55* 



NATURE 



[October 26, 191 1 



Sciences ; M. Moureu, of the Chemical Society of France ; 

 Prof. Nernst, of the Chemical Society of Berlin ; and M. 

 Guye, of the Geneva Society. No representative of the 

 Royal Society or of the Chemical Society was, unfortu- 

 nately, able to be present. The date selected was the 

 centenary of the publication of Avogadro's celebrated 

 memoir. 



Sir William E. Smith, C.B., Superintendent of Con- 

 struction Accounts and Contract Work, has been appointed 

 to succeed Sir Philip Watts, K.C.B., F.R.S., as Director 

 of Naval Construction. Sir William E. Smith was born 

 in 1850, and joined the Portsmouth Dockyard in 1861, 

 when only eleven years of age. In 1865 he was appren- 

 ticed as a shipwright at Woolwich. In 1S66 he was trans- 

 ferred to Portsmouth Dockyard, and, having spent four 

 years' apprenticeship, joined the South Kensington School 

 of Naval Architecture. He entered the Royal Corps of 

 Naval Constructors in 1873, and succeeded Sir William 

 White as an instructor of naval architects at the Royal 

 College at Greenwich in the early eighties. Sir William 

 E. Smith is the Admiralty representative on the Committee 

 of Shipbuilding Materials, in connection with engineering 

 standards. He represents the Institution of Naval Archi- 

 tects, of which he is a vice-president, on the executive 

 council of the National Physical Laboratory. 



At the annual statutory meeting of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, held on October 23, the following office-bearers 

 were elected : — President, Sir William Turner, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S. ; vice-presidents. Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., Dr. 

 J. Home, F.R.S. , Dr. J. Burgess, Prof. T. Hudson Beare, 

 Prof. F. O. Bower, F.R.S., Sir Thomas R. Fraser, F.R.S. ; 

 general secretary. Prof. George Chrystal ; secretaries to 

 ordinary meetings, Dr. C. G. Knott, Dr. R. Kidston, 

 F.R.S.; treasurer, Mr. J. Currie ; curator of library and 

 museum. Dr. J. S. Black; councillors, Prof. D. Noel 

 Paton, Dr. W. S. Bruce, Prof. F. G. Baily, Dr. J. G. 

 Bartholomew, Dr. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S., Prof. J. 

 Walker, F.R.S., Prof. A. Robinson, Sir W. S. M'Cormick, 

 Prof. Crum Brown, F.R.S., Prof. T. H. Bryce, Dr. 

 Benjamin N. Peach, F.R.S., and Mr. W. A. Carter. 



For several years past Dr. W. N. Shaw has organised 

 for the months October to March a series of meetings at 

 his office for the informal discussion of important contribu- 

 tions to meteorological literature, especially those by 

 colonial or foreign meteorologists. When these meetings 

 took place at the old Meteorological Office in Victoria 

 Street their success was so great that the room available 

 was scarcely sufficient to accommodate those who attended 

 them. In the new quarters at South Kensington the space 

 is nearly all that could be desired, and Dr. Shaw welcomes 

 not only those who contribute observations to the office, but 

 others interested in meteorology. The meetings take place 

 on Mondays every fortnight, and the first of the series com- 

 menced last Monday. In the circular which announces the 

 dates of the meetings a list of the suggested subjects for 

 discussion is given, and these show the wide range which 

 the discussions cover. The writer of this note has attended 

 most of the meetings already held, and with others he 

 knows that they serve a very useful purpose. The bring- 

 ing together of those interested in meteorology and the 

 riendly interchange of views i-. a sure way of accelerating 

 the advance of the subject in question. 



At the conclusion of the Harveian Oration, delivered bj 



Dr. Theodore Williams at the Royal College of Physicians 



on October 18, the president of the college, Sir Thomas 



Barlow, presented the Baly and the Bisset Hawkins gold 



NO. 2 19 1, VOL. 87] 



medals. The Baly medal was awarded to Prof. W. D. 

 Halliburton, F.R.S. This medal was instituted in 1866 

 " in memoriam Gulielmi Baly, M.D.," and is awarded 

 every alternate year to the person who is deemed to have 

 most distinguished himself in the science of physiology, 

 especially during the two years immediately preceding the 

 award, and is not restricted to British subjects. The 

 Bisset Hawkins medal was given to Dr. Clement Dukes. 

 This medal was established in 1896 by Captain E. Wilniot 

 Williams, at the:- suggestion of Dr. Theodore Williams, to 

 perpetuate the memory of Dr. Bisset Hawkins. It is 

 bestowed triennially on some duly qualified medical prac- 

 titioner who is a British subject, and has during the 

 preceding ten years done work deserving special recog- 

 nition in advancing sanitary science or in promoting public 

 health. 



A Reuter message from Stockholm states that the Nobel 

 prize for medicine has been awarded this year to Prof. 

 Allvar Gullstrand, of the Upsala University, for his re- 

 search work in connection with the dioptrics of the eye. 



The fourth Norman Kerr lecture in connection with the 

 Society for the Study of Inebriety will be delivered by Prof. 

 G. Sims Woodhead on Tuesday, November 14, in the 

 lecture theatre of the Pathological Department, Medical 

 Schools, Cambridge, upon " The Action of Alcohol on 

 Body Temperature and on the Heart." 



At a recent meeting of the executive committee of the 

 British Science Guild, a committee was appointed to 

 consider the question of holding lectures and the reading 

 of papers. Other matters considered were the reduction of 

 postage on scientific literature, coordination of charitable 

 effort, and pollution of rivers. In connection with the 

 committee on the conservation of natural sources of energy, 

 it was decided to print the report at the end of the year. 



The members of the International Commission on Zoo- 

 logical Nomenclature have unanimously invited Prof. K. 

 Kraeplin, Direktor des Naturhistorischen Museums, Stein- 

 thorwall Hamburg, Germany, to serve on the commission 

 until the next International Congress, in the place of Prof. 

 Maehrenthal, deceased ; also Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, 

 F.R.S., secretary of the Zoological Society of London, in 

 the place of Dr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., resigned. 



A course of twelve Swiney lectures on geology, deal- 

 ing with " The Natural History of Rocks," will be 

 delivered by Dr. T. J. Jehu in the lecture theatre of the 

 Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, during 

 November, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays, 

 beginning Saturday, November 4. Admission to the 

 lectures is free. 



As the result of a personal visit to Kew, the Rev. 

 Hilderic Friend has been able to report to the director the 

 discovery of a considerable number of new annelids in the 

 Royal Gardens. These include, among others, Achaeta 

 bohemica, Vejd., Dero obtusa, D'Udek., and others new 

 to Kew; Paranais naidina, Bret., and others new to 

 Britain ; and Limnodrilus aurantiacus, Friend, Enchy- 

 traeus exiguus, Fr., and Fridericia pulchra, Fr., new to 

 science. The descriptions of new species will appear in 

 The Naturalist and elsewhere. 



From Prof. A. G. Nathorst, of Stockholm, we learn 

 that Prof. Paul Richter, of Quedlinburg, Germany, died 

 on October 9, at fifty-seven years of age. Prof. Richter 

 was well known among palreobotanists and geologists by 

 his studies of the Cretaceous flora of Quedlinburg, of which 

 he brou tensive collections. He was the 



