June 5, 1913] 



NATURE 



553 



that his Majesty King Albert will receive the numbers 

 at the Royal Palace, Brussels, on September i. 



Three Chadwick public lectures, on nature and 

 nurture in mental development, will be given by 

 Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., at the Royal Society of 

 Arts, on Fridays, June 6, 13, and 20. Admission to 

 the lectures is free. Information concerning future 

 Chadwick lectures may be obtained of the secretary, 

 Mrs. Aubrey Richardson, at the offices of the Trust, 

 8 Dartmouth Street, Westminster. 



In February last the Italian Colonial Office ap- 

 pointed a commission to undertake the scientific 

 study of the country of Tripoli. Prof. F. Eredia, of 

 Rome, informs us that the commission has now 

 travelled through the area, and has collected valuable 

 geological, agricultural, botanical, and meteorological 

 data. Meteorological stations have been established 

 by Prof. Eredia in appropriate situations. Tempera- 

 ture and rainfall observations are to be sent from 

 these stations to the Ufficio Centrale di Meteorologia 

 in Rome, and will be published monthly, with the 

 observations received regularly already from the 

 Tripoli Meteorological Observatory. 



We are asked to state that the British Fire Preven- 

 tion Committee, having established a technical library 

 that will be known as the International Fire Library, 

 with a nucleus of more than 2000 books dealing 

 specifically with matters of fire prevention, fire service, 

 and fire loss, is now desirous of directing the atten- 

 tion of authors, public authorities, publishers, and 

 collectors to the fact that a new catalogue is in pre- 

 paration, and that any books, pamphlets, or reports 

 which they are able to spare for this collection should 

 be addressed as soon as possible to the honorary chief 

 librarian, The International Fire Library, 8 Waterloo 

 Place, Pall Mall, S.W. 



The death is announced of Prof. Ernst Kittl, direc- 

 tor of the geological and palaontological section of 

 the Imperial Museum of Natural History, Vienna. 

 Born in 1854, Prof. Kittl became custos of the Vienna 

 Museum in 1893, an d subsequently succeeded Prof. 

 T. Fuchs as head of his department. He was the 

 author of numerous papers and memoirs on fossils, 

 chiefly Mollusca, and he prepared a valuable guide- 

 book to the geology of the Salzkammergut for the 

 meeting of the International Geological Congress at 

 Vienna in 1903. For many years he was an active 

 member of the Austrian Tourist Club, and from 1889 

 to 1898 he edited the publications of its natural history 

 section. 



The death is announced of Dr. Leon Pervinquiere, 

 lecturer on palaeontology in the University of Paris. 

 After a brilliant career as -.tudent in the University, 

 he spent three years in investigating the geology of 

 central Tunis, and on his return published an exhaus- 

 tive volume on the region, with the best geological 

 map of Tunis which has hitherto been prepared. At 

 the same time he made a great collection of Tunisian 

 fossils, which he afterwards studied in Paris, and the 

 results of his researches were published in two hand- 

 some volumes on the Jurassic and Cretaceous Mol- 

 lusca. Two years ago Pervinquiere accompanied a 

 boundary commission to examine the geology of the 

 NO. 2275, VOL. 91] 



frontier between Tunis and Tripoli, and made valu- 

 able contributions to our knowledge of the extreme 

 southern part of these countries. His untimely death 

 at the age of forty is a serious loss to geological 

 science. 



The death is reported, in his fifty-sixth year, of 

 Prof. W. Hallock, for the last eleven years professor 

 of physics at Columbia University, New York. He 

 graduated at that University in 1S79, and then studied 

 at Wurzburg, where he was for a short time an 

 assistant in the physical laboratory. Returning to 

 America in 1S82, he was successively a physicist on 

 the U.S. Geological Survey, professor of physics at 

 the Corcoran Scientific School, Washington, professor 

 of chemistry at the National College of Pharmacv, 

 and assistant in charge of the Astrophysical Observa- 

 tory of the Smithsonian Institution. For ten years 

 before his appointment to the full professorship he 

 was associate professor of physics at Columbia. 

 While on the staff of the Geological Survey he con- 

 ducted the investigation of the subterranean tempera- 

 tures in the dry well at Wheeling, where the drill 

 went down to 4500 ft. below the surface of the earth. 

 For three years Prof. Hallock was at work in the 

 Yellowstone Canon, investigating the phenomena of 

 the hot springs and geysers there. Among other sub- 

 jects that attracted his attention were the effects of 

 pressure on powdered materials, and the thermal ex- 

 pansion of rocks. 



An account has reached this country of the experi- 

 ences of Mr. Frank Wild and his companions in the 

 Antarctic. Mr. Wild led the second party of Dr. 

 Mawson's Australasian Expedition. This party was 

 dispatched by the leader to Sabrina Land or Knox 

 Land ; the existence of the former was disproved, 

 while the latter was found to be unapproachable. The 

 party, however, "landed" on a glacier in motion, and 

 established a depot on the land behind it. Thence 

 the party divided, carrying out surveys east and west ; 

 the eastern section carried its work as far as 

 101 E., and explored inland for fifty miles, to an 

 altitude of 4500 ft., while the western section worked 

 along the coast to effect a junction with the surveys 

 of the German expedition of 1902. Its route also lay 

 at high altitudes. The discovery of the largest known 

 rookery of emperor penguins is recorded. Severe 

 weather conditions were encountered, and it is stated 

 that the same blizzard which proved fatal to Scott held 

 Wild's party prisoners for nine days. The new land 

 was taken possession of in the name of Queen Mary's 

 Land; it is a continuation of the King Edward VII. 

 plateau, and has an upward slope towards the pole, 

 and a coast-line of 350 miles. 



A very interesting circular has just been issued 

 by the Department of Mines of Canada, directing 

 attention to the fact that an experimental laboratory for 

 the concentration and treatment of Canadian minerals 

 has been installed by the Department at Ottawa. 

 The laboratory includes both small-scale laboratory 

 apparatus and plant of working size, though, of 

 course, not unduly large, for the practical treatment 

 of bulk samples. The plant is to be operated free 

 of all charges upon Canadian ores, the minimum 



