212 
NATURE 
[NovEMBER 16, 1916 
a 
nected meteorological account of the conditions 
near the Pole based upon a very limited number of 
data, but with true insight. 
Mohn’s best-known work is a text-book of the 
principles of meteorology, which passed through 
many editions and was translated into almost all 
European languages except English. By the 
series of papers on the movement of the atmo- 
sphere, written in collaboration with C. M. Guld- 
berg, and published in Christiania in 1876 (revised 
1883), he became one of the most successful ex- 
ponents of dynamical meteorology. His institute 
was prominent among its fellows for the excellence 
of its regular publications and the promptitude 
with which they were issued. He was a strenuous 
advocate of the use of the hypsometer for absolute 
determinations of pressure; and on the occasion 
of a visit to England he took the opportunity of | 
making a comparison between barometric stan- 
dards by that method, which agreed with direct 
comparisons within a thousandth of an inch. 
Mohn’s published papers are very numerous and 
cover all sections of meteorological science. He 
was the author of the article on the geography 
of Norway in the ninth edition of the “ Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica” and a number of articles on 
the climate of Norway. He had a temarkably 
close grip of the conditions and limitations of 
meteorological observations and observers, and on 
that account was a most valued member of the 
International Meteorological Committee and of the 
various conferences and congresses at which the 
principles and the programmes of international co- 
operation were discussed. His personal qualities 
secured for him universal esteem as the doyen of 
international meteorologists. He was generally 
chosen by the Norwegian Academy as one of its 
representatives at international celebrations. The 
regret called forth by his retirement on account of 
his advancing years was revived and heightened 
by the news of his death. NaplieR SHAW. 
NOTES. 
WE learn with much regret of the death, on Novem- 
ber 12, at sixty-one years of age, of Prof. Percival 
Lowell, director of the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, 
Arizona, where his notable work on Mars and other 
planets has been carried on since 1894. 
His Majesty tue Kino has been pleased to approve 
of the following awards this year by the president and 
council of the Royal Society :—A Royal medal to Dr. 
J. S. Haldane, for his services to chemical physiology, 
more especially in reference to the chemical changes 
of respiration; a Royal medal to Prof. H. M. Mac- 
donald, for his contributions to mathematical physics. 
The following awards have also been made by the 
president and council :—Copley medal to Sir James 
Dewar, for his investigations in physical chemistry, 
and more especially his researches on the liquefaction 
of gases; Rumford medal to Prof. W. H. Bragg, for 
his researches in X-ray radiation; Davy medal to M. 
le Prof. H. L. le Chatelier, for his researches in chem- 
istry; Darwin medal to Prof, Yves Delage, for his 
researches in zoology and botany; Sylvester medal to 
M. J. Gaston Darboux, for his contributions to mathe- 
1 An English translation is given in Abbé's ‘‘ Mechanics of the Earth's 
Atmosphere.” Third Collection, (Smithsonian Institution, 1910.) 
NO. 2455, VOL. 98] 
| matical science; Hughes medal to Prof. Elihu Thom- 
son, for his researches in experimental electricity. 
Tue following is a list of those who have been recom- 
mended by the president and cguncil of the Royal 
Society for election into the council at the anniversary 
meeting on November 30 :—President, Sir J. J. Thom- 
son; Treasurer, Sir A. B. Kempe; Secretaries, Prof- 
A. Schuster and Mr. W. B. Hardy; Foreign Secretary, 
Prof. W. A. Herdman; Other Members of the Coun- 
cil, Prof. J. G. Adami, Dr. H. T. Brown, Dr. Dugald 
Clerk, Prof. A. R. Cushny, Prof. A. Dendy, Prof. 
| P. F. Frankland, Prof. J. W. Gregory, Dr. H. Head, 
Mr. J. H. Jeans, Major H. G. Lyons, Major P. A: 
| McMahon, Prof. F. W. Oliver, Prof. C. S. Sherring- 
ton, Prof. A. Smithells, Hon, R. J. Strutt, and Mr. 
Richard Threlfall. : 
ELEVEN members of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Ant- 
arctic expedition arrived in London last week, includ- 
ing Mr. Frank Wild (second in command), Messrs. J. 
Wordie, R. S. Clark, R. James, L. Hussey, and G, 
Marston (of the scientific staff), Major Orde Lees 
(motor engineer), and Messrs. A. Macklin and J. 
Mcllroy (surgeons). The remaining members of the 
Weddell Sea party will arrive shortly, with the excep- 
tion of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who is on his way to 
New Zealand to join the Aurora. In an interview 
in the Daily Chronicle Mr. Wild gives some account 
of the experiences. The Endurance was nipped in 
the ice four months before she eventually sank, and 
the explorers fortunately had ample time even at the 
end to remove stores and equipment to the ice. With 
these stores, and meat provided by shooting the dogs, 
as well as a few seals and penguins, they managed to 
survive. On Elephant Island, with its scanty re- 
sources, the food problem caused grave anxiety, for 
the stores were running low. We have not heard any 
details as yet about the scientific results, but they 
must be considerable, at least in oceanography and 
meteorology. A number of kinematograph films have 
been brought back, including views of the crushing of 
the Endurance, the abandoning of the ship and her 
foundering, as well as of the explorers’ life on the 
drifting -ice-floe and on Elephant Island. 
Tue Women’s National Land Service Corps has just 
issued an interim report on the work of the last eight 
months. ‘This organisation is recognised by the Board 
of Agriculture and has received a Government grant. 
It has endeavoured to create a favourable opinion as 
to the value of women’s work in agriculture by supply- 
ing a body of workers capable of making a good 
impression, and so break down the prejudice of hess 
farmers who are opposed to the employment of women. 
From the start the selection committee has spared no 
pains to prevent unsuitable women from going on the 
land, with the result that, considering the difficulties 
involved, the number of failures has been extraordinarily 
small. The corps has several training centres in 
different parts of the country, where women are given 
short courses of instruction in farm work. Besides 
supplying labour units to farmers, another, and per- 
haps more important, branch of the work has been 
directed against the view, widely held in the rural dis- 
tricts, that work on the land is derogatory. The in- 
teresting letters appended to the report give a very 
clear idea of this difficulty. The corps is urgently in 
need of more recruits to meet the demand from farmers 
which cannot now be met, and is certain to become 
greater after January 1, 1917, when exemptions of 
agricultural labourers are to be reconsidered. The 
secretary of the corps is Miss A. C. Franklin, and the 
Bifeniryey i are at 50 Upper Baker Street, London, 
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