December io, 1908] 



NA TURE 



:65 



The recently created Royal Society of South Africa has 

 elected Sir David Gill, K.C.B., K.R.S., its first honorary 

 fellow of the society, " in recognition of his great scientific 

 attainments and of the great help and impetus he has 

 given to scientific research in South Africa." 



Dr. \V. E. Hovle, director of the Manchester Museum 

 and lecturer on morphology of Mollusca in the University 

 of Manchester, has been appointed director of the National 

 Museum of Wales. Dr. Hoyle will commence his duties 

 not later than March 25 of next year. 



.At the annual business meeting of the Scottish Meteor- 

 ological Society, held at Edinburgh on December i. Sir 

 Arthur Mitchell, K.C.B., was elected president; Prof. A. 

 Crum Brown, F.R.S., and Sir Archibald Buchan-Hep- 

 burn, of Smcaton-Hepburn, Bart., were elected vice- 

 presidents. 



Dr. C. E. Beevok, whose death occurred on December 5 

 at fifty-four years of age, was Croonian lecturer at the 

 Royal College of Physicians in 1903, Lettsomian lecturer 

 at the Medical Society of London in 1907, and also presi- 

 dent of the Neurological Society in the same year. Among 

 his publications were scientific papers on the nervous 

 s)'stem. 



The Bessemer gold medal of the Iron and Steel Insti- 

 tute has been awarded to M. k. Pourcel. The medal is 

 awarded annually for services to metallurgy, and it is for 

 M. Pourcel's investigations in the manufacture of ferro- 

 manganese and for his work on the thermal reaction in- 

 volved in the manufacture of iron and steel that he will 

 receive it. 



The meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on 

 December 14 will be a commemoration meeting of the 

 jubilee of Speke's discovery of the Victoria Nyanza. Sir 

 William Garstin will give an address on fifty years of 

 Nile exploration and some of its results, and there will 

 be an exhibition of portraits, Speke's original map of his 

 discoveries, instruments, photographs, and other objects. 



Dr. .Azel Ames, w'hose death is reported from Danvers, 

 Massachusetts, at the age of sixty-three, was at one time 

 prominent among American writers on hygiene. He served 

 as a lieutenant of engineers in the Civil War and as a 

 surgeon in the Spanish War. He had also held various 

 posts under the U.S. Government, in which his knowledge 

 of sanitary affairs was of value. 



.According to the Paris correspondent of the Times, an 

 agreement has been signed between the authorities of the 

 French Congo, the Pasteur Institute, and the Geographical 

 Society, with the object of transforming the French 

 mission for the study of sleeping sickness into a bacterio- 

 logical institute at Brazzaville. The institute will be placed 

 under the direction and control of the Pasteur Institute 

 in order to ensure the permanence of the organisation. 



The Paris correspondent of the Titnes announces that 

 Mr. J. Gordon Bennett has offered the A(;ro Club de 

 France, as a new international prize, a cup of the value of 

 500/., to be competed for next year in France under the 

 auspices of the International Aeronautic Federation and 

 of the French Society for the Encouragement of Aerial 

 Locomotion. In addition, Mr. Gordon Bennett offers three 

 sums of lOooZ. each to be given to the winner of each of 

 the first three annual competitions. 



The death is announced of Prof. E. G. von Rindfleisch, 

 the eminent pathologist, at seventy-two years of age. 



NO. 2041, VOL. 79] 



Prof. Rindfleisch occupied in succession the chairs of 

 pathology at Zurich and Bonn, and in 1874 he succeeded 

 to the chair of pathological anatomy in the University of 

 W'iirzburg, which had been occupied by the late Prof. 

 Virchow. He devoted considerable attention to the causes 

 and treatment of tuberculosis, and his publications included 

 a manual of the doctrine of cellular pathology, a volume 

 on the elements of pathology, and papers on the principle 

 of life and on medical philosophy. 



Prof. .Alfred Lo[>ge desires to correct a part of the 

 statement as to his remarks at the recent meeting on the 

 correlation of the teaching of mathematics and science, 

 reported in Nature of December 3 (p. 144). What he sug- 

 gested was that the science masters should each term 

 furnish the mathematical masters with an epitome o' the 

 mathematical knowledge required by each division to 

 enable the pupils to follow satisfactorily the science course 

 of the following term, in much the same way as a mathe- 

 matical preamble to each chapter or group of chapters of 

 a scientific book would facilitate the understanding of these 

 chapters. 



Mr. Alfred Colson, Millstone Lane, Leicester, who 

 was one of the local secretaries for the meeting of the 

 British Association held there in 1907, is preparing an 

 album of extracts, reports, photographs, &c., for presenta- 

 tion to the library of the local Literary and Philosophical 

 .Society. He is anxious to obtain as many snapshots as 

 possible of the visitors, and would be glad if photographers 

 would send him negatives (which would be returned safely) 

 or prints to illustrate the album. Photographs taken at 

 the Loggia, the garden-party at Glenfield Frith, the Abbey 

 Park, in the reception room, or at any of the e.xcursions 

 would be particularly acceptable. No doubt many photo- 

 graphers who were present at Leicester will assist Mr. 

 Colson to secure this memento of a successful meeting. 



In the issue of Nature for June 11, 1903 (vol. Ixviii., 

 p. 129) an article on Mr. W. A. Bentley's photographs of 

 snow crystals was published, in which reproductions were 

 included of some of his photomicrographs, taken from the 

 annual summary for 1902 of the Monthly Wealher Review. 

 The annual summary for 1907 of the Review (vol. xxxv.. 

 No. 13), which has reached us, contains another admirable 

 collection of photomicrographs of frost and ice crystals. 

 There are thirty-one plates, which have upon them some 

 274 separate photographs. The plates are unaccompanied 

 by any letterpress, but a description of the photomicrographs 

 will probably be published later. 



.A SERIES of fire-tests of importance for the extinction of 

 petrol fires with the aid of such simple means as cloths 

 and sand was carried out by the British Fire Prevention 

 Committee on December 2. Some twenty-four tests were 

 undertaken at the committee's Regent's Parle testing 

 station. There was a large attendance of Home Ofifice 

 officials, as also officers from the Admiralty, War Ofifice, 

 London County Council, and other public departments. 

 The tests were of a highly instructive character, and went 

 to prove the efficiency of simple means for extinguishing 

 petrol fires. An oflicial illustrated report will be issued by 

 the British Fire Prevention Committee in due course. 



Mr. a. Silva White, assistant secretary of the British 

 Association, has resigned that office, which he has held 

 with conspicuous success during the past four years. The 

 announcement of his resignation will be received with 

 regret by the sectional officers, who, perhaps more than 

 members of the council, are able to appreciate the results 

 of his organisation of the work of the association during 



