March 12, 1908J 



NA TURE 



443 



;ind Prof. Thomson has accepted the invitation to occupy 

 that office. 



Tiii^ third congress of experimental psychology will be 

 held at KranUfort on .April 22-25. 



Wi! deeply regret to announce that Dr. H. C. Sorby, 

 F.R.S., died at Sheffield on .Monday, March 9, at eighty- 

 one years of age. 



Prof. E. Rutherford, F.R.S., has been awarded the 

 r?ressa prize of 9600 lire (384/.) by the Turin .Academy of 

 Sciences. 



Prof. H. Poinc.arf, professor of mathematical astro- 

 nomy in the University of Paris, has been elected a 

 member of the French .Academy. 



Prof. \V. S. Handi.f,v will deliver the Hunterian lecture 

 on " The Natural Cure of Cancer " at the Royal College 

 of Surgeons to-morrow, Friday, March 13, at 5 p.m. 



A Reuter message from Melbourne reports the death 

 on March 8, at seventy-seven years of age, of Dr. .A. W. 

 Ilowitt, C.M.Ci., author of " The Native Tribes of .South- 

 East Australia " and other important anthropological 

 works. 



A celebr.miox of the jubilee of the presentation of the 

 Darwin-Wallace joint essay to the Linnean Society on 

 July I, 1858, will take place on July i next; the details 

 are not complete, but it is intended that an afternoon meet- 

 ing and an evening reception shall take place on the day 

 named, with the award of copies of a special medal, and 

 subsequent publication of the proceedings of the celebra- 

 tion. 



The steamer NiniroJ, of IJeut. Shackleton's .'\ntarctic 

 expedition, has returned to Christchurch, New Zealand, 

 from the Antarctic. The Niinrod is expected to return 

 to the Antarctic next January to fetch the expedition, and 

 she should be back in England some time in the later 

 part of 1909. The Daily Mail of March 7 contains a 

 narrative of the expedition, so far as it has gone, by the 

 leader, Lieut. Shackleton. 



The President of the Local Government Board has 

 authorised for the current year the following researches, 

 in addition to those already announced, under the grant 

 voted by Parliament in aid of scientific investigations con- 

 cerning the causes and processes of disease : — (i) further 

 studies by Drs. Andrewes and Horder as to methods of 

 inhibiting in the animal body the activities of infection by 

 certain cocci ; (2) a study of the various forms of pneu- 

 monia, especially in children, by Mr. Foulerton ; (3) a 

 study of acid-fast bacilli in butter, by Dr. Nabarro ; (4) an 

 investigation of the injurious gases evolved during artificial 

 illumination, by Dr. J. Wade. 



Reuter's Agency states that the second International 

 Conference on Sleeping Sickness met on Monday at the 

 Foreign Office. It is understood that the chief business 

 of the conference will be the discussion of a draft general 

 Act dealing with measures for combating the disease 

 which has already been drawn up by the British Govern- 

 ment and submitted to the various countries represented at 

 the conference. There is further to be discussed a counter- 

 draft .Act prepared by the German Government which 

 contains some slight modification of the British proposals. 

 The complete list of delegates of the seven countries re- 

 presented at the conference is as follows : — Germany : Dr. 

 Robert Koch, Herr H. de Jacobs, Dr. Steudel ; Spain : 

 the .Marquis de Villalobar, Dr. F. Murillo Palacios ; Congo 

 NO. 2002, VOL. 77] 



Free Stale: Colonel Lantonnois, Dr. van Campenhout ; 

 France: .M. Le Myre de A'ilcrs, M. Ronssin, Dr. Ker- 

 morgant. Dr. Cureau, Dr. Giard ; Great Britain : Lord 

 Fitzmaurice, Sir W. Foster, M.P., Mr. A. W. Clarke. 

 Mr. H. J. Read, C.M.G., Sir Patrick Manson, Dr. Rose 

 Bradford, F.R.S., Sir R. Boyce, F.R.S., Colonel D. Bruce, 

 C.B., F.R.S. ; Italy: Prof. Rocco Santoliquido, Prof. 

 Adolfo Cotta ; Portugal : Dr. Ayrcs Kopke. The Lord 

 Mayor will entertain the president and delegates of the 

 conference at limcheon at the Mansion House on Monday 

 next, March 16. 



We regret to read in Tuesday's Times that Dr. W. E. 

 Wilson, F.R.S., died on Friday last, March 6, at fifty- 

 six years of age. For many years Dr. Wilson gave dis- 

 interested and devoted attachment to research in astronomy 

 and physics, and his work secured for him a high place 

 among scientific investigators. In December, 1870, he was 

 engaged on the total solar eclipse expedition to Oran, and 

 in 1872 he built an astronomical observatory at Daramona, 

 Ireland, and equipped it with a 12-inch reflector by Grubb. 

 Nine years later this was superseded by a more completely 

 equipped observatory containing a fine reflecting telescope 

 of 2 feet aperture, with mounting of the most modern 

 design. In 1891 this was re-mounted and provided with 

 electric control for astronomical photography. With this 

 instrument Dr. Wilson obtained some remarkable photo- 

 graphs of celestial objects, including the moon and many 

 nebula; and stellar clusters. In later years a physical 

 laboratory" and mechanical workshop were added to the 

 astronomical observatory, and in the laboratory many 

 important researches on radiant heat and light were carried 

 on by him. Among the subjects of his papers read before 

 various scientific societies are '* E.xperimental Investiga- 

 tions on the Effective Radiation from the Sun." Other 

 important publications of his are entitled " The Absorp- 

 tion of Heat in the Solar Atmosphere," " The Temperature 

 of the Carbons in the Electric Arc," " The Effect of 

 Pressure of the Surrounding Gas on the Temperature of 

 the Crater of the Electric Arc," "The Thermal Radia- 

 tion from .Sun-spots," and "Radiation from a Perfect 

 Radiator." His papers published before the year igoo 

 were issued separately in a volume entitled " .Astronomical 

 and Physical Researches made at Mr. Wilson's Observa- 

 tory, Daramona, Westmeath," in which appear reproduc- 

 tions of some of his celestial photographs. Dr. Wilson's 

 scientific work was recognised by his election as a Fellow 

 of the Royal .Society in 1896, and by the degree of Doctor 

 of Science conferred on him, honoris causa, by Dublin 

 University a few years later. 



By the untimely death, at the age of sixty-one, of Sir 

 Denzil Ibbetson, India has lost one of her most eminent 

 anthropologists. He joined the Punjab Civil Service in 

 1870, and his remarkable report on the revision of settle- 

 ment in the distri.ct of Karnal, situated in the south-east 

 of the province, led to his appointment as superintendent 

 of the census of the province in 1881. The report on 

 Karnal was a remarkable achievement. It was based 

 upon a profound knowledge of the peasant classes, their 

 mode of life, social institutions, and religious beliefs. 

 Students of the rural classes in northern India had long 

 been aware that their religion was to be found, not, as the 

 Max Miiller school contended, in the sacred books re- 

 corded in Sanskrit, a language familiar only to a few 

 Pundits, but in the cults and beliefs connected with the 

 worship of the rural " godlings," as Ibbetson designated 

 them. But the case for this novel view of Indian popular 

 religion was now for the first time clearly advocated in 



