December 3, 1908] 



NA TURE 



139 



Prof. R. Abegg, .of Brcslau, informs us that the award 

 of 2500 marks made to him by the Berlin Academy of 

 Sciences was not a prize, as announced in Nature of 

 November 26 (p. 104), but a grant to enable him to 

 purchase the gallium required for the physicochemical 

 studies which he has undertaken of that substance. 



The death is reported, after a long illness, of Dr. 

 William Keith Brooks, professor of zoology at the Johns 

 Hopkins University, Baltimore. He was born at Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, in 1848, and had been a member of the staff 

 of Johns Hopkins since its foundation in 1876. He was 

 the author of "A Handbook of Invertebrate Zoology," 

 " The Stomatopoda of H.M.S. Challenger," " The 

 Foundations of Zoology," "The Oyster," and "The Re- 

 port of the Maryland Oyster Commission." He was 

 popularly known as " the father of the oyster culture." 

 He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences 

 and of the American Philosophical Society. 



The gold medal awarded under the Shaw Trust for 

 Industrial Hygiene was presented to Prof. Galloway, at the' 

 Royal Society of Arts, on November 18, " In recognition of 

 h's valuable researches into the action of coal dust in 

 colliery explosions, the outcome of which researches has 

 been the provision of means by which the risk of such 

 accident is materially diminished, and a consequent great 

 saving of human life effected." 



Prof. Beyerinxk, of Delft, writes to point out that the 

 spectra of planets illustrated by Prof. P. Lowell in Nature 

 of November 12, p. 42, resemble the absorption spectra 

 of chlorophvll and accompanying pigments of different 

 plants. For instance, " The spectra of Uranus and 

 Neptune coincide with a spectrum produced by a chloro- 

 phyll solution containing much anthocyan, or perhaps still 

 more with the absorption spectrum of a living Porphyra." 



The annual exhibition of apparatus is to be held by 

 the Physical Society on Friday evening, December 11 

 (from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.), at the Royal College of Science, 

 .South Kensington. From the programme, of which we 

 have received an advance proof, there appear to be many 

 items of considerable interest to both physicists and elec- 

 trical engineers. We understand that invitations have 

 been given to the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the 

 Faraday Society, the Optical Society, and the Rbntgen 

 Society. Admission, however, except to Fellows of the 

 Physical Society, will be by ticket only, and therefore 

 members of the societies just mentioned desiring to attend 

 the exhibition should apply to the secretary of the society 

 to which they belong. 



For nearly a year Lieutenant E. H. Shackleton, R.N.R., 

 and his party of explorers have been engaged in exploration 

 in South Polar regions. The explorers were taken to their 

 landing-pl.ice in the Far South by the Nimrod, which then 

 returned to Lyttelton. Despatches from New Zealand now 

 state that the vessel has just left again for King Edward 

 VH. land to take on board the explorers. It is anticipated 

 that the Simrod will reach the landing-place in about si.x 

 weeks. Lieutenant Shackleton and his party will, it is 

 hoped, put in an appearance before the end of February 

 next, after which the Nimrod will make her way back to 

 Lyttelton. 



We learn from the Times that the Admiralty will 

 restore Halley's grave in the old burial-ground of Leo 

 Parish Church. Dr. E. Halley, who was the Astronomer 

 Royal from 1721 to 1742, was given the temporary rank 

 of a c;iptain in the Navy, and commanded a ship of war 



NO. 2040, VOL. 79] 



in 169S-1701, for the purpose of making observations for 

 magnetic variations. With Sir Isaac Newton, he was re- 

 sponsible for the Act of 1714 offering a reward to any 

 person who should devise a method for the discovery of 

 the longitude at sea. His grave was last restored by the 

 .Admiralty in 1854. 



The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia has 

 decided to confer the Hayden memorial medal for 190S on 

 .Mr. J. M. Clarke, State Geologist of New York, in 

 recognition of his distinguished services to geological 

 science. The medal is a memorial which Mrs. E. W. 

 Hayden endowed in honour of her husband, Dr. Ferdinand 

 V. Hayden, who was for several years director of the 

 Geological and Geographical Surveys of the territories, 

 remaining one of the four principal geologists to the United 

 States Geological Survey from its organisation in 1879 

 until his death. Provision was at first made to confer 

 a bronze medal and the remainder of the interest of the 

 fund annually as a recognition of the best publication, 

 exploration, discovery, or research in the sciences of geo- 

 logy or palaeontology. The bronze medal was awarded 

 annually until 1899, when the deed was modified so as 

 to provide for the awarding of a gold medal once every 

 three years. 



A Bill for putting in force the decisions of the Berlin 

 Wireless Telegraphy Conference of November, 1906, as 

 embodied in an international convention, has been laid 

 before the French Chamber. The Paris correspondent of 

 the Times gives the following details of the convention : — 

 The conference has fixed wave-lengths, one of 300 metres, 

 the other of 600 metres, for the transmission of public 

 messages by the wireless current. All stations must be 

 able to produce and to receive one, at all events, of these 

 two wave-lengths. All public correspondence must be re- 

 stricted to one of these wave-lengths. A coast station, 

 however, can use other wave-lengths for long-distance 

 communications, or for messages other than those trans- 

 mitted by the public, provided that these wave-lengths are 

 not under 600 metres and are not more than 1600 metres. 

 Stations on board ship must use the 300-metre wave- 

 length. They are permitted, however, to use other wave- 

 lengths as well, provided that these are under 600 metres. 

 Ships of small tonnage will be allowed to use a wave- 

 length below 300 metres. 



During the past week two important decisions have 

 been announced in the British Courts of Appeal as to the 

 definition of the term mineral. The question is of both 

 scientific and commercial interest. When a railway buys 

 land under compulsory powers, the minerals under the 

 surface are reserved to the landowner, and have to be 

 subsequently purchased by the railway company if at any 

 time the proprietor is able to mine them. The railway 

 companies are accordingly anxious to restrict the term 

 mineral within narrow limits. The Court of Appeal, as 

 announced in the Times of November 24, has unanimously 

 confirmed the decision by Mr. Justice Eve in the case of 

 the Great Western Railway Company against the Carpella 

 Mining Company, that the china clay so extensively 

 worked in Cornwall and Devonshire is a mineral. The 

 Upper Court in Edinburgh, on the same day, re-affirmed 

 the decision that in Scotland sandstone is a mineral, by 

 dismissing an appeal by the North British Railway Com- 

 pany, in reference to the working of sandstone beside the 

 railway station at Shettleston. 



The appointment by the Government of a commission 

 to register ancient monuments with the view of their 

 better protection has been widely welcomed, but the 



