590 



NATURE 



[December 5, 1912 



to the generosity of the Fishmongers' Company, and 

 some private individuals. The Times, from whose 

 report we quote, well says '" it is hoped that with 

 Rlakenev Point a satisfactory beginning of the estab- 

 lishment of ' national reserves ' may be made in Eng- 

 land." 



The death is announced, in his seventy-ninth year, 

 of Sir Charles Whitehead, an authority in agricul- 

 tural matters. He was an active member of the coun- 

 cil of the Royal Agricultural Society from 1870 to 

 1S98, was chairman of the botanical and zoological 

 committee of the society, and wrote much in its 

 Journal. He was a vice-president of the society from 

 1S85-1907. From 1893 to 1897 Sir Charles Whitehead 

 served on the Royal Commission on Agriculture, and 

 from 1884 to 1887 he advised the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment of the Privy Council Office, when he was ap- 

 pointed agricultural adviser — the first in this country. 

 He was afterwards transferred to the Board of Agri- 

 culture as technical adviser. Among his numerous 

 contributions to the literature of agricultural science 

 may be mentioned "The Agriculture of Kent," his 

 leaflets on insects and fungi, and his reports on the 

 Hessian fly, the means of checking potato disease, 

 and on the attack of the diamond black moth. He 

 was a fellow of the Linnean, Royal Geographical, and 

 Geological Societies. 



The death is announced, at the age of ninety years, 

 of Dr. Robert Fletcher, the medical bibliographer. Dr. 

 Fletcher was born at Bristol, and qualified as a mem- 

 ber of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1844. Later 

 he took the degree of M.D. at Columbia University. 

 He inaugurated the Army Medical' Library at Wash- 

 ington, U.S.A., and, in association with Dr. J. S. 

 Billings, the present head of the New York Public 

 Library, he compiled and edited the index catalogue 

 of the library of the Surgeon-General's Office, Wash- 

 ington, and was entirely responsible for some of the 

 volumes. With Dr. Billings, too, he compiled the 

 " Index Medicus," which was later revived and taken 

 over by the Carnegie Institution, when it was edited 

 by Dr. Fletcher. Since 1880, thirty-two folio volumes 

 of the index have been issued. Dr. Fletcher wrote 

 also papers on anthropology and folklore. He 

 formerly lectured on medical jurisprudence at one of 

 the Washington schools, and afterwards gave an 

 annual course of lectures on the subject at the Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital School at Baltimore. The council 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1910 

 conferred upon Dr. Fletcher the honorary medal of 

 the college for "distinguished labours eminently con- 

 ducive to the improvement of natural knowledge and 

 the healing art." 



Mr. T. Francis Connolly, of the Solar Physics 

 Observatory, South Kensington, has been appointed 

 an assistant-inspector of scientific supplies at the India 

 Stores Department, Lambeth. 



The Physical Society's eighth annual exhibition, to 

 h>i held on Tuesday, December 17, at the Imperial 

 College of Science, South Kensington, will be open in 

 both the afternoon (from 3 to 6 p.m.) and in the 

 evening (from 7 to 10 p.m.). Mr. S. G. Brown will 

 NO. 2249, VOL. 90] 



give a discourse at 4.30 and again at 8 p.m., on some 

 methods of magnifying feeble signalling currents. 

 About thirtv firms will exhibit instruments and other 

 apparatus. 



Remains of a human skull and mandible, considered 

 to belong to the early Pleistocene period, have been 

 discovered bv Mr. Charles Dawson in a gravel-deposit 

 in the basin of the river Ouse, north of Lewes, Sussex. 

 Much interest has been aroused in the specimen 

 owing to the exactitude with which its geological age 

 is said to have been fixed, and it will form the subject 

 of a paper bv Mr. Dawson and Dr. Smith Woodward 

 to be read before the Geological Societv on December 

 18. 



A COURSE of twelve Swiney lectures on geology in 

 connection with tlie British Museum (Natural History) 

 will be delivered by Dr. T. J. Jehu, in the Lecture 

 Theatre of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South 

 Kensington, on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at 

 3 p.m., from Saturday, December 7, to Saturday, 

 December 21 (inclusive), and from Saturday, January 

 4, to Monday, January 13 (inclusive). The subject of 

 the course is "The Record of Life as revealed in the 

 Rocks." Admission to the lectures is free. 



On Friday last, November 29, Mr. Edgar A. Smith, 

 assistant-keeper in the zoological department of the 

 Natural History Museum, was, in view of his ap- 

 proaching retirement, presented by the director. Dr. 

 L. Fletcher, F.R.S., on behalf of the subscribers, 

 including many of his colleagues and other friends, 

 with a tea and coffee service, a drawing-room clock, 

 and a pair of field-glasses. Mr. Smith joined the staff 

 of the museum in 1867, and has served the trustees 

 for the exceptional length of time of forty-five years ; 

 at their special request he has consented to continue 

 his duties up to the end of March next. 



We are informed that the "Cecil" medal and prize 

 of the Dorset Field Club for 1912-13 will be awarded 

 for the best paper on the known sources of supply 

 of petroleum oil and its various products ; its advan- 

 tages or disadvantages compared with the future price, 

 illuminating power, heat and energy of coal by land, 

 ^ea, and air. The competition is open to any person 

 who was betvvoen the ages of eighteen and thirty-five on 

 May 9, 1912, and either was born in Dorset or had 

 on May 9, 1912, resided in the'county for the previous 

 twelve months. Further particulars may be obtained 

 from Mr. H. Pouncy, Dorset County Chronicle Office, 

 Dorchester. 



As a result of a suggestion contained in a paper on 

 the nomenclature of alloys, read by Dr. W. Rosen- 

 hain before the Institute of Metals in January last, 

 a committee consisting of representatives of the Insti- 

 tute of Metals and Allied Societies has been appointed 

 under the name of the Nomenclature Committee, and 

 will shortly hold its first meeting. Another new com- 

 mittee has been appointed by the council for the pur- 

 pose of assisting the Dominions Royal Commission in 

 the inquiry into the question of the supply of non- 

 ferrous metals and ores in this country. A report 

 dealing with this subject is being prepared by the 

 committee, of wliiih Prof. T. Turner is the honorary 

 secretarv. 



