46 



NATURE 



[July 14, 1910 



of which many astronomers have proved the uselvil- 

 ness. But comets and meteors long had great 

 attractions for the aged astronomer. It will be re- 

 membered that he was among the first to point out 

 a connection between the April meteors and Comet I, 

 1S61, and to direct attention to the fact that Biela's 

 comet would explain the - appearance of the 

 Andromeda shower. 



Galle remained at Breslau in full scientific activity 

 until 1897, when he retired to Potsdam after a long 

 life earnestly devoted to astronomy, the interests of 

 which he did much to forward by his iJeal and 

 energy. 



THE HON. CHARLES STEWART ROLLS. 



IT is with deep sorrow that we have to record the 

 death of the Hon. C. S. Rolls by an accident on 

 Tuesday last, during the aviation meeting at Bourne- 

 mouth. It seems that Mr. Rolls went up in his 

 biplane for the alighting competition, and during the 

 descent the newly fitted tail-piece of his aeroplane 

 suddenly broke, and the whole machine collapsed and 

 fell to the earth from a height of forty or fifty feet. 

 iVIr. Rolls was picked up unconscious and died almost 

 immediately from concussion and laceration of the 

 brain. 



Charles Stewart Rolls was the third son of Lord 

 and Lady Llangattock, and was born in 1877 and 

 educated at Eton and Trinity College, _ Cambridge. 

 From his early youth he was deeply interested in 

 things mechanical, and his brief career, so sadly 

 brought to an end, shows how successfully he utilised 

 his mechanical capacity. 



Different from many men, Charlie Rolls, as his 

 friends called him, when he set about doing anything, 

 alwavs entered deeply into the subject in a thoroughly 

 scientific manner. Whether the object on hand was 

 connected with cycling, ballooning, motoring, or 

 aeroplaning, in the last two of which he was a 

 pioneer, it was always the same, and his mind was 

 continually bent on finding out the " whys " and the 

 ■' wherefores," and improving the existing state of 

 things. The thoroughness with which he was always 

 associated was strongly brought to my notice in the 

 manv balloon trips that I made with him, and his 

 inquiring turn of mind was often displayed when 

 perched up aloft in the clouds. Perhaps the best 

 example is instanced in the quiet manner in which 

 he spent weeks in practising gliding before finally 

 mounting the full-sized aeroplane. 



It has been said of Rolls that he was born restless, 

 and those who knew him know how true this descrip- 

 tion was. Yet he was never flurried, but always calra 

 and collected. It was this trait in his character that 

 probablv made him so successful in his manifold 

 ventures. 



In the death of Rolls, Britain has lost her most 

 daring and brilliant aviator, and his friends mourn the 

 loss of a dear comrade. William J. S. Lockyer. 



NOTES. 



We congratulate Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., on the 

 new honour conferred upon him, namely, that of appoint- 

 ment to the Order of Merit, announced in the London 

 Gazette of Friday last. 



The death is announced, at the age of forty-eight years, 

 of Prof. Hugo Erdman, professor of inorganic chemistry 

 in ijii; Berlin Technical High School. 



TiiE annual meeting of the Imperial Cancer Research 

 Fund will be held at the Royal College of Surgeons on 

 Wednesday, July 20, Mr. A. J. Balfour presiding. 

 NO. 2124, VOL. 84] 



The Globe states that Herr Frick, who for many years 

 has been engaged in exploration and scientific research, 

 particularly in South America, where he studied the habits 

 and customs of the Indian tribes, has been murdered by 

 Indians in southern Bolivia. 



The death is announced in the Athciutciiin of Prof. T. 

 Zona, of the University of, and observatory at, Palermo ; 

 also of Prof. A. P. Sokoloff, formerly the holder of the 

 chair of geodesy at St. Petersburg, and more recently the 

 vice-director of the Pulkowa Observatory. Prof. Sokoloff 

 retired from the latter position in 1905 in consequence of 

 ill-health. 



The following officers of the Royal Society of Medicine 

 were elected last week for the year beginning on October i 

 next : — president, Sir Henry Morris, Bart. ; honorary 

 treasurers. Sir W. S. Church, Bart., and Sir F. H. 

 Champneys, Bart. ; honorary librarians, Mr. R. J. Godlee 

 and Dr. Norman Moore ; honorary secretaries. Dr. A. 

 Latham and Mr. H. S. Pendlebury. 



At the annual business meeting of the Museums 

 Association, held last week in York, .Mr. H. M. Platnauer 

 was elected president, and Messrs. C. H. Hunt and Deas 

 vice-presidents. .\ resolution was adopted by the meeting 

 expressing the desire that, in any revision of the grants- 

 in-aid to provincial museums, the Board of Education 

 would consider the advisability of continuing assistance 

 towards the purchase of science objects. 



Among the communications to be brought before the 

 eighth International Physiological Congress at Vienna in 

 September ne.xt are the following : — demonstration of 

 method of testing colour perception spectrometer and 

 demonstration of lantern test for colour-blindness, by Dr. 

 Edridge-Green ; the changes produced by radium in normal 

 cells, by Dr. A. S. Griinbaum ; and the summation of 

 stimuli, by Drs. F. S. Lee and M. Morse. 



The thirty-ninth meeting of the French Association for 

 the Advancement of Science will be held at Toulouse on 

 .August I to 7. The president for the year is Prof. C. M. 

 Gariel. Among the names of the presidents of the 

 numerous sections, we notice the following professors of 

 the University of Toulouse : — Prof. Emile Mathias, 

 physics ; Prof. Victor Paquier, geology ; Prof. M. Leclerc 

 du Sablon, botany ; and Prof. Ch. Fabre, agronomy. M. 

 Emile Marchand, the director of the Observatory of Pic 

 du Midi, is the president of the section of meteorology. 



The annual meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Con- 

 ference will be held at Cambridge on July 26 and 27. In 

 his presidential address, Mr. F. Ransome will deal mainly 

 with the cultivation of medicinal plants and with medicinal 

 plant investigation. .Among the subjects of papers promised 

 for the meeting are ; — the bacteriological testing of dis- 

 infectants ; an insect pest in belladonna ; the proposed 

 essential oil monographs ; phosphoric acid and ammonium 

 phosphate ; the limitations of water analyses reports, both 

 bacterial and chemical ; and note on the periodicity of the 

 properties of the elements : new arrangement. 



We have been favoured with a copy of the preliminary 

 programme of the fifth International Congress of Photo- 

 graphy, which .is to be held in Brussels on .August i to 6 

 next, from which we learn that section i. (organised by 

 the Socic!'!^ franijaise de Photographic) will deal with 

 photo-chemistry and the scientific applications of photo- 

 graphy ; section ii. (organised by the Association beige de 

 Photographie), the technique of photography and the in- 

 dustrial applications of photography ; and section iii. 



