May lo, 1906] 



NA TURE 



37 



when the President of the Society, Prof. Edgar Smith, 

 presided over a meetitij>: of delegates for the reception 

 of addresses. The President began by a speech in 

 which he set fortli the share talien by Franlilin in the 

 foundation of the Philosophical Society, and the bearers 

 of addresses then handed to him successively, in the 

 chronological order of the several foundations, the docu- 

 ments with which they had been entrusted. 1 myself 

 h.id the honour of presenting addresses from Cam- 

 bridge, the Royal Society, the Royal Institution, the 

 British Association, and the Royal Meteorological 

 Society. I do not Unow the whole number of addresses, 

 but 126 bodies were represented in one way or another. 

 The evening ended with an int(M-esting ceremony, when 

 Mr. Carnegie, in his robes as Lord Rector of the Uni- 

 vcrsitv of St. Andrews, conferred the 'degree of doctor 

 on Miss Irwin, a great-granddaughter of Franklin; 

 she is principal of Radcliffe H.all, which bears nearly 

 the same relation to Harvard University that Newnhain 

 and Girton do to Cambridge. 



Wednesday, .April 18, was devoted to the reading of 

 scientific papers, as in a sectional meetifig of the 

 British Association. The session was continued on the 

 afternoon of Friday, and twenty-three papers in all 

 were read. Amongst the papers which appeared to 

 e.xcite the greatest interest were those by Chamberlin, 

 de Vries, Pickering, Hall, and Lorentz. I myself gave 

 an account of a paper recently presented to the Royal 

 Society, but as yet unpublislied ; but before doing so 

 1 had the pleasure of presenting to the Philosophical 

 Society two Wedgwood medallions of Benjamin 

 Franklin and of Erasmus Darwin. The archives of 

 the Society show (what I was not aware of) that both 

 Erasmus Darwin and my father had been honorary 

 fellows — an honour which I share myself. 



On Thursday morning, April 19, the University of 

 Pennsylvania (of which Franklin was the initiator) 

 conferred, at the hands of its Provost, Mr. Harrison, 

 a number of honorarv degrees in the fine theatre 

 called the Academy of Music. The whole pit was 

 occupied by students, and a national flavour was con- 

 ferred on the ceremonies by their staccato college yell, 

 and by their singing college songs. 



An altogether exceptional feature of the ceremony 

 was that a degree was conferred on the King, who 

 was represented by Sir Mortimer Durand, H.M. 

 .Ambassador at Washington. In announcing this 

 degree the Provost read with great effect the celebrated 

 speech on England from Henrv V. It is pleasant to 

 record the enthusiastic cheers which the whole audience 

 gave, standing, as the Ambassador was hooded. Soine 

 fifteen or twenty degrees were afterwards conferred, 

 and the recipients — amongst whom I may name de 

 Vries, Lorentz, Marconi, and Rutherford — were 

 greeted with hearty cheers by the students. After- 

 wards the Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, Mr. Car- 

 son, gave an address on the shares borne bv Franklin 

 and by subsequent benefactors in the foundation of 

 the LIniversity. In the afternoon there was a public 

 procession to the grave of Franklin, but as I was not 

 present I am unable to give any account of the pro- 

 ceedings. 



On Friday morning, .April 19, we heard some 

 interesting speeches in the theatre by Mr. Furness, 

 President Elliot, and Mr. Choate, formerly ambassador 

 in London, on the various sides of Franklin's character 

 and activity. On the stage in full view of the audience 

 was the portrait of Franklin which had been removed 

 from America by General Grey at the time of the 

 revolutionarv war. It has just been presented to the 

 President of the United .States by Lord Grey, Governor- 

 General of Canada, and its ultimate destination will, 

 I believe, be the White House at Washington. 'I his 

 graceful act of international courtesy is highly appre- 



NO. 1906 VOL. 74] 



ciated in America, and the fact that it coincides with 

 the bicentenary of FVanklin's birth can hardly be merely 

 accidental. 



After the addresses of which I have spoken came the 

 presentation to the Republic of France, through the 

 French Ainbassador, M. Jusserand, of a gold medal 

 commemorative of Franklin. All who have studied the 

 history of the revolutionary war know the importance 

 of Franklin's residence in Paris as a determining factor 

 in the outcome of the war. It may easily be imagined 

 how great was the enthusiasm created by this cere- 

 mony. 



The festival closed with a banquet in the evening 

 ;it which there were many striking speeches. An 

 .American dinner is managed somewhat differently 

 from our own, for the toast-master is not, as with us, 

 a servant with a stentorian voice, but is the most highly 

 honoured of the hosts of the occasion. Dr. Weir 

 Mitchell, the illustrious physician, performed this 

 arduous task, and gave us a number of appropriate 

 little speeches to the admiration of all. 



To describe the other speeches would be simply 

 tedious, but I may mention the excellent speech of 

 M. Jusserand, who referred with the most exquisite 

 tact to the appalling disaster of San Francisco, then 

 at its full height. M. Jusserand is the most accom- 

 pHshed livingstudent of England of the Plantagenet 

 times, and his speech, although clothed in English, 

 retained all the grace of its French origin. 



It was natural that the ruin and misery at San 

 Francisco should exercise a certain depressing influence 

 on all, but those responsible for the proceedings 

 determined, rightly, as I think, to carr>' them through 

 as planned. 



Those who have taken part in such festivals in 

 .America need not be told that the organisation was 

 admirable and the hospitality unbounded. 



G. H. Darwin. 



liOTES. 



The seventy-eighth annual meeting of the German 

 .Association of Naturalists and Physicians will be held at 

 Stuttgart on September 16-22. 



.A Reuter message from Rome on May 5 reports that 

 the volcano of Stromboli is in active eruption. Advices 

 received from Tacna, Chile, state that a violent earthquake 

 shock was felt In that city on May 6, the vibrations last- 

 ing thirty-five seconds. The shock was also felt at Arica. 



The death is announced of Prof. Eugfene Renevier, pro- 

 fessor of geology and palaeontology at the University of 

 Lausanne. Prof. Renevier was president of the Swiss 

 Geological Society and president of the Simplon Geological 

 Society. 



On Saturday week, May ig, Sir James Dewar will deliver 

 the first of a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution 

 on " The Old and the New Chemistry." The Friday even- 

 ing discourse on May 18 will be delivered by Prof. Arthur 

 Schuster, on " International Science." 



The second annual dinner of the London section of the 

 Society of Dyers and Colourlsts will be held on Wednesday, 

 May 23. Persons interested in dyeing and the allied indus- 

 tries who are not members of the society are specially in- 

 vited. Particulars may be obtained from the hon. secretary, 

 Mr. Wallace Burton, 219 Shooters Hill Road, Black- 

 heath, S.E. 



.At the final meeting of the sixth International Congress 

 of .Applied Chemistry on Saturday, it was resolved that 

 the seventh congress shall be held in London, with Sir 



