OcrToBeEr 16, 1902] 
NATURE 
609 
for Snow, one for amount, and the other for depth on 
the ground. 
Unusual Occurrences.—The well-known international 
symbols were adopted at the Vienna Congress. 
Glaciers.—A general recommendation was made to 
institute measurements of the motion of Glaciers. 
Earth Movements.—The statements of Monsieur de 
Rossi, at Rome, as to what he terms “la météorologie 
endogéne ” were received with much interest. 
As regards other matters, various combinations of 
hours for observing were suggested. 
The simultaneous observations, proposed at Vienna, by 
the Chief Signal Office of the United States, were strongly 
supported, 
As regards Weather Telegraphy, an international code 
for the messages was adopted and various details were 
settled. 
The International Forms for the publication of climato- 
logical data (stations of the Second Order) were all 
arranged and have been very generally adopted. 
Among the most lasting and valuable results of these 
gatherings has been the volume of International Tables, 
published by Gauthier Villars in 1890. 
At several meetings endeavours were made to organise 
an International Office for directing international work, 
and this resulted in a proposal for an International 
Directing Bureau. This scheme, however, failed to secure 
approval. Various resolutions were framed as to inter- 
national investigations. 
The whole scheme of International Balloon Ascents, 
superintended by Prof. Hergesell, of Strassburg, took its 
origin at the Paris Conference of 1896. 
The Circumpolar Observations of 1882-3, on the scheme 
of the late Lieutenant Weyprecht, also took a definite 
shape at the Roman Congress. 
Terrestrial Magnetism.—This subject was first dis- 
cussed at the Munich Conference in 1891, and at the 
Paris Conference of 1896 a special committee ad hoc was 
appointed, under the presidency of Sir A. Rticker, and in 
the report of that conference its action can be seen. 
Rawr. |S: 
JOHN HALL GLADSTONE. 
HE scientific world has lost an indefatigable worker 
by the sudden death of Dr. Gladstone, which 
occurred on Monday, October 6. Few men had a larger 
circle of friends, for the beauty of his character and 
the kindliness of his nature endeared him to all those 
who had the good fortune to know him. 
Dr. Gladstone was born in London in 1827, and was 
educated at University College, London, and Giessen 
University. He was twice married, first, in 1852, 
to May, daughter of the late Charles Tilt; and 
secondly, to Margaret, daughter of the late Rev. D. 
King and niece of Lord Kelvin. So early as 1850 
he became lecturer son chemistry at St. Thomas’s 
Hospital, and three years later (in 1853) he was 
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He served 
on its Council in the years 1863-1864 and again in 1866— 
1868, and a few years ago received the Davy medal. The 
Royal Society list of papers credits him with more than a 
hundred contributions to scientific literature, apart from 
those in collaboratioa with other writers. He held the 
Fullerian professorship of chemistry at the Royal 
Institution from 1874 to 1877, was first president of the 
Physical Society from 1874 to 1876, and was president of 
the Chemical Society from 1877 to 1879. 
There can be no question, as an eminent English 
physicist has recently pointed out, that Dr. Gladstone 
was “one of the founders of physical chemistry, a fact 
which is fully recognised abroad, where his rightful 
position is accorded him.” It is, however, only neces- 
NO. 1720, VOL. 66] 
sary to show how highly his work was appreciated in 
England to quote the reference to it which was made in 
1898, on the occasion of a banquet to past presidents of 
the Chemical Society who had been Fellows of the 
Society for half a century, of whom Dr. Gladstone wasfonee 
Prof. Dewar then said, ‘‘ Gladstone has worked out his 
long and brilliant scientific career as a labour of patient 
love. Furthermore, he has created an entirely new de- 
partment—that which is in modern times regarded as 
physical chemistry. For half a century he has worked 
on this side of chemistry, for his early investigation of the 
spectrum of the atmosphere was one of marvellous sug- 
gestiveness. He found that the spectrum of Fraunhofer 
varied at sunset and at sunrise from that at midday, 
and showed that a large number of those absorption 
lines must originate in the earth’s atmosphere. That 
discovery stimulated further inquiry as to the substance 
that could produce these lines so characteristic of the 
solar atmosphere ; and later experimenters have found it 
in the vapour of water and in oxygen. Gladstone’s 
greatest merit, however, lies undoubtedly in his optical 
researches on the atomic refractions and dispersions of 
the elements. He has determined the optical constants 
of hundreds of bodies, and has thus stimulated inquiry 
in that borderland between physics and chemistry which 
is so much cultivated in the present day, and the pursuit 
of which has added so much to our knowledge. He has. 
also contributed largely to miscellaneous inquiries, es- 
pecially those connected with various voltaic batteries, 
and other questions conducive to the study of both 
organic and inorganic chemistry.” 
His work was remarkable for its very varied nature. The 
title of his first paper was “ Contributions to the Chemical 
History of Gun-cotton and Xyloidine,” and, true to this 
early promise, he served as a member on the Gun-cotton 
Committee of the War Office from 1864 to 1868, having 
previously served as a member of the Royal Commission 
on Lights, Buoys and Beacons (1858-1861). Among his 
less known work, his investigations in connection with 
early metallurgical history well deserve mention. For 
instance, he showed that the use of bronze in Egypt 
went back as far as 3700 B.C.,.and that not only was 
bronze used, but that it was of a type common to 
much later periods, the ratio of copper to tin being as @ 
to I. 
It is as an educational reformer that many of Dr- 
Gladstone’s friends will best remember him, for he worked 
hard for twenty-one years, beginning in 1873, asa member 
of the London School Board, upon which body he repre- 
sented the Chelsea division, and was for three years its 
vice-chairman. He was unwearied in his insistence upon 
the necessity for teaching science in elementary schools, 
keeping steadily in view its influence upon the nation as 
a whole. His attitude may best be gathered from the 
concluding sentence of his presidential address de- 
livered before the members of the Chemical Section of 
the British Association in 1872. It ran as follows :— 
‘“‘While the rudiments of science are being infused into 
our primary education, now happily becoming national, 
while physical science is gradually gaining a footing in 
our secondary and our large public schools, and while it 
is winning for itself an honoured place at our universities, 
it is to be hoped that many new investigators will arise 
and that British chemists will not fall behind in the 
upward march of discovery, but will continue hand in 
hand with their continental brethren, thus to serve their 
own and future generations.” soon 
The prevailing ignorance of science and _ scientific 
methods is constantly rebuked by modern educational 
writers, but a sentence such as the following, which 
also occurs in Gladstone’s presidential address in 1872, 
was unusually plain speaking for twenty years ago. He 
says “the so-called educated classes in England are not 
only supremely ignorant of science, they have scarcely 
