506 

Lower Tertiary system, extending his work afterwards 
to the younger beds in the Burma oil-fields. 
South Kensington students will remember him as a 
brilliant pianist who would have had a distinguished 
position in the musical world if he had not concentrated 
on the paleontology of India. During his early days 
in India he showed a tendency to become engrossed 
in archeological interests until paleontology claimed 
him first as a devotee and finally as a victim. 

Count FERNAND DE MONTESSUS DE BALLORE. 
Tue small band of seismologists has suffered a serious 
loss through the death of M. de Montessus de Ballore. 
Born in 185 51, he was trained at the Ecole Polytechnique, 
where he was a fellow-student of Marshal Foch. In 
1881 he was sent as chief of a military mission to San 
Salvador. There he became interested in the frequent 
earthquakes of the Central American republics, and he 
continued his seismological studies on his return to 
Paris as Directeur des Etudes at the Ecole Polytech- 
nique. In 1907 he was appointed director of the 
earthquake-service in Chile, a service which, through 
his efforts, became one of the first rank. 
De Montessus will be chiefly remembered and valued 
for his studies on the distribution of earthquakes. 
His great work on “‘ Géographie Séismologique,” which 
occupied his leisure for twenty-four years, was published 
in 1906. Few men could be so well qualified as he 
for an undertaking so vast, for he had a good knowledge 
of six foreign languages. 
nearly 160,000 earthquakes, he showed that seismic 
regions follow the principal lines of relief, that, in a 
group of unstable regions, the most unstable are those 
of the greatest relief, and that more than go per cent. 
of the earthquakes occurred along two narrow zones 
occupying great circles of the earth, which he called 
the Mediterranean circle and the circum-Pacific circle. 
In 1907 his second work, “‘ La Science Séismologique,”’ 
appeared and at once took its place as an authoritative 
treatise. 
Besides these two volumes and a small popular book 
published in rg11, de Montessus was the author of many 
memoirs. One of the latest was a bibliography of 
seismology containing the titles of more than gooo 
books and papers. In the preparation of these works, 
he had collected a library, perhaps the most extensive 
of the kind in existence. This was bought a few years 
ago by the late President J. C. Branner, and was pre- 
sented by him to the University of California. C. D. 

Pror. M. ABRAHAM. 
THE issue of the Physikalische Zeitschrift for 
February 1 contains an obituary notice of Prof. Max 
Abraham by Profs. M. Born and M. v. Laue. He was 
born at Danzig in 1875 and studied under Planck at 
Berlin. After graduating he became Planck’s assistant, 
and in 1900 privatdozent at Géttingen. For a short 
time in 1905 he acted as professor at the University of 
Illinois, and, after his return to Géttingen, was in 1909 ° 
appointed professor of theoretical physics at Milan. 
The War ended this, and he held temporary posts till 
last year, when he was appointed professor of theoretical 
mechanics at Aix-la-Chapelle. Illness prevented him 
commencing duties there, and he died of tumour on the 
NO. 2789, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 
Having collected records of | 


[APRIL 14, 1923 

brain on November 16, 1922. He was well known in 
this country for his book “ Theorie der Elektrizitat,” 
for his articles on vectors and on electromagnetic 
waves in the “ Mathematische Encyklopadie,” and for 
his papers on the dynamics of electrons, all giving 
evidence of a clear and logical mind. 

WE regret to learn from Australia of the death, at 
the end of January, of Dr. J. L. Glasson, at the age of 
thirty-four years. Dr. Glasson was a student of the 
University of Adelaide, where he worked under Sir 
William Bragg, and from that University he received 
his doctor’s degree. He succeeded in winning a travel- 
ling research scholarship of the Exhibition of 1851, and 
with it came to this country. He entered Gonville and 
Caius College, Cambridge, in 1909 as an advanced 
student, and, going to the Cavendish Laboratory, did 
valuable research work under Sir J. J. Thomson. In 
1912 he was appointed lecturer in physics in the Uni- 
versity of Tasmania, Hobart, and while there he did 
valuable work for the Electrolytic Zine Co. and for the 
Tasmanian Carbide Co. This post he resigned in 1919, 
returning to Cambridge for research for a couple of 
years, after which he accepted an appointment as lec- 
turer in physics in the University of Melbourne, which 
he held at the time of his death. 

Tue sudden death from angina pectoris on March 15 
of Mr. G. E. Bullen, Curator of the Herts County 
Museum at St. Albans, is announced. Among the 
smaller museums in the country there can be few which 
have been raised to such a pitch of excellence, and 
this has been due entirely to the whole-hearted devotion 
and enthusiasm of Mr. Bullen during the past twenty 
years. A considerable extension and rearrangement 
of the collections has recently been completed, and, 
especially on the archeological side, the museum is 
now a model of what a local museum should be, the 
clear demonstrative labelling of the exhibits being a 
special feature. Mr. Bullen’s work had been for some 
time carried on in defiance of indifferent health, and 
his death at the early age of forty is a great loss. 

THE Chemiker Zeitung of March 17 announces the 
death in the beginning of March of Prof. Robert 
Scheibe, formerly professor in the Academy of Mines, 
Berlin, ‘and later active in South-west Africa and 
Bolivia. In the issue of March 15 the death on 
March tro of Prof. 
director of the chemical side of the Berlin Patho- 
logical Institute, is announced. Prof. Salkowski was — 
born on October 11, 1844, in Koénigsberg, and at first 
worked with Virchow. His researches covered a wide — 
field in physiological chemistry. 

WE regret to announce the following deaths : 
Dr. H. H. Stoek, professor of mining engineering in 
the University of Illinois since 1909, on March 1, aged 
fifty-seven. 
Dr. John Venn, F.R.S., president of Gonville and 
Caius College, Cambridge, and for many years lecturer 
in logic and moral philosophy in the University, on 
April 4, aged eighty-cight. 
Mr. S. H. Wells, director-general of the Egyptian 
Department of Technical, Industrial, and Commercial 
Education since 1907, on ‘March 28, aged fifty-seven. 

Ernst Salkowski, since 1880 — 
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