August io, 191 1] 



NATURE 



1S9 



plankton maximum still seems to be wrapped in 

 mystery, and the same may be said of the greater 

 productivity of the cooler waters. 



Several theories have been proposed from time to time 

 by Brandt and others to explain the vernal maximum, 

 and of these Nathanson's appears to be the most 

 fundamental. This author believes that vertical cur- 

 rents, which aid in the circulation of food materials, 

 are responsible for the productivity of the sea in plank- 

 ton. These currents are always present at certain 

 places, and there one can always rely on finding a 

 rich plankton. They are also present at certain 

 seasons in other larger areas of the sea, and in lakes, 

 and these seasons correspond to the times of maxima. 



It is most probable that this explanation is not 

 sufficient alone, and that the sunlight, the temperature 

 of the water, and the chemical constitution are also 

 determining factors. 



The conditions surrounding the plankton are verv 

 complex, and it will probably require many vears of 

 investigation before the predominant factors in the 

 problem can be discovered. 



The work is slow and laborious, but still it aims 

 at the solution of one of the most important problems 

 in the metabolism of the ocean. This is the point of 

 view from which the planktonic work at the Port 

 Erin Biological Station is being carried out under 

 Herdman's direction, and similar work is being prose- 

 cuted by planktologists elsewhere. It has lately been 

 asserted that the most important part of the food 

 of aquatic organisms is derived from organic com- 

 pounds in solution in the medium in which they are 

 living. At the present time it is impossible to sav 

 with any certainty how far this thesis mav be correct, 

 but whether it be the case or not, the plankton still 

 retains its importance as either the immediate or the 

 ultimate source of those organic substances upon which 

 all marine and fresh-water animals depend. 



Wm. J. Dakin. 



NOTES. 

 It is announced in the July issue of The Popular Science 

 Monthly that during his visit to Washington at the time 

 of the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences 

 Sir John Murray, K.C.B., F.R.S., presented a fund of 

 1200Z. to the academy for the purpose of founding an 

 Alexander Agassiz gold medal, which is to be awarded to 

 men of science in any part of the world for original con- 

 tributions to the science of oceanography. 



We regret to announce that Mr. W. I. Last, director 

 of the Science Museum, South Kensington, died on 

 August 7 at his residence, n Onslow Crescent, S.W., in 

 his fifty-fourth year. Mr. Last was apprenticed in 1S73 

 with Messrs. Hay ward Tyler and Co., and when barely 

 twenty years of age won the Senior Whitworth Scholar- 

 ship ; he held his scholarship at the works of Sir Joseph 

 Whitworth, and at the same time he followed a course 

 of study at the Owens College, Manchester, gaining 

 numerous prizes during this period. In 1SS6 he was 

 elected an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, and in the following year the council awarded 

 him a Watt medal and a Telford premium for his paper 

 on setting out the curves of wheel teeth. In 1890, after 

 some years spent in practical work at home and abroad, 

 he was appointed to the post of keeper of the machinery 

 and inventions division of the South Kensington Museum ; 

 shortly afterwards the naval division was also entrusted 

 to his care. Recognising that objects which involved 

 mechanical movement are most intelligible as well as 

 most attractive, both to students and to the public, when 

 NO. 2l8o, VOL. 87] 



shown in motion, he arranged numerous ways of effect- 

 ing this under museum conditions. One of the best 

 methods which he devised and introduced for this pur- 

 pose was the supply of compressed air for working the 

 objects by their own driving mechanism. The plan of 

 sectioning objects to show the working parts of machines 

 and details of construction was carried out by Mr. Last 

 with much success. The collections have been very widely 

 extended under his supervision. Mr. Last received his 

 appointment as director of the whole Science Museum in 

 1904. The excellence of his work on the collections was 

 the subject of comment in connection with the recent 

 inquiry as to the museum. 



The death at Nice is announced, at the age of seventy 

 years, of Dr. Louis C. De Coppet, distinguished by his 

 researches on the solubilities of salts and the lowering of 

 the freezing point of water by the presence of salts in 

 solution. 



We are informed by the National Association for the 

 Prevention of Consumption that it has been decided by 

 the Rome authorities to postpone the International Con- 

 gress on Tuberculosis, which was to have been held in 

 Rome on September 24-30, to next April. 



The London County Council, on the recommenda- 

 tion of the Local Government Records and Museums Com- 

 mittee, has resolved that the whole of the objects of London 

 interest collected by the Council from time to time, in- 

 cluding the boat of the Roman period discovered on the 

 site of the new County Hall, be offered on permanent loan 

 to the trustees of the London Museum. The museum will 

 be accommodated in the State apartments of Kensington 

 Palace, which was placed by the King at the disposal of 

 trustees for the exhibition of the collections. The accom- 

 modation at Kensington Palace is understood to be of a 

 temporary nature, the intention being eventually to house 

 the objects in a building worthy of London. 



It is announced in The Times that an experiment in 

 the direction of utilising aeroplanes in the postal service 

 of the country is likely to be undertaken shortly by the 

 General Post Office. The proposal is for a regular aerial 

 service for a limited period between London and Windsor. 

 Arrangements have been made with a number of large 

 firms for the fixing in their establishments of special 

 " aerial " letter-boxes, in which letters intended for the 

 aerial service must be posted. Daily clearances will be 

 made by postmen, and the collections will be dispatched 

 to the central clearing house. Here the letters will be 

 placed in sealed bags and conveyed by motor-van to the 

 aerodrome at Hendon, where the bags will be securely 

 fixed to the machines. The airmen will then start on the 

 journey to Windsor, covering the distance of 21 miles in, 

 it is estimated, half an hour. At Windsor the aeroplane 

 staff will be responsible for the conveyance from the aero- 

 drome by road of all the letters to the town post-office, 

 where they will be dealt with in the usual way. 



The annual autumn meeting of the Institute of Metals 

 will be held at Newcastle-on-Tyne on September 20-22. Sir 

 C. A. Parsons, K.C.B., F.R.S., is acting as chairman of 

 the local committee, and Dr. J. T. Dunn as honorary secre- 

 tary. The meeting will open at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 

 September 20, when the members will be welcomed at 

 Armstrong College by the Lord Mayor of the city, Sir 

 W. H. Stephenson, and the local committee, after which 

 a series of papers will be read and discussed, Sir Gerard 

 A. Muntz, Bart, president, being in the chair. In the 

 afternoon members will have the opportunity of visiting 



