February 



1 909J 



NA rURE 



495 



Pkof. \V. M. Davis was elected president of the Associa- 

 tion of American Geographers at the recent annual meet- 

 ing held in affiliation with the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. 



The death is announced of Prof. Victor Egger, professor 

 of philosophy and psychology at the Sorbonne, and dis- 

 tinguished chiefly by his work in psychology. We also 

 notice with regret the announcement of the death of Prof. 

 Carroll D. Wright, professor of statistics and social 

 economics at Clark University, Worcester, Mass., and 

 distinguished among American statisticians and economists. 



We notice with regret the announcement that Dr. D. J. 

 Hamilton, formerly professor of pathology at .Aberdeen 

 University, died on February 19 at si.Nty years of age. 

 Prof. Hamilton was for several years demonstrator of 

 pathology at Edinburgh University, and was appointed in 

 1882 to the chair of pathology at .Aberdeen University, 

 which he resigned last year owing to ill-health. 



\ CORRESPONDENT Writes asking for information concern- 

 ing ■' arboreal tumours " which are to be observed attack- 

 ing trees in certain damp, low-lying districts, and eventually 

 leading to the destruction of the trees. A reference to 

 Kew enables us to state that the subject is dealt with in 

 the late Prof. H. Marshall Ward's " Diseases of Plants," 

 published in the Nature Series of Messrs. Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd. The matter is lucidly discussed in chapter x.xiv. 

 of this work at pp. 222 et seq. 



We learn from the Times that a fresh attempt is being 

 made to introduce the salmon into New Zealand. Similar 

 attempts have been made previously on more than one 

 occasion, but without success, which is the more remark- 

 able as the acclimatisation of the trout was effected many 

 years ago with the most satisfactory results, many of the 

 New Zealand rivers being now well stocked, and the fish 

 growing to a very large size. The difficulty seems to 

 consist, not so much in getting the eggs to New Zealand 

 in a healthy condition, as in preserving the young fish after 

 hatching. About a million ova have lately been dispatched 

 from London under the direction of Mr. Luke Ayson, the 

 Chief Inspector of Fisheries of New Zealand, and it is 

 hoped that success will attend the new venture. 



The anniversary meeting of the Geological Society of 

 London was held on Friday, February 19, when the officers 

 for the ensuing year were elected as follows : — President, 

 Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S. ; vice-presidents, Mr. G. W. 

 Lamplugh, F.R.S. , Mr. H. W. Monckton, Dr. J. J. H. 

 Teall, F.R.S., and Prof.-W. W. Watts, F.R.S.; secre- 

 taries. Prof. E. J. Garwood and Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 F.R.S. ; foreign secretary, Sir -Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., 

 Prcs.R.S. ; treasurer, Dr. Aubrey Strahan, F.R.S. The 

 medals and funds awarded, as announced in N.4TURE of 

 January 21 (p. 347), were then presented. The president 

 delivered his anniversary address, which dealt with time, 

 considered in its relation to geological events, and to the 

 development of the organic world. 



By the will of the late Dr. Francis Elgar, F.R.S., the 

 sum of 1600/. is left to the Institution of Naval Architects 

 for the endowment of a scholarship to be awarded as the 

 council may decide, but the hope is expressed that the 

 scholarship will be similar to that given by him during 

 his life. After making other bequests, one-half of the 

 residue (which w-ill apparently amount to between 32,000/. 

 and 34,000!.) is eventually to be divided equally between 

 the Institution of Naval .Architects for the encouragement 

 of the science and art of naval architecture, and the Uni- 



NO. 2052, VOL. 79] 



versity of Glasgow, to be held upon trust for the further- 

 ance of the objects of tlie John Elder chair of naval archi- 

 tecture in that University. 



At the annual general meeting of the Physical Society 

 on January 12 the following officers and council were 

 elected for the ensuing year : — President, Dr. C. Chree, 

 F.R.S. ; vic-presidents, those who have filled the office of 

 president, together with Mr. W. Duddell, F.R.S., Prof. 

 A. Schuster, F.R.S., Mr. S. Skinner, and Dr. W. Watson, 

 F.R.S. ; secretaries, Mr. W. R. Cooper and Dr. S. W. J. 

 Smith ; foreign secretary, Prof. S. P. Thompson, F.R.S. ; 

 treasurer, Prof. H. L. Callendar, F.R.S. ; librarian. Dr. 

 W. Watson, F.R.S. ; other members of council, Mr. A. 

 CaiTipbell, Dr. W. H. Eccles, Dr. A. Griffiths, Dr. J. A. 

 Barker, Prof. C. H. Lees, F.R.S., Mr. T. Mather, F.R.S., 

 Dr. A. Russell, Prof. E. Rutherford, F.R.S., Mr. F. E. 

 Smith, and Mr. R. S. Whipple. 



The Washington correspondent of the Times announces 

 that the State Department is preparing invitations, which 

 will be sent out as soon as possible, for an international 

 world conference at The Hague next September to consider 

 the conservation of natural resources. In making this 

 announcement. President Roosevelt said that, even though 

 no great and important immediate results were derived 

 from the conference in the direction of conservation, he 

 hoped that all tiations would be represented. The first 

 immediate result of the conference is expected to be a 

 general inventory of the natural resources of the world. 

 .An effort will be made to ascertain how the world stands 

 regarding such resources, with discussion on what has 

 been done by different nations towards conservation, what 

 is best to do, and what may be reasonably expected. 



Material for a series of illustrated lectures on the 

 results which have been obtained by recent discoveries in 

 the prevention or treatment of disease has been prepared 

 by the Research Defence Society. -A number of lantern- 

 slides illustrative of progress and discovery in respect of 

 malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, Malta fever, 

 diphtheria, &c., have been made, and the slides are accom- 

 panied by full descriptive catalogues, with notes and refer- 

 ences, and a print of each slide, for the use of lecturers. 

 The society is willing to lend these materials for lectures 

 to accredited persons who are in sympathy with the e.xcel- 

 lent object of disseminating sound and trustworthy in- 

 formation on the aims and achievements of research in 

 medicine and physiology. In certain cases the society is 

 prepared to send a lecturer, and at all times will lend 

 every assistance to ensure the success of a lecture to a 

 good audience. Communications and inquiries on this 

 subject should be addressed to Mr. Stephen Paget, hon. 

 sec, 70 Harley Street, W. 



An interesting gathering of the Leeds Naturalists' Club 

 was held on February 15 to celebrate the Darwin centenary. 

 Mr. Harold Wager, F.R.S., delivered an address on 

 Charles Darwin, in which he reviewed the life of the great 

 naturalist, the unselfishness of both Darwin and Wallace 

 in respect of their simultaneous discovery, the development 

 of the hypotheses by Darwin himself and by Haeckel, 

 Weismann, and Mendel. There was an interesting exhibit 

 by the president of the club (Mr. W. Denison Roebuck) 

 in the form of a lithographic facsimile of the illuminated 

 address which a deputation, representing the naturalists 

 of Yorkshire, headed by the late Prof. W. C. Williamson, 

 F.R.S., presented to Darwin in November, 1880, in 

 celebration of the coming of age of the " Origin of 

 Species," and the autograph letter in which Darwin 



