JaNuaRY 4, 1917] 
interest in furthering its advancement. From 1881 to 
1g11 he edited the Meteorological Record, which 
contained the monthly results of meteorological ob- 
servations over England and Wales. For climato- 
logical questions the Meteorological Record has 
afforded material of great value. Since 1911 this work 
has been taken over by the Meteorological Office, Mr. 
Marriott was the author of “ Hints to Meteorological 
Observers,”’ a work which constitutes instructions for 
taking observations, also “‘Some Facts about the 
Weather." He was a frequent writer for the Quarterly 
Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, his con- 
tributions dealing with many and very varied subjects. 
_ Ligut.-Cot. Sir Freperic S, Eve, who died on 
December 15, in his sixty-third year, was at one time 
senior surgeon to the London Hospital. In the earlier 
part of his career, while acting as curator of the 
museum of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and patho- 
logical curator to the museum of the Royal College 
of Surgeons of England, the investigated certain 
obscure forms of tumour which are apt to occur in the 
jaws, and cleared up their nature. He published 
several investigations on tuberculosis and _ other 
diseases of bones and joints. In 1915 he gave the 
Bradshaw lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons on 
“Hemorrhagic and Chronic Inflammation of the 
Pancreas.” 
~ On November 27 the Finnish entomologist, Dr. 
B. R. Poppius, died at Copenhagen, where he was 
acting upon the Norvego-Swedish Committee on the 
Grazing-grounds of Reindeer, He was only forty years 
old, 
- Tue death is announced, in his eightieth year, of 
Dr. J. Little, Regius Professor of physic, Dublin 
University, and a past-president of the Royal College 
of Physicians, Ireland, and of the Royal Academy of 
Medicine, Ireland. 
Tue Royal Swedish Academy of Science has elected 
as foreign members Sir William Crookes, O.M., Dr. 
C, A. Angot, director of the Bureau Central Météoro- 
logique de France, and Prof. August Gartner, pro- 
fessor of hygiene, University of Jena. 
Ir is announced that the Welsh National Museum 
Committee has received a gift of 26,o00l. from anony- 
mous donors, and that this will enable the committee 
to complete the building contract. 
Capt, CuarLes Batuurst, M.P., has, on becoming 
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food, re- 
linquished the post of organiser of the Land Settle- 
ment Scheme for ex-Service Men which he has held 
under the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in an 
honorary capacity for the last eight months, The 
duties have been taken over by Sir Richard Winfrey, 
M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agri- 
culture and Fisheries. 
Tue Massachusetts Horticultural Society has 
awarded its George Robert White medal to Mr. W. 
Robinson, of Gravetye Manor, Sussex, for his eminent 
services in the advancement of horticulture. 
Ir is announced in the issue of Science for Decem- 
ber 15 last that a bequest of more than 20,0001, has 
been left to the American Museum of Natural History 
by the late Mr. James Gaunt, American representative 
of Messrs. A. and F. Pears, of London. The bequests 
are to be paid upon the death of Mr. Gaunt’s brother. 
THE Optical Society has arranged an exhibition of 
workshop methods of optical testing to be held at 
King’s College, Strand, on Thursday, January 11, 
from 5 to 9.30 p.m. / 
NO. 2462, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
355 
Tue Alvarenga prize of the College of Physicians of 
Philadelphia will be next awarded on July 14 of this 
year. It will be of the value of about sol. Competing 
papers may deal with any medical subject, but they 
must not have been already published. They must reach 
the secretary of the college on or before May 1. Further 
particulars are obtainable from Dr. F, R, Packard, 
1g South 22nd St:eet, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A. 
A METEOR of unusual brilliance is reported to have 
been seen at Churchstoke, in Montgomeryshire, about 
5-30 p.m. on December 1g last. It crossed the sky 
from south to north, and is said to have been ‘“ accom- 
panied by a slight explosion.” Many people were 
alarmed by the brilliance of the object, which lighted 
up the whole countryside. 
Tue report of the council of the Scottish Meteoro- 
logical Society, read at the general meeting of the 
society on December 15, states that the encouragement 
of rainfall observation in Scotland has been kept 
steadily in view, and that there are now available in 
the journal monthly and annual returns for fully 750 
stations. There are still, however, large areas in the 
North of Scotland for which information is either ex- 
tremely scanty or entirely wanting. The officers and 
members of the council for the ensuing twelve months 
will be as follows :—President, Prof. R. A. Sampson; 
Vice-Presidents, Dr. A, Crichton Mitchell and Mr. M. 
M’Callum Fairgrieve; Council,. Mr. J. Watt, SirR. P. 
Wright, Prof, T. Hudson Beare, Dr, J. D. Falconer, 
Mr. J. Mackay Bernard, Mr. D. A. Stevenson, Mr, 
R. Cross, Mr. S. B. Hog, and Mr. G. Thomson; Hon. 
Secretary, Dr. E, M. Wedderburn; Hon, Treasurer, 
Mr. W. B. Wilson. 
Tue American Forestry Association has called a con- 
ference, to be held at Washington on January 18-109, 
to discuss measures for saving the white pine forests 
of North America from being destroyed by the blister 
rust, The Governors of all the States in the white 
pine belt, and the Government of Canada, are invited 
to appoint delegates. The disease came from Germany 
in 1907, when the Forestry Bureaux of several States 
imported thousands of seedlings and transplants from 
the nurseries of that country. That they were thus 
affected was not discovered until many of the trees 
had been set out, and only during the last year did the 
disease attain dangerous proportions. The blister rust 
is described as a fungous growth, which lives one year 
in the white pine and the next in currant and goose- 
berry plants. It cannot spread from pine to pine, but 
travels from pine to ribes and from ribes to pine. In 
the ribes it appears in the form of raised reddish-brown 
patches on the under-side of the leaves. In the pine it 
is more difficult to recognise, and can only be. dis- 
covered by a scientific expert during the “ fruiting 
period’’ in the spring, when the base of small trees 
just above the ground shows a yellowish growth of 
fungus and is often itself swollen. At present the 
only effective method of saving the pines that has been 
suggested is to root out all ribes in the neighbourhood 
of the forests—a costly remedy in some parts of New 
York State, where the farmers raise large crops of 
currants and gooseberries. Mr. G. D. Pratt, the New 
York State Conservation Commissioner, has announced 
that no more white pines will be seeded until it has 
been found what can be done, 
In the American Museum Journal for November 
Mr. M. D. C. Crawford discusses the value of design 
and colour in ancient fabrics to the manufacturer of our 
day» The Philadelphia Museum has recently obtained a 
collection of textiles from Peruvian graves which are 
believed to antedate the Spanish Conquest by some 
2000 years. They are said to contain some of the most 
