February 13, 19 13] 



NATURE 



655 



,vor£5. 



I\Ir. R. Lvdekker writes to say that his letter to 

 The Times of February 6 in regard to the supposed 

 cuckoo heard by himself at Harpenden on February 4 

 is based on an exceedingly clever imitation of the 

 bird's note by a bricklayer's labourer working in a 

 new house in the neighbourhood. Mr. Lydekker has 

 interviewed the man, who states that he produces the 

 sound with his lips alone, and that in the season he 

 is able to attract all the cuckoos in his vicinity to 

 the spot w-here he utters the call. 



Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant has been appointed 

 assistant keeper of the department of zoology at the 

 Natural History Museum, South Kensington, in suc- 

 cession to Mr. Edgar Smith, who will retire, by reason 

 of age, on March 31. 



The Friday evening discourse at the Royal Insti- 

 tution on February 28 will be delivered by the Hon. 

 R. J. Strutt on active nitrogen, instead of Mr. C. T. R. 

 Wilson, who will deliver his discourse on the photo- 

 graphy of the paths of particles ejected by atoms on 

 March 7. 



We regret to announce the death, on February 8, 

 at sixty years of age, of Prof. M. M. McHardy, late 

 professor of ophthalmology in King's College, Lon- 

 don, and the inventor of the registering perimeter 

 which bears his name, for mapping out the field of 

 vision. 



The Helmholtz medal of the Berlin Academy of 

 Sciences has been awarded to Prof. S. Schwendener, 

 of the Berlin University, for his researches in 

 vegetable physiology. Prof. Emil Abderhalden, of 

 the University of Halle, has also received a prize for 

 his researches on egg albumin. 



Writing from Launceston, Tasmania, a correspon- 

 dent states that the belief that exposure to the rays 

 of the moon has a poisonous effect on fish is very 

 prevalent among the older people in Tasmania. The 

 belief appears to have been taken out by the early 

 settlers, and has become firmly rooted. Communica- 

 tions upon the same subject will be found in N.4TURE 

 of November 14 (p. 305), December 5 (p. 382), and 

 December 12, 1912 (p. 417). 



Sir Cecil H. S.mith, director of the Victoria and 

 Albert Museum, and Dr. E. H. Starling, F.R.S., 

 professor of physiology in the University of London, 

 have been elected members of the Athenaeum Club 

 under the provisions of the rule which empowers the 

 annual election by the committee of three persons 

 "of distinguished eminence in science, literature, the 

 arts, or for public service." 



Dr. W. C. Farabee, instructor in anthropology at 

 Harvard, has resigned that post in order to accept 

 the leadership of an expedition that the University 

 of Pennsylvania is sending to South America, to 

 remain in the field three years. Its main object will 

 be ethnological research, but .representatives of other 

 departments of science will accompany the expedition. 

 Dr. Farabee has previous experience of this region, 

 having conducted a South American expedition for 

 the Harvard Peabody Museum from 1906 to igog. 

 NO. 2259, VOL. 90] 



An account of the work of Dr. C. G. P. de Laval, 

 whose death on February 2 was announced in last 

 week's Nature, is given in Engineering for February 

 7. Dr. de Laval was born on May g, 1845, and was 

 educated at the Upsala University. His name will 

 be associated with the cream-separator, a machine 

 developed by his ingenuity and application, and also 

 with the well-known steam turbine which bears his 

 name. The latter machine is notable as embodying 

 the first application of Napier's diverging nozzle for 

 expanding steam, and for the principle of mounting 

 the turbine wheels on long flexible shafts ; these 

 shafts are run at speeds much higher than the critical 

 speed, and under such conditions remarkable steadi- 

 ness is secured in the rotor. Dr. de Laval's work 

 in the development of high-speed gearing is well 

 known. He also experimented with steam at excep- 

 tionally high pressures, and exhibited turbines in 

 1897 running with steam at 1500 to 1700 lb. per 

 sq. in. pressure. He was a member of the Swedish 

 I House of Representatives. 



Interesting details of the life and work of the 

 Right Hon. Lord Ilkeston, better known in the 

 world of medical science as Sir Walter Foster, who 

 died on January 31, are given in a long obituary notice 

 in The British Medical Journal of February 8. 

 B. Walter Foster was born in 1840, and was therefore 

 in his seventy-third year when he died. Before he 

 had completed his twenty-first year he was appointed 

 professor of practical anatomy and medical tutor at 

 Queen's College, Birmingham. He gave special atten- 

 tion to diseases of the heart, and his best-known con- 

 tribution to medical literature was a book on the 

 sphygmograph which appeared in 1866. Among his 

 other publications are: — "The Use of Ether and 

 Etherised Cod-liver oil in the Treatment of Phthisis," 

 "Method and Medicine," "The Prince's Illness: its 

 Lessons — a Lecture on the Prevention of Disease," 

 and "The Therapeutics of Diabetes Mellitus." He 

 delivered the address in medicine at the annual meet- 

 ing of the British Medical Association held in Birming- 

 ham in 1890, taking as his subject the public aspects 

 of medicine. He was president of the section of 

 public medicine at the annual meeting held at Nott- 

 ingham in i8g2, and of the section of State medicine 

 at the London meeting in igio. At a comparatively 

 early period of his career Foster had begun to take 

 an active part in public affairs outside his profession. 

 In Parliament he took a prominent part in the dis- 

 cussion of all questions affecting directly or indirectly 

 the interests of medical practitioners. He became 

 Parliamentary secretary to the Local Government 

 Board in 1892, and held the oflfice until 1895. In 1910 

 he accepted a peerage, taking the title of Lord 

 Ilkeston at the expressed wish of the constituency 

 he had represented for twenty-three years. He had 

 been a Privy Councillor since igo6. In addition to 

 j the distinctions already mentioned, he received the 

 I honorary degree of D.C.L. from the University of 

 Durham in 1893, and that of LL.D. from the Univer- 

 sity of Montreal in 1897. 



The Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Natural- 

 ists' Club and Microscopical Society for 1911-12 



