3^ 



NA TURE 



[November 14, 1907 



Royal Society in 1866; he received tfie Order of the 

 Golden Cross from the Emperor of Germany in 1874, 

 the decoration of C.M.G. in 1S75, and promotion to 

 K.C.M.G. in 1887. He was awarded the Lyell 

 medal of the Geolog-ical Society in 1875, and a 

 founder's medal from the Royal Geographical Society 

 In 1891. In the same year Hector was elected the 

 third president of tlie Australasian Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, and delivered his address on 

 the history of scientific worlv in New Zealand. But 

 after this period his work became less important. 

 He continued to write .short papers ; the last which 

 we remember is that on the distribution of the moa 

 In New Zealand, in 1901. But he no longer showed 

 his old energy or success, and the staff of the 

 Geological Survey was transferred to the Mines De- 

 partment. Hector retained his nominal position as 

 director of the Geological Survey until 1903, but for 

 many years he had no control over the Geological 

 Survey work that was being done in New Zealand. 

 He remained director of the V/ellington Museum, the 

 condition of which was often made the subject of 

 severe reproach. Hutton publicly complained in 1899 

 that the plates that had been prepared vears before 

 for the monograph of the fossil Cainozoic mollusca 

 and echinoids of New Zealand were never published, 

 and that the valuable collections of fossils that had 

 been made during the geological survev of the colony 

 were " useless as they now exist in the museum of 

 Wellington." In 1903 Hector resigned his appoint- 

 ments; he had for several years previouslv exercised 

 little influence on scientific work in New Zealand, 

 but the high value and wide range of his own 

 scientific work, and the inspiring example of the 

 energy and administrative capacity, which for so 

 many years he devoted to the service of his adopted 

 land, will secure him one of the foremost places in 

 the roll of distinguished New Zealand pioneers. 



J. W. G. 



The following- list of those to whom the Roval Society 

 has this year awarded medals was received a few hours 

 too late for insertion in last week's N.\ture. The awards 

 of the Royal medals have received the King's gracious 

 approval :— The Copley medal to Prof. A. A. Michelson, 

 of Chicag-o, For.'Mem.R.S., for his investigations in 

 optics ; a Royal medal to Dr. E. W. Hobson, F.R.S., for 

 his investigations in mathematics ; a Royal medal to Dr. 

 R. H. Traquair, F.R.S., for his discoveries relating to 

 fossil fishes ; the Davy medal to Prof. E. W. Morley, of 

 Cleveland, Ohio, for his contributions to physics and 

 chemistry, and especially for his determinations of the 

 relative atomic weights of hydrogen and oxygen ; the 

 Buchanan medal to Mr. W. H. Power, C.B., F.R.S., for 

 his services to sanitary science ; the Hughes medal to 

 Prof. Ernest H. Griffiths, F.R.S., for his contributions to 

 exact physical measurement ; the Sylvester medal to Prof. 

 W. Wirtinger, of Vienna, for his contributions to the 

 general theory of functions. 



The honours announced on the occasion of the King's 

 "birthday on Saturday last are chiefly of political interest. 

 Prof. T. Clifford Ailbutt, F.R.S., has been appointed a 

 Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, but he is 

 the only Fellow of the Royal Society we have been able 

 to find in the list. The new knights include Dr. W. H. 

 Allchin, Dr. W. J. Thompson, and Mr. Charles White- 

 head, who is associated with scientific agriculture. Dr. 

 A. Theiler, Government veterinary bacteriologist, Trans- 

 vaal, has been appointed a Companion of the Order of 

 St. Michael and St. George. 



NO. 1985, VOL. ']']'] 



Further particulars have reached us relating to the 

 scientific expedition that will this month visit the Auck- 

 land Islands and the Campbell Islands, primarily to extend 

 the magnetic survey of New Zealand to their sub-Antarctic 

 outliers, but also to make zoological, geological, and 

 botanical observations and collections. The expedition, as 

 announced in Nature of October 24 (vol. Ixxvi., p. 644), 

 has been arranged by the Philosophical Institute of Canter- 

 bury. The Government S.S. Hinewoa will take the ex- 

 pedition on the occasion of her annual trip to visit the 

 depfits placed on the islands for shipwrecked mariners. 

 Of the two dozen members, about half will be left on the 

 .Auckland Islands and the rest on the Campbell Islands, to 

 be picked up on the return of the steamer. Among the 

 zoologists will be Profs. Benham and Chilton and Mr. E. 

 Waite ; botany is represented by Dr. L. Coclcayne and 

 others, geology by Dr. P. Marshall and others, while the 

 magnetic observers will be headed by Dr. Coleridge Farr, 

 who has been engaged for the last few years in carrying 

 out the magnetic survey of New Zealand. 



A SMALL expedition will proceed from New Zealand in 

 December to the Kermadec Islands. Five young enthusi- 

 astic men have arranged to spetid twelve months on these 

 uninhabited islands, collecting, observing, and photograph- 

 ing. The results of the expedition will, it is hoped, be 

 worked out by naturalists in New Zealand. 



A Christmas course of illustrated lectures, adapted to a 

 juvenile auditory, will be delivered at the Royal Institution 

 by Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S., on " Astronomy Old 

 and New." The dates of the lectures arc December 28 

 (Saturday), 31 ; January 2, 4, 7, and 9, 190S. 



The administration building of the Mount Weather 

 Meteorological Observatory of the Weather Bureau was, 

 Science reports, destroyed by fire on October 23. The loss 

 is said to be 5000Z., including some valuable instruments. 



The Times of November 7 reports that Sir .Alfred Jones, 

 president of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 

 has received a communication from Dr. Kinghorn from 

 Serenje, ■ Zambezi. Dr. Kinghorn records tlie finding of 

 tsetse-flies, and states that the general opinion throughout 

 the country is that they are rapidly extending. Otherwise 

 the country is singularly free from insect pests. So far, 

 sleeping sickness has not appeared in the district. 



A PAPER on disease prevention in the Territorial Army, 

 with a proposed scheme for placing medical officers of 

 health in relation to it, was read on November 8 by Sir 

 •Alfred Keogh, Director-General of Army Medical Staff, 

 before the Society of Medical Officers of Health. He ex- 

 plained why an organised military department of sanitation 

 must be called into existence. If in the Territorial Force 

 the work involved is not done in time of war by those 

 who constantly deal with kindred problems in time of 

 peace, it cannot be efficiently done at all. He proposed 

 to ask the medical officers of health of the country to 

 combine in a voluntary organisation, having for its object 

 the preservation of the health of the men who may one 

 day be required to defend the country ; to enrol themselves 

 in the Medical Corps of the Territorial Force ; to under- 

 take voluntarily the duty of considering the problems to 

 be solved during active operations within their own home 

 area ; to be ready to place their knowledge at the disposal 

 of the authorities commanding their divisions of the Terri- 

 torial Forces. The sanitary department of Ihe Medical 

 Corps would further consist of non-comnlissioned officers 

 and men. detailed to join battalions for the technical duties 

 of water sterilisation, for disinfection, &c.' 



