494 



J^/i TURE 



[February 24, 1910 



throughout the year. This he does by dividing the year 

 into 13 months of 28 days (or 4 weelvs) each; and as 

 that would reduce the whole year to 364 days, he pro- 

 poses two intercalations, one of a zero day, and 

 another of what he calls a double zero day. 



Plans of this kind would, if adopted, cause more 

 trouble than they would save, besides interfering with 

 the perpetual succession of the seventh day of the 

 week. In endeavouring to adjust the ecclesiastical 

 calendar according to his system, Serior Hesse gives 

 at the end a table of the dates of the feasts in 1912 as 

 now regulated and as proposed by him. They are, 

 indeed, inadmissible. As to taking Easter a week 

 later, that is of less consequence; but he puts Pente- 

 cost (Whit Sunday) 54 days after Easter and 13 days 

 after Ascension Day ! 



It is to be hoped that some day the whole Christian 

 church will come to an agreement to take Easter 

 alwavs on the first or second Sunday in April, adjust- 

 ing the other movable feasts thereby. But as regards 

 the days of the week and year, it would be a great 

 mistake to tinker with them ; and so-called zero days 

 would produce most serious confusion. 



It is a remarkable thing that the apocalyptic book 

 of Enoch makes the year contain only 364 days, though 

 it must have been known, according to any probable 

 date of the composition of even its first part, that the 

 integral number was 365. That, not being a multiple 

 of 52, we must adjust the days of the week as we can. 

 To increase the number of the months would be 

 deplorable from many points of view. It would have 

 been better if Julius "Caesar's first proposal about the 

 respective lengths of the twelve months had been re- 

 tained rather than the subsequent modification of 

 Augustus ; but to alter this now would give much 

 more trouble than it would save. W. T. Lynn. 



The paper by Captain Tilho on the French mission to 

 Lake Chad, which was read before the Royal Geographical 

 Society on Monday evening, February 21, contained much 

 interesting information about the hydrography of the Chad 

 region. On arriving in the vicinity of the lake in 1908, 

 the mission learned that caravans were crossing on dry 

 land the northern portion of the lake-bed, where in 1904 

 Captain Tilho had navigated an open expanse of water ; 

 that the central portion was merely a marsh ; but that in 

 the southern portion channels which had formerly been 

 closed to navigation had again become practicable. 

 Summing up the results of the mission's investigations. 

 Captain Tilho described Lake Chad as a closed depression 

 about four-fifths the size of Belgium, entirely independent 

 of the rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Mediter- 

 ranean. The average depth of the lake is 5 feet. Its 

 shores are ill-defined, the slope being so slight that small 

 variations in the level suffice either to submerge or to 

 leave bare large areas of the lake-bed. Even the wind 

 may produce these results. The waters of the lake are 

 rejiewed for about a tenth part by the rainfall, and for 

 about nine-tenths by the rivers that drain into the lake, 

 principally the Shari and the Komadugu. Losses are due 

 to evaporation and infiltration. In the present state of 

 knowledge it is impossible to formulate a law governing 

 the rise and fall of the lake, but there is no reason to 

 suppose that it is likely to disappear. A problem which 

 has exercised the minds of geographers is whether Lake 

 Chad occupies the lowest part of the immense plain of 

 which it is approximately the centre. The observations of 

 the French mission show that to the north-east of the 

 lake there is a series of plains of considerably lower alti- 

 NO. 2104, VOL. 82] 



tude. The country falls about 200 feet in a distance of 

 Ifss than 250 miles. 



The Rev. G. F. Whidborne, who died on February 14, 

 aged sixty-four, was an enthusiastic amateur geologist who 

 endeared himself to a large circle of friends. Since 1876 

 he had been a Fellow of the Geological Society, and for 

 many years, as a member of council, he took an active 

 interest in the society's affairs. He was also a member 

 of council of the Pala^ontographical Society, and was several 

 times elected a vice-president. He was interested in many 

 lines of geological research, but devoted himself especially 

 to the study of fossil Invertebrata. In 1883 he contributed 

 to the Geological Society's Journal a paper on new 

 Mollusca from the Inferior Oolite, and between the years 

 i888 and 1898 he published three volumes on the Devonian 

 fauna of the south of England, included in the mono- 

 graphs of the Palaiontographical Society. In later years 

 he was also attracted to more general questions, and 

 became an active member of the Victoria Institute, to the 

 journal of which he contributed two papers. Mr. Whid- 

 borne's genial presence was always welcomed at the scien- 

 tific meetings he attended, and his memory will be cherished 

 by all who had the good fortune to be associated with 

 him. 



The late Mr. R. Marcus Gunn, the eminent ophthalmic 

 surgeon, devoted much of the leisure of his vacations to 

 making a collection of fossils, which he left to the British 

 Museum (Natural History). He worked especially in the 

 Jurassic formations of Sutherland, and at the time of his 

 death was engaged in the preparation of a memoir on the 

 Jurassic flora of Brora, in collaboration with Prof. A. C. 

 Seward, who is now completing the undertaking. He 

 obtained many fish-remains, Mollusca, and other fossils, 

 which form a valuable addition to the national collection. 

 Mr. Gunn also collected from the Old Red Sandstone of 

 Caithness, and will always be remembered for his discovery 

 of the problematical fossil fish Palacospotidylus gtintii, 

 which vvas named after him by I'r. Traquair. 



The following aw.irds of the Mary Kingslcy medal havi' 

 been made by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine : — 

 Mrs. Pinnock, in recognition of the services rendered to 

 the cause of tropical medicine and sanitation by her 

 brother, the late Sir Alfred Jones, founder and first chair- 

 man of the school; Mr. W. Adamson and Prof. W. Carter, 

 for assistance rendered in the foundation of the school; 

 Prince Auguste d'Arenberg, president of the Suez Canal 

 Company, for his campaign against malaria at Ismailia ; 

 Sir William Macgregor, Governor of Queensland, for his 

 services to sanitation and tropical medicine while Governor 

 of Lagos ; Surgeon-General Walter Wyman, head of the 

 Marine Hospital Service of the United States, for the 

 organisation which he has given to the service under him 

 and for the manner in which he has always supported 

 scientific principles in public sanitation ; Sir Alfred Keogh, 

 recently Director-General of the Royal Army Medical 

 Corps, for the organisation which he has given to the 

 service under him and for the manner in which he has 

 always supported scientific principles in public sanitation. 

 The medal for valuable contributions to the scientific and 

 educational side of tropical medicine has been awarded to 

 Prof. R. Blanchard, Paris ; Dr. A. Breinl, director of the 

 Tropical Diseases Institute in Queensland; Prof. A. Celli, 

 Rome ; Dr. C. VV. Daniels, director of the London School 

 of Tropical Medicine; Surgeon-Colonel King, Indian 

 .Medical Service ; Prof. Nocht, director of the Hamburg 

 j School of Tropical Medicine ; Prof. G. H. F. Xuttall, 



