204 
CHARLES WILLIAM BAILLIE. 
WE regret to have to announce the sudden death, at 
Broadstairs, on June 24, at the age of fifty-five 
years, of Naval Lieutenant Charles William Baillie, 
Marine Superintendent of the Meteorological Office, a 
post which he had held for eleven years. 
Mr. Baillie was perhaps best known by his sounding 
machine, which he invented while on the North American 
Station about 1871, and which is still in use. It is a 
modification of the apparatus known as the “ Hydra” 
machine. It was used in the Challenger expedition, 
and is described in Sir W. Thomson’s book, “The 
Voyage of the Challenger.” Lieut. Baillie was 
much employed in surveying, and while in the Sy/z/a, 
under Captain (now Vice-Admiral) St. John, on the 
China Station, he was selected by the Admiralty to be 
Director of Nautical Studies at the Imperial Naval 
College at Tokio, Japan. The results of his teaching are 
to be seen in the condition of the Japanese Navy at the 
present day. 
After several years of duty in this important post he 
returned to England on half-pay. In October 1879 he 
joined the Meteorological Office, so that he had nearly 
completed twenty years of service in that institution. 
The principal works which he has carried out there 
have been the charts of sea surface temperature, of 
barometrical pressure, and of currents for all oceans. 
The discussion of the meteorology of the South Indian 
Ocean, from the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand, 
which is shortly about to appear, has been carried out 
under Lieut. Baillie’s superintendence, while he had laid 
down the lines of inquiry to be pursued in the work now 
n hand at the office—the “ Meteorology of the South 
Atlantic and of the Coasts of South America.” Lieut. 
Baillie was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical and 
the Royal Astronomical Societies. He married Miss 
Conyers, of Bermuda, and leaves a numerous family. 
NOTES. 
Pror. W. C. BroécGEr, of the University of Christiania, has 
accepted an invitation to deliver the second course of the 
George Huntington Williams memorial lectures at the Johns 
Hopkins University, in April 1900. He has selected as his 
subject “ Modern deductions regarding the origin of igneous 
rocks.” 
Dr. G. AGAMENNONE has been selected to succeed the late 
Prof. M. S. de Rossi as director of the important Geodynamic 
Observatory at Rocca di Papa, near Rome. Dr. Agamennone, 
who is well known by his numerous seismological papers, has 
for several years been assistant at the Central Office of Meteoro- 
logy and Geodynamics at Rome; and, during the years 
1895-96, was in charge of the seismic department of the 
Meteorological Observatory at Constantinople. 
News has been received of the death of Mr. John Whitehead 
while on a scientific mission in the Island of Hainan. Mr. 
Whitehead left England in the autumn of last year for the 
purpose of exploring the less known islands of the Philippine 
group and obtaining a collection of their fauna for the British 
Museum (Natural History). 
WE learn from Sczezce that President McKinley has ap- 
pointed a Commission to determine the best route for a canal 
across the Isthmus of Panama or Nicaragua. The sum of 
1,000,000 dollars has been appropriated for the expenses of the 
Commission, and a number of surveyors will accompany the 
party which will shortly leave for Colon. 
Dr. D. G. BRINTON, Professor of American Archeology and 
Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, has presented to 
NO. 1548, VOL. 60] 
NATURE 
[JUNE 29, 1899 
the University his entire collection of books and manuscript 
relating to the aboriginal languages of North and South America, 
representing the work of twenty-five years, and embracing about 
2000 titles. 
AN excursion to Derbyshire, extending from August 3 to 
August 9, has been arranged by the Geologists’ Association, 
The directors of the excursion are Mr. H. H. Arnold-Bemrose, 
Dr. Wheelton Hind, Mr. J. Shipman, and Mr. J. Barnes, A 
sketch of the geology of the Lower Carboniferous rocks of 
Derbyshire will be given by Mr. Arnold-Bemrose at a meeting 
of the Association on July 7. 
THE preliminary programme of the thirteenth International 
Medical Congress, to be held in Paris from August 2 to August 
9, 1900, has just been issued from the central offices in the 
Rue de I’Ecole de Médecine. M. Lannelongue is president of 
the Congress, and Dr. Chauffard is the secretary-general. 
National Committees have been formed in each country to 
further the work of the Congress. The president of the Com- 
mittee for Great Britain is Sir William MacCormac, Bart., 
K.C.V.O., and the hon. secretaries are Dr. Garrod, Dr. Keser, 
and Mr. D’Arcy Power. 
THE second trade exhibition of photographic and scientific 
apparatus and sundries will be held in the Portman Rooms, on 
April 27 to May 5 next year. Intending exhibitors should 
communicate with the Secretary of the Exhibition, 15 Harp 
Alley, Farringdon Street, E.C. 
To celebrate the centenary of the granting of the charter to 
the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1800, the Council 
propose to apply for a supplementary charter. It is proposed 
to obtain powers to confer the Fellowship of the College on 
persons of distinction who are not members. A memorial has 
been drawn up, suggesting to the Council that a favourable 
opportunity now presents itself for the satisfaction of that desire 
which has at various periods during the century, and especially 
during the last fifteen years, been expressed by a large number 
of the members of the College—viz. that they should be repre- 
sented on the Council. It is submitted that ‘‘it would be both 
equitable and politic that the members should have a voice in 
the conduct of a Corporation of which they are, and always have 
been, numerically and financially the mainstay.’’ At every 
annual meeting of Fellows and members (instituted in 1884) this 
or some similar proposal has been carried practically unani- 
mously, and a petition in its favour was signed by nearly 5000 
members and presented to the Privy Council. The Council 
have twice taken a poll of the Fellows on the question, but on 
neither occasion has an absolute majority voted against the 
proposal, though many were in its favour. 
THE Academy invited its readers to compose an inscription, 
of not more than forty words, suitable to be engraved upon the 
statue of Charles Darwin, just unveiled at Oxford. The best 
inscription was considered to be that submitted by Mr. Edwin 
Cardross, viz.: ‘‘ Charles Darwin, the great naturalist, memor- 
able for his demonstration of the law of evolution in organic 
life, achieved by scientific imagination, untiring observation, 
comparison, and research: also for a blameless life, character- 
ised by the modesty, ‘ the angelic patience, of genius.’ ” 
AN interesting survival of the very ancient custom of watching 
the sun rise at the summer solstice was witnessed on Salis- 
bury Plain on June 21. The Westminster Gazette states that 
on the night preceding the longest day (June 21) there was 
a large gathering of people from the neighbourhood, and also 
from other parts, assembled close to the historic circle of stones 
at Stonehenge, in order to see the sun rise over the Plain. 
When atmospheric conditions are favourable, those watching 
