July 21, 1904] 



NA TURE 



281 



We deeplv regret lo see the announcement that Dr. Isaac 

 Roberts, F.R.S., died at Crowborough on Sunday last. 



The monument erected in the Place Breteuil, Paris, to 

 the memory of Pasteur, was unveiled on July i6 by Presi- 

 dent Loubet. The ceremony was attended by the members 

 of the diplomatic body, by prominent men of science, and 

 bv representative Government officials. Speeches eulogising 

 the services rendered to science by Pasteur were delivered 

 by the French Minister of Public Instruction, the Prefect 

 of the Seine, and the president of the Paris Municipal 

 Council. Prof. Herrera, of the University of Brussels, 

 spoke in the name of the foreign subscribers. The monu- 

 ment is the work of M. Falgui^re. 



The Postmaster-General introduced into the House of 

 Commons on Monday a Bill for the regulation of wireless 

 telegraphy. The Bill makes no attempt to create a State 

 monopoly in wireless telegraphy, but merely aims at regu- 

 lating its use in the country in a way that shall prevent 

 the undue clashing of conflicting interests. The Govern- 

 ment has at present no jurisdiction over telegraphy unless 

 both ends of the system are within the United Kingdom 

 or within the three-mile maritime limit. It is proposed to 

 deal with the matter by means of licences. It is obvious 

 that the peculiar conditions under which wireless telegraphy 

 is worked, particularly the fact that neighbouring in- 

 stallations cannot at present be operated without interfering 

 with one another, make it very desirable that the Govern- 

 ment should be able to e.\ercise a certain amount of authority 

 in such questions, for example, as the selection of sites for 

 transmitting stations. The great strategical value of 

 wireless telegraphy to the Navy makes the matter of still 

 more importance. 



In connection with wireless telegraphy, we note that Mr. 

 Duddell has recently been carrying out some experiments 

 for the Post Office in Bushey Park with the new thermo- 

 galvanometer which he exhibited at the recent Royal 

 Society soiree. This instrument is capable of directly 

 measuring the current received by the aerial at the re- 

 ceiving station, and thus affords a means .of making scien- 

 tific experiments on many of the problems connected with 

 the subject which have long waited for a satisfactory 

 elucidation. 



The weather report issued by the Meteorological Office 

 for the week ending July i6 shows that from the beginning 

 of the year the rainfall has equalled or exceeded the mean 

 in all districts except the north-east and east of England 

 and the midland counties, where it is still an inch below 

 the average. In the north of Scotland the fall is 45 inches 

 above the mean. The temperature for the week was above 

 the mean in all districts, amounting to 6° in the midland 

 counties, where the maxima reached 85°. The same value 

 was recorded in south and east England. On Sunday last 

 the maxima were still higher, reaching 91° in parts of 

 Hertfordshire. Thunderstorms have occurred in many 

 places. 



The Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society will 

 celebrate its centenary on January 17, 1905. 



The International Botanical Congress will meet in Vienna 

 in 1905 from June 12 to June 18. 



The deaths are announced of Prof. Albert Rilliet, of 

 Geneva ; of Prof. \". Merz, formerly of Zurich ; and of Prof. 

 Karl Bopp, formerly of Stuttgart. 

 NO. 18 I 2, Vt)l.. 70] 



The death is announced of Prof. F. Knapp at the age of 

 ninety-one. Prof. Knapp was for many years professor of 

 applied chemistry in the Chemical Institute at Brunswick. 

 He was a former student and son-in-law of I.iebig. 



SioxoR PiETRO Blaserna has been elected president and 

 Signor Francesco d'Ovidio vice-president of the Reale 

 .^ccademia dei Lincei, of Rome ; Prof. Giuseppe Gabrielli 

 has been appointed librarian. 



Dr. E. Rupp, of Marburg, and Dr. F. Dolezalek, of 

 Berlin, have been raised to the rank of professors ; Prof. F. 

 Schilling, of Gbttingen, has been appointed at the technical 

 s.hool of Danzig, and Prof, von Margold, of Aachen, has 

 also been appointed there, both as professors of mathe- 

 matics. 



The specimens and other material collected by the Scottish 

 .Antarctic Expedition have arrived at the headquarters of 

 the expedition in Edinburgh. The Scotia, with the members 

 of the expedition on board, is expected to reach the Clyde 

 to-day. 



Provisional arrangements have been made by the 

 American Society of Civil Engineers and the Canadian 

 Society of Civil Engineers for the forthcoming visit 

 of members of the Institution of Civil Engineers lo 

 the United States and Canada. Broadly, the visit will 

 commence with a week spent in New York and the neigh- 

 bourhood. Thence, a journey will be made to Montreal by 

 a special train placed at the disposal of the party. A week 

 will be spent in Canada, for which similar special travelling 

 facilities will be provided ; and this part of the tour will 

 be concluded at Chicago, whence the party will proceed 

 (again by special train) to St. Louis, which is expected to 

 be reached on September 30. The party will leave Liverpool 

 by the Cunard ss. Etrtiria on September 3, and may expect 

 to reach New York on September 10. 



The following is an abridged summary of the prizes 

 offered by the Belgian Academy for 1904 and 1905 : — For 

 1904, in mathematics and physics, critical phenomena in 

 physics, viscosity of liquids, study of «-linear forms where 

 H>3, thermal conductivity of liquids and solutions, each 

 a prize of 600 francs ; unipolar induction of Weber, 800 

 francs. In natural sciences, the Cambrian rocks of Stavelot 

 (Belgium), 800 francs ; modifications produced in minerals 

 bv pressure, 600 francs ; development of .Amphioxus (see 

 Bulletin, 1904, No. 4, for corrected announcement), 1000 

 francs ; effects of osmotic pressure in animal life, and 

 Devonian flora of Belgium, each 600 francs ; hetercecism 

 of parasitic fungi, Soo francs ; and physiological action of 

 histones, 1000 francs. All memoirs to be written in French 

 or Flemish, and sent in before August i, 1904. For 1905, 

 in mathematics and physics, combinations of halogens, 

 1000 francs; physical phenomena accompanying mutual 

 dissociation of liquids, 800 francs ; linear complexes of the 

 third order, 600 francs ; principal terms in the periodic 

 deviations of the vertical, 600 francs. In natural science 

 for the same year, effect of albuminoids in nutrition, repro- 

 duction of Dicyemid.TB, formations intermediate between 

 the Bruxellian and Tongrian in Brabant, geological age 

 of certain Oligocene deposits in Belgium, sexuality of the 

 individuals resulting from division of a single ovum m 

 certain dioecious plants; prizes, looo francs for each of 

 these five subjects; silicates of Belgian rocks, &c., 

 800 francs. In addition to these ordinary prizes the 

 academy will award the following :— June 30, 1905, a 

 Charles Lemaire prize relating to public works; June 30, 

 1904, a Louis Melsens prize for applied chemistry or 

 phvs'ics; December 31, 1904 a Charles Lagrange prize for 



