January 18, 1917] 
spired with less conscientious ideals. But Miller | 
knew the importance of getting the figures right, 
and spared no pains to keep his records unbroken. 
Dr. Miller was deeply interested in the litera- 
ture of agricultural chemistry, and unreservedly 
placed his knowledge of it at the disposal of his 
colleagues. For many years he did nearly the 
whole of the abstracting in agricultural chemistry 
for the Chemical Society, and of late years he 
wrote the society’s annual report on the progress 
of this subject. He will long be remembered as 
a painstaking, accurate worker—unhasting, un- 
resting—who, having undertaken a long investi- 
gation, would not relinquish it until he had finished 
it. E. J. Russet. 
NOTES. 
_ At the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society on 
Friday, January 12, the president announced that the 
council had awarded the gold medal of the society to 
Mr. W. S. Adams, of the Mount Wilson Solar Observa- 
tory, for his investigations in stellar spectroscopy, and 
especially for his determination of absolute magnitudes, 
WE learn from Science that the Bruce gold medal of 
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for the year 
1917 has been awarded to Prof. E. E. Barnard, of the 
Yerkes Observatory, for his distinguished services to 
astronomy. The formal presentation will take place 
at ithe annual meeting of the society at San Francisco, 
on the evening of January 27. . 
THe disease known qs ‘‘epidemic jaundice” has 
occurred of late on the Western front. It is caused 
by a delicate spiral microbe, or spirochzete, which is 
present in the blood and ‘tissues in small numbers at 
certain stages; it was discovered by Inada and other 
Japanese observers in 1914. The organism probably 
has its natural habitat in the rat, from which man 
becomes infected either by direct contact or possibly 
by insect-carriers. 
Tue death as announced, in his seventy-first year, of 
Dr. T. H. Bean, a former president of the American 
Fisheries Societv. He was for many years connected 
with the U.S. Fish Commission, and was curator of 
fishes at the U.S. National Museum from 1880 to 
1887. He was director of the New York Aquarium 
from 1895 to 1898. Since 1906 he had been fish 
culturist of the State of New York. Dr. Bean was the 
author of several volumes on ichthyology. 
Mr. Upny Yure, one of the honorary secretaries of 
the Royal Statistical Society, has been appointed head 
of the Information and Statistical ‘Bureau of the 
Ministry of Food. With Mr. Yule will be associated 
Prof. T. B. Wood, Drapers professor of agriculture in 
the University of Cambridge, and Prof. W. H. Thomp- 
son, professor of physiology, Trinity College, Dublin. 
THE Food Controller announces that he has ap- 
pointed a eommittee to make such arrangements as 
may be mecessary and expedient for the increase of 
supplies of fertilisers in the United Kingdom and for 
controlling, so far as may be necessary, their output 
and distribution. The following are the members of the 
committee :—Capt. C. Bathurst, M.P. (chairman), Mr. 
H. R. Campbell. Sir James J. Dobbie, Mr. R. R. 
Enfield, Capt. R. B. Greig, Mr. T. H. Middleton, Mr. 
W. Anker Simmons, Prof. W. Somerville, Mr. G. J. 
Stanley, Mr. R. J. Thompson, and Prof. T. B. Wood. 
Mr. H. Chambers will be the secretary to the com- 
mittee. 
NO. 2464, VoL. 98] 
NATURE. * 393 
Tue council of the Geological Society has this year 
made the following awards :—Wollaston medal, Prof. 
A. F. A. Lacroix (Paris); Murchison medal, Dr. G. F. 
Matthew (Canada); Lyell medal, Dr. Wheelton Hind 
(Stoke-on-Trent); Bigsby medal, Mr. R. G. ‘Carruthers 
(H.M. Geological Survey); Wollaston Fund, Dr. 
P. G. H. Boswell (Imperial College of Science); 
Murchison Fund, Dr. W. Mackie (Elgin); Lyell Fund, 
Dr. A, H. Cox (King’s College, London) and Mr. 
T. C. Nicholas (Trinity College, Cambridge); Barlow- 
Jameson Fund, Mr. H. Dewey (H.M. Geological Sur- 
vey). ; 
Pror. anp Mrs. HerpMan have recently established 
and endowed an institute at Port Erin, Isle of Man, 
as a memorial to their son, Lieut. George A. Herdman, 
who was killed in action near Montaubon, in the battle 
of the Somme, on July 1, 1916. Lieut. Herdman spent 
a great part of his boyhood at Port Erin, associating 
with the local fishermen and working at the Marine 
Laboratory, and was well known there. The institute 
has been handed over permanently to the Commis- 
sioners of Port Erin. It is intended for the rest and 
social intercourse of the men, boatmen, and fishermen 
of the port, and to extend hospitality to fishermen, 
yachtsmen, and sailors visiting the harbour. Arrange- 
ments are made for the provision of refreshments and 
recreation, and opportunities for mutual self-education 
are being given by the collection of a library of works 
on navigation, fisheries, and general science. The 
institute was formally opened by Prof. and Mrs. Herd- 
man, and is now available for the men. 
PNEUMONIA is a disease of great importance to South 
African mining communities, contributing from 30 to 
60 per cent. of the total mortality among native mine 
labourers. An exhaustive investigation upon the 
disease was conducted in 1911 and 1912 by Sir Almroth 
Wright and co-workers, and he recommended inocula- 
tion with pneumococcus vaccine as a preventive. ~ Dr. 
F. S. Lister has now completed a further experimental 
study of the subject. He finds that several races of 
pneumococci are associated with pneumonia in the 
Rand, and that rabbits inoculated three times with 
Ixilled pneumococcal vaccine in suitable doses are re- 
sistant to at least eight times the lethal dose of living 
pneumococcus for an untreated rabbit. For the pre- 
vention of the disease in man he recommends that 
three inoculations, at seven-day intervals, should be 
employed, each dose;consisting of 6000 million pneumo- 
cocci of each strain against which immunity is desired 
(the South African Institute for Medical Research, 
No. VIII., 1916). 
Tue death is announced in the Morning Post of 
Vicomte Charles de Foucauld, the French traveller and 
scholar. Thirty-five years ago Foucauld resigned from 
the French Army to travel in Morocco. In the dis- 
guise of a Jew merchant he explored parts of the Atlas 
region which were, and still are, closed to Christians. 
An account of these travels, entitled ‘‘ Reconnaissance 
en Maroc,” was published in 1888, and is still regarded 
as a standard work. It contains invaluable sketches 
and views and geographical information collected at 
great risks. After a brief period of travel in the Cauca- 
sus, Foucauld became a Trappist monk and returned 
to Africa. He visited the Targui country, explored it 
for several years, and collected a vast amount of in- 
formation on the language, customs, and literature of 
its people. Later he elected to settle in the desert, and 
for several years had lived at Tamanraset, half-way 
between Algeria and French Guinea, where he devoted 
himself to a study of the country and its people. He 
never attempted proselytising. Foucauld is reported to 
have met his death at the hands of brigands, but it is 
