196 



NA TURE 



[December 17, 1908 



According lo Science, although Darwin became a member 

 of the Dresden Academy in 1857, before the publication 

 •of the " Origin of Species," it is probable that to the 

 Philadelphia Academy belongs the honour of having been 

 the first foreign society to accord his great work official 

 recognition. He was elected a correspondent on March 

 27, i860. To his election Darwin refers appreciatively in 

 a letter to Lyell dated May 8 of that year. 



Mr. Roosevelt will be accompanied on his .African ex- 

 pedition by Messrs. Edgar A. Mearns, Edmund Heller, 

 and J. Alden Loring. Mr. Mearns is an army surgeon, 

 who has written an account of the " Mammals of the 

 Mexican Boundary of the United States," as well as 

 numerous papers on zoology and botany. He is the 

 founder of the American Ornithologists' Union. Mr. 

 Heller is a zoologist, formerly on the staff of the Field 

 Columbian Museum at Chicago. He has had some ex- 

 perience of African travel, having been a member of Mr. 

 Carl E. .Akeley's exploring party in 1905. Mr. Loring is 

 an authority on the smaller mammals, and is well known 

 in America as a collector. 



The Carnegie Institution has made arrangements for 

 what should prove to be important work in the develop- 

 ment of magnetic science. According to a Central News 

 message from New York, a vessel is being built under 

 the auspices of the institution every portion of which is to 

 be absolutely non-magnetic, even the anchors being made 

 of bronze. The ship is to be used for the purpose of 

 studying magnetic conditions in all parts of the world. 

 With funds provided from the same source, Dr. Thomson 

 and Prof. Beattie are, a special correspondent of the Times 

 reports, engaging in a Cape-to-Cairo trek with the view 

 of extending the magnetic survey through Africa, on 

 which they have been at work for some ten years, some- 

 times at their own expense and sometimes assisted by 

 colonial Governments. 



Evidences of the growing interest in aeronautics among 

 men of science and others of all nationalities continue to 

 be forthcoming. The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain 

 has just acquired an experimental ground near Dagen- 

 ham Station, which is about half a mile long and the 

 same distance in width. It includes certain mounds about 

 JO feet high, which will be useful for testing models. It 

 is expected that the ground will be opened at an early 

 date, and that it will be provided, as soon as funds are 

 available, with a completely equipped scientific establish- 

 ment. The Paris correspondent of the Globe reports that 

 a proposal is to be made in the Chamber of Deputies ask- 

 ing the French Government to arrange an international 

 aeronautical exhibition for 1910, and the United States 

 Secretary of War in his annual report just presented to 

 Congress asks for 100,000/. for army aeronautics. It will 

 be remembered that last session a grant of 40,000/. was 

 sought unsuccessfully by the Congress War Department. 



The committee of the Research Defence Society has 

 circulated a report dealing with the work accomplished 

 by the society since January last, the month in which it 

 was founded. There are now 1650 members, of whom 

 I Go are ladies. Rules for the society have been approved 

 by the committee, and will be submitted in due course to 

 a general meeting. Branches have been formed, or are 

 being formed, at Birmingham, Bournemouth, Cambridge 

 University, Clifton, Dublin, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, 

 Manchester, Oxford, and Torquay. Eleven pamphlets of 

 an explanatory kind have already been issued by the com- 

 mittee, and about 500 bound sets of these have been sent 

 to public free libraries and to the libraries of certain 



NO. 2042, VOL. 79] 



scientific and educational institutions. Representatives of 

 the society have spoken at several debates, in London and 

 in the provinces, on the subject of experiments on animals. 

 The report points out that the society will be glad to 

 assist any person who wishes to lecture on the results 

 that have been obtained by the help of research in tlie 

 prevention and treatment of disease. 



The construction of a new tunnel under the Thames at 

 Rotherhithe, for wheeled traffic and foot passengers, was 

 described in a paper read by Mr. E. H. Tabor before the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers on December 8. The tunnel 

 is 30 feet in diameter, 3 feet more than the Blackwall 

 Tunnel, which it resembles in many ways. It is longer, 

 however, owing to the docks on each side of the river 

 making an oblique crossing necessary. The approaches 

 include about 1000 feet of tunnel, curved to a radius of 

 800 feet, and special machinery was necessary for facing 

 the cast-iron segments used in the lining of this part. In 

 order to find the nature of the strata as the work pro- 

 gressed, a pilot tunnel was driven in advance of the main 

 one by aid of a shield fitted with a rotary excavator. 

 The work has been carried to a successful issue in four 

 years, or in eighteen months less than was allowed for it, 

 and the actual cost of about one million pounds is some- 

 what less than the original estimate. 



The Times correspondent at Stockholm states that the 

 Nobel prizes awarded for the year by the Swedish 

 academies were distributed on December 10 with the usual 

 ceremonies and commemorative speeches. The award lo 

 Prof. Rutherford (chemistry) was made on account of his 

 researches in radio-activity ; to Prof. Lippmann (physics), 

 for discoveries in connection with colour-photography ; to 

 Prof. Metchnikoff and Paul Ehrlich (medicine), for their 

 researches in llie subject of natural and acquired immunity ; 

 and to Prof. Rudolph Euckcn (literature), for his philo- 

 sophical works. All the prize-winners, except Prof. Metch- 

 nikoff, who was prevented from attending, were present 

 to receive their prizes, consisting of a medal, diploma, 

 and a cheque for 7680/., at the hands of the King. Prof. 

 Metchnikoff's prize was handed, on his behalf, to the 

 Russian Minister, Baron Budberg. 



As already announced, the Australasian Association for 

 the Advancement of Science will meet in Brisbane on 

 January 11 next. The association will come of age next 

 year, and tlie meeting will inaugurate the jubilee year of 

 Queensland, the history of which as a separate State 

 dates from 1859. The new president of the association is 

 Prof. W. H. Bragg, of Adelaide, while the sectional presi- 

 dents are Prof. Pollock, of Sydney (astronomy, mathe- 

 matics, and physics) ; Prof. Easterfield, of Wellington, 

 N.Z. (chemistry) ; Prof. Skeats, of Melbourne (geology and 

 mineralogy) ; Mr. Charles Hedley, of Sydney (biology) ; 

 Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, of Sydney (geography) ; Mr. A. G. 

 Hamilton, of Wellington, N.Z. (ethnology and anthro- 

 pology) ; Mr. G. H. Knibbs, of Melbourne (social and 

 statistical science) ; Mr. H. W. Potts, of the Hawkesbury 

 College (agriculture) ; Prof. R. W. Chapman, of Adelaide 

 (engineering and architecture) ; Dr. J. Mason, of Welling- 

 ton, N.Z. (sanitary science and hygiene) ; Mr. Peter Board, 

 of Sydney (mental science and education). The acting 

 permanent secretary, Mr. J. H. Maiden, can be addressed 

 at the office of the association. Royal Society's House, 

 Sydney, and will be glad to give further particulars and 

 to enrol members for New South Wales. 



The new radio-telegraph station, which has been erected 

 for the Post Office at Bolt Head, South Devon, as stated 

 in Nature of December 10 (p. 166), was opened by Mr. 



