February 27, 1908] 



NA TURE 



397 



computation of the number of j-ears necessary to reach 

 a mean value for temperature within the limits of the 

 probable error of the mean value for a single year, 

 based upon some tables published in kjo2 tor 

 thp extrapolation of mean values. He was always 

 more concerned to present meteorological data in a 

 form amenable to computation than to increase their 

 \olume or detail. When the weekly weather report 

 was initiated in 1S84, he provided formulse for com- 

 puting the true daily mean from the maximum and 

 minimum temperatures for the day, and for com- 

 puting the amount of effective and ineffective warmth 

 as referred to a base temperature of 42° F., which 

 are still in use. He once astonished me by pleading 

 for graphical representation as being easier to read 

 than columns of figures, for he could extract the 

 meaning of a page of figures with a facility that made 

 the discussion of results with him an indispensable 

 part of any piece of work that was in hand. Yet 

 he was more than eighty years of age when we had to 

 transact this kind of business together. He never 

 lost his appreciation of new methods which were 

 sound, or of new project? which were promising. 

 Throughout his administration of the otTice he held 

 to a high scientific ideal while maintaining the 

 efficiency of such daily work as was required for 

 public Lse and for international cooperation. His 

 scientific horizon was a wide one. With Stokes and 

 Balfour Stewart, he was largely instrumental in pro- 

 viding means for the organised study of the sun, 

 which had been commenced in this country and in 

 India by Sir Norman Lockyer, in order to trace the 

 primary causes of those great meteorological fluctua- 

 tions \\'hich e.xhibit themselves in alternations of 

 drought and plenty in India, a study which, pursued 

 for many 3-ears at the Solar Physics Observatory at 

 South Kensington and at Kodaikanal, in India, has 

 recently taken its place among the greater inter- 

 national organisations. As head of the Public Works 

 r;>cpartmcnt in India, he transferred meteorological 

 work in that dependency from a provincial to an 

 Imperial basis under Blanford and Eliot, and laid the 

 foundation for the admirable organisation of which 

 the Government of India and its scientific staff now 

 enjov the advantage. At the same time, he initiated 

 the forestrv department and the application of 

 botanical science to the service of the public in that 

 department. 



Probably no single person had clearer views of the 

 future that lies before meteorological work as a 

 matter of practical influence upon everyday life, or 

 was more fully conscious of the long years of observ- 

 ation, organisation and study that are necessary to 

 secure the advantages which will ultimately more 

 than reward the long years of patient inquiry. 



.^bove the mantelshelf of the unpretentious room 

 over a piano shop in Victoria Street, which for more 

 than forty years has been the chief centre of meteor- 

 ological work in this country, there is a clear-cut 

 picfile of an old but by no means aged man. giving 

 an unmistakable presentment of intellectual strength 

 altogether undisturbed by side-issues and petty diffi- 

 culties. Such indeed was Strachey. Beneath the 

 portrait over his characteristic signature are the last 

 words of a letter written about an office balance sheet 

 that 1 thought more than usually depressing. " On 

 the whole there is nothing to complain of." For 

 meteorologists this is, at times, a hard saying; but 

 to me at least it is entirely characteristic of the spirit 

 with which he insisted upon meeting the difficulties 

 that confronted us. " A heart that is established and 

 will not shrink." a keen appreciation of the prac- 

 tical services which science can rendet: in the present 

 and in the future, a simple determination to regard 



NO. 2000, VOL. 77] 



the whole, to make the most of the means at his dis- 

 posal without grumbling — these are the abiding re- 

 collections of the ten years of our association at the 

 close of a long life devoted, with untiring energy, to 

 the service of his country. 



W. N. Sh.wv. 



NOTES. 



Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S., has been elected president of 

 the Physical Society of London for the ensuing year. 



The annual congress organised by the Prehistoric Society 

 of France will be held this year at Chamb^ry from August 

 24 to August 30. 



M. Bouquet de la Grye has been elected president of 

 the Bureau des Longitudes for 1908, M. Poincar^ vice- 

 president, and M. Bigourdan secretary. 



Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S., was elected president of 

 the Geological Society of London at the anniversary meet- 

 ing on February 21. 



The director of the Royal Meteorological Observatory 

 at Agram, Hungary, informs us that the founder and 

 former director, Prof. Ivan Stozir, died on February 12 

 after a short illness. 



Dr. H. F. Osborn, one of the vice-presidents of the 

 American Museum of Natural History and curator of 

 vertebrate palaeontology, has been elected president of the 

 museum in succession to the late Mr. Morris K. Jesup. 



It is reported from Berlin that Mr. Andrew Carnegie 

 has given half a million marl-cs (25,000?.) to the Robert 

 Koch fund for the campaign against tuberculosis. The 

 amount collected so far for carrying out research work in 

 connection with the disease amounts to 800,000 marks 

 (40,000/.). 



An exhibition and sale of farm and garden produce, 

 organised by the Women's Agricultural and Horticultural 

 International Union, will be held in the gardens of the 

 Roval Botanic Society, Regent's Park, N.W., on Wednes- 

 day, July 15. \\\ communications should be addressed to 

 the secretary. Miss Eileen Johnson, c/o Mrs. T. Chamber- 

 Iain, 5 Priory Mansions, Drayton Gardens, S.W. 



The .\merican Society of Naturalists has made arrange- 

 ments to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of 

 Charles Darwin, in cooperation with the .American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, on the occasion of 

 their meetings in Baltimore in 1908. The Society of 

 Naturalists, we learn from Science, will be represented 

 on the committee of arrangements by the president, the 

 secretary, and several members. 



On Thursday next, March 5, Sir John Rhys will begin 

 a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on " Early 

 British History and Epigraphy," and on March 7 Prof. 

 J. J. Thomson will commence a course of six lectures on 

 " Electric Discharges through Gases." The Friday even- 

 ing discourse on March 6 will be delivered by Prof. John. 

 Milne on " Recent Earthquakes," and on March 13 by 

 Chevalier G. Marconi on " Transatlantic Wireless Tele- 

 graphy." 



Replying to a question in the House of Commons on 

 Tuesday, Mr. Churchill said : — " It is impossible to obtain 

 accurate statistics regarding the mortality from sleeping 

 sickness in Uganda, but, in a recent despatch, the Governor 

 has estimated the number of deaths at 200,000 during the 

 p.ist seven vnars. Every effort is being made ^iv the 



