January 23, 1908J 



NA TURE 



277 



Lord Mayor, and in the course of his remarks referred 

 to the attitude of science toward the public and of the 

 public toward science ; he pointed out that although 

 there are branches of science which cannot be popu- 

 larised, the practical results can be described. 



The vote of thanks was heartily accorded, and the 

 Lord Mayor having briefly acknowledged it, the 

 meeting dispersed. The following telegram was 

 dispatched to the Lord Mayor of Bristol : — 



" Lord Mayor of London, on behalf of British Science 

 Guild at annual meeting, sends warm congratulations to 

 Lord Mayor and city of Bristol on generous munificence of 

 Mr. Will's to Bristol University College, and hopes soon to 

 welcome University of Bristol." 



The following reply was subsequently received from 

 the Lord Mayor of Bristol : — 



" On behalf of my fellow-citizens and myself I beg to 

 thank your lordship and the British Science Guild for your 

 warm congratulations on the munificent promise towards 

 the endowment of a Bristol University by our fellow-citizen, 

 Mr. Harrv Overton Wills." 



/. UACFARLAT>iE GRAY. 



WE regret to announce the death of Mr. John Mac- 

 farlane Gray on January 14, at his residence in 

 Edinburgh, in his seventy-sixth year. Mr. Gray had a 

 varied experience as an engineer, and was for many 

 vcars chief examiner for marine engineers at the Board 

 of Trade. The work which first brought him into 

 prominence was his invention in 1866 of the steam 

 steering gear whicli was first applied to the Great 

 Eastern. The results led eventually to the general 

 adoption of the svstem. Mr. Gray contributed 

 numerous important papers to the various institutions 

 to which he belonged, and frequently took part in 

 discussions at the meetings, his contributions being 

 characterised by pawky humour and sound knowledge 

 of the subject. His contributions to scientific know- 

 ledge were for a time curtailed by the action of the 

 Board of Trade, who, on the ground that the indivi- 

 dual opinion of any of their engineering officers must 

 not be made public, refused him permission to dis- 

 cuss the report of a research committee of the In- 

 stitution of Mechanical Engineers. Fortunately he 

 had previously been able to publish the results of his 

 important investigation of the Theta-Phi diagram. 



The most valuable of Mr. Gray's papers were prob- 

 ably those on the theoretical duty of heat in the 

 steam engine (Institution of Naval Architects, 1885) ; 

 the ether "pressure theory of thermodynamics applied 

 to steam {ibid., 18S9) ; the rationalisation of Reg- 

 nault's experiments on steam (Institution of Mechan- 

 ical Engineers, i8Sg, and Royal Society, 1900) ; and 

 the variable and absolute specific heats of water 

 (Institution of Civil Engineers, igoi). 



Mr. Gray was a member of the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers. He was a vice-president of 

 the Institution of Naval Architects, and vice-president 

 of the Institution of Marine Engineers from its incep- 

 tion. Of humble origin, he was essentially a self- 

 trained engineer, and his early training undoubtedly 

 influenced his attitude towards scientific research, his 

 independence of judgment being specially noticeable. 

 His seventy-six years show a record of useful activity, 

 and he mav be said to have created a field of in- 

 vestig.ition for vounger engineers, who have fully 

 recognised the influence of his guidance. An excel- 

 lent portrait of Mr. Grav accompanies the lengthy 

 biogr;i|)hv published in Engineering of January 17. 

 from which source these brief particulars have been 

 drawn. 



NO. IQ95, VOL. 77] 



NOTES. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 January 4, of Prof. C. A. Young, for many j'ears professor 

 of astronomy at Princeton University, at the age of 

 seventy-three. 



Dr. Feodor Cernyshev, St. Petersburg, has been elected 

 a foreign correspondent of the Geological Society of 

 London. 



Prof. Reginald W. Brock, professor of geology in the 

 Queen's University, Kingston, has been appointed director 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society on January 15, the Symons memorial gold medal 

 was presented to M. Leon Teisserenc de Bort, of Paris, 

 " in consideration of the distinguished work which he has 

 done in connection with meteorological science, especially 

 the study of the upper air." 



The freedom of the city of Glasgow was conferred upon 

 Lord Listei- on Tuesday at a large and representative 

 meeting of citizens, over which the Lord Provost, Sir 

 William Bilsland, presided. In making the presentation, 

 the Lord Provost recalled Lord Lister's connection with 

 the city while professor of surgery at the University and 

 visiting surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, where he achieved 

 world-wide distinction as an investigator and a surgeon 

 by discovering and perfecting the antiseptic system of 

 treating wounds, which marked a new epoch in modern 

 surgery. Lord Lister was unable to be present at the 

 meeting owing to his condition of health, but a letter 

 was read from him in which he said : — " Having in due 

 time been elected by the managers of the Royal Infirmary 

 as surgeon to that institution, I experienced uniform con- 

 sideration at their hands when applying to the treatment 

 of wounds the great truth which had been recently revealed 

 by the illustrious Pasteur regarding the nature of 

 fermentative changes in organic substance. That truth, 

 though it seemed to me to shine clear as daylight from 

 Pasteur's writings, was for many years npt generally 

 recognised, and thus it was my privilege to witness in my 

 own practice, as the application of the principle became 

 greatly improved, the revelation of pathological truths of 

 fundamental importance and a revolution in practical 

 surgery, and I looked upon the years spent in your city 

 as the happiest period in my life." 



O.N Tuesday next, January 28, Prof. F. J. Haverfield 

 %vill deliver the first of two lectures at the Royal Institu- 

 tion on Roman Britain. The Friday evening discourse 

 on January 31 will be delivered by Prof. Rutherford, on 

 recent researches on radio-activity, and on February 14 by 

 Dr. C. W. Saleeby, on biology and history. The discourse 

 on March 13 will be delivered by Signer G. Marconi, his 

 subject being Transatlantic wireless telegraphy. 



At the annual meeting eV the Entomological Society on 

 January 15, the following fellows were elected as oflScers 

 and to serve on the council for the session 1908-9 : — 

 President, Mr. C. O. Waterhouse ; treasurer, Mr. A. H. 

 Jones ; secretaries, Mr. H. Rowland-Brown and Com- 

 mander J. J. Walker; librarian, Mr. G. C. Champion; 

 other members of tlie council. Dr. T. A. Chapman, Mr. 

 A. J. Chitty, Mr. A. Harrison, Mr. W. J. Is.aye, Dr. 

 G. B. Longstaff, Mr. H. Main, Mr. G. A. K. Marshall, 

 Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., Prof. L. C. Miall, F.R.S., 

 Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., Mr. R. Shelford, and Mr. 

 G. H. Verrall. The president read his address, which 



