November i 2, 1908] 



NA TURE 



43 



KOJES. 

 The list of honours conferred upon the occasion of the 

 King's birthday includes the names of three Fellows of 

 the Royal Society. The Order of Merit has been conferred 

 upon Dr. A. Russel Wallace, F.R.S. ; Prof. J. J. Thom- 

 son, F.R.S., has been knighted; and Dr. J. Hutchinson, 

 F.R.S., has received a like honour. Other recipients 

 whose names are known in the scientific world are Prin- 

 cipal Macalister, Glasgow University, who has been 

 appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath 

 (K.C.B.) ; Sir G. -Anderson Critchett, who has been made 

 a baronet; Dr. T. Oliver and Dr. X. Bodington, Vice- 

 Chancellor of the University of Leeds, both of whom 

 have received the honour of knighthood. , 



With deep regret we have to announce that Prof. 

 W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S. , died on Sunday morning at sixty- 

 one years of age. 



It was announced at the West Ham Town Council on 

 Monday that the freedom of West Ham had been privately 

 conferred upon Lord Lister at his house in the country, as 

 he was prevented by a weak state of health from receiving 

 the distinction in public. Lord Lister was born at Upton, 

 Essex, in the borough of West Ham. 



We are asked to announce that on November 28, at 

 2 p.m. promptly, Mr. Abbott H. Thayer, the discoverer 

 of the concealing effect of the counter shading of the 

 costumes of animals, will give at the Zoological Gardens, 

 Regent's Park, a further demonstration of the obliterative 

 effect of the patterns of so-called " conspicuous " species, 

 illustrated with actual bird-skins, butterflies, &c., as well 

 as with artificial apparatus and drawings. Visitors are 

 requested to assemble in front of the superintendent's 

 office. 



M.\L Edmond Perrif.r and Van Tieghem are to repre- 

 sent the Paris .Academy of Sciences at the Darwin 

 centenary in Cambridge next June. 



The death is announced, at the age of sixty-five, of Prof. 

 .Alfred Ditte, professor of chemistry in the University of 

 Paris, and member of the Paris -Academy of Sciences. 



-A Rel'ter telegram from Ottawa announces the death 

 of Dr. • James Fletcher, Dominion entomologist, and 

 honorary secretary of the Royal Society of Canada. 



Sir D.iNiEL Morris, K.C.^LG., has been elected an 

 honorary life Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society in 

 recognition, among other matters, of his services to our 

 Colonial Empire, and especially to the West Indies. 



The death is announced of Dr. Cecil G. Dolmage, a 

 Fellow of the Royal .Astronomical Society and many other 

 learned societies at home and abroad, and author of 

 " .Astronomy of To-day " and other works. 



Mr. W. K. D.iVEV has given the sum of loooL towards 

 the initial e.xpenses of the -Australian Institute of Tropical 

 Diseases shortly to be established at Townsville, North 

 Queensland. 



The -American .Association will hold a special Darwin 

 celebration meeting on January i, igog, when a number 

 of papers upon subjects bearing upon evolution will be 

 presented by leading naturalists. It is intended to issue 

 the papers in a memorial volume. 



We notice with regret the announcement of the death of 



Mr. -Archibald J. Little, who did much geographical work 



in the interior of .Asia. Mr. Little was known as the 



author of "Mount Omi and Beyond," "Through the 



NO. 2037, VOL. 79] 



Vangtse Gorges," and " The Far East." He explored the 

 confines of Tibet both from the Chinese and Himalayan 

 sides. 



The Astron6mical and -Astrophysical Society of -America 

 will hold its next meeting, in the summer of 1909, prob- 

 ably at the Yerkes Observatory. .Acording to Science, the 

 exact date has not yet been fixed, but it is expected to 

 precede by a few days the Winnipeg meeting of the British 

 -\ssociation, which will open on -August 25, igog. 



A conferenxe of fruit-growers will be held at the 

 South-Eastern -Agricultural College, Wye, on Friday, 

 November 27. The chair will be taken by Mr. C. W. 

 Radcliffe Cooke, and among the subjects to be discussed 

 are insecticides, by Mr. S. Pickering, F.R.S., and spray- 

 ing and spraying machinery, by Mr. E. S. Salmon. 



Plans for a new Norwegian Polar expedition were 

 described by Captain Amundsen at a large meeting of the 

 Geographical Society held at Christiania on November 10, 

 and attended by the King of Norway. From the Times 

 we learn that Captain .Amundsen's plan is to go with Dr. 

 Nansen's old ship the Fram to Cape Barrow, the northern- 

 most point of Alaska, and thence north. The ship will 

 drift with the ice across the Polar ocean. The from will 

 carry provisions for seven years, but the voyage is expected 

 to last five. 



On November 6 an inaugural meeting of the new -Aero- 

 plane Club was held in London, when it was decided to 

 form a club devoted to the development of aerial naviga- 

 tion by machines heavier than air. A small provisional 

 committee was appointed to submit to the club the names 

 of gentlemen for service on a general committee. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times reports that M. 

 Barthou, the French Minister of Public Works, announced 

 in the Senate on November 5 that the sum of 4000/. is to 

 be devoted by his department to the encouragement of 

 aerial locomotion. From the same source we learn that 

 the International Sporting Club of Monaco has offered the 

 sum of 4000/. to be competed for at an international aero- 

 nautical meeting to be held at Jlonaco from January 24 

 to March 24, igog. The length of the course will be 

 about six miles. The first prize will be 3000^, the second 

 600/., and the third 40L 



It is with regret that we announce the death of Dr. 

 John M. Thome, the indefatigable director of the Cordova 

 Observatory, who since the retirement of Dr. Gould con- 

 ducted the work of that institution with marked ability 

 and success. By his loss science is deprived of an ardent 

 and able observer, one who was willing to forsake the 

 more attractive departments of astronomical research and 

 to labour at the very necessary drudgery connected with 

 the compilation of a southern Durchmusterung and 

 similar work, necessitating the wearying and continual 

 repetition of the same process. In some directions 

 sufficient recognition has not been made of the assiduous 

 efforts of Dr. Thome to carry on the work of the observa- 

 tory with the efficiency and with the magnificent output 

 that characterised Dr. Gould's enterprising direction, and 

 unfortunately in this place we have not room to do justice 

 to his twenty-three years' administration. A very limited 

 acquaintance with the volumes issued from the Argentine 

 Observatory must convince anyone, not only of the value 

 and amount of observation that has been accomplished, 

 but of the difficulties against which Dr. Thome con- 

 tinually struggled. -A possibility of war has more than 

 once been made the excuse by the Minister of Public 



