694 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 19, I914 
Navy’’; and on Thursday, March 5, Prof. C. F. 
Jenkin will begin a course of three lectures on heat 
and cold. The Friday evening discourse on February 
27 will be delivered by Prof. W. A. Bone on surface 
combustion. 
Tue sea-fish hatching season at the Port Erin 
Biological Station has commenced earlier than usual 
this year, and seems to promise well. The first few 
hundreds of plaice eggs were found on the surface of 
the pond on January 28, and on February 3 embryos 
at least a week old were obtained. The pond was 
systematically skimmed for the first time on February 
5, and a haul resulted of more than 200,000 fertilised 
plaice eggs, which are now in the hatching boxes. 
In recent years the first fertilised eggs have generally 
been obtained on some date between the middle of 
February and the first week of March, so the present 
season seems to be at least a fortnight earlier than 
usual. 
Ar the anniversary meeting of the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society, held on February 13, the following 
officers and council were elected for the current 
year :—President, Major E. H. Hills; Vice-Presidents, 
Dr. F. W. Dyson, Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher, Prof. H. F. 
Newall, and Prof. H. H. Turner; Treasurer, Mr. 
E. B. Knobel; Secretaries, Prof. A. S. Eddington and 
Prof. A. Fowler; Foreign Secretary, Prof. Arthur 
Schuster; Council, Dr. S. Chapman, Sir W. H. M. 
Christie, Rev. A. L. Cortie, S.J., Dr. A. C. D. Crom- 
melin, Mr. W. Heath, Mr. J. H. Jeans, Dr. W. H. 
Maw, Prof J. W. Nicholson, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, 
Dr. A. A. Rambaut, Prof. R. A. Sampson, and Mr. 
F. J. M. Stratton. 
Tue tenth annual meeting of the Association of 
American Geographers was held at Princeton at the 
beginning of last month. Mr. A. P. Brigham was 
elected president for 1914. One of the most important 
features of the meeting was the adoption by the asso- 
ciation of the plan of cooperation proposed by the 
American Geographical Society. The plan provides 
for (1) a joint research committee of the two organisa- 
tions to administer a joint research fund; (2) a joint 
meeting in New York each spring; (3) the publication 
by the association in collaboration with the American 
Geographical Society of the annals of the association ; 
(4) an interchange of the publications of the two 
societies. 
From numerous cuttings from the issues of the 
Manila Press for December 19 last which have 
reached us, we learn that the Bill introduced into the 
local Assembly, and intended to reduce the expenses 
of the Philippine Weather Bureau, has not been 
favourably received. Father Algué, the director of the 
bureau, who has presided over its activities for many 
years with conspicuous success, was given the oppor- 
tunity on December 18 of laying before the Upper 
House, or Commission, as it is called, particulars as 
to the work of the bureau, and the small cost at which 
it is conducted. Commenting on Father Algué’s 
statement the next day, the Manila Daily Bulletin, 
instead of supporting the suggested retrenchment, 
said ‘‘to the average man it should appear strange 
NO. 2312, VOL. 92] 
| medical profession to women. 
! in her final examination. 
that no attempt is being made to increase the salaries 
of Father Algué and his entire staff at least 100 per 
cent.” ° 
WE recently announced the issue by Messrs, Mac- 
millan of a new publication, Ancient Egypt. We 
have since received the first number of The Journal of 
Egyptian Archaeology, issued by the Egypt Explora- 
tion Fund. The two publications, though devoted to 
similar subjects, are so different in matter and format 
that there is ample room for both. In the latter the 
article of most general interest is that by Prof. Sayce 
on the date of Stonehenge. He directs attention to 
certain beads, now in the museum at Devizes, which 
he identifies as Egyptian, of the period 1450-1250 B.c. 
Mr. H. R. Hall points out that the same identification 
had already been made by him in the third volume of 
‘The Eleventh Dynasty Temple at Deir-el-Bahari” 
(thirty-second memoir of the Egyptian Exploration 
Fund). This identification is not, of course, conclu- 
sive as to the exact date of the barrow. But it corre- 
sponds fairly closely with Prof. Gowland’s conclusions 
derived from his excavations in the course of the re- 
erection of a fallen pillar. The evidence would thus 
assign the erection of Stonehenge to the fourteenth 
century before our era. 
WE regret to announce the death on February 7, in 
her fifty-fourth year, of Dr. Julia Cock, consulting 
surgeon to the New Hospital for Women and Dean 
of the London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medi- 
cine for Women. As a girl, Miss Julia Cock joined 
the small band of pioneer women who opened the 
She had a distin- 
guished career as a student, and obtained honours 
In 1887, Dr. Cock was 
appointed a member of the out-patient staff of the 
New Hospital for Women, and, in 1892, she became 
full physician to the hospital, round which her pro- 
fessional interests henceforth centred. To the end of 
her life she was a student, humble and eager to learn, 
a constant reader, untiring in her enthusiasm and 
devotion, an accurate observer, a magnificent clinical 
teacher. Dr. Cock did not value popularity, and 
never sought for personal recognition. She believed 
that ‘‘so long as good work is done, it does not 
matter who does it.””. For thirteen years she was joint 
lecturer in medicine at the London School of Medicine 
for Women. For eleven years she was dean of the 
school, and the high position taken by it in recent 
years is largely due to her administrative ability and 
statesmanship. She contributed valuable articles on 
various subjects to the literature of medical science. 
Tue death of Prof. H. F. Rosenbusch, on January 
20, 1914, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years, 
removes one of the most influential authors from the 
field of mineralogy and petrology. It is remarkable 
that when Zirkel published his great work on petro- 
graphy in 1866, the study of thin slices of rocks under 
the microscope was not appreciated as an aid to 
research. Seven years later, Rosenbusch had no diffi- 
culty in persuading geologists of the importance of — 
“microscopic physiography,” and a band of pupils 
gathered at Strassburg, and later at Heidelberg, who 
