290 



NATURE 



[December 12, 1918 



fifty years, it was nut only Ehe wettesl S'epfeniBer, but 

 better than any calendar month of the year. In many 

 lain I'll every day. At Greenwich thd mean 

 temperature Efli each 0? tne aniumn months differs 

 uiih a few tenths of a degree from the normal, I he 

 mean of the maximum anil minimum lemp. i aiures 



tin Septerdbei was 57 , ( )<i. ■! aSid NovJjmSei 



«° t in Sept. ml>. 1 me fhermometef ranged from 7, 

 tp j8°, October (>4 L to 31°, and November 59 to 19 

 September had six day's with Ehe thermometer above 

 ;,/ , Octobei seven days above 6o°, and November 

 thirteen days above go°. There were seven nights in 

 November with tin' lowest temperature above the 

 rtionthiy mean temperature for the twenty-four hums; 

 two of these occurred in the closing week. The 

 monthly weather report shows thai Septembei was 

 generally cold over the whole country, and the tem- 

 peratures on Septembei 29 and 30 were in many 

 places lower than any previouslj recorded in Septenv 

 ber. At Greenwich' the duration of bright sunshine 

 for the three autumn months was about six hours 

 more than the normal, the sun registering for 

 itv hour- in September, 7S in October, and 69 in 

 November. 



The American Ornithologists' I nion has elected 

 Dr. Walter E. Cqlh'nge, of St. Andrews University, 

 a corresponding fellow of the society in recognition 

 of his investigations on economic ornithology;. 



Pi;ovit>Ki> an essaj deemed worthy b\ the com- 

 mittee of award be received;, the College of Physicians 

 of Philadelphia will, on July 14 next, award the 

 Alvarenga prize, value about 50L, for a paper not 

 previously published upon any subject in medicine. 

 Competing essays must reach the secretary of the 

 college, Mr. F. R. Packard, 19 South 22nd Street, 

 Philadelphia, on or before May 1, 1919. 



The death is announced, in his seventy-first year, of 

 Prof. Pierre de Peyster Rickigtts", professor of assaying 

 at Columbia University, New York, from 1885 to 

 iSqi, and from 1893 to 1900 professor of analytical 

 chemistry and assaying. Since his retirement from the 

 University Prof. RickettS had heen the head of a firm 

 of mineralogical consulting engineers. In 1870 he 

 published "Notes on Assaying," the first hook on the 

 subject to In adopted as a text-hook throughout the 

 colleges of the United States. 



We regret to note that the death of Mr. Frederick 

 Edwards is recorded in Engineering for December 6. 

 Mr. Edwards was born in 1X48, and his death 

 occurred on November 27. Mis name is well known 

 in engineering circles as the inventor of the air-pump 

 bearing his name. Hundreds of engineers have 

 :d air-pumps since the days of Watt, yet that 

 invented by Mr. Edwards marked a great advance 

 on all that preceded it, and this result was attained 

 by a simplification of parts which left men wondering 

 why it had nut been effected years before. Mr. Edward-, 

 after varied experience, commenced practising as a 

 consulting engineer in 1871, and continued to do so 

 down to the time of his death. He was a member 

 of the Institutii 'is of Civil Engineers, Naval Archi- 

 tects, and Mechanical Engineers. 



The death of Mr. R. J. Pocock from influenza and 

 pneumonia at Hyderabad Observatory on October 

 removes a must promising and energetic astronomer 

 at the age of twenty-nine years. Horn at Harlesden, 

 London, on January 23, [889, Mr. Pocock al an 

 early age showed keen interest in scientific sub- 

 jects, especially in astronomy, his mental faculties 

 bi ing encouraged and stimulated b\ his father. At 



NO. 2563, VOL. I02] 



tin agi "I nine he went to Christ's HospitaT, Wist 

 lluisliein, leaving there in 1008 with a si hularship .11 



(jueen's College, Oxford, where he greatL enha 



big ni.iilein.ilir.il reputation, uhiainin^ In-' 1 : 



in the mathematical school in 11,0,, and 1912. He 

 then gave a \e;ir's wink at the Iniversitv Observatory 1 

 for the B.Se, ri search degree, and in th' - 

 lie. .1111. 1I1. senior mathematical scholar. Evidently 



being marked out for an astronomical career, - Mr. 



P. I '.I- appointed the director of the Nizamiah 



Observatory in to'4, with the definite object of assist- 

 ing the Santiago (Chile) Observatory in completing 

 the /..ne 17° to —23° for the International Survey. 

 This involved the taking of 720 good negatives in 

 - 17 to 20 , and the consequent measurement and 



necessarx 1 eductions. At Mr. Pocock 's death two of 

 the zones (31,11 plates) had been finished and the results 

 printed; ihe other plates had keen so far completed 



that onh 11." regions remained to l>. photographed 

 and measured. This satisfactory result was the out- 

 come of his own keen and energetic work-, which 

 instilled similar qualities in Ihe Indian assistants. In 

 addition to this somevvhal tedious and absorbing work 

 Mr. Pocock found time, in five years; to contribute 

 fifteen papers to the Royal Astrpnomical Society (of 



which he was elected a fellow in 1914), four of which 

 were read al the November meeting a month after 

 his death. 



Mi;. I-;. A. Martin, president of ihe Croydon 



Natural History Society, has reprinted an interesting 

 lecture on Anglo-Saxon remains in thai neighbour- 

 hood. Ihe earliest of these are a series of graves 

 with cremated bodies found near Mitcham and Hack- 

 bridge. Near Mitcham ha\( been found cases in 

 which it is assumed that widows were immolated with 

 their dead husbands. Interments in tumuli on 

 Farthing Downs have provided some interesting 

 artifacts. Near Thornton Heath railway station a 

 stone coffin with a hoard of cuius was unearthed. 

 The local museum contains a fine collection of Saxon 

 remains found at Croydon in 181)4. Saxon occupation 

 of the district is illustrated In a number of local 

 place-names. 



I\ the Scientific MontJ&y (vol. \ii.,N'o. 5, November, 

 1918) \Y. La Rue discusses the problem of testing 

 for intelligence, with special reference to the Army. 

 Me intelligence test is no longer of merely academic 

 significance with the object of classification; it is not 

 a museum arrangement of individuals that is the 

 goal, hut ii is really necessary fur practical purposes, 

 since we are often now in the position of requiring 

 to know what people will or can do in a given situa- 

 tion. The criterion of a test and of a tester is the 



possibility of predicting from the subject's behaviour 



with regard to the lest how he will behave with regard 

 to other problems. Just as we can prove a machine by 

 testing its various pari.-, so ma\ we test for intel- 

 ligence. The alternatives are not laboratory tests 

 versus no tests, hut laboratory tests a- against the 

 casual test of individual opinion, which has many 

 limes been found to he fallible. In order that we may 

 get more definite results, we ought to test, not only 

 for general intelligence, hut for special situations as 

 well. I'h. author maintains that ihe n suits of recent 

 work done on these lines in the American Arm) are 

 very promising. Although intelligence is not ihe only 

 factor desirable in a soldier, line officers rating more 

 highly obedience, adaptability, and dependability, vet 

 from experiments it is found that if a man is placed 

 according tu his intelligence, he will he found to be 

 placed substantially according to his camp value. The 

 author believes that wherever there are problems of 



