May i, 1913] 



NATURE 



Vote sufficient to provide as follows :— For Lady Scott 

 (in addition to the Admiralty pension of 200L per annum 

 for herself and 25Z. per annum for her son, until he 

 reaches the age of eighteen) an annuity of tool. For 

 Mrs. Scott, the mother, and Mrs. Campbell and Miss 

 Grace Scott, the sisters, of Captain Scott, a joint 

 annuity of 300Z. For Mrs. Wilson, the widow, and 

 Miss Mary Souper, the sister-in-law, of Dr. E. A. 

 Wilson, a joint annuity of 300!. For Mrs. Evans, 

 the widow of Petty Officer E. Evans (in addition to 

 the pension and allowances awarded to her by the 

 Admiralty, amounting to 13s. 6d. a week), a further 

 annuity of 12s. 6d. a week for herself and 35. a week 

 in respect of each of her children up to the age of [ , 

 eighteen. The Government of India, in the service 

 of which Lieutenant Bowers was before joining the 

 expedition, has offered to provide pensions, amounting 

 in all to iool. per annum, for his mother and sisters. 

 Captain Oates, the fifth member of Captain Scott's 

 southern party, was unmarried; and as no mention is 

 made of any relatives, it may be assumed that he was 

 possessed of ample means. In addition to the pro- 

 vision referred to above, the total amount sub- 

 scribed by the public as a memorial for the dead 

 explorers and kindred purposes is 55,7602. 



On Monday last Sir Clements Markham, at the 

 meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, gave a 

 paper on Vasco Nunez de Balboa, in commemoration of 

 the fourth centenary of the discovery of the Pacific 

 Ocean in 1513. The anniversary actually falls in Sep- 

 tember. The author did full justice to the discoverer's 

 strength and many other excellences of character, 

 which stand out in contrast with the majority of his 

 compeers in the same field; the question, often asked, 

 was repeated, What would the history of western 

 South America and its highly civilised native races 

 have been if Nunez and others such as he had been 

 allowed the chance to establish friendly relations 

 with them and assimilate their ideals with those of 

 Europe, instead of their suffering the extreme penalty 

 of extermination? Two noteworthy efforts of geo- 

 graphical theorising were discussed as following upon 

 Nunez's discovery. The first was the well-known 

 and successful endeavour of Magellan to turn the 

 flank of the South American barrier, and to sail his 

 vessel directly from the Atlantic into the Pacific. 

 The second, less familiar, was the brilliant reasoning 

 by which Andres de Urdaneta, in 1565, succeeded in 

 piloting a return voyage across the Pacific from west 

 to east, for the first time, by following a northerly 

 course, on which were found favourable winds, the 

 reverse of those which prevailed on the more southerly 

 course followed by the earlier navigators across the 

 ocean from east to west. Reference was made to the 

 work still awaiting trained explorers in the very area 

 of Nunez's crossing of the isthmus of Darien. 



We are glad to learn from the annual statement on the 

 work of the Post Office, made in the House of Commons 

 on April 24 by the Postmaster-General, that it is pro- 

 posed to establish a new service for the synchronising 

 of clocks. For a small fee per annum the Post Office 

 will send every day an hourly time signal. Any 

 institution, business house, or industrial establishment 

 NO. 227O, VOL. 91] 



to which it is important to have the correct time and 

 which is willing to provide the internal apparatus 

 for the clocks can obtain for a small fee an hourly 

 time service. The fee may vary with the distance, 

 but if there are a sufficient number of subscribers 

 it will be about £2 a year. The Greenwich time 

 signal will be transmitted once daily over telegraph 

 circuits for the regulation of master clocks fixed at 

 suitable "distributing centres" at head or branch 

 post offices, and these master clocks will transmit 

 hourly impulses to the premises of persons requiring 

 the service. The Post Office will provide and main- 

 tain the distributing wire up to a suitable point at 

 the renter's premises, but it will rest with the renter 

 at his own expense to fix and maintain to the satis- 

 faction of the Post Office all other wiring within his 

 premises, as well as the clock and the synchronising 

 mechanism. The arrangement will be confined for 

 the present to the central districts of large towns. 

 It will be recalled that the British Science Guild has 

 taken a leading part in directing attention to the 

 importance of synchronising all clocks publicly ex- 

 hibited. In the fifth annual report of the guild a 

 committee appointed to deal with the subject described 

 the position of the subject at home and in some other 

 countries, and stated the results of representations 

 made to the Post Office, the London County Council, 

 the Corporation of London, and other authorities. 

 The hope was expressed by the committee that the 

 Post Office would before long be in a position to 

 offer facilities to the public for the synchronisation 

 of clocks at such rental rates as should remove the 

 main objections which have been urged to the general 

 adoption of the principle. The announcement now 

 made by Mr. Samuel seems to represent the realisa- 

 tion of this desire. 



The first conversazione of the Royal Society for 

 this year will be held in the rooms of the society at 

 Burlington House on Wednesday, May 7. 



The death is announced, on April 25, of Prof. J. 

 Park, professor of logic and metaphysics in the 

 Queen's University (formerly Queen's College), Bel- 

 fast, since 1868. 



The Berlin correspondent of The Times announces 

 that Prof. Fritz von Bramann, professor of Halle 

 University, and director of the surgical laboratory 

 there, died on April 26, at fifty-eight years of age. 



We learn from the Revue Scientifique that the 

 teachers of the Normal School at Avignon, of which 

 M. J. H. Fabre, the entomologist, was a pupil, are 

 taking steps to raise a fund with the view of erecting 

 a monument to "The Insects' Homer." The general 

 council of Vaucluse has voted 1500 francs to the fund. 

 On Saturday, May 10, Mr. H. A. Humphrey will 

 begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institu- 

 tion on Humphrey internal-combustion pumps. The 

 Friday evening discourse on May 9 will be delivered 

 by Mr. F. Balfour Browne on the life-history of a water- 

 beetle, and on May 16 by Captain Cecil G. Rawling 

 on the Pygmies of New Guinea. 



The Geologists' Association has arranged a Whit- 

 suntide excursion to Nottingham, from May 9 to May 



