174 
Tue Nieuwe Courant reports the death, at sixty- 
three years of age, of Prof. A, Torp, of the University 
of Christiania, the most famous of Norwegian philo- 
logists, ; 
ACCORDING to the Chemisch Weekblad, the Bakhuis 
Roozeboom medal has been awarded to Prof, Schreine- 
makers, professor of inorganic and physical chemistry 
in the University of Leyden, 
WE notice with much regret, in the Times of Octo- 
ber 30, the announcement of the death, at seventy- 
seven years of age, of Prof. Cleveland Abbe, the well- 
known meteorologist of the U.S, Weather Bureau, 
Washington, D.C 
Tue Horace Dobell lecture of the Royal College of 
Physicians of London will be delivered by Dr. H. R. 
Dean on November 7, The subject will be ‘The 
Mechanism of the Serum Reactions.’’ On November 
14 and 16 Dr. W. H. R. Rivers will give the Fitz- 
Patrick lectures on *‘ Medicine, Magic, and Religion” 
(part 2). 
Dr. E. D. Van Oort’s report on the activities of 
the State Museum of Natural History at Leyden for 
the year ended September 1, 1916, records the trans- 
ference of the collections to the new building in the 
Van der Werf Park, but laments that even now the 
collections are totally inaccessible to the public at 
large, owing to the lack of any exhibition galleries. 
The retirement, after forty-five years’ service, of Dr. 
C. Ritsema Czn, keeper of the entomological collec- 
tions, is a great loss to the museum. He is succeeded 
by R. van Eecke. 
Ow1ne to the pressure of his duties at Columbia Uni- 
versity, Prof. M. H. Whitaker has resigned the editor- 
ship of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering 
Chemistry, one of the official organs of the American 
Chemical Society. He will be succeeded in that post 
by the president of the society, Prof. C. H, Herty, 
who will relinquish at the end of the year his duties 
as head of the department of chemistry at the Univer- 
sity of North Carolina in order to devote his whole 
time to editorial work. 
Tue death is announced, in his seventy-fifth year, 
of Dr. Albert J. Cook, professor of zoology and ento-. 
mofogy at the Michigan Agricultural College from 
1866 to 1893, and afterwards professor of biology at 
Pomona College, California. From 1894 to 1905 he 
superintended, the university extension work in agri- 
culture in connection with the University of Cali- 
fornia. Prof. Cook is said to have been the first to 
make kerosene emulsion (in 1877), and to demonstrate 
and advocate the use of the arsenites as a specific 
against the codling moth (in 1880). He was the 
author of a manual of the apiary, and also of publica- 
tions on ‘Injurious Insects of Michigan,” ‘Silo and 
Silage,” ‘Maple Sugar and the Sugar Bush,” and 
“Birds of Michigan.” 
Cart. J. O. WakeLIn Barratt, who is serving with 
the British Expeditionary Force in France, writes :— 
“On October 17, at 9 p.m., an exceptionally fine lunar 
rainbow was visible in the west at Etaples (the moon 
had risen in the east). The width of the rainbow was 
fully equal to that of a solar rainbow, but no colour 
was recognisable, the rainbow being of a uniform light 
grey appearance.’’ Full moon was on October 11— 
six days earlier—so that the atmospheric conditions 
must have been very favourable for a lunar. rainbow 
to be distinctly visible. Such rainbows are usually 
faint, and their colours are not easily distinguished 
on this account. They generally have the appearance 
of a whitish or yellowish arch, except when the moon 
NO. 2453, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
[NovEMBER 2, 1916 
is full and other conditions are good, in which case 
colours may be seen, as in a solar rainbow. 
Tue sixth war course of Chadwick public lectures 
began on October 27 with a decture on the physio- 
logical basis of fatigue by Prof. W. Stirling at the ~ 
Royal Society of Arts. Prof. Stirling will give two 
other lectures on the effects of fatigue on industry and 
efficiency on November 3 and 10 at the same place at 
5-15 p-m. Dr, C, Porter will deliver three lectures at 
Norwich Museum during November on the health of 
the future citizen. Dr, J. T. C. Nash will lecture at 
the Hampstead Central Library on November 20 on 
baby-saving for the nation; and Mr, P, Waterhouse 
will give three weekly lectures at the Surveyors’ Insti- 
tution, London, on architecture in relation to health and 
welfare, beginning on November 30. The lectures are 
free, and particulars concerning them can be obtained 
from the offices of the Chadwick Trust, 4o (6th) Queen 
Anne’s Chambers, Westminster. 4 
WE regret to note that Engineering for October 27 
records the death, on October 7, of Col, T, Turrettini. 
Col. Turrettini was born in 1845, and his experience in 
hydraulic and electric machinery led to his election as 
one of the experts for the harnessing of the Niagara 
Falls in 1891. 
Exhibition held in Geneva in 1896. In the same 
number of Engineering is also recorded the death of 
Sir Henry Benbow, a prominent naval engineer officer 
of the past generation. In the Nile expedition of 1885 
Sir Henry “Benbow’s name appears in the. official 
despatch for his brilliant feat of repairing the boilers 
of the rescuing steamer under heavy fire, thus saving 
Sir Charles Wilson and his shipwrecked comrades, He 
was promoted to chief inspector of machinery in 1888, 
and was placed on the retired list at his own request 
in 1893. ‘ , 
SEVERAL further letters have reached us upon the 
subject of the scarcity of wasps during the past sum- 
mer. 
correspondents last week seems to have been noticed in 
many districts. Mr. C. F, Butterworth, writing from 
Poynton, Cheshire, seven miles from Stockport, says :— 
“The queen wasps were much more numerous this 
year than I have known them during quite ten well- 
observed years, when I have kept honey bees and 
regarded these things with interest.” Mr, K. Ever- 
shed, Kenley, Surrey, noticed a number of queen 
wasps in the spring, but adds, as to wasps in general :— 
“TI do not recollect so marked a scarcity during the ~ 
last thirty-five years in this county.” Mr. V. E. 
Murray says that in the Reading district also their 
numbers have been considerably below the average. 
He adds :—In July I observed early wasps on the 
flowers of Scrophularia (which they fertilise), and 
during the autumn, while engaged on a study of ivy, 
particularly as regards its fertilisation (in which they 
also take part), 1 have noticed a sprinkling of these 
insects obtaining honey from the discs of the flowers, 
this being the only occasion on which I have seen even 
a moderate number assembled. It was interesting to 
observe these wasps now and again preying on the 
numerous flies also attracted by the honey, bearing 
their victims to the ground and killing them after a 
short, fierce struggle. In one case when a wasp had 
finished feeding on a fly the head of the latter was 
found to have been severed from the trunk, and in 
another instance, when I disturbed a wasp ba a 
fair-sized fly, it flew off, carrying its prize bodily 
away!” . 
Tue Harveian oration was delivered by Sir Thomas 
Barlow, atthe Royal College of Physicians, on Octo- 
ber 18. The story of Harvey’s life and of his great 
He was president of the Swiss National — 
The abundance of queen wasps referred to by” 
