January 9, 19 13] 



NATURE 



;2i 



deputation visited him on Tuesday to convey to him 

 the congratulations of his former students and to 

 acquaint him with their proposal for the commemora- 

 tion of his birthday. The deputation consisted of Sir 

 Edward Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., who acted as chair- 

 man, Prof. Smithells, F.R.S., Prof. Bedson, Dr. 

 Charles A. Keane, Dr. A. Harden, F.R.S., Prof. 

 Crossley, F.R.S., Mr. E. J. Bevan, and Mr. Watson 

 Smith. A congratulatory address was presented, in 

 which reference was made to Sir Henry's continued 

 and successful services to chemistry and to the large 

 debt of thanks that was owed to him by his pupils, his 

 science, and his country. It was pointed out that 

 although it was twenty-seven years since he resigned 

 the chair of chemistry at Owens College, his influence 

 as their teacher and friend had continued, and that 

 amongst his former pupils there were many who, 

 thanks to the teaching they had received at his hands, 

 had been enabled to contribute to the advancement of 

 science, and in their turn, both in academic work 

 and in industry, had been privileged to train a second 

 generation of men, whose labours it was hoped 

 would add further testimony to the value of his 

 guidance and example. 



The Royal Geographical Society has convened, for 

 January 15, in the Theatre, Burlington Gardens, at 

 4.30, a special general meeting with agenda of much 

 interest and considerable moment. The question of 

 the admission of women to the fellowship of the 

 society is again to the fore. It was the subject of 

 discussion, not unaccompanied by heat, in 1893, when 

 the opponents of the proposal enforced their view, 

 having a technical point of procedure to strengthen 

 the foundation of their arguments. On the present 

 occasion the supporters of the proposal who take part 

 in the meeting will have the knowledge of the exist- 

 ence of a preponderant body of opinion among the 

 fellows generally in favour of the resolution which 

 will be brought forward : — "That the society approves 

 of the election of women as fellows," for a postcard 

 referendum has been taken, with a result which has 

 been announced as follows: — "Yes," 1796; unsigned, 

 43; "No," 578; conditional, 33. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, 

 in his eighty-first year, of M. L. P. Cailletet, whose 

 work with Pictet on the liquefaction of gases, in 

 1877 and 1878, is memorable in the history of physical 

 science. 



The twenty-first anniversary of the Institution of 

 Mining and Metallurgy will be celebrated by a con- 

 versazione to be held at the Savoy Hotel on Monday 

 next, January 13. 



Prof. J. E. Duerden, Rhodes University College, 

 Grahamstown, South Africa, has been invited by the 

 Government of British East Africa to visit the Pro- 

 tectorate to lecture and advise upon ostrich-farming. 



The Secretary of State for War has approved of 

 the following appointments on the Army Medical 

 Advisory Board : — As civilian physiologist. Dr. 

 Leonard Hill, F.R.S., and as civilian sanitary expert, 

 Dr. Henry S. Kenwood. 



NO. 2254, VOL. 90] 



Sir Sydney Olivier, K.C.M.G., Governor of 

 Jamaica, has been appointed to be permanent secretary 

 of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. 



The tenth International Congress of Agriculture 

 will be held at Ghent, Belgium, on June 8-13, concur- 

 rently with the International Exhibition. The work 

 of the congress will be classified under the following 

 five heads: — (i) Rural economy; (2) science of agri- 

 culture, special crops, and agricultural education ; (3) 

 cattle-breeding; (4) agricultural engineering; and 

 (5) forestry. A strong British committee, under the 

 chairmanship of Sir George Fordham, is being formed 

 to secure adequate representation of this country at 

 the congress. Further particulars may be obtained 

 from the secretary to the British committee, Craven 

 House, Northumberland Avenue, W.C. 



On Tuesday next, January 14, Prof. W. Bateson will 

 begin a course of six lectures at the Royal Institution 

 on the heredity of sex and cognate problems ; on 

 Thursday, January 16, Mr. Seton Gordon will deliver 

 the first of two lectures on birds of the hill country ; 

 and on Saturday, January 18, Dr. H. Walford Davies 

 will commence a course of three lectures, with musical 

 illustrations, on aspects of harmony: (i) "Chord Pio- 

 gre.'sion"; (2) "Added Dissonance"; (3) "The New 

 Whole Tone Chord and its Predecessors." The Friday 

 evening discourse on January 17 will be delivered by 

 Sir J. J. Thomson on further applications of the 

 method of positive rays, and on January 24 by Prof. 

 J. O. Arnold on recent advances in scientific steel 

 metallurgy. 



The President of the Board of Education has ap- 

 pointed an advisory council for the Science Museum. 

 The council will be asked to advise the Board on 

 questions of principle and policy arising from time to 

 time, and to make an annual report on its proceed- 

 ings to the Board, together with any observations on 

 the condition and needs of the museum which it 

 may think fit to make. The following will be the first 

 members of the council : — Sir Hugh Bell, Bart. 

 (chairman), Mr. R. Elliott Cooper, C.E., Dr. J. J. 

 Dobbie, F.R.S., Mr. W. Duddell, F.R.S., Mr. E. B. 

 Ellington, Sir Maurice FitzMaurice, C.M.G., Sir Archi- 

 bald Geikie, K.C.B., P.R.S., Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 

 C.B., F.R.S., Sir Alfred I<:eogh, K.C.B., the Right 

 Hon. Sir William Mather, Sir John Murray, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., the 

 Right Hon. Sir Henry E. Roscoe, F.R.S., Sir William 

 H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S. The secretary will be 

 Captain H. G. Lyons, F.R.S., of the Science Museum. 



We record with regret the death, on January 4, at 

 the age of eighty-five years, of Mr. B. Leigh 

 Smith, prominent for his work in Arctic exploration. 

 From The Times we learn that in 1880 Mr. Smith 

 succeeded in reaching Franz Josef Land on its southern 

 coast west of the region visited and discovered several 

 years before by an Austrian expedition. He went out 

 again in 1881. After surveying the coast up to Cape 

 Lofley, his ship was crushed in the ice near Cape 

 Flora, and he and his crew had to pass the winter 

 under very trying conditions. In the following 

 summer thev managed to reach N'ovava Zemlva in 



