JUNE 10, 1915] 
NATURE 
401 

Tue Triennial Gold Medal of the Royal Asiatic 
Society, presented for special eminence in Oriental 
research, has been awarded jointly to Mrs. Agnes 
Smith Lewis and her sister and collaborator, Mrs. 
Margaret Dunlop Gibson. 
WE regret to announce the death of Mr. John Amory 
Travers, a past Prime Warden and a member of the 
court of the Fishmongers’ Company, who was for 
twenty years hon. treasurer of the Marine Biological 
Association. Mr. Travers was greatly interested in 
scientific fishery investigations, and the work of the 
association had his unfailing support. 
In a note in last week’s Nature (p. 377), referring 
to Sir Henry Jackson’s appointment as First Sea Lord 
of the Admiralty, it was surmised that no fellow of 
the Royal Society had hitherto received such nomina- 
tion. Careful scrutiny, however, of a list of holders of 
the office, from the Revolution of 1688 down to the 
appointment on October 30, 1914, of Lord Fisher, 
reveals that there have been six First Sea Lords 
fellows of the society. Following are the names and 
dates of appointment:—The Earl of St. Vincent 
(1801); Sir Charles Morice Pole (1806); Sir William 
Johnstone Hope (1820); the Duke of Clarence (1827); 
Sir George Cockburn (1828, 1834, 1841); Sir A. Cooper 
Key (1879). 
THE annual general meeting of the Society of 
Chemical Industry will be held at the Municipal 
School of Technology on July 14-16. Prof. G. G. 
Henderson, president of the society, will deliver an 
address, and the papers to be presented include 
‘““Research and Chemical Industry,” Dr. M. O. 
Forster and Dr. C. C. Carpenter; ‘‘ Legislation and 
its Effect on Chemical Industry,” Prof. H. E. Arm- 
strong; and ‘Chemical Engineering,” Dr. G. T. 
Beilby. 
Tue Paris correspondent of the Times reports that 
the Osiris prize of 4oool., which the Institute of 
France gives every three years as a reward for the 
most remarkable work or discovery in science, art, 
letters, or industry, was awarded on June 2 jointly to 
Profs. Widal and Chantemesse and Dr. Vincent, of 
the University of Paris, whose names are connected 
with the development of anti-typhoid vaccination. As 
the Osiris prize can only be given to Frenchmen, the 
institute decided to award a special prize to Sir Alm- 
roth Wright, who gave the world this means of 
protection from typhoid. 
Pror. F. C. Cooper, whose death on June 4, at 
Horsham, is announced, occupied the chair of chem- 
istry in the University of St. John’s, Shanghai. He 
was home on furlough, and expected to return to work 
last January. Originally a pharmaceutical chemist, 
his decided gift for teaching and lecturing led him to 
accept an appointment on the staff of the St. John’s 
College in 1895. The science department gradually 
developed under his guidance to become one of the 
strongest faculties of the university, which is exercis- 
ing so wide an influence in the educational work of 
China to-day. He was a keen advocate for the intro- 
duction of the metric system into China, and the 
NO. 2380, VOL. 95| 

author of several books in Chinese compiled to assist 
the English student of the language. His knowledge 
of Chinese, especially of the Shanghai dialect, enabled 
him to work with a thorough understanding of 
China’s needs. His sympathy in this direction, no less 
than his scientific abilities and organising power, 
doubtless accounts for the prominent place he holds in 
the esteem of his Chinese pupils and colleagues. 
WE learn from Science that the Franklin medal, the 
highest recognition in the gift of the Franklin Insti- 
tute of the State of Pennsylvania, has recently been 
awarded to Prof. H. Kamerlingh Onnes and to Mr. 
T. A. Edison. The awards were made on the recom- 
mendation of the institute’s committee on science and 
the arts, that to Prof. Onnes being in recognition of 
his ‘‘long-continued and indefatigable labours in low- 
temperature research which has enriched physical 
science, not only with a great number of new methods 
and ingenious devices, but also with achievements and 
discoveries of the first magnitude,’’ and that to Mr. 
Edison in recognition of ‘tthe value of numerous basic 
inventions and discoveries forming the foundation of 
world-wide industries, signally contributing to the 
well-being, comfort, and pleasure of the human race.” 
The Franklin Medal Fund, from which this medal is 
awarded, was founded on January 1, 1914, by Mr. 
Samuel Insull. Awards of the medal are to be made 
annually to those workers in physical science or tech- 
nology, without regard to country, whose efforts, 
in the opinion of the institute, have done most to 
advance a knowledge of physical science or its applica- 
tions. The present awards are the first to be made. 
A summary of the weather for the spring season is 
given in the Weekly Weather Report of the Meteoro- 
logical Office for the several districts of the United 
Kingdom, and combining the results for the thirteen 
weeks ending May 29. The mean temperature was 
nowhere very different from the average, whilst it 
was only in Scotland and the south-east of England 
that the sheltered thermometer rose to 80°. The rain- 
fall for the whole period varied considerably in the 
different districts. The south-east of England stands 
alone with an excess of rainfall, the measurement 
being 111 per cent. of the average, the abnormal rains 
occurring generally in the middle of May. In the 
north of Scotland the rainfall was 96 per cent. of the 
average, in the east of England 95 per cent., and in 
the north-west of England 84 per cent. The greatest 
deficiency of rainfall occurred in the south of Ireland, 
where the amount was only 61 per cent. of the average, 
and in the north of Ireland it was 64 per cent. In 
the west of Scotland the rain was 69 per cent. of the 
average, whilst the lowest percentage of the average 
in any of the English districts was 76 in the south- 
west. The duration of bright sunshine for the spring 
was generally in excess of the normal; the only dis- 
tricts with a deficiency were the English Channel and 
the south of Ireland, whilst in the south-west of 
England the sunshine was normal. 
THE Rey. Water WestoON, who is already well 
known to lovers of mountain scenery from his fre- 
quent expeditions in the Alps of Japan, gave an 
interesting account, at the meeting of the Royal 
