Marcu 17, 1904] 
NATURE 
469 
day two earthquake shocks were felt in the neighbourhood 
of Botzen, in the southern Tyrol, in consequence of which 
a large landslip occurred. 
Tue council of the Society of Arts will proceed to consider | 
the award of the Albert medal for 1904 early in May next, 
and members of the society are invited to forward to the 
secretary, on or before April 2, the names of such men of 
high distinction as they may think worthy of this honour. 
The medal was struck to reward “ distinguished merit in 
promoting arts, manufactures, and commerce.”’ 
A RevuTER message from St. Petersburg states that a 
scientific expedition, organised by the Russian Ministry of 
Finance, will leave there for Abyssinia within the next few 
days. The expedition will be under the leadership of M. 
Kournakoff, mining engineer, and its object will be to ex- 
plore the auriferous districts near the source of the White 
Nile. 
Tue following are among the lecture arrangements at the 
Royal Institution, after Easter :—Prof. L. C. Miall, three 
lectures on the transformations of animals; Mr. L. Fletcher, 
three lectures on meteorites; Mr. H. F. Newall, two lectures 
on the solar corona; Prof. Dewar, three lectures on dis- 
sociation; Mr. H. G. Wells, two lectures on literature and 
the State; and Sir W. Martin Conway, two lectures on | 
Spitzbergen in the seventeenth century. The Friday even- 
ing meetings will be resumed on April 15, when Monsignor 
the Count vay de Vaya and Luskod will deliver a discourse 
on Korea and the Koreans. Succeeding discourses will 
probably be given by Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, Prof. E. 
Rutherford, H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco, 
Arrhenius, and other gentlemen. 
We hear from Stockholm of the death of the well-known 
zoologist, Prof. Fredrik Adam Smitt, which took place on 
February 19. Born on May g, 1839, at Halmstad, he took 
his doctor’s degree at Upsala in 1863, and became docent 
in zoology at that university. While in this position he 
joined Torell and Nordenskjéld in their expedition to Spits- 
bergen in 1861, went with Nordenskjéld’s expedition to 
Beeren Island and Spitsbergen in 1868, and accompanied 
the frigate Josefine on her voyage to the Azores, England 
and North America in 1869. On the death of Prof. 
Sundevall in 1871, Smitt, though only thirty-two years 
old, was appointed to succeed him as professor and inten- 
dant at the natural history museum of the State. Smitt 
wrote several papers on marine Invertebrata, notably 
Bryozoa, but it is for his work on fish that he is best 
known, especially for his critical list of the Salmonide in 
the State museum. Of late years he paid much attention 
to the gobies. His scientific knowledge was freely bestowed 
in attempts to help the Swedish fisheries. 
At the annual meeting of the Association of Chambers of 
Commerce last week, it was resolved that the Government 
should be urged to grant early facilities for the passage of 
the Bill for compulsory adoption of metric weights and 
measures throughout the United Kingdom. A resolution 
was approved supporting the motion recently adopted by the 
Royal Society with regard to the position of science in 
higher education, and directing attention, in view of the 
competition with other countries, to the vital importance 
of a knowledge of science being recognised as an essential 
part of general education. After a discussion on Patent 
Law, it was agreed that “‘ this association, whilst welcom- 
ing the instalment of reform secured by the Patent Law 
Amendment Act of 1902, is of opinion that further amend- 
ment is needed in order to secure the forfeiture of all foreign 
NO. 1794, VOL. 69] 
Prot orn 
owned patents for inventions and designs workable in this 
country, which are not so worked within a reasonable limit 
of time.”’ 
In the House of Lords on Tuesday Lord Barnard directed 
attention to the report of the Departmental Committee on 
British Forestry, and asked the President of the Board of 
Agriculture and Fisheries whether the Government proposed 
to take any, and, if so, what, steps to give effect to the 
recommendations of that committee on the subject of educa- 
tion, instruction, and training in forestry. In reply, the 
Earl of Onslow said that the Board of Agriculture proposed 
to act on the recommendations of the departmental com- 
mittee. On Mr. Stafford Howard’s initiative the first steps 
in that direction had already been taken. Without any~ 
assistance from the Treasury a school of forestry had already 
been established by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests 
in the Forest of Dean. Again, through the agency and 
assistance of the Office of Woods and Forests, the Scottish 
Office had entered into communication with certain Scottish 
landowners to secure suitable areas for planting. The 
Treasury had been approached by the Board of Agriculture, 
and had promised assistance in the foundation of at least 
two forestry schools in England. Where these schools 
would be established he could not yet say; but applications 
had been received from many colleges, and from the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge. He had been considering whether the 
University of Cambridge should not have the first claim to 
the attachment of a school of forestry ; but no decision could 
be arrived at until the Secretary of State for India had 
decided what was to be the future of Coopers Hill College. 
His desire was to establish the two schools in different 
localities—one for the training of young men who were 
likely to become landowners or land agents, and the other 
for woodmen. The former he should prefer to see attached 
to one of the great universities. 
Tue Survey Department of the Ministry of Public Works 
at Cairo has published its meteorological report for the year 
1901. It includes hourly meteorological observations at 
Abbassia Observatory, with seismological and magnetic 
observations, monthly and yearly means at a number of 
second order and climatological stations, and ten years’ 
means, 1891-1900, for Wadi-Halfa. Most of the stations 
send telegraphic reports, from which a daily weather report 
is prepared and circulated, including data from several 
Mediterranean stations. 
Tue Danish Meteorological Institute has issued, as in 
previous years, an abstract from its nautical-meteorological 
year-book showing the state of the ice in the Arctic seas 
during 1903. The conditions are shown on five charts, for 
the months April to August, and the particulars are dis- 
cussed in Danish and English text. The conclusions drawn 
are (1) that about the normal amount of sea-ice from the 
Polar Sea entered the temperate seas; (2) that the 
Labrador current brought an unusual number of ice- 
bergs with it in 1903; (3) that there is no indication that 
| the appearance of icebergs east of Newfoundland will be 
more frequent than usual in the year 1904. 
Tue activity of the Faraday Society has given a fresh 
impetus to our contemporary the Electro-chemist and 
Metallurgist, which is now the official organ of the society. 
The current number contains a report of the proceedings 
at the February meeting, at which M. Hollard’s interest- 
ing paper on the electrolytic separation of metals was dis- 
cussed, and a paper by Dr, Perkin on the electrolytic 
analysis of gold. There are also a large number of notes on 
