396 



NA TURE 



[February 22, 1906 



Africa last year. The council of the association has re- 

 solved to add to the fund the balance of the special funds 

 raised to meet the expenses of the South Africa meeting, 

 so that the total sum to be disposed of is between 1500/. 

 and K100/. It is proposed that the medal, struck in bronze, 

 together with the balance of the income on the fund after 

 paying for the medal, shall be awarded " for achievement 

 and promise in scientific research in South Africa," and 

 that, so far as circumstances shall allow, the award shall 

 be made annually. 



Profs. F. Koiilrausch and A. A. Michelson have been 

 elected honorary Fellows of the Physical Society of London. 



An International Exposition, in which discoveries and 

 inventions relating to medicine and hvgiene will have a 

 prominent place, is to be held at Antwerp in April and 

 May of the present year, under the patronage of H.R.H. 

 the Countess of Flanders. Communications should be 

 addressed to the secretary's office, 20 Rue d'Arenberg, 

 Antwerp. 



Tin, anniversary meeting of the Geological Society was 

 held on February 16. Sir Archibald Geikie, Sec.R.S., 

 was elected president. The medals and funds awarded, as 

 announced already (p. 274), were presented. The president 

 delivered his anniversary address, which dealt with the 

 influence of the geological structure of English lakeland 

 upon its present features — a study in physiography. 



It is stated in the Globe of February 17 that the first 

 wireless telegraph station at Machrihanish, Argyllshire, is 

 now completed, and communication has been commenced 

 with other stations in Great Britain. The tower, which is 

 400 Feel high, has been buill to the order of the National 

 Electric Signalling Company, of Pittsburg, by the Brown 

 Horsting Company, New York. The diameter of the 

 column is about 5 feet, and consists of pipe-shaped tubes, 

 inside of which are the ladders lor ascending. 



The Milan Chemical Society has appointed a committee 

 to undertake the compilation of a catalogue of the Italian 

 chemical industries. 



At the invitation of the committee appointed to consider 

 the foundation of a Chemische Reichsanstalt, a meeting 

 was to be held yesterday in the Aula of the University 

 of Berlin to hear an account of the steps which have 

 already been taken by the committee, and the reasons put 

 forward for such a chemical institution. 



By a decree of the German Chancellor, an advisory com- 

 mittee of specialists is to be appointed to the Imperial 

 Biological Institute for Agriculture and Forestry. The 

 following appointments, amongst others, have now been 

 made to this committee, and hold good until the end of 

 1910: — Prof. J. Behrens, Baden; Prof. Buchner, Berlin; 

 Prof. DelbrUck, Berlin; Prof. Gartner, Jena; Prof. 

 Gerlach, Bromberg ; Dr. Hiltner, Munich ; Prof. Hollrung, 

 Halle; Prof. Kellner, Leipzig; Prof. Kirchner, Wiirtem- 

 berg; Prof. Ludwig Klein, Karlsruhe; Prof. A. Koch, 

 Gotlingen; Prof. Kuhn, Halle; Prof. Moller, Eberswalde ; 

 Prof. P. Wagner, Darmstadt ; Prof. Wortmann, Geisen- 

 heim. The director of the Imperial Institute for Agri- 

 culture and Forestry has been elected president of the 

 .nl\ isory committee. 



On Thursday next, March 1, Mr. Francis Darwin will 

 deliver the first of three lectures at the Royal Institution 

 on the " Physiology of Plants," and on March ; Prof. 

 J. J. Thomson will commence a course of six lectures on 

 "The Corpuscular Theory of Matter." The Friday even- 



ing discourse on March 2 will be delivered by Dr. R. 

 Caton, the subject being " Hippocrates and the Newly 

 Discovered Health Temple at Cos," and on March 9 by 

 Dr. R. Hutchison, on "Some Dietetic Problems." 



The thirty-third annual dinner of old students of the 

 Royal School of Mines was held on February 16. After 

 the loyal toasts, the chairman, Prof. S. H. Cox, was .isked 

 to present to Prof. J. \Y. Judd a service of plate with an 

 address and an album containing the signatures of 400 

 of his pupils and friends in all parts of the world as a 

 mark of their esteem on his retirement from the office of 

 dean of the school. In the address warm appreciation is 

 expressed of Prof. Judd's services to geological science 

 during his tenure of the chair of geology from 1877 to 

 1005, and the interest he invariably showed in the work 

 and welfare of his students. Prof. Judd, in reply, alluded 

 to the recently published report of the Government com- 

 mittee, which, he said, has outlined measures that will 

 form a basis for the re-organisation of the school as a 

 great and flourishing institution worthy of the Empire. 

 The wants of a technical institution are not, he continued, 

 identical with those of a university, either of the ancient 

 or modern type, and it will be a calamity U the distinctive 

 features of their school are lost by its being drawn into 

 the vortex of a university. In proposing the toast of " The 

 School," tlii- chairman also alluded to the report of the 

 departmental committee, and said those associated with 

 the school are desirous of preserving its identity and the 

 degree of Associate of the Royal School of Mines. They 

 one and all dread being absorbed by a huge scientific 

 institution, of which they will become only a subsidiary 

 branch. 



At .1 meeting held at the .Mansion House last June it 

 was decided to commemorate the achievements of the late 

 Sir Henry Bessemer by a memorial, which should have 

 for its object some educational work so far-reaching in 

 its beneficent influence as are the results of Be; 

 invention. The memorial committee deferred the active 

 prosecution of the scheme until the publication of the 

 report of the departmental committee on the work of the 

 Royal College of Science, and, now that this report has 

 been issued, it is possible to proceed actively with the 

 memorial scheme. The committee is confident that no 

 memorial could be more appropriate than one which has 

 for its object the scientific advancement of the metallurgical 

 and mining industries, and that none would be more likely 

 to have met with Bessemer 's warm approval. It has been 

 arranged that the objects of the memorial fund shall be : — 

 (1) The establishment of open international memorial 

 scholarships for post-graduate practical work tenable (except 

 such as it is intended to allocate to the Royal School of 

 Mines, the Sheffield and Birmingham Universities, the Arm- 

 strong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or other approved 

 British institutions) in any part of the British Empire, in 

 the United States of America, and in Europe. It is intended 

 that these scholarships shall be of such value, and shall 

 be awarded under such conditions, that they will be re- 

 garded by students of any nation as a prize worth striving 

 for, and as an incentive to the highest scientific attain- 

 ment. (2) The equipment of mining and metallurgical 

 memorial laboratories in the Royal School of Mines at 

 South Kensington as the centre of the memorial. The 

 land and the cost of the new buildings and maintenance 

 for the school will be provided from Government and other 



- -ces. (}t The erection of a statue of Bessemer in the 



new Royal School of Mines at South Kensington. Sub- 

 scriptions amounting to about 8000/. have already been 



NO. 1895, VOL. 7$] 



