June 9, 1904] 



NA TURE 



129 



Strassburg, at which with his chief, Dr. Luigi 

 Palazzo, he acted as a delegate for Italy, he brought 

 forward a scale for seismic intensities which he 

 followed by a paper on the possible relationship between 

 small changes in latitude and the occurrence of large 

 earthquakes. His last published paper relates to the 

 advantages to be obtained from continuously moving 

 high speed record receiving surfaces. 



Seismologists throughout the world know Cancani's 

 work, but those who were privileged to know him 

 pcrsonallv have stored up remembrances of an 

 enthusiastic worker, gentle and persuasive in his 

 speech, and with a kindliness of disposition of rare 

 occurrence. He leaves behind a gap difficult to fill, 

 a loss to a family, to a department, and to a new 

 science. J. M. 



Prof. George Darwin, F.R.S., has been elected presi- 

 dent of the British Association for the meeting to be held 

 in South Africa next year. 



.\t the monthly meetingf of the Royal Institution on 

 Monday, the thanks of the members were returned to Dr. 

 Andrew Carnegie for his donation of i20oi. to enable Prof. 

 Dewar and Mr. R. A. Hadfield to prosecute their joint in- 

 vestigation on the physical properties of steel and other 

 alloys at low temperatures ; and to Dr. Frank McClean for 

 his donation of looi. to the research fund of the institution. 



Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S., has been elected a 

 member of the Imperial Academy of Medicine, Vienna. 



It is reported that the University of Gottingen has 

 awarded its Otto Wahlbruch prize, of the value of 600/., to 

 Prof. Wilhelm Pfeffer, professor of botany at Leipzig. The 

 prize is awarded for the most important contribution to 

 science during the past two years. 



At the annual meeting of the Association of German 

 Chemists, held at Mannheim on May 25, the Liebig gold 

 medal for distinguished services in applied chemistry was 

 presented to Dr. Rudolf Knietsch, of the Badische Anilin- 

 und Soda-Fabrik, the discoverer of the so-called contact 

 process of sulphuric acid manufacture. 



Ox the recommendation of the Rumford committee, the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences has awarded the 

 Rumford medal to Prof. E. F. Nichols, of Columbia Uni- 

 versity, for his researches on radiation, particularly on the 

 pressure due to radiation, the heat of the stars, and the 

 infra-red spectrum. 



Science announces the death of Mr. Frederick A. Walpole, 

 botanical artist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

 He was considered the best plant artist in the United .States, 

 his drawings having been used to illustrate various reports 

 published by the Department of Agriculture and the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, as well as the narrative of the Harriman 

 Alaska Expedition. 



A Reuter telegram from Frankfort-on-Main says that 

 •it the fortv-fifth general meeting of the German Engineers' 

 .\ssociation the Grashof medal, instituted in honour of the 

 founder of the association, was unanimously conferred on 

 the two pioneers of steam turbine propulsion, the Hon. 

 C. \. Parsons, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and M. de Laval, 

 of Stockholm. 



Through the efforts of an organisation known as the 

 Edison Medal Association, a fund has been created to 

 esiablish a medal to be known as the " Edison Medal," 

 NO. 1806, VOL. 70] 



and the responsibility of annually awarding it has been 

 entrusted to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. 

 A medal will be awarded this year by a committee soon to 

 be selected from among the members of the institute. 



Reuter's Agency learns that the expedition which left 

 England in February under Lieut. Boyd Alexander for the 

 forest region between the west coast and Lake Chad arrived 

 in canoes at Ibi, 250 miles up the Binue River, in April. 

 The explorers had already made some collections on the 

 Binue, and intended landing at Ibi with the view of pushing 

 north into Bauchi. 



An official communication issued at Simla on May 17, and 

 published in the Pioneer Mail of May 20, contains the 

 following remarks :— " It has recently been stated in certain 

 newspapers that the Government of India have rejected the 

 offer made by Mr. Tata of a donation for aiding the found- 

 ation of an Institute of Science. This assertion is abso- 

 lutely without foundation. So far from having rejected Mr. 

 Tata's offer, the Government of India have promised a large 

 subsidy to the scheme, and they have throughout the 

 negotiations done everything within their power to facilitate 

 its progress and aid the realisation of a project which has 

 their fullest sympathy." 



Dr. Friedrich Siemens, who died in Dresden a few days 

 ago, was born in 1826 at Menzendorf, near Liibeck, and 

 received his education in that town. In 1848, says the 

 Electrician, he came to England to introduce his brother's. 

 Dr. Werner Siemens, telegraphic apparatus. .-Vfterwards he 

 worked with his other brother, the late Sir William Siemens, 

 and succeeded in applying the latter 's regenerative principle 

 to furnaces in combination with gaseous fuel, thereby 

 making possible the production of open-hearth steel and 

 the melting of glass by the continuous process in tanks. 

 He also invented the regenerative gas burner and stove, and 

 brought out numerous inventions connected with the glass 

 industry. 



A Reuter message from Queenstown states that Mr. 

 Marconi is among the passengers on board the outward 

 bound Cunard Steamer Campania. The daily newspaper 

 which the Cunard Company have arranged to publish on 

 board their four largest boats will be produced under Mr. 

 Marconi's personal supervision. There will be a regular 

 editor and printing staff on board each liner. The news 

 received from shore will be supplied through Reuter's 

 Agency. Mr. Marconi stated that he would have the 

 Campania in communication with America on Monday 

 through Cape Breton station, and would keep in communi- 

 cation with the Cornwall station until Wednesday night or 

 Thursday morning. 



Mr. J. Donovan, i Anstey Road, Denmark Hill, S.E., 

 would be glad if psychologists or other investigators could 

 send him information or references bearing upon the follow- 

 ing points :— (i) A fairly representative list of animals, 

 invertebrate and vertebrate, that make sounds in extreme 

 pain or distress, although such sounds never serve to induce 

 their fellows to help or relieve them, or even attempt to do 

 so. (2) (a) Have any observations or experiments been 

 made to show whether the sound or cry of pain or shock 

 has any influence toward hindering or checking the on- 

 coming of catalepsy or swoon in the animal producing the 

 sound? (b) Are animals that do not possess means of 

 sound production more subject to catalepsy from pain or 

 shock than those which possess means of sound production? 



Dr. Luigi Maori contributes to the Atti dei Lincei, xiii. 

 (i), 9, "Some observations on the relation of the index of 



