456 
NATURE : 
[DEcEMBER 18, 1913 
not only the birds of Egypt, but also the rarer 
mammals. Its example should at once be followed 
in British India, in British Guiana, and in British 
Honduras. 
Mr. Hucu Purriires, The Manor House, Hitchin, 
Hertfordshire, stated in The Times of December 4 
that Newton’s house in St. Martin’s Street, W.C., 
was being taken down carefully, after every detail of 
its construction had been noted and a plan of the 
structure made by a firm of London architects, with 
the view of re-erecting the house elsewhere at some 
future date. In reply to an inquiry, he informs us 
that at present he has not been successful in finding 
anyone who will help him to re-erect the house. He 
says :—‘‘ It would be necessary to spend about 10,0001. 
to rebuild and endow it as a museum, and this sum 
would pay for its upkeep, and its interest would leave 
a small annual purchasing fund for the acquisition 
of relics of Sir Isaac Newton and the other inhabi- 
tents of the house.”’ 
Tue Russian Supplement of The Times for Decem- 
ber 15 contains an account of M. Vilkitski’s explora- 
tion with the ice-breakers Taimyr and Vaigatz. On 
the outward voyage, as the vessels were sailing west- 
wards, a new island some miles in circumference was 
discovered south-east of New Siberia. Nothing was 
seen of Sannikof Land. About thirty nautical miles 
north-east of Cape Cheliuskin the expedition found a 
new island, free of ice, lying along the parallel. Its 
eastern end was seven miles broad. Thirty’ miles 
from the eastern point of this island land was again 
sighted on September 3, and the'explorers: reached the 
shore at lat. 80° 4! N., and long. 97° 12/ E.- They 
raised the Russian flag and gave to the newly dis- 
covered land the name of the Emperor Nicholas II. 
It is of volcanic origin, is lofty, and contains exten- 
sive glaciers. The coast was then traced north-west- 
wards for a distance of twenty miles up to lat. 80° N., 
long. 96° E., when further progress was stopped by 
compact ice. On the way back the expedition called 
at Bennett Island, raised a monument to Baron. von 
Toll, and took on board his collections, weighing 
242 lb. The same publication -reports ‘the discovery 
of prehistoric remains on the shores of. Lake Baikal, 
opposite Olkhon Island. Here M. Petri found eleven 
successive abodes of primitive man. Flint implements 
occurred in the lowest layer, and in the higher pottery, 
with designs becoming more artistic towards the 
upper levels. 
A PROVISIONAL committee, formed of representatives 
of the Illuminating Engineering Society, the Institu- 
tion of Electrical Engineers, the Institution of Gas 
Engineers, and the National Physical Laboratory, 
held a meeting on November 29 at which arrange- 
ments were made for the formation of a National 
Illumination Committee, to be constituted according 
to the statutes of the International Illumination Com- 
mission, with the primary object of affiliating Great 
Britain to that commission. The provisional com- 
mittee recommended that the National Committee 
should consist of five representatives of each of the 
three technical- societies, and two representatives of 
tion has been adopted, and the following have been 
nominated as members of the committee:—By the 
Illuminating Engineering Society: Mr. Leon Gaster, 
Mr. F. W. Goodenough, Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, 
and Mr. A. P. Trotter (this society has not yet 
nominated its fifth representative); by the Institution 
of Electrical Engineers: Mr. F. Bailey, Mr. W. Dud- 
dell, Mr. K. Edgcumbe, ‘Mr. Haydn Harrison, and 
Prof. J. T. Morris; by the Institution ‘of Gas 
Engineers: Mr. E. Allen, Mr. J. Bond, Mr. W. J. A. 
Butterfield, Dr. H. G. Colman, and Mr. H. Watson; 
and by the National Physical Laboratory: Dr. R. T. 
Glazebrook, C.B., and Mr. C. C. Paterson. The first 
meeting of this National Committee tool. place on 
December 2, when the following were chosen as 
officers :—Chairman, Mr. E. Allen; Vice-Chairmen, 
Mr. W. Duddell and Mr. A. P. Trotter; Honorary 
Secretary and Treasurer,.Mr. W. J. A. Butterfield. 
Great Britain is entitled to two delegates on the 
executive committee of the International Illumination 
Commission, and Dr. H. G. Colman and Mr. W. 
Duddell were accordingly appointed by the committee 
as the delegates from this country. om 
Mr. Martin Joun Sutton, who died on Sunday, 
December 14, in his sixty-fourth year, was for 
many years the head of the seed establishment of 
Messrs. Sutton and Sons, Reading. He was a man 
of great energy and sound judgment; he had strong 
convictions and possessed the courage : 
Despite his long connection with the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society, on the council of which he served for 
nearly twenty-five years, he opposed strenuously the 
proposal to substitute a fixed show at Park Royal for 
the perambulating show which had done such fine’ 
service for agriculture. The event justified his oppo- 
sition and approved his foresight. Notwithstanding 
the imperative claims of his business—claims which 
he never ignored—Mr. Sutton found time to take a 
prominent part in the agricultural, educational, and 
religious life of the country, as well as the civic life 
of his native town. Soon after the establishment of 
the-college at Reading he became and remained a 
member of the council of that institution. He watched 
its growth with interest, and helped it with generous 
gifts, but not a few of those engaged in research in 
Reading count the kindly help and wise counsel which 
he bestowed so unstintingly among the greater of his 
gifts to the college. Like his co-partners and his 
successors, Mr. Martin John Sutton was willing 
always to place the vast resources of the Reading 
house and trial grounds at the disposal of those 
engaged in the investigation of plants and their uses. 
Mr. Sutton published several important papers on 
scientific subjects, and his volume on ‘t Permanent and 
Temporary Pastures,” which is a standard work, 
shows the great amount of exact and strictly scientific 
knowledge which may be amassed by men primarily 
engaged in business, and leads the merely scientific 
man to regret that this knowledge is not more often - 
put into general circulation. 
Can any evidence be found of a change in the 
climate of Europe during the last thousand years 
the National Physical Laboratory. This recommenda- | before the Christian era? This question is discussed 
NO. 2303, VOL. 92] 
of them. | 
