greatest diameter of 
52 feet. Its volume is 265,000 cubic feet, and when 
inflated the lifting force will be 19,500 lb. The car itself 
is 115 feet in length, of steel tubing, remarkably light 
and strong. The backbone of this car is a steel reservoir 
of equal length to contain 1200 gallons (6800 1b.) of petrol 
for the motors. The principal motor, a 60 to 70 horse- 
NO. 1953, VOL. 75 | 
influence 
results 
for 
for 
states 
Clement, works directly on two steel screws, 
11-5 feet in diameter, placed at each side of the car. The 
proper speed of this airship is sixteen to eighteen statute 
miles per hour, and the fuel carried gives 150 hours of 
motoring at full speed; radius of action, more than 2250 
miles, or nearly double the distance from Spitsbergen to 
the Pole and back again. All the mechanical part is being 
thoroughly tested by weeks of running, and at Spitsbergen 
trials will be made in the air of the completed ship before 
attempting the voyage to the Pole. It is intended to reach 
the expedition base at Spitsbergen the first week in June, 
to have trials of the airship in July, and to start for the 
Pole in the latter part of that month, or in the first half 
of August. 
power 
A CORRESPONDENT sends us from Leal, Russia, some 
interesting particulars concerning “the life and worl of Dr. 
Jakob Hurt, the ‘‘ keeper of Esthonian foll-lore,’’ who 
died on December 31, 1906 (old style), to the great grief of 
all Esthonians. Dr. Hurt was born on July ro (old style), 
1839, at Woru-maal (Werro district), Polwa parish. In 
1859-63 he studied theology in the University of Tartu 
(now Jurjew), and after some years as lecturer in the 
gymnasium of that town was elected pastor to the parish 
church of Otepiéia, where he remained from 1872-80. As 
the Esticnian population in St. Petersburg grew, Dr. Hurt 
was called to minister in their native tongue in the Church 
of St. John, where the Esthonian congregation numbers 
now about 30,000 souls. He remained there from 1880— 
r90t. His literary work was so great that he sacrificed 
his pastorage and devoted all his time to the native litera- 
ture. In his early years he became keenly interested in 
this subject, and listened to old foiks’ chants and legends, 
which he recorded and published under the title of ‘ Vana 
Kannel ’’—the Old Harp. These songs awakened a strong 
feeling among the people, and a collection began in 1888 
which is now represented by 160 volumes of MSS. Only 
two volumes have appeared, and a third is in print as 
‘*Setukeste Laulud,’’ or the songs of Setukesed. The 
whole national collection of Esthonian follx-lore now includes 
60,000 records of superstition, 52,000 proverbs, 45,000 folk- 
songs, 40,000 enigmas, and 10,000 folk-tales. The death 
of a folklorist who could accumulate such a vast amount 
of material is a loss, not to the Esthonians alone, but also 
to the world at large. The Esthonians were almost a dead 
nation when Dr. F. R. Kreutzwald (1803-1882) published 
his ‘‘ Kalewipoeg ’’—the Esthonian Homer’s “‘ Iliad ’— 
which brought them to notice. The number of Esthonians 
is about one million. The limit of the Esthonian language 
extends from Reval (Tallinn) so far south as Walk in 
Livonia. There many settlements of Esthonians in 
European Russia, Caucasia, Siberia, and in the United 
States, Canada, and other parts of the world. It will be 
a great loss to the world if the valuable material collected 
by Dr. Hurt is not preserved for future publication, and 
every effort should be made to secure this result. The 
English Folk-lore Society would probably help in this 
matter, and other societies might also do something. The 
sacrifice of the collection would be a misfortune to science 
as well as to the Esthonian nation. 
are 
Some observations which help to explain the frequent 
occurrence of anhydrite in beds of gypsum have been made 
by Mr. Louis C. Kemp, and are described in a note received 
from his father, Mr. W. I. Kemp. Mr. Kemp finds that 
anhydrite is readily formed from gypsum in solution in a 
steam boiler working at 60 Ib. pressure per square inch. 
Having occasion to examine some of the boiler sludge, pre- 
cipitated from the mine water which had been used in 
