442 
NATORE 
[Marcu 10, 1904 
director is no longer connected with the publication. 
Further, though the instrumental equipment has been ex- 
tended, and is no doubt now in a high state of efficiency, 
yet the new director will probably find that larger telescopes 
are necessary to enable the observatory to compete with 
other national observatories. One may look for consider- 
able expansion in this direction under the guidance of an 
astronomer so well known as Dr. Hermann Struve, who, it 
is reported, will take up his residence in Berlin next October 
as the director of the observatory. His reputation, built 
mainly on his admirable work connected with Saturn’s 
satellites, will have confirmed him in the importance and 
advantage of instruments possessed of great optical power. 
A RevaccixaTion Bill, promoted by the Imperial Vaccin- 
ation League, has been introduced into the House of 
Commons by Sir John Batty Tuke, and is backed by Sir 
M. Foster, Sir J. Dorrington, Sir R. C. Jebb, Dr. Thomp- 
son, and Dr. Farquharson among others. The Bill provides 
for the revaccination of all children between the ages of 
twelve and thirteen, except those who may be exempted in 
the way prescribed by the Act of 1898, or on medical grounds. 
A manifesto in support of revaccination at school age has 
been circulated by the league, and has already received the 
signatures of a number of influential persons, including the 
Chief Rabbi, Lord Kelvin, Sir Frederick Pollock, head- 
masters of public schools, heads of colleges, &c. Mrs. 
Garrett Anderson, M.D., the honorary secretary of the 
league, in a letter to the Times solicits further signatures, 
to be addressed to 53 Berners Street, W., and headed 
“Manifesto in Support of Revaccination,’? and with the 
name, address, and style of the sender clearly written. 
WitH regard to the article on the ‘‘ Fish Hypothesis and 
the Transmission of Leprosy,’’ that appeared in Nature of 
February 25, Dr. John Knott writes to point out that leprosy 
has disappeared from Ireland, though the condition of the 
people, especially on the west coast, has but little improved, 
and half decomposed fish is still freely eaten. 
A comMITTEE has been formed with the object of obtain- 
ing subscriptions for a memorial to the late Prof. Nicol, in 
association with the University of Aberdeen, in which he 
taught for twenty-five years. The form the memorial should 
take has not been decided, but a suggestion has been 
made that if a memorial brass, similar to those erected to the 
memory of his predecessor and his successor, the late Profs. 
Macgiilivray and Nicholson, were provided, and placed with 
them in the University of Aberdeen, the ornithologist, strati- 
graphist, and paleontologist who have brought honour to 
the university would be fittingly remembered in association 
with the scene and centre of their life work. The following 
are among the names of members of the committee :—Prof. 
J. W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S., Dr. J. Horne, JIGS, Dyes 13S Wis 
Peach, F.R.S., Prof. Stephenson, Prof. Trail, F.R.S., and 
Prof. J. Arthur Thomson. The secretary and treasurer, to 
whom subscriptions should be sent, is Dr. W. Mackie, 13 
North Street, Elgin. : 
Tue French Association for the Advancement of Science 
has decided, on the proposition of the president, M. Laisant, 
to endow a course of astronomical physics in connection 
with’ the faculty of science of the University of Paris. The 
| another. 
professor is to be M. Pierre Puiseux, of the Paris 
Observatory. 
We regret to see the announcement, in the Daily 
Chronicle, that M. F. A. Fouqué, the eminent French | 
geologist and mineralogist, died in Paris on March GF ian || 
his seventy-sixth year. 
NO. 1793, VOL.. 69] 
A TELEGRAM from Mayotta, one of the Comoro Islands, 
states that since February 25 a volcanic eruption has been 
in progress in Comoro. Lava is being thrown up from 
three craters, situated about 1ooo yards distant from one 
It is reported that at Penzance and some of the 
neighbouring villages an earthquake shock was felt at 
I p.m. on March 3. A telegram received at New York states 
that an earthquake, more violent than any experienced in 
that city during the past thirty years, occurred at Lima, the 
capital of Peru, at 5.20 a.m. on March 4. 
Tue death is announced of Dr. A. S. Murray, keeper of 
Greek and Roman antiquities in the British Museum. Dr. 
Murray was born near Arbroath, in Forfarshire, on January 
8, 1841. He was educated at the Royal High School of 
Edinburgh and Edinburgh University, and was also for some 
time a student at the University of Berlin. In February, 
1867, he was appointed assistant in the department of Greek 
and Roman antiquities in the British Museum, the then 
keeper of the department being Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) 
Newton. When Newton retired from the keepership in the 
spring of 1886, Mr. Murray was appointed his successor. 
Among the unofiicial works written by him were a ‘* Manual 
of Mythology,’’ a ‘‘ History of Greek Sculpture,’’ a ‘* Hand- 
book of Greek Archzology,’’ and ‘‘ Sculptures of the 
Parthenon.’’ Dr. Murray’s scientific position was remark- 
able for the fact that, almost alone among modern arche- 
ologists, he refused to accept the evidences for the early 
dates that are now assigned to the Mycenzean period of 
Greek antiquity. Dr. Murray was a correspondant of the 
Institute of France, corresponding member of the Prussian 
Academy of Sciences, member of the British Academy, 
fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and vice-president of 
the Hellenic Society. 
Tue Trustees of the Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund 
made the following grants at a meeting held in Boston, Mass., 
on February 5 :—300 dollars to Prof. Morris W. Travers, 
London, for researches on the absolute scale of temperature, 
by experiments with liquid hydrogen; 150 dollars to Prof. 
Benjamin L. Seawgll, Warrensburg, Missouri, for study of 
the taxonomy and ecology of the organisms of fresh-water 
lakes, in relation to fish foods and water supplies; 4o dollars 
to Prof. A. Nicolas, Nancy, France, for studies on the 
embryology of reptiles; 250 dollars to Prof. H. S. Grindley, 
Urbana, Ill., for the separation and purification of the nitro- 
genous substances of meats ; 200 dollars to Prof. R. Hiirthle, 
Breslau, Germany, to determine the relation between 
pressure and the obliteration of circulation; 143 dollars to 
Prof. W. J. Moenkhaus, Bloomington, Ind., for studies on 
the individuality of maternal and paternal chromatin in 
hybrids; 50 dollars to Mr. S. P. Fergusson, Hyde Park, 
Mass., to measure the errors of absorption hygrometers ; 
300 dollars to Dr. Werner Rosenthal, Erlangen, Germany, 
for researches on the Lombardy chicken pest ; and 300 dollars 
to Prof. Henry S. Carhart, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the 
preparation and study of Clark and Weston standard cells. 
Tire twenty-sixth annual general meeting of the Institute 
of Chemistry was held on March 1, Mr. David Howard, 
president, being in the chair. Prof. Tilden moved the adop- 
tion of the annual report of the council, at the same time 
commenting on the general progress of the institute. He 
considered it satisfactory to note that, notwithstanding the 
increasingly stringent regulations as to training, the very 
high standard of the examinations, and in spite of the loss 
of members by death, the number of fellows and associates, 
viz. 1098, was 251 higher than in 1894. He also referred 
