May 15, 191 3] 



NATURE 



'■/3 



to the science of oceanography. In the absence 

 of Dr. Hjort, the medal was received by the 

 Norwegian Minister, Mr. Bryn. 



The Comstock prize of 1500 dollars to 

 Prof. Robert A. Millikan, of Chicago, for his 

 demonstrations of the existence of electric atoms 

 in elements and of the equality of the electrical 

 charge of positive and negative ions in ionised 

 gases, and his additions to the knowledge of the 

 molecular constitution and kinetic phenomena of 

 gases. 



A business meeting was held on the morning 

 of April 24, when the following officers and new 

 members and foreign associates were elected : 

 President, William H. Welch; Vice-President, 

 Charles D. Walcott ; Foreign Secretary, George 

 E. Hale; Home Secretary, Arthur L. Day; 

 Treasurer, Whitman Cross. New Members: 

 Henry A. Bumstead, Gilbert N. Lewis, Louis V. 

 Pirsson, Erwin F. Smith, Leonard E. Dickson, 

 Lafayette B. Mendel, Edward B. Rosa, Ross G. 

 Harrison, George H. Parker, Armin O. Leuschner. 

 New Foreign Associates : Arthur Schuster, Theodor 

 Boveri, William Crookes, Gaston Darboux, Henri 

 Deslandres, Albert Heim, Albrecht Kossel, Karl 

 Friedrich Kiistner, Johannes D. van der Waals, 

 August Weismann, Max F. J. C- Wolf. 



On the afternoon of April 24 an excursion was 

 made to Mount Vernon on the U.S.S. Mayflower, 

 which had been placed at the disposal of the 

 academy and its guests by the Secretary of the 

 Navy. In the evening a banquet was held in the 

 New Willard Hotel, at which speeches were made 

 by Vice-President Marshall, the Right Hon. James 

 Bryce, President Remsen, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, 

 Senator T. E. Burton, of Ohio, and Dr. W. W. 

 Keen, President of the American Philosophical 

 Society. 



To mark the anniversary, the academy published 

 :i history of its first half-century in a handsome 

 volume of some 400 pages. It includes an account 

 of the founding of the academy, its annals, bio- 

 graphical sketches of the incorporators, and a 

 chapter on the work of the academy as the scienti- 

 fic adviser of the Government, together with 

 appendices, among which is a list of publications. 



SCALES OF FISH AS TESTS OF AGE. 



'"rHE general principle that the age of a fish 

 *- may be determined by a study of the mark- 

 ings on the scale has now been generally accepted 

 for many fishes, especially for the Gadoids, 

 Clupeoids, and Salmonidae. It has been main- 

 tained, especially by Norwegian naturalists, that 

 the principle may be carried still further, and that 

 from a measurement of the portions of the scale 

 representing the growth of successive years the 

 length of the fish at the end of each year of its 

 life may be calculated. If this proved to be true, 

 the average annual growth rate of fishes could be 

 determined by the examination of comparatively 

 small samples of fish, since each of the older fishes 

 would give values for a number of years. 



That the use of the method in this way must 

 NO. 2272, VOL. 91] 



be undertaken only with great caution is clearly 

 shown in a paper by Miss Rosa M. Lee, published 

 by the International Council for the Study of the 

 Sea (Publications de Cir Constance , No. 63), en- 

 titled "An Investigation into the Methods of 

 Growth Determination in Fishes." By an acute 

 and penetrating analysis of the measurements of 

 scales from herring, haddock, and trout, Miss Lee 

 shows that if the lengths of the fish at the end 

 of each year are calculated from the lengths of 

 the annual rings on the scale, measured from the 

 centre of the scale along its major axis, the 

 figures obtained appear to indicate a change in the 

 growth rate of such a nature that the younger 

 fishes attained a greater size at any given age 

 than was attained by older fishes at the same given 

 age. Thus whereas in a sample of herrings the 

 four-year-old class gave an average calculated 

 length of 25'8 cm. at the end of the third year, 

 the ten-year-old class gave an average calculated 

 length of only 21 "3 cm. at the end of their third 

 year. 



Various hypotheses are put forward to account 

 for this phenomenon, of which the most probab'e 

 seems to be either that it is due to an actual 

 shrinkage during the later life of the fish of the 

 portion of the scale already laid down, or that in 

 the samples of fish examined there has been a 

 segregation according to size of such a character 

 that only the larger sizes of the earlier age groups 

 are present. The subject is clearly one which 

 must be further investigated before certain con- 

 clusions as to age can be arrived at from the study 

 of fish scales. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY CONVERSAZIONE. 



THE annual May conversazione of the Royal 

 Society was held in the rooms of the society 

 at Burlington House on Wednesday, May 7. 

 During the evening lantern demonstrations were 

 given by Mr. Leonard Bairstow illustrating cases 

 of eddying fluid motion of interest in aeronautical 

 research, and by Dr. A. Smith Woodward on the 

 discovery of a palaeolithic human skull and man- 

 dible at Piltdown, Fletching, Sussex. Many- 

 objects and instruments illustrating recent scienti- 

 fic methods and results were exhibited, and most 

 of them are described in the subjoined summaries 

 from the official catalogue. Exhibits referring to 

 related branches of science have, so far as possible, 

 been grouped together. 



Prof. J. T. Morris : The electrical measurement of 

 wind velocity, as applied to the distribution round a 

 circular rod in an air current. In the air current is 

 fixed a Wheatstone bridge made with alternate arms 

 of platinum and manganin. At normal temperature 

 this bridge is out of balance. It is supplied with 

 cither (a) a constant voltage, when a millivoltmeter 

 in place of the usual galvanometer gives indications 

 depending on the wind velocity ; or (5) a current 

 which can be varied so as to bring the bridge into 

 balance for any velocity ; the square of the watts 

 used in the bridge wires is then proportional to the 

 wind velocity subject to a small correction. It is 

 unnecessary to know the direction of the wind 

 before a measurement can be made. Mr. M. 



