October 20, 1910] 



NATURE 



503 



polls across the river from tlie ilty the explorers have dis- 

 covered fragments of statuary and many gold ornaments 

 of much beauty. 



Three members at least of the Yale faculty have lately 

 returned from exploring tours which have occupied them 

 during the long vacation. Prof. C. Schuchert, curator of 

 the Peabody Museum, has investigated the geological 

 formations of southern Labrador, and brought back a 

 ton of specimens. Prof. R. S. Lull has spent several 

 months in Europe studying mainly the European equiva- 

 lents of the .'\merican dinosaurs. Mr. G. G. MacCurdy, 

 curator of the anthropological collection, has been engaged 

 in researches in the Indian antiquities of southern Mexico. 



The Home .Secretary has appointed a committee to con- 

 sider the organisation for rescue and aid in the case of 

 accidents in mines, and to frame proposals for the making 

 of an Order or Orders under the Mines Accidents (Rescue 

 and .Aid) .Act, iqio. The members of the committee are : — 

 Mr. C. F. G. Masterman M.P. (chairman) ; Mr. R. .\. S. 

 Redmayne, H.M. Chief Inspector of Mines; Mr. W. N. 

 .\tkinson, H.M. Inspector of Mines; Mr. E. M. Hann ; 

 Mr. W. C. Blackett; Mr. John Wilson, M.P. ; and Mr. 

 John Wadsworth, M.P. The secretary of the committee 

 is Mr. .A. Maxwell, of the Home Office. 



In a letter published in the Times of October 17 Mr. 

 J. Reid Moir, of Ipswich, announced his discovery of 

 worked flints beneath undisturbed deposits of Crag in the 

 neighbourhood of Ipswich and elsewhere in eastern 

 Suffolk. The flints occur on the eroded surface of the 

 London Clay, at the base of Pliocene deposits, and 

 associated in some cases with phosphatic nodules and 

 fossil bones. It is inferred that the ancient clay surface 

 was inhabited by " pre-Crag man," whose implements, 

 on submergence of the land beneath the Pliocene sea, 

 became covered with Red Crag. The handiwork on the 

 flints is of a more advanced character than that of the 

 eoliths. Two types, at least, of the early East .Anglian 

 flints may be recognised ; and it is notable that though 

 they must be, if Pliocene, very much older than the Great 

 Ice age, some of them exhibit on their worked surface 

 deep striae suggestive of glacial action. 



In a letter to the Press, Lord Braye and Mr. Frank 

 Hedges Butler state that it is proposed to erect a pillar 

 as a memorial to Percy S. Pilcher, who was killed at 

 Market Harborough on September 30, 1899, while making 

 a flight with his soaring machine or aeroplane. Pilcher 

 was the first Englishman who put into practice the pro- 

 ject of gliding through the air with rigid wings, and he 

 had the intention of propelling with a motor the machine 

 he had made. Many who knew him and appreciated his 

 self-devotion and zeal in promoting aviation may like to 

 contribute to the proposed memorial, near the spot where 

 he fell. Subscriptions should be sent to the Pilcher 

 Memorial Fund, Messrs. Barclay and Co. (Gosling 

 Branch), 19 Fleet Street, E.C. 



The name of Thorvald Nicolai Thiele, professor emeritus 

 in the University of Copenhagen, has been before the 

 astronomical public for many years, and by his lamented 

 death on September 26 science has lost an able and 

 original worker distinguished in several branches of natural 

 knowledge. As a pupil of D'Arrest and as director of 

 the Copenhagen Observatory he gave much, but not un- 

 divided, attention to astronomy, and was known for his 

 careful discussion of double-star observations, and par- 

 ticularly for his criticism of Otto Struve's measures. The 

 problem of the theory of errors in its many applications 

 interested him, and he will be remembered for his dis- 

 NO. 2138, VOL. 84] 



cussion of special cases of the problem of three bodies. 

 Outside astronomy he wrote much on insurance problems 

 and statistics connected with tables of mortality. On 

 these subjects he was a recognised authority, and on 

 account of his pre-eminence was one of the few foreigners 

 elected into the Institute of Actuaries. As a teacher he 

 preferred to lecture on the more abstruse problems of 

 astronomy, and never attracted a large class ; conse- 

 quently, his pupils were few . and his influence small in 

 comparison with his reputation, but those who were will- 

 ing to penetrate deeply found in him an encouraging and 

 illuminating master. 



The Board of .Agriculture is understood to have applied 

 to the commissioners appointed under the Development 

 Act for an annual grant of 50,000/. for the purpose of 

 research work in agriculture and for giving technical 

 advice to farmers. A number of agricultural institutions 

 have sent in applications for financial help, but the Boar^ 

 and two of the commissioners — Messrs. A. D. Hall and 

 Sydney Webb — are engaged on a comprehensive scheme 

 that shall ensure the best use being made of the present 

 material. The Board has appointed a special advisory 

 committee, including the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Reay, 

 Sir Edward Thorpe, Dr. Dobbie, Mr. S. U. Pickering, 

 Prof. J. B. Farmer, Lieut. -Colonel Prain, Drs. Teall, 

 Harmer, MacDougall, and Wilson, and Messrs. Davies, 

 .Middleton, Staveley-Hill, and Stockman to help generally 

 in the work. Details of the scheme are not yet available. 

 The occasion is a critical one for agricultural science. 

 The amount of money is considerable, and much will be 

 e.xpected in return for it ; if those engaged in agricultural 

 research can justify its expenditure they will be rendering 

 good service, not only to agriculture, but to science in 

 general. 



NoMENCL.^TURE occupies a necessary part of scientific 

 activity, and in no branch of science are the difficiilties of 

 nomenclature so great as in zoology. The greatest of 

 these difticulties is occasioned by the rules of priority, 

 since if these were strictly applied, many familiar names 

 would fall into disuse, and great loss of time, misunder- 

 standing, and trouble would result. The British .Associa- 

 tion and the eastern branch of the .American Society of 

 Zoologists have recently appealed for support in a move- 

 ment to exempt animal names of long standing from 

 change under the rule of priority, and have presented a 

 proposition on the subject to the Commission on Nomen- 

 clature of the International Zoological Congress. This 

 commission has just issued its triennial report, the chief 

 interest of which lies in a reference to this matter. The 

 secretary (Dr. C. W. Stiles, Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington, D.C., U.S.A.) now asks all zoologists to 

 send him a list of 100 generic names (with their authors' 

 names) for consideration in connection with this proposi- 

 tion by November i, together with a list of standard text- 

 books used in zoological or palajontological courses of 

 study. Specialists are also asked to furnish a list of 

 100 type-species, with full references to their names as 

 determined by Art. 30 of the international rules. .AH 

 zoologists who wish to preserve the older nomenclature 

 would do valuable service by sending in such lists without 

 delay. 



The Times of October 7 contains an interesting account 

 of recent Norwegian explorations in Spitsbergen carried 

 out by an expedition under Captain Gunnar Isachsen, 

 which returned to Christiania on September 18 last. The 

 chief land-work of the expedition was done in the north- 

 western part of the main island, the most striking result 

 being the discovery of a not long extinct volcano and hot- 



