December 5, 1901] 



NA TURE 



109 



/ar//«/ differential equations, and the problem arises to develop 

 a formula from which the solution, subject to boundary con- 

 ditions, can be calculated. The problem can in any case be 

 reduced to the discovery of what is now called a Green's func- 

 tion. To Poincare is due perhaps the most feasible means yet 

 devised for arriving at these functions. A general analytical 

 theory has also been given by him of a somewhat different 

 problem, required in theories of vibration and electrical oscilla- 

 tion. The diffraction of light has also been discussed by him in 

 an elaborate memoir. 



He has besides enriched pure mathematics with researches in 

 the theory of numbers and on double integrals. In applied 

 mathematics he has obtained remarkable results with regard to 

 the figures which can be assumed by rotating fluid. To 

 dynamical astronomy he has contributed, not only memoirs, 

 but a monumental work in three volumes — " Les Methodes 

 Nouvelles de la Mecanique Celeste." 



Finally, allusion may be made to the services which M. 

 Poincare has rendered to a number of branches of mathematical 

 physics, by critical presentation of the work of others in pub- 

 lished courses of lectures. 



The officers and Council elected for the ensuing year 

 were the Fellows whose names have already been given 

 (p. 34), vi-ith two others to supersede two Fellows who 

 found themselves unable to serve (p. 85). 



On the evening of Saturday, the Fellows and their 

 friends dined together in the Whitehall Rooms, when, to 

 quote the 7"/wf.r report, "no Cabinet Minister and only 

 one ex-iMinister — Mr. John Morley — was present. Thus 

 the calm discourse of the men of research was undis- 

 turbed by even the suggestion of political strife." It 

 might also have been added that thus do Ministers of 

 State manifest their indifference to associations having 

 no political significance. 



NOTES. 



We regret to announce the death of Sir William MacCormac, 

 the distinguished president of the Royal College of Surgeons. 



Prof. Yves Dei.age has been elected a member of the 

 section of anatomy and zoology of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences in succession to the late Prof. Lacaze-Duthiers. Prof. 

 Gouy, professor of physics in the University of Lyons, has been 

 elected a corre«pondant of the Academy in succession to the late 

 Prof. Raoult. 



In response to appeals made by the Dover Chamber of 

 Commerce to the Trinity House to place wireless telegraphy 

 installations on the lightships in this part of the English Channel, 

 an intimation has been received by the Chamber that the matter 

 is under consideration by a special inter-departmental committee. 



The National Antarctic Exploration ship Discovery arrived 

 at Lyttelton on Nov. 23. The ship has been dry-docked for 

 caulking, having sprung a leak, though not a serious one. 



Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.S., is about to proceed 

 to South Africa with the view to study the cause of leprosy. 

 He will proceed to Robben Island, and will probably go on to 

 Natal and Basutoland. His object is especially to obtain facts 

 as to the use of dried and badly salted fish. Leprosy is a 

 comparatively new disease in Cape Colony, and quite so in 

 Natal and Basutoland. Thus these districts offer exceptional 

 opportunities for ascertaining its cause. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times reports that the 

 German Imperial Estimates include the sum of 150,000 marks 

 (7500/.) to be devoted to the prevention of tuberculosis and to 

 the investigation of that disease. The sum will be largely 

 applied to the promotion of research with the object of settling 

 the question of the identity of tuberculosis in human beings and 

 in animals. For the promotion of markets for agricultural pro- 

 duce and for the support of scientific, technical and kindred 

 undertakings in the interest of agriculture a sum of 90,000 marks 

 will be demanded, as against 50,000 marks last year. 

 NO. 1675, VOL. 65] 



E.\-G0VERN0R Eyre, who died on Saturday at the age of 

 eighty-six, was less known perhaps for his geographical work 

 than for his action in connection with the disturbances in 

 Jamaica thirty-six years ago. Yet he was an intrepid explorer, 

 and in 1S43 he received the Founder's Medal of the Roya ' 

 Geographical Society for his explorations in Australia. He 

 crossed the Australian continent overland from Sydney in the 

 east to Swan River in the west, and investigated the then 

 unknown shore of the Great Australian Bight between King 

 George's Sound in Western Australia and Port Lincoln in South 

 Australia. In 1S45 he published the results of his explorations 

 in a work entitled " Discoveries in Central Australia." 



A SPECIAL expedition, under Dr. Charles Balfour Stewart, 

 has just been sent by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 

 to the Gold Coast and to the gold-mining districts of that 

 colony, to conduct a series of operations there with a view to 

 improve the conditions of health and sanitation. Dr. Stewart 

 was to have sailed for Cape Coast Castle on November 16, but 

 his departure had to be delayed as the municipal authorities of 

 Liverpool requisitioned his services to deal with an outbreak of 

 plague in the city. The lines on which Dr. Balfour Stewart will 

 proceed will be similar, so far as possible, to those now being 

 followed by the Sierra Leone expedition of the Liverpool 

 School under Dr. Logan Taylor. 



The death is announced of Mr. Samuel Rowles Pattison, who 

 for some years was a member of Council of the Geological 

 Society and its honorary legal adviser. In early life he resided 

 at Launceston, where he made a collection of fossils from the 

 limestone of Petherwin, and assisted by his local knowledge both 

 Dela Beche and John Phillips. He contributed papers on local 

 geology to the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of 

 Cornwall and the Royal Institution of Cornwall from 1840 to 

 i860; and in the Quarterly /ournnl oi the Geological Society 

 of London he recorded the occurrence of auriferous quartz-rock 

 in north Cornwall. In 1858 he published a work entitled 

 "The Earth and the Word ; or Geology for Bible Students." 

 Mr. Pattison, who had attained the ripe age of ninety-two, died 

 on November 27. 



The results of an analysis of the returns relating to the out- 

 break of small-pox in London are given in an article in Satur- 

 day's Times. There have been 349 completed cases, that is, 

 cases which have ended in death or recovery, since May last. 

 Of these 349 patients 181 were males and-i6S females. The 

 number of deaths was 116, and the rate of mortality was three 

 times as great among the unvaccinated as among the vaccinated. 

 The following points brought out by the classification of the 

 cases are instructive : — (l) All the cases under five were un- 

 vaccinated, and out of 23 there were 19 deaths ; (2) all the 

 children under ten were unvaccinated except one, and out of 42 

 there were 29 deaths, all the deaths being of unvaccinated 

 children ; (3) out of a total of 81 children under fifteen years 57 

 were unvaccinated and 38 died. Only one death out of the 

 38 took place in a vaccinated child ; of 24 vaccinated children 

 23 recovered. These facts show the fatality of the disease 

 among young children and the protection afforded by primary 

 vaccination against attack in the first instance and against a fatal 

 result in the second. The protection diminishes progressively 

 after childhood, but the rate of mortality remains enormously 

 higher among the unvaccinated in every age period. 



The results of several series of experimental work in con- 

 nection with the cultivation of hops were described at the 

 conference of hop-growers held at the South-Eastern Agri- 

 cultural College last week. The object of the meeting was to 

 receive and discuss the reports of the various experiments upon 

 hops that have been carried out by the College during the past 



