5i6 



NATURE 



[April 3, 1902 



personality was forceful, interesting and lovable. En- 

 dowed as he was, it may seem strange that he did not 

 establish a school of chemistry in Cork. But the reason 

 is not to Ije found in the man — rather in his surroundings. 

 Placed, as he was, in a sparsely populated district, where 

 poverty is, unhappily, the rule, where chemical manu- 

 factures are but \^\\\ and where the demand for highly 

 trained chemical knowledge of any sort is practically 

 non-e.xistent, the result flowed almost inevitably from the 

 conditions. 



At various times he acted as examiner in chemistry to 

 the Civil .Service of India, the Civil Engineering College, 

 Coopers Hill, and the Royal Military Academy, Wool- 

 wich ; he was an Honorary Fellow of the King's and 

 Queen's College of Physicians ; received the degrees of 

 M.D. and LL. D. (both Iionoi-is causa) from the University 

 of Dublin ; was a senator of the Queen's University ; 

 Fellow of, and examiner in, the Royal I'niversity of 

 Ireland, from which he received the degree of D.Sc. 

 {hotiflris causa) ; he was also selected as president of 

 the section of chemistry of the British Association at 

 its meetmg in Dublin in 1S7S. In addition, he was for 

 several years a member of the council of the Chemical 

 Society, by which he was elected, during the years 1872- 

 74, to the office of vice-president. 



On February 26, Maxwell Simpson passed away in 

 London ; his work remains, a worthy and enduring 

 memorial to his love for that science which he so 

 generously enriched. A. E. DixON. 



NOTES. 



Proi". E. C. Pickf.rini; announces that he has received from 

 a friend a gift of twenty thousand dollars (4000/.) for the benefit 

 of the Harvard College Observatory. It is proposed to expend 

 about one-half of this fund in extending the present building in 

 which the astronomical photographs are kept, so as to provide 

 for the adequate storing of this collection with its probable 

 increase for many years. These photographs furnish a history 

 of the entire stellar universe for the last twelve years, and is not 

 duplicated elsewhere. A portion of the remainder of the 

 gift will be used at once to provide for the study of objects of 

 interest on the photographs, as hitherto only those of special 

 importance have been examined. 



The Raoult Memorial Lecture of the Chemical Society was 

 delivered by Prof, van 't Hoff on Wednesday of last week. 

 Shortly after Raoult's death, a year ago, a short account of his 

 career was given in these columns (vol. Ixiv. p. 17). Prof van 't 

 Hoff remarked that the scientific work could be conveniently 

 considered as belonging to three periods of Raoult's life — 

 phy.sical, cliemical and physiological. As a typical research of 

 the first period he mentioned the study of the heat evolveil by 

 chemical reactions in the voltaic cell and that due to the electric 

 current. Later, Raoult directed his attention to subjects of a 

 more purely chemical nature, such as the influence of solar 

 radiation on the inversion of cane sugar, and the absorption of 

 ammonia by saline .solutions. His physiological work included 

 studies of the presence of copper and zinc in the animal organism 

 and the influence of carbon anhydride on respiration. But Prof, 

 van 't Hoff pointed out that the researches which made Raoult's 

 name famous as a scientific investigator were those which led 

 to the establishment of a definite connection between the lower- 

 ing of the freezing points and of the vapour pressures of solvents 

 by the presence of dissolved substances. This led Prof, 

 van 't Hoff to the important generalisation that the osmotic 

 pressure of a dissolved substance bears a definite relationship to 

 the pressure it would exert if it were in a state of vapour — a 

 theory which has been of immense service in elucidating the 

 nature of solutions and has also led to the theory now widely 

 NO. 1692, VOL. 65] 



accepted as to the existence in ddute salt solutions of the ions of 

 the dissolved substance. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death on Good 

 Friday of Mr. G. F. Wilson, F.R.S., whose scientific work 

 included the discovery of the means of obtaining pure glycerine, 

 and numerous papers on horticultural subjects. Mr. Wilson 

 was in his eightieth year. 



Lord Kei.vi.\ is expected to arrive in New York on April 

 19. Science states that a reception will be given in his honour 

 on the evening of April 21 by Columbia Univer.sily, the 

 American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the New Vork 

 Academy of Sciences and other scientific societies. 



On Tuesday next, April 8, Dr. Allan Macfadyen will deliver 

 the first of a course of three lectures at the Royal Institution on 

 "Biological Inquiry"; on Thursday, April 10, Prof. Dewar 

 will begin a course of three lectures on " The Oxygen Group of 

 Elements." The Friday evening discourse on April 11 will be 

 delivered by Prof Dewar on " Problems of the Atmosphere," 

 and on April 18 by Sir John H. A. Macdonald, his subject 

 being " The Autocar." 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times states, upon the 

 authority of the Lokalanzeiger, that a scheme is under considera- 

 tion by the German Imperial authorities in accordance with 

 which the chief commercial nations, especially England, France 

 and the United States, will be invited to send representatives 

 to an international congress, the object of which will be to 

 arrive at an agreement forbidding the establishment of any 

 monopoly in wireless telegraphy on the high seas. This step, 

 it is stated, is the direct consequence of the refusal of the Mar- 

 coni station on the Nantucket lightship to enter into communi- 

 cation with the Deutschland during its homeward journey with 

 Prince Henry of Prussia on board. 



We learn from the Times that the University of Chicago 

 has commissioned Mr. Alleyne Ireland to report on the finan- 

 cial, commercial and social conditions of all the European 

 colonies in the Far East, where the circumstances appear 

 both geographically and historically to bear some resemblance 

 to the general situation of the Philippines. Mr. Ireland will 

 visit Burma, Siam, the Federated Malay States, the Straits 

 Settlements, Sumatra, Java, British North Borneo, Sarawak, 

 French Indo-China, Tonking, Formosa and Hongkong. After 

 making an investigation of the general condition of the Indo- 

 Malayan people under British, Dutch, French, and native rule, 

 he will then go to the Philippines in order to examine the con- 

 ditions of those islands from the comparative point of view. 

 It is anticipated that his inquiry will occupy about two years. 



At the request of the U.S. Senate, the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture has reported upon the condition of the American bison. In 

 his summary he states that this species is on the verge of ex- 

 termination. Scarcely a handful now remain of the millions 

 which formerly roamed over the plains of the west. Only two 

 small herds of wild buffalo are in existence in the United 

 States — one in the Yellowstone Park, the other in Lost Park, 

 Colo. There are no wild buffalo in Canada, except in the 

 Peace river country, where a few woodland bufl'alo, believed to 

 be a different species from the American plains buftalo, still exist, j 

 A number of buffiilo have been domesticated and half-domes- 1 

 ticated, there being three important herds in addition to the 

 small herds in zoological parks and in the hands of private indi- 

 viduals. It is suggested that if the Government would acquire j 

 possession of a considerable number of full-blooded animals ^ 

 the absolute extermination of the species might be long 1 

 delayed. j 



