May 29, 1902} 
starting point. The foreign deputies, who were the guests of 
the aéronautical battalion of the German Army, were shown 
over the headquarters of the battalion, which has the largest 
balloon house in the world. 
THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society 
was held on Monday, and the medals and awards already 
announced (vol. Ixv., p. 471) were distributed. In his opening 
address, the president referred at some length to the Antarctic 
expedition, and remarked that they could not hope to receive 
any news of the Déscovery until the spring of next year. The 
question of wintering was left to Captain Scott’s discretion, and 
he was instructed to use his utmost endeavour to explore the 
region within reach of his winter quarters by sledge travelling 
in the spring. He intended to endeavour to reach and force 
through the ice pack on the 175th meridian, and on reaching 
the open water to make for Cape Adare. The relief ship would 
have no difficulty in finding the Déscovery and supplying her 
with the stores and provisions of which she would be in need if 
the winter quarters were in Wood Bay or on any part of the 
coast between that position and Cape Crozier. About 20,000/. 
had been subscribed for the relief expedition, but at least 22,0007. 
would be needed. Turning to the opposite Polar area, the 
president remarked that the Arctic regions were the scene of 
the labours of four expeditions. The Wixdward would shortly 
proceed to Smith Sound to bring back the Peaiy expedition. 
Captain Sverdrup in the /yam had now been absent three 
winters, and his exact position was unknown. There were also 
Mr. Baldwin’s expedition with the avowed object of reaching 
the North Pole by the Franz Josef Land route, and Baron Toll’s 
expedition in the islands to the north of the new Siberian 
Islands. 
THE Nature-Study Exhibition, to be opened at the Gardens 
of the Royal Botanic Society in Regent’s Park on July 23, 
promises to be of a very interesting and instructive character. 
The exhibits will be arranged in five groups, the scope of which 
may be roughly defined as follows :—(1) General information, 
such as reports and other publications, object-lessons and 
notes on school gardens, natural history rambles, &c. ; 
(2) pictorial illustrations, including pictures and _photo- 
graphs of work and equipment in school and out; (3) 
organisation, with schemes of instruction and_ time- 
tables ; (4) apparatus, including models, specimens, maps and 
collections of natural objects ; (5) work done by pupils, such as 
notes of observations, nesting-boxes, breeding-cages, &c. The 
intention is to bring together, so far as possible, the results of 
nature-study in schools and colleges of all grades, so that teachers 
and pupils may be given the opportunity of seeing what others 
are doing, and so obtain inspiration for the further development 
of their work. University colleges, natural history societies 
and local museums might usefully affect the trend of nature- 
study by showing typical collections, or materials and apparatus 
suitable for study in various branches of natural history in 
schools. A report will be published, and the following have 
kindly consented to act as judges:—Mr. A. D. Hall, principal 
South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Prof. C. Lloyd 
Morgan, F.R.S., Prof. L. C. Miall, F.R.S., Prof. J. Arthur 
Thompson and Prof. R. Wallace. The scheme has so far 
extended beyond the scope originally contemplated that further 
donations are invited and would be gratefully received by the 
hon. treasurer, Mr. C. S. Roundell, 7 Sussex Square, Brighton. 
All particulars may be obtained from the hon. secretary, Mr. 
J. C. Medd, Stratton, Cirencester. 
THE Zzimes announces the death of Dr. Henry Morton, 
president of the Stevens Institute of Technology. Dr. Morton 
was born in New’ York, December 11, 1836, and graduated 
from the University of Pennsylvania in 1857. The bent of his 
NO. 1700, VOL. 66| 
NATURE 
1D3 
studies was then fixed by the fact that he took a post-graduate 
course in chemistry. He afterwards became secretary of the 
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, where he delivered many 
lectures which attracted much attention. In 1868 he was the 
chief of an expedition organised to observe and make photo- 
graphic records of a very notable total eclipse of the sun. In 
1870, the Stevens Institute of Technology was organised and its 
work begun at Hoboken in New Jersey. This was done under 
the will of Edwin A. Stevens, who had designated Dr. Morton 
as the president of an institute to be devoted entirely to the 
higher instruction in technological subjects. Dr. Morton was 
one of the most proficient of the engineering experts known to 
America. He lavished his large income upon the institute with 
great freedom. In 1880 he made his first gift, which took the 
form of a new workshop fitted up with steam engines and tools. 
Two years later he gave money for the purchase of electrical 
apparatus. In 1888 he gave 10,000 dollars for the endowment ofa 
chair of engineering practice, to which, in 1892, he added 20,000 
dollars more. For many years he had contributed the whole 
of his salary as professor of applied electricity to electrical 
experiments. In all, his gifts to the institute have amounted to 
about 145,000 dollars. A few years ago he interested Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie in the work, with the result that Mr. Carnegie contributed 
a laboratory and endowed it in addition with 100,000 dollars. 
Dr. Morton was for several years a member of the United 
States Lighthouse Board and had been a member of the National 
Academy of Sciences for nearly thirty years. 
Mr. JOHN BELLOws, who died on May 5, aged seventy-one, 
was a well-known member of the Society of Friends, and a 
printer at Gloucester. He was an active member of the Cottes- 
wold Naturalists’ Field Club, and had communicated to its 
Proceedings several papers on local archeology. In one paper 
he dealt elaborately with the history of the ‘Speech House” 
in the Forest of Dean, and endeavoured to show that in the 
Court still held in that house we have the last vestige of the 
grand system of the Druids in Britain. 
IN connection with the Belgian Royal Academy, a number of 
prizes are offered for this and next year of which particulars are 
given in No. 3 of the Azlletin de la Classe des Sctences. In 
mathematical and physical sciences the subjects announced for 
1902 relate to critical phenomena, viscosity of liquids, the 
algebraic and geometric study of #-linear forms where x > 3, 
and the thermal conductivity of liquids and solutions, the prize 
in each case being 600 francs, also prizes of S00 francs for 
researches on the action of alcohols on compound ethers and on 
the unipolar induction of Weber. In natural science, prizes of 
600 francs are offered for a study of the beds of Comblain au 
Pont and their geological position, the modifications produced 
in minerals by pressure, the development of the Platoda, the 
effects of osmotic pressure on the phenomena of animal life, and 
the Devonian flora of Belgium. For researches on the influence 
of external factors on karyokinesis and vegetable cell division a 
prize of 800 francs is offered, and for new investigations on the 
formation of albuminoids in plants a prize of 1000 francs. In 
every case the essays, written in French or Flemish, must be 
sent in by August 1. For 1903 the subjects propounded in 
mathematical and physical sciences are the combinations of the 
four halogens among themselves, the form of the principal terms 
introduced by the earth’s elasticity into the equations for the 
nutation in obliquity and longitude, contributions to the study of 
mixed forms containing any number of series of variables with 
applications to the geometry of any space, and the determina- 
tion in altitude and azimuth of the principal terms in the periodic 
deviations of the vertical on the hypothesis of the non-coincidence 
of the centres of mass of the earth’s crust and its nucleus. In 
natural science the subjects are the physiological function of 
