592 



NA TURE 



[April 20, 1899 



The Council of ihe Iron ami Steel Institute has received the 

 intimation that Her Majesty the (Jueen will be graciously pleased 

 to accept the Gold Medal of the Institute, founded by Sir 

 Henry liessemer. The first duty of Sir William Roberts- Austen, 

 on taking the chair as president of the Institute on May 4, will 

 be to express the great satisfaction with which this announce- 

 ment will be received by metallurgists throughout the empire. 

 A main feature of Her Majesty's reign has certainly been the 

 extraordinary development in the production and application of 

 steel. 



Active efforts are being made to secure the establishment of 

 a zoological garden in Edinburgh. The committee that has 

 the matter in hand have decided to approach the Government 

 with a view to ascertaining whether a piece of ground for the 

 proposed garden can be obtained within the Arboretum. 



The relations of the Society of Chemical Industry to 

 chemical engineering and to industrial research will form the 

 subject of an address to be delivered on Monday next by the 

 president of the Society, Mr. George Beilby. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Sir 

 William Roberts, F.R.S., the well-known consulting physician. 

 From an obituary notice in the Times we learn that he was born 

 on March 18, 1830, and educated at Mill-hill School and at 

 University College, London. He was made a Fellow of the 

 Royal College of Physicians in 1866, when he was selected to 

 deliver the Goulstonian lectures, and he also delivered before 

 that college in the year 1S80 the Lumleian lectures, choosing for 

 his subject "The Digestive Ferments and Artificially Digested 

 Food." In continuation of his work in regard to the function of 

 digestion he delivered a series of five lectures at Owens College, 

 Manchester, in 1885, on "Dietetics and Dyspepsia." These 

 two courses of lectures, with other contributions on cognate sub- 

 jects, he re-issued in a collected form a few' years ago in a book 

 entitled "Digestion and Diet." In 1892 he was appointed 

 Croonian Lecturer of the College, and delivered a course of 

 three lectures on the," Chemistry and Therapeutics of Uric 

 Acid, Gravel, and Gout." In 1897 he gave the Harveian 

 oration before the college, delivering an address on " Science 

 and Modern Civilisation," in which he embodied and epitomised 

 the results of the labour and thought of many years. In iS77he was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1879 the Cameron 

 prize was awarded to him by the University of Edinburgh in 

 recognition of the value of his investigations on the subject of 

 the treatment of digestion as a scientific contribution to practical 

 therapeutics. In 1892 he became a member of the Senate of 

 the University of London. He was appointed medical member 

 of the Royal Commission on Opium in 1893, and contributed a 

 memorandum on the general features and the medical aspect of 

 the opium habit in India, which was published as an appendix 

 to the report of the Commission. In 1896 he was appointed to 

 represent the University of London on the General Medical 

 Council. His last official appointment was in connection with 



he movement to establish a teaching University in London. 

 When by Act of Parliament a statutory commission was 



ppointed to initiate such an institution, he was selected to 

 sene on that commission as representing, with Dr. Michael 

 Foster, the interests of science and medicine. 



A MEETING of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 

 will be held on April 27 and 28. Sir William II. White, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., president of the Institution, will occupy the 

 chair on both days, and will deliver his address at the first 

 meeting. On April 28, a paper by Mr. II. G. \'. Oldham, on 

 evaporation condensers, will be read. 



NO. 1538, VOL. 50] 



A> already announced, the annual meeting of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 4 and 

 5, commencing each day at 10.30 o'clock a.m. The following 

 are the subjects and authors of papers to be read and discussed 

 during the meeting : — The diffusion of iron. Prof. J. O. Arnold 

 and Mr. A. McWilliam ; on the Gellivare iron ore mines, Mt. 

 H. Bauerman ; the use of blast-furnace and coke-oven gases, 

 Mr. E. Disdier ; the Wellman tilting furnace, Mr. A. P. 

 Head ; the solution theory of iron and steel, the Baron H, 

 Juptner von Jonstorff; exploring for iron ore with the magnetic 

 needle. Prof. II. Louis ; theories and facts relating to cast iroi» 

 and steel, Mr. Bertrand S. Summers; the manufacture of steel 

 direct from the ore in the blast furnace, Mr. D. Tschemoff; 

 the use of hot blast in the Bessemer process. Prof. J. 

 Wiborgh. 



The death is announced of Dr. William Frazer, one of the 

 most prominent members of the medical profession in Ireland, 

 and an eminent authority on Irish antiquities. 



We learn from Science that the Union Pacific Railway has 

 offered to transport geologists and paUvontologists without 

 charge from Chicago or San Francisco to Wyoming, for the 

 purpose of making explorations during the coming summer. 



Dr. Martin, who is now in Siberia investigating the recent 

 reports regarding the fate of the Andree expedition, has sent 

 Prof. Nordenskjold a telegram in which he states that they are 

 without foundation. 



The British Medical jfaiirnai stales that the council of the 

 medical faculty of Bucharest has expressed its approval of a 

 scheme for the establishment of a new institute of bacteriology 

 and experimental medicine in that city. It is proposed to place 

 Dr. Cantacuzino, at present assistant in the Institut Pasteur of 

 Paris, at the head of the new institute. 



The Trout Fishing Annual Close Time (Scotland) Bill was 

 read a second time in the House of Lords on Tuesday. The 

 object of the Bill is to establish a close time for trout in Scot- 

 land, during which period it will not be legal to fish for or take 

 trout in any lake, river, or loch in Scotland by net, rod, or line, 

 or to have possession of such trout, or expose them for sale. 

 The period proposed for the close time is to begin on Octoba 

 15, and to end on February 28. 



The King of the Belgians, as Sovereign of the Congo Free 

 State, has contrilmted 200/. towards the establishment of the 

 London School of Tropical Medicine and the enlargement of 

 the Branch Hospital of the Seamen's Hospital Society. The 

 Archbishop of Canterbury has also contributed 50/. to the same 

 object. Lord Lister, P. R.S., is to be the principal guest OD 

 the occasion of the inaugural dinner in connection with the 

 Liverpool School for the study of tropical diseases on Saturday, 

 April 22. A sum of 1700/. has been promised towards the 

 expenses of the Liverpool School. 



The seventy-first meeting of German Naturalists and 

 Physicians will be held at Munich on September lS-23. 

 Prof. Boltzmann, \icnna, will deliver a lecture upon a subject 

 not yet announced ; Prof. Forster, Berlin, will desciil>e some 

 of the changes in astronomical thought during the present 

 century; and Dr. Nansen will give an account of explorations 

 of the north polar regions and the results obtained. In 

 medicine. Dr. \'. Bergmann, Berlin, will discourse on the value 

 of radiography in surgery ; Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld, Leipzig, on 

 science and medicine : and Prof. Dr. Klemperer, Berlin, on 

 Liebig and his influence on medicine, (ieneral meetings of 

 the Association will be held on Monday, September iS, ami 

 Friday, September 22. 



