540 



NA TURE 



[Ai'RiL 9, 1 90S 



Iho Royal Society in 1884, and was made, two years 

 later, a' graduate' of the Royal University of Dublin. 

 11 is 'official position further led to his selection as 

 president of the Institute of Chemistry in 1888. He 

 was one of the original members of the Institute and 

 look much interest in its operations. He was made 

 a Companion of the Bath in 1889. 



Dr. Bell enjoyed the respect and esteem of many 

 successive Boards of Inland Revenue, who found in 

 him a shrewd and astute adviser of ripened judg- 

 ment and large experience, eminently cautious and 

 sound. His bonhomie and eeniality, his strong 

 common sense and tactful sympathy, his fair- 

 mindedness and obvious impartiality rendered him an 

 admirable agent in the conduct of the occasionally 

 complicated and difficult adjustments of the apparently 

 conflicting interests of the " Trade " and the Revenue, 

 which the head of the laboratory is now and again 

 called upon to determine. He was loyally served by 

 his staff, wlio entertained warm feelings of regard 

 and affection for him. Many of them testified to 

 their appreciation of his many good qualities by their 

 presence at his funeral on Saturday last at Ewell. 



T. E. T. 



NOTES. 



The sixteenth James Forrest lecture of the Inslitulion of 

 Civil Engineers will be delivered at the institution on 

 Monday, April 27, by Prof. Henry Louis, who has selected 

 for his subject " Unsolved Problems in Metal Mining." 



The Geological Society of London is taking a poll of 

 all the fellows resident in the United Kingdom to ascer- 

 tain whether a majority is in favour of admitting women 

 to the societv, and, if so, whether as fellows or as 

 associates. 



Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., and Dr. T. H. Warren, 

 Vice-Chancellor of the University of O.xford, have been 

 elected members of the Athen.-eum Club under the pro- 

 visions of the rule of the club which empowers the annual 

 election by the committee of three persons " of dis- 

 tinguished erriinence in science, literature, the arts, or for 

 public services." 



Dr. Henri Deslandres, who since 1897 has been 

 assistant director of the observatory at Meudon, has been 

 appointed director to succeed the late Dr. Janssen. 



Dr. J. N. Langley, F.R.S., professor of physiology in 

 the University of Cambridge, has been elected a foreign 

 member of the Royal Danish Scientific Society. 



The third International Congress of Philosophy will be 

 held at Heidelberg from August 31 to September 5. Prof. 

 Windelberg is to be president, and Dr. Elsenhaus Plock, 

 of Heidelberg, is acting as secretary. 



The annual dinner of the Institution of Mining and 

 Metallurgy will be held at the Hotel Cecil on Friday, 

 May 8. The president, Mr. A. James, will preside, and 

 many distinguished guests have already accepted invitations 

 to be present. 



We learn from the Brilish Medical Journal that Ihe 

 Town Council of West Ham has passed a resolution 

 authorising the placing of a bronze tablet on the house 

 in Upton Lane, Forest Gate, now St. Peter's Vicarage, 

 where Lord Lister was born. 



The sixth International Congress of Psychology will be 

 held at Geneva from .August 31 to September 4, 1909. 

 Prof. E. Clapar^de, professor of physiological psychology 

 NO. 2006, VOL. 77] 



in the University of Geneva,- is the general secretary of the 

 congress, and may be addressed at Champel, 11, Geneva. 



A NEW Polar expedition is being equipped, under the 

 auspices of the Russian Ministry of Marine, with the object 

 of discovering a north-east passage between the Atlantic 

 and Pacific Oceans, and thereby accelerating naval com- 

 munication between Western and Far Eastern Russia. 



-A CORRESPONDENT sends us a page from " Wind und 

 Wetter," by Prof. E. Lommel (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 

 1873), containing a description of the dark cloud which 

 covered Europe and a part of Asia in 1873 (see N.mure, 

 March 5, p. 417, and March 26, p. 493). 



The body of Emanuel Swedenborg, who died in 1772 

 and w-as buried 'n Ihe Swedish Church, Prince's Square, 

 Ratcliff Highway, was removed on Tuesday from its place 

 of sepulture and conveyed to Dartmouth, where it was 

 placed on board the Swedish cruiser Fylgia for conveyance 

 to Sweden. 



A GENERAL meeting of the American Philosophical 

 Society will be held at Philadelphia on April 23-25. The 

 preliminary programme, a copy of which has reached us, 

 shows that thirty-six papers on important scientific subjects 

 will be brought before the meeting by leading men of 

 science in the United States. 



The Back bequest for 1908 has been awarded by the 

 Royal Geographical Society to Lieutenant George Mulock, 

 R.N., on accountof the survey work which he did on the 

 National .•Antarctic Expedition, and the map in six sheets 

 which he prepared after the expedition returned. 



A MESSAGE from Stockholm states that it is the intention 

 of the Swedish Government to ask the Riksdag 10 make 

 a grant for a scientific expedition to Spitsbergen in the 

 coming summer for geological and geographical research. 

 Prof. Gerard de Geer, the Rector of the University of 

 Stockholm, will be the leader of the expedition. 



It is proposed to hold a conference of meteorologists 

 representative of the United Kingdom and of the British 

 colonies and dependencies in the course of the summer in 

 Canada on the invitation of the Royal Society of Canada. 

 The meeting was originally fixed for the last w^eek in May. 

 We are now informed by Mr. R. F. Stupart, director of 

 he Canadian Meteorological Service, that it has been post- 

 poned, and is to be held in Quebec in the last w-eek of 

 fuly, immediately after the celebration of the tercentenary 

 of Champlain's landing. 



An adult living specimen of l.cpidosiren paradoxa — the 

 South American lung-fish — reached the natural history 

 department of Glasgow University some months ago, and 

 has remained in a healthy condition. To this — the first 

 living specimen which has ever reached the Old World — 

 there have just been added eight others obtained by Mr. 

 W. E. Agar on his recent expedition. It is hoped that in 

 time it may be found possible to induce them to breed in 

 captivity. 



The summer meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science will be held at Dartmouth 

 College, Hanover, N.H., during the week beginning 

 June 29. A , committee, under the chairmanship of Prof. 

 R. Fletcher, has been appointed to make the necessary 

 arrangements. An invitation has been received from the 

 president of the Blue Mountain Forest Association for 

 members of the association to visit the Blue Mountain 

 Forest, otherwise known as the Corbin Blue Mountain 

 Park or Preserve, covering about 40,000 acres, where the 

 celebrated herds of buffalo, deer, mountain goats, boars, 

 &c., may be seen. 



