16 



NATURE 



[March 6, 191. 



National Physical Laboratory ; Mr. G. W. Walker, 

 formerly superintendent of the Eskdalemuir Observa- 

 tory. 



The Secretary of State for India in Council notifies 

 that one appointment to the Indian Geological Survey 

 Department will be made in July next. A further 

 1 ' v is expected to occur in the year 1914. 



The Rome correspondent of The. Time* states tint 

 rlie Italian Geographical Society proposes to give a 

 gold medal to Capt. Scott's family and two silver 

 medals respectively to the families of Dr. Wilson and 

 Capt. Oates. 



The death is announced, in his eighty-fifth year, of 

 Dr. S. A. Lattimore, professor of chemistry at the 

 Universitv of Rochester, N.Y., from 1867 to 1908. 

 As a young man he spent ten years as a classical 

 tutor and then professor of Greek at his alma mater, 

 a universitv in Indiana. Having then decided to 

 adopt a scientific career, he became professor of chem- 

 istry at Genesee College, where he served for seven 

 vears before his appointment at Rochester. 



The death is announced, at the age of ninety-one, 

 I jor-General Henry Clerk, R.A., F.R.S. General 

 Clerk was elected a fellow- of the Royal Society so 

 long ago as 1S4S, and he served on the council in the 

 - 1S7S-80. He was the author of papers on 

 meteorological and magnetic observations made in a 

 vovage to the Antarctic circle, and also of papers on 

 the strength of timber, friction, and the flow of 

 liquids through small orifices. 



For the meeting of the British Association which 

 will take place in Birmingham on September 10-17 

 next, the following sectional presidents have 

 been appointed : — A (Mathematics and Physics), 

 Dr. H. F. Baker, F.R.S. ; B (Chemistry), Prof. W. P. 

 Wynne, F.R.S.; C (Geologv), Prof. E. J. Garwood; 

 D (Zoology), Dr. H. F. ^Gadow, F.R.S. ; E (Geo- 

 graphy), Prof. H. N. Dickson; F (Economics), Rev. 

 P. H! Wicksteed; G (Engineering), Mr. J. A. F. 

 Aspinall; H (Anthropology), Sir Richard Temple, 

 Bart. ; I (Physiology), Prof. F. Gowland Hopkins, 

 F.R.S.; K (Botany), Miss Ethel Sargant ; L (Educa- 

 tion), Principal E. H. Griffiths, F.R.S.; M (Agricul- 

 ture), Prof. T. B. Wood. 



Mr. R. J. Balston, of Maidstone, has presented to 

 the British Museum (Natural History) his well-known 

 collection of humming-birds. The birds are mounted 

 and arranged in forty-nine cases, each of which con- 

 tains a group of two or more species. The total 

 number of specimens in the collection is stated in 

 Mr. Balston's MS. to be 3315, representing 162 

 genera and 480 species. Of these, 2674 are skins, 

 and 199 nests, some of the latter containing eggs. 

 As soon as arrangements are made for its reception 

 the series will be placed on exhibition in one of the 

 corridors on the first floor of the zoological depart- 

 ment. This collection and the Gould collection will 

 render the exhibited series of humming-birds one of 

 the finest, if not actually the finest, in the world. 



The thirty-fifth annual general meeting of the In- 

 stitute of Chemistry was held on Monday, March 3. 

 Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., occupied the chair, and in 

 NO. 2262, VOL. 91] 



the course of his presidential address he remarked 

 that the applications of chemistry in every field of 

 human activity have been steadily increasing, and the 

 importance of professional chemists to the public wel- 

 fare is becoming more and more recognised. Pro- 

 fessional chemists have not secured that full measure 

 of public recognition to which they are. entitled, but 

 in this country all scientific affairs move but slowly. 

 The consolidation and the elevation of the profession 

 and the maintenance of the status of the chemical 

 practitioner will become more and more determined 

 in the future by the standard of efficiency and of 

 conduct set up by the fellows and associates. Until 

 the whole level of public appreciation of the value of 

 this profession is raised, the country is destined to lose 

 the services of that highest type of cultured and 

 trained chemist of which other nations are more wisely 

 availing themselves, to our detriment and their advan- 

 tage. 



The following are among the lecture arrangi 

 at the Royal Institution, after Easter : — Dr. A. S. 

 Woodward, two lectures on recent discoveries of earlv 

 man. Prof. W. Bateson, two lectures on the heredity 

 of sex and some cognate problems. Prof. W. Stirling, 

 three lectures on recent physiological inquiries. Prof. 

 T. B. Wood, three lectures on recent advances in the 

 production and utilisation of wheat in England. Dr. 

 E. Frankland Armstrong, two lectures on (1) the 

 bridge into life; (2) colour in flowers. Prof. J. 

 Garstang, three lectures on the progress of Hittite 

 studies. Prof. W. J. Pope, three lectures on recent 

 chemical advances. Mr. H. A. Humphrey, two lec- 

 tures on Humphrey internal-combustion pumps. Prof. 

 E. Rutherford, three lectures on radio-activitv. The 

 Friday evening meetings will be resumed on April 4, 

 when Mr. J. J. Dobbie will deliver a discourse on the 

 spectroscope in organic chemistry. Succeeding dis- 

 courses will probably be given by Mr. C. J. P. Cave, 

 Dr. T. M. Lowry, Prof. J. Garstang, and Mr. H. G. 

 Plimmer. 



As has been pointed out already in these columns, 

 March 19 will be the centenary of the birth of David 

 Livingstone. The event is being and will be com- 

 memorated in a variety of ways. On February 27 

 the University and town of Cambridge held a meeting 

 at the Senate House, when speeches on Livingstone's 

 work were delivered. Livingstone College, Levton. 

 E., has published, as a souvenir of the centenary, an 

 illustrated brochure, entitled "Memorials of David 

 Livingstone"; it contains two portraits of the ex- 

 plorer in colour and other pictures and extracts con- 

 nected with his work. Livingstone College was 

 founded in the year 1S93, in order to give instruction 

 to foreign missionaries in the elements of medicine 

 and surgery, and constitutes a permanent memorial 

 to Dr. Livingstone in the neighbourhood of London. 

 It is now appealing for a sum of io.oooZ. in order 

 to meet various needs, one of which is to clear off a 

 mortgage of 3500L ; 1500Z. is needed for making cer- 

 tain improvements, whilst it is desired to raise 5000J. 

 as the nucleus of an endowment. 



An eighteenth-century picture, which is said to be 

 a portrait of Gilbert White of Selborne, has lately 



