February 27, 1902] 



NA TURE 



595 



so much interest in scientific progress, any new 

 development becomes so soon the centre of numberless 

 contradictory and inaccurate reports that it is often diffi- 

 cult to get at the truth of the matter. Mr. Marconi's 

 authoritative statement last Thursday is therefore very 

 welcome. Even those most sceptical of the ultimate 

 value of the discovery cannot but admire the energy 

 and perseverance which Mr. Marconi has shown through- 

 out. Whilst others have been pointing out its im- 

 practicability, he has been steadily making it practicable, 

 and, considering the splendid results which he has 

 already achieved, one cannot help sharing his confidence 

 in his ultimately attaining complete success. M. S. 



PROF. I. V. MUSHKETOFF. 



WE regret to see the announcement of the death of 

 Prof Ivan Vasilievich Mushketoff, the president 

 of the physical geography section of the Russian 

 Geographical Society, at the age of only fifty-two. 



Prof. Mushketoff was from the Don region, where he 

 was born in 1850, and received his early education at the 

 Novocherkask lyceum. In 1867 he entered the St. 

 Petersburg University, joining the philological faculty, 

 but soon went over to the i\Iining Institute. 



Already while a student he published his first original 

 research on the \'o!hynite, and in 1872 he began his 

 continuous, almost unmterrupted explorations of Russia, 

 first in the Urals, where he discovered a gold-bearing 

 formation of arsenicated minerals — pharmacosiderite, 

 arseniosiderite, &c. — and then on the Don. Ne.xt year, 

 1873, he was in Turkestan, where he remained for six 

 years, making extensive journeys. He embodied the 

 results of his explorations in a great number of geological 

 and geographical papers, as also in a remarkable work, 

 " Turkestan,'' vol. i. ( 1 886 1, which was described in these 

 pages, and, with Prof. Romanovsky, in a geological map 

 of Turkestan. 



In 1881, Mushketoff began the exploration of the 

 Caucasus, and especially of the Astrakhan, the Kalmyk 

 and the Kirghiz steppes, and later on of the Transcaspian 

 region, of which he published an excellent geological 

 description, with a map, in 1892. 



A second journey to Turkestan, in order to explore 

 the earthquake at \'yernyi, brought Mushketoff to the 

 study of earthquakes in Russia, for which purpose 

 numerous regular observations and a catalogue of earth- 

 quakes (by Orloff} were published by him in the 

 periodicals of the Geographical Society. Later on he 

 became interested in glaciers, and organised for the 

 International Commission on Glaciers the first regular 

 observations in Russia upon the oscillations of the 

 glaciers of the Caucasus. AH these researches enabled 

 him to publish the first volume of an excellent course of 

 physical geography (1891) and a short course of 

 petrography (1893). In 1882 he was nominated head 

 geologist of the Geological Committee, and took, in this 

 capacity, a lively part in the geological survey of 

 Russia. From 1885 he was president of the physical 

 geography section of the Russian Geographical Society, 

 and in this capacity he took, with P. P. Semenoff, 

 the liveliest part in the organisation of all the expeditions 

 of the Society, as well as in its publications, of which the 

 " Annuary '' is perhaps the most remarkable for the 

 fulness of information about all geographical, geological, 

 geo-botanical, geo-zoological and anthropological work 

 done in Russia. 



In Mushketoff, both Russia and science have lost one 

 of their best physical geographers. He was at the same 

 time an excellent man, and the obituary notices pub- 

 lished in the Russian papers represent him as a most 

 sympathetic friend of the Russian youth. P. K. 



NO. 1687, VOL. 65] 



NOTES. 



M. C. Andre has been elected a correspondant of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, in the Section of Astronomy. 



The council of the Zoological Society has resolved to bestow 

 the gold medal of the Society upon Sir Harry Johnston, in con- 

 sideration of his very great services to zoological science, and in 

 commemoration of his discovery of the Okapi, and the silver medal 

 of the Society upon Mr. E. W. Harper, of Calcutta, in acknow- 

 ledgment of his numerous contributions of rare Indian birds to 

 the Society's collection. These medals will be presented at the 

 general meeting of the Society on June 19. 



In accordance with the usual custom, the French Physical 

 Society announces that two meetings for the exhibition of ex- 

 periments described before the Society during the year will be 

 arranged for on Friday and Saturday, April 4 and 5. On the 

 first evening members only will be admitted ; the second will 

 be open to visitors. The rooms of the Society (44 Rue de 

 Rennes, Paris) will be open during the whole of the Saturday 

 for those desirous of studying the experiments more at their 

 leisure than is possible in a crowded meeting. 



The Belgian Royal Academy makes the following announce- 

 ments as to awards of prizes on scientific subjects for 1901 : — 

 For the first question, as to the part played physiologically by 

 albuminoid substances in the nutrition of animals or vegetables, 

 no award has been made. For the second question, relating to 

 the organisation and development of a Phoronis, one essay has 

 been submitted which has been adjudged worthy of honourable 

 mention. On the subject of the effect of external influences on 

 karyokinesis and cell-division in plants, an essay has been sub- 

 mitted by :Mdlle. Maria Maltaux, of Laeken, to whom a silver 

 medal has been awarded. The Charles Lemaire prize has been 

 awarded to M. Paul Christophe, engineer of the Belgian " Fonts 

 et Chaussees." 



Mr. Carnegie's gift of ten million dollars, in 5 per cent, 

 bonds of the United States Steel Corporation, for the promo- 

 tion of scientific research, has already been announced in these 

 columns, and an outline has been given of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion to be founded for this purpose (pp. 278, 302). A meeting 

 of the trustees of the institution was held at the end of January, 

 when Mr. Carnegie described briefly the object he had in view 

 in making the gift, and gave emphasis to his repeated desire 

 that the income of the fund should be largely devoted to ex- 

 tending human knowledge by original investigation and re- 

 search. The methods by which knowledge is to be advanced 

 are left to the free action of the trustees, who will await the 

 carefully matured suggestions of the e.xecutive committee. 

 " Nothing," says Science, "has been done in founding the new 

 institution to further or to hinder the establishment of a 

 national university which has been so many times proposed 

 to Congress. Nothing is projected which will in any way 

 interfere with the purpose of the George Washington Memorial 

 Association to secure the funds requisite for the erection of 

 a memorial building. Nor has there been any step taken 

 which will prevent the Washington Memorial Institution^ 

 initiated early in the last summer, from developing plans for 

 the introduction of students to the various scientific bureaus 

 of Washington. The Carnegie Institution is simply a new 

 force for the promotion of science, ready to cooperate with 

 other institutions which are now or may be established in 

 Washington or elsewhere." 



The Russian Geographical Society has awarded this year its 

 Constantine medal to the geologist, K. I. Bogdanovitch, who 

 has spent several years in the exploration of Central Asia and 



