November 7, 1901] 



NA TURE 



transmitted to Sir Norman Lockyer, director of the Solar 

 Physics Observatory, South Kensington. 



In consideration of the valuable work so minutely and 

 ably carried on at this Observatory in the departments of 

 meteorology, general physics and magnetism, the pub- 

 lication in cxleiiso of these daily and hourly observations 

 becomes a question of national importance, in view, 

 especially, of the large results now in course of evolution. 

 Alexander Buchan. 



NOTES. 



The presidential address delivered by Mr. Charles Hawksley 

 at the Institution of Civil Engineers on Tuesday was very com- 

 prehensive in its scope. Being the first inaugural address 

 delivered at the Institution since the commencement of the 

 new century, the opportunity was taken of giving a retrospect 

 of advances made in the past century in the more prominent 

 branches of civil engineering. At the commencement of the 

 nineteenth century engineering works were comparatively few in 

 number. Railways, steamships, electric telegraphs, telephones, 

 the use of electricity for lighting and motive-power, were all un- 

 known. Lighting by means of coal-gas had only just been 

 introduced, and even the steam-engine was then in a primitive 

 stage. Looking backward, and comparing the condition of 

 things a hundred years ago with the present state, the changes 

 which science and invention have brought about certainly appear 

 remarkable. But it is advisable not to rest satisfied with a 

 complacent view of the progress made. There is a prospect as 

 well as a retrospect, and it is essential to push forward into the 

 new fields of work before they are occupied by other nations. 

 This is the lesson which must be impressed upon the minds of 

 the British people, and used to give their political leaders a 

 sense of responsibility for national welfare in the future. 

 Engineers are not usually inclined to accept the view that action 

 is necessary if we are not to be beaten in the industrial war 

 which is now going on, but Mr. Hawksley acknowledges that 

 " British engineers and manufacturers cannot hope to possess in 

 the twentieth century that practical monopoly which they en- 

 . joyed during a considerable part of the nineteenth century." 

 The conditions have changed, and unless our engineers and 

 manufacturers adapt themselves to the new environment they 

 will be superseded by men of other nations more in touch 

 with the times. Mr. Hawksley mentioned in his address the 

 serious difficulties and disadvantages under which British manu- 

 facturers are placed by the lack in this country of acknowledged 

 standards. A committee formed to consider the subject in 

 June last decided unanimously that it was desirable to issue 

 standard sections and standard specifications, and the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers has taken the work in hand. Four com- 

 mittees dealing with different branches of industry have been 

 formed and are now at work standardising the various sections 

 used in engineering practice. 



The death is announced of Prof. Ralph Tate, F.L.S., F.G.S., 

 professor of natural science in the University of Adelaide, South 

 Australia. Tate was a naturalist of the old school, with a good 

 knowledge of botany, field zoology and geology. His earliest 

 researches were carried out in the neighbourhood of Belfast, and 

 he published papers on the lias and Cretaceous rocks in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. In 1S64 he was 

 appointed museum assistant to that Society, a position which 

 he occupied for about four years. During this period and up to 

 the year 1S76 he devoted his attention mainly to the MoUusca 

 and especially to the Gasteropoda of the Lias. In conjunction 

 with Prof. J. F. Blake, the well-known "Yorkshire Lias" was 

 published in 1S76. In that year Tate left England for the 

 University of Adelaide, and henceforth his labours were devoted 

 NO. 167 1, VOL. 65] 



to the geology and natural history of Australia. In 1S93 he was 

 elected president of the Australian Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. His later contributions to science dealt chiefly 

 with the Tertiary MoUusca of Australia. 



Dr. a. H. Bennett, only son of the late Prof. John Hughes 

 Bennett, ot Edinburgh, and author of several works relating to 

 diseases of the nervous system, died on Friday last at the age of 

 fifty-three. 



At the ordinary quarterly comitia of the Royal College of 

 Physicians, held last week, it was resolved to send delegates to 

 the congress on medicine to be held at Cairo in December 1902, 

 and also to the International Congress in Medicine, to be held 

 in Madrid in April 1903. A proposal from Mrs. FitzPatrick to 

 found a lectureship in the college, accompanied by a draft for 

 2000/., was accepted, and it was resolved to send the following 

 expression of thanks on vellum and sealed with the College 

 seal: — "The President and Fellows of the Royal College of 

 Physicians of London, in comitia assembled, tender their 

 cordial thanks to Mrs. FitzPatrick for her munificent gift of 

 2000/. for the purpose of endowing a lectureship on the history 

 of medicine in memory of her late husband. Dr. Thomas Fitz- 

 Patrick, a member of the college ; they gratefully accept the 

 same and undertake faithfully to administer the trust she has 

 committed to them." 



It is stated by the Berlin correspondent of the Times that 

 Prof. Paul Ehrlich, of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, has been enabled 

 to devote himself to a special study of the disease of cancer in 

 consequence of a bequest of the interest for three years of a sum 

 of 500,000 marks dedicated to this purpose by a Frankfurt 

 banker, the late Herr Theodor Stern. Other sums contributed 

 by private individuals will bring up the amount to be devoted 

 to this special investigation of cancer by Dr. Ehrlich to 40,000 

 marks, or 2000/. a year. In Berlin there exists a special com- 

 mittee for the investigation of cancer, which studies pathological 

 accounts of cases and collects statistics and medical literature on 

 this subject. Prof, von Leyden is at the head of the committee, 

 and Prof, von Kirchner, of the medical department of the Min- 

 istry of Public Instruction, is one of its members. 



Mr. Northcote Thomas has been appointed organising 

 secretary to the Society for Psychical Research. 



The biennial dinner of the Physical Society of London will 

 be held at the Hotel Cecil on Friday, November 15. 



The Christmas course of six lectures to young people, at 

 the Royal Institution, will this year be delivered by Prof. J. A. 

 Fleming, F.R.S. The subject will be " Waves and Ripples in 

 Water, Air and -Ether," and the first lecture will be delivered 

 on Saturday, December 28. 



The new session of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 

 will be opened on Thursday, November 21, when the premiums 

 awarded for papers read or published during the session 1900— 

 1901 will be presented, and the president, Mr. W. Langdon,- 

 will deliver his inaugural address. 



The Siberia-Oriental Section of the Russian Imperial 

 Geographical Society will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 

 its foundation on November 17/30. 



The scientific committee of the Aero Club of Paris has 

 decided to award the Deutsch prize of ioo,ooof. to M. Santos 

 Dumont. 



An illustrated public lecture on Jamaica was delivered at the 

 Imperial Institute on Monday by Mr. Herbert Thomas, who- 

 had resided continuously for the last twenty-five years in the 

 island. In describing the principal products of the island, Mr. 



