June 14, 1906] 



NA TURE 



155 



dtprivcd of those privileges, the Adjulant-Gencral at 

 present being practically head of the Medical Depart- 

 ment. Now that a former Secretary for War has 

 directed public attention to the matter, it is to be 

 hoped that those in authority will recognise that medical 

 science is a vital part of niilitarv strength, a dictum 

 which has for years been preached by the medical pro- 

 fession. 



NOTES. 

 .\t the meeting of the council of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society, held on Friday last, June 8, the following resolu- 

 lion was unanimously agreed to : — " That the council learn 

 wiili deep concern of the danger threatened to the Royal 

 Obscrvalory, Greenwich, from the erection of a large 

 electric generating station near the observatory ; and desire 

 lo represent to the Admiralty at the earliest opportunity 

 Iheir conviction of the paramount importance of maintain- 

 ing the integrity and efficiency of Greenwich Observatory, 

 which has been adopted as the reference point for the whole 

 world." It was further resolved that a copy of this resolu- 

 lion be forwarded to the First Lord of the .Admiralty. 



Mr. Hald.axe, M.P., Secretary of State for War, will 

 oprn the electrical laboratory of the National Physical 

 I„iboratory on Monday, June 25, at 2.45 p.m. 



.At the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Royal Society 

 of Canada, recently held at Ottawa, Dr. William Saunders, 

 the director of the Dominion Government's system of 

 experimental farms, was elected president for the ensuing 

 year, with Dr. S. E. Dawson vice-president. 



Invitations have been issued by the Institution of Elec- 

 irical Engineers for a conversazione at the Natural History 

 Museum on Tuesday, June 26, to meet the visiting delegates 

 from kindred institutions. 



Prof. K. Birkeland, of Christiania, the inventor of the 

 only successful commercial process for obtaining nitric acid 

 hy the direct oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen, will read 

 a paper before the Faraday Society about June 26 entitled 

 " Oxidation of .Atmospheric Nitrogen by Means of the 

 I'-lectric .Arc." 



Mfcii interest was aroused in India some time ago in 

 ihe attempt 10 introduce the permanganate treatment of 

 snake-bite. In the Central Provinces a large number of 

 .Sir Lauder Brunton's lancets were distributed last October 

 for use by vaccinators and selected landholders. Several 

 cases of successful treatment have been reported to Govern- 

 ment, but unfortunately, says the Pioneer Mail, none of 

 the reports gives sufficient detail to prove that the bites 

 were reallv those of poisonous snakes, and it is therefore 

 not possible to form any conclusions as to the value of the 

 treatment. 



A PARTY of Birkbeck College zoological students spent 

 Whitsuntide at West Mersea, near Colchester, collecting 

 marine specimens. Owing to the low temperature of the 

 surface waters the tow-netting expeditions were not very 

 productive, but many and varied forms of life were brought 

 up by the trawl and the dredge. 



Tme annual conversazione of the Royal Geographical 

 Society will be held at the Natural History Museum to- 

 morrow evening, June 15. 



.A TELEGRAM from Reggio di Calabria states that fairly 

 strong earthquake shocks were felt there on June 10 at 

 2.30 a.m. and g.45 a.m. .At Monteleone, Calabria, two 

 strong shocks were felt at 2.45 a.m. 

 NO. 191 I, VOL. 74] 



Proe. W. F. Koulrausch, of Hanover, will be the presi- 

 dent of the Verband dcutscher Electrotechniker for 1906-8. 



Dk. Bermiard .Moiir, of London, recently presented 

 to the museum of the German Chemical Society 100 letters 

 written by the famous Liebig lo Dr. Mohr's father, the 

 late Prof. Friedrich Mohr, of Bonn, during the years 1834 

 .0 1869. 



Dr. Stutzer, assistant in the geological institute of the 

 Freiburg (Saxony) Mining School, has been awarded a 

 grant of 2000 marks by the committee of ihe Carnegie 

 fund to enable him lo continue bis investigations on iron 

 deposits in Lapland. 



Prof. Ludwig Boltzmann, the well-known professor of 

 theoretical physics in the University of Vienna, has been 

 awarded the prize of the Peter Wilhelm Muller fund of 

 Frankfurt a.M. The award consists of an appropriately 

 worded gold medal and qooo marks, and is made to the 

 most brilliant workers in pure science. 



At the seventy-eighth meeting of the Deutscher Natur- 

 forseher und Aerzte, which will be held this year on 

 September 16-22 in Stuttgart, there will be an exhibition 

 of scientific and medical appliances and subjects as in 

 previous years. The KSnig Karls Hall of the K5niglicher 

 Landesgewerbemuscum has been set apart for the purpose. 

 All announcements and communications may be addressed 

 to the president of the exhibition committee. Dr. Lampert, 

 Archivstrasse 3, Stuttgart, from whom further particulars 

 may be obtained. 



Prof. Walter Nernst, professor of physical chemistry 

 in Berlin, has declined the opportunity of proceeding to 

 Leipzig as the successor of Prof. Ostwald, whose resigna- 

 tion will take place on September 30. Prof. Nernst was 

 formerly a privatdoccnt at Leipzig from i88q to 1891, when 

 he accepted a professorship in Gottingen University. 

 According to the Physikalische Zeitschrift. Prof. Ostwald 's 

 successor is to be Dr. K. Haussermann, professor of 

 technological chemistry and director of the applied chem- 

 istry laboratory of the Technical High School, Stuttgart. 



.A special meeting was held in the Great Hall of the 

 University of Athens on May 20 to celebrate the fortieth 

 anniversary of Dr. A. C. Christomanos's appointment as 

 professor of chemistry in the University. A large audience, 

 including the Greek Minister of Education, the University 

 (irofessors and students, and many of the general public, 

 was present. Dr. A. C. Dambergis, the professor of 

 pharmaceutical chemistry, referring to the great work 

 ivhich Prof. Christomanos has done in the forty years, 

 issertcd that the greatest has been the pioneer work in 

 the introduction of scientific chemistry into Greece with 

 the provision for laboratory work in chemistry and the 

 other sciences, and more particularly in organising so 

 successfully the large chemical department of the Uni- 

 versity with its laboratory accommodation for 130 students. 

 Prof. Christomanos was the recipient of numerous honours, 

 including several from foreign countries. 



Dr. Rudolf Knietscii, the director of the Badische 

 Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik, died on May 28 at the early age 

 of fifty-two. From the eloge dedicated to Dr. Knietsch s 

 memorv by the Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik, we learn 

 that Dr. Knietsch was born in 1854 in Oppeln, in 

 Schlesien. From 1876-1880 he studied at the Technical 

 High School in Berlin, and graduated in 1881 at Jena 

 University. He was for a short time an assistant in Dr. 

 Emil Jacobsen's private laboratory, and in 1882 entered 

 the Farbenfabrik von Bindschedler und Busch in Basle, 



