228 



NA TURE 



[July 5, 1906 



place among vocalists and laryngologists. Garcia was 

 born in Madrid on March 17, 1805, and the enthusiastic 

 celebration of his centenary last year was described in 

 Nature at the time (March 23, 1905, vol. Ixxi., p. 491). 

 The King invested him with the insignia of Commander 

 of the Royal Victorian Order, and many other tributes lo 

 his great services to mankind were presented to him. 

 While a teacher of singing in Paris, about 1840, Garcia 

 devoted attention to the scientific study of the problems 

 of his art, including the anatomy and physiology of the 

 larynx. The epoch-making paper in which he laid the 

 foundation of the experimental study of the voice was read 

 before our Royal Society in 1855, after he had settled in 

 London and invented the laryngoscope. Intra-laryngeal 

 medication and surgery, says the Times, soon followed 

 the discovefy of the diagnostic properties of this instru- 

 ment, and its principles were extended to the elucidation 

 and treatment of diseases of the parts situated between 

 the nose and throat. The importance of the invention was 

 not recognised until two years later, when the attention 

 of the whole world was directed to the laryngoscope. 

 Compensation for the indifference first shown by the 

 medical profession to Garcia 's discovery, was amplv afforded 

 by the centenary celebration last year, when public institu- 

 tions and societies from every quarter of the globe united 

 to honour the great teacher and investigator. 



The Longstaff medal of the Chemical Society has been 

 awarded to Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., in recognition of 

 his spectrochemical investigations ; the presentation will be 

 made at the first meeting of next session, October 18. 



The death is announced of M. Rayet, director of the 

 Observatory of Bordeaux-Floirac. M. Rayet was also pro- 

 fessor of astronomical physics at the University of 

 Bordeau.x. 



The council of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 

 has appointed the president of the institution, Mr. E. P. 

 Martin, as one of its representatives upon the main com- 

 mittee of the Engineering Standards Committee in 

 succession to Mr. E. Windsor Richards, past-president of 

 the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, who has retired. 



Mr. G. Montefiore-Levi, of Brussels, formerly a 

 member of the Belgian Senate, and president of the Associ- 

 ation of Engineers, has bequeathed a portion, probably 

 exceeding 100,000/. in value, of his residuary estate, to be 

 applied for the prevention of consumption. 



The Geologists' Association has arranged a long ex- 

 cursion to the Yorkshire coast, extending from July 21 to 

 July 28. The object of the excursion is to visit the Lias 

 and Oolite sections from Robin Hood's Bav to Saltburn. 

 Members wishing to take part should communicate at 

 once with Mr. H. Kidner, 78 Gladstone Road, Watford. 

 The party leaves King's Cross at 11.30 a.m. on July 21. 



.'\t the annual general meeting held on June 28, the 

 following were elected Fellows of the British .Academy : — 

 the Rev. R. H. Charles, Mr. W. J. Courthope, C.B., 

 Mr. J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Mr. Andrew Lang, Prof. A. A. 

 -Macdonell, Dr. J. E. McTaggart, Canon Edward Moore, 

 and Dr. G. F. Warner. The number of fellows is thus 

 brought up to ninen--four, out of a maximum of 100 

 allowed by Order of Council. 



After the ceremony on June 25, when Mr. Haldane 

 opened the electrical laboratory of the National Physical 

 Laboratory, Sir John Brunner very generously placed the 

 NO. I914, VOL. 74] 



isum of 5000/. at the disposal of the committee toward the 

 completion and equipment of the additional buildings for 

 engineering, metrology, and metallurgy, now in course of 

 erection. 



The past we.pk will long be. remembered by electrical 

 engineers on account of the international meeting referred 

 to in our last number (p. 207). We have had among us 

 representatives of the electrical industries of France, the 

 United States, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Canada, 

 and have been enabled to return in some part the 

 hospitality they have in past years extended to us. A 

 good and varied programme was arranged, and our lead- 

 ing firms assisted by giving free access to their works 

 and in entertaining the visitors. We trust that our guests 

 will look back upon their visit here as no less delightful 

 than those which many of our own electrical engineers 

 still remember with gratitude (o their respective countries. 



.\ r.mnstorm of exceptional severity was experienced over 

 the whole of the south-east of England during the night of 

 Thursday, June 28, and the morning of the following day. 

 The rainfall in and around London was as heavy as any- 

 where. The downpour commenced shortly after midnight, 

 and continued without intermission for eight or nine hours. 

 .\t Kew the measurement amounted to 2-36 inches, at 

 Camden Town to 2.27 inches, and at the observing station 

 of the Meteorological Office, in St. James's Park, to 

 2-07 inches. -At Greenwich the measurement was 1-85 

 inches. Other stations reporting heavy falls were Cam- 

 bridge, with an aggregate measurement of 23 inches; 

 Rothamsted, 22 inches ; Hiclington, in Norfolk, and 

 Epsom, 1-8 inches ; and Oxford, 1-7 inches. Previous 

 records only show so heavy a fall in twenty-four hours for 

 London on three occasions during the last fifty years. This 

 severe rainstorm was due to the passage of a shallow 

 cyclonic disturbance across the southern portion of England, ■ 

 and in places the force of a moderate to fresh gale was 

 experienced. At Greenwich the pressure of the wind was' 

 10 lb. on the square foot, at 9 a.m., on June 29. The 

 type of weather was peculiarly characteristic of thunder- 

 storms, but it was only in a few isolated places that thunder 

 and lightning occurred. 



.\RR.\NOE.MiiNT.s have now been completed for the erection 

 of a commodious laboratory for the study of marine biology 

 at CuUercoats, on the Northumberland coast. A much 

 smaller laboratory, which had been provided by the 

 munificence of .Alderman Dent, the chairman of the County 

 Council's fisheries committee, was accidentally burnt down 

 some few years ago, and the proposed building is designed 

 to carry out, not only fishery research, but also general 

 biological studies. The gift of the site and the cost of 

 erection of the building will be borne in a very generous 

 way by Mr. Wilfrid Hudleslon, F.R.S., the management 

 being under the control of the .Armstrong College at New- 

 castle. It is hoped that the new building will be ready 

 for use at an early period of the next collegiate session, 

 and that students will in this way obtain a further means 

 of valuable training in practical biology. CuUercoats is, of 

 course, classical ground to the marine biologist, having 

 been the source of much of the material upon which Alder 

 and Hancock's great work on the nudlbranchiate mollusca 

 was based. 



A coRRESPONL>EKT Writes asking for information as to 

 .self-recording instruments of the variations in the direction 

 of the wind, and suggests that no such self-registering 



