January 21, 1909] 



NA TURE 



347 



Prof. E. A. Mincuin lias left England for three months, 

 accompanied by his assistant, Dr. Woodcock, on a visit 

 to the zoological station at Rovigno, in order to carry 

 on researches on the development of the trypanosome of 

 the little owl (,.M)icnc iwctua). All communications should 

 be addressed to him at the Zoologische Station, Rovigno 

 (Istria), Austria. 



The Geological Society of London will this year award 

 its medals and funds as follows : — Wollaston medal, Mr. 

 Horace B. Woodward, F.R.S. ; Murchison medal, Prof. 

 Grenville A. J. Cole; Lyell medal, Prof. Percy F. Kendall; 

 Bigsby medal. Dr. John Smith Flett ; Prestwich medal, 

 Ladv Evans; Wollnston fund, Mr. Arthur J. C. Molyneux ; 

 Murchison fund, Mr. James V. Elsden ; Lyell fund, Mr. 

 R. G. Carruthers and Mr. Herbert Brantwood Muff. 



Di-RING the past few days the following earthquake 

 shocks have been reported : — January 13, Rome. — Earth- 

 quake shocks at 1.45 a.m. reported over northern Italy. 

 Two distinct shocks with a few seconds' interval. Vienna. 

 — Slight earthquake shocks at many points in the southern 

 part of Austria, extending from Serajevo to Trieste. 

 January 15, Cape Tovn. — Several shocks of earthquake 

 have been felt recently in various parts of South Africa. 

 One was felt at Johannesburg on this date. 



Prof. Ricco, director of the Catania Observatory, who 

 has just returned from Calabria, has stated to a corre- 

 spondent of the Times that the quay and the houses at 

 Reggie which stood near the landing quay of the ferry- 

 boat have sunk considerably as a result of the recent earth- 

 quake ; the point of the new jetty was actually under 

 water. The sea wave, he says, reached a height of 11 feet 

 at Villa San Giovanni, 13 feet at Pellaro, and rather more 

 at Lazzaro ; at Catania it was nearly 7 feet high, and- at 

 Messina 6^ feet, though it did more damage at Messina 

 than elsewhere. 



The death is reported of Prof. G. W. Hough, professor 

 of astronomy at the North-Western University, Evanston, 

 Illinois. Prof. Hough was born in New York State in 

 1S36. .After holding a subordinate post at the Cincinnati 

 Obscrvatorv, he was appointed in i860 director of the 

 Dudley Observatory, .\lbany. In 1879 he became director 

 of the Dearborn Observatory, Chicago, and professor of 

 astronomy at Chicago University. He was appointed to 

 his chair at Evanston in 1S87. He published many reports 

 embodying his discoveries, which were particularly con- 

 cerned with double stars and with the planet Jupiter, and 

 invented several instruments for use in astronomical and 

 meteorological investigations. 



The late Prof. Tait contributed to Nature between the 

 vcars 1887 and 1803 a valuable series of papers on the 

 physics of golf. It is interesting to note that these scien- 

 tific articles are becoming a kind of classic, from which 

 writers on the game quote with assurance. In Golf lllus- 

 traled for January i, a contributor, by means of a search- 

 ing analysis of Prof. Tail's writings, shows how mythical 

 must be the story, so familiar on all golf links, that the 

 redoubtable F. G. Tait in 1893 disproved his father's 

 supposed dictum by driving a golf ball further than had 

 lii-en declared from mathematical calculation to be possible. 

 No early as 1891 (see vol. xliv. of Nature) Prof. Tait had 

 !" gun to see the' explanation of the prolonged flight of a 

 :;i)lf ball, and he was the last man to dogmatise on a 

 ^ricntific problem which still demanded a complete solu- 

 tion. It is said that he never denied the mythical tale ; 

 but was the question ever distinctly put to him? More- 

 over, it should be remembered that Prof. Tait enjoyed a 



NO. 2047, VOL. 79] 



good story to the full. No doubt the genial banler between 

 father and son when the historic drive was made goes far 

 to explain the germ of the myth. 



The British Museum was opened on January 15, 1759, 

 and therefore completed a century and a half of existence 

 on Friday last. An interesting article in the Times of 

 January 14 describes the origin and work of this great 

 national institution. It is of particular interest to recall 

 that Sir Hans Sloane, who was Newton's successor as 

 president of the Royal Society, was chiefly responsible for 

 the foundation of the museum, and that the main lines 

 of its present constitution are laid down in his will. He 

 made vast collections of specimens relating to natural 

 history and antiquities; and the Act of Parliament of 1753, 

 to which the museum owes its formation, states that one 

 of the objects is " the purchase of the museum or collec- 

 tion of Sir Hans Sloane." The first directing officer of 

 the museum, styled the principal librarian, was a man 

 of science — Dr. Godwin Knight — known for his improve- 

 ments of the mariner's compass. Until 1S65 the chief 

 accessions were specimens relating to classical antiquities, 

 but upon the death of Mr. Henry Christy in that year, the 

 museum accepted his ethnographical and prehistoric collec- 

 tions. In 1880 the natural history collections were removeJ 

 to the new building provided for them at South Kensing- 

 ton, and it is becoming evident that further separation of 

 the museum and the library must be contemplated. Upon 

 this point the Times remarks : — " In the future the in- 

 evitable and constant growth of the library will call for 

 additional space, and the ultimate separation of the- 

 national museum and the national library will undoubtedly 

 come. Such a division is unquestionably more natural than- 

 the present state of things, which we accept because it 

 has been of slow and unnoticed growth. The separatior» 

 of the natural history collections may be described as 

 beneficial to both sides of the museum, and may well 

 serve as a precedent for the Government in the future, 

 whenever the question may arise." 



President Roosevelt has signed, says Science, a pro- 

 clamation setting aside and naming the Ocala National 

 Forest in Marion County, in eastern Florida, the first 

 created east of the Mississippi River, and another pro- 

 clamation creating the Dakota National Forest in Billings 

 County, North Dakota. The two proclamations add twO' 

 more States to the list of those wherein land will be put 

 under scientific forest administration. There are now 

 nineteen States, and Alaska, having national forests. 

 Before the creation of the Ocala, in Florida, the two. 

 forests in Arkansas, the Ozark and the Arkansas, were 

 the easternmost national forests. Practically all the other 

 national forests are in the Rocky Mountain and the Pacific 

 coast States. The Florida forest has an area of 201, 480- 

 acres, of which about one-fourth has been taken up under 

 various land laws. It covers a plateau between the St.. 

 John's and Ochlawaha rivers, and at no point is an eleva- 

 tion exceeding 150 feet above sea-level obtained. The new 

 Dakota national forest consists of 14,080 acres in the Bad' 

 Lands region. Its creation is important, for it means that 

 an experimental field for forest planting has been secured' 

 in North Dakota, the least forested State in the Union, 

 having only i per cent, of tree growth. The Forest 

 Service expects to establish forest nurseries with the hope 

 that in time to come the area may be re-forested by 

 artificial means. 



The annual general meeting of the Institute of Metals 

 was held on January 19, when a paper on the relation, 

 between science and practice, and its bearing on the utility 



