May 4, 1905] 



NA TURE 



15 



ordinated intelligence at its best, fortified by an invincible 

 moral, and employing a physical education capable of 

 carrying out all its behests. We see these things not 

 merely producing a small corps d'ilite insignificant in com- 

 parison with the mass of the nation, but turning out half 

 a million of men with brain power adequate for their 

 direction." When it is remembered that Japan has estab- 

 lished and perfected its system of education in the years 

 since the passing of our first Elementary Education Act in 

 1870, it is easy to appreciate how profound and speedy can 

 be the effect of an earnest and sustained effort on the 

 part of the Government of a nation to develop its educa- 

 tional resources. There is hope that now our great news- 

 papers are advocating the paramount claims of higher 

 education and science we may see both more generously 

 treated by the Government of this country. 



The inactivity shown by our statesmen in matters con- 

 cerning the preservation of our ancient monuments com- 

 pares very unfavourably with the measures taken in other 

 countries to cherish their structures of antiquity. A timely 

 article in the April number of the Quarterly Review directs 

 attention to several cases of vandalism to show the pre- 

 carious tenure on which this country holds so many of its 

 artistic and historical treasures. Here we are almost 

 devoid of the official and semi-official machinery which is 

 actively engaged abroad. France and Austria have State- 

 appointed commissions which exercise a general super- 

 vision over historical and artistic monuments, and see to 

 their preservation and proper repair. The French list of 

 structures regarded as of unmistakable national value con- 

 tains about 2200 monuments, of which 318 are prehistoric 

 in the form of dolmens or cromlechs. The care of monu- 

 ments in all the German States is in the hands of official 

 custodians or monument commissions, who are responsible 

 to the Ministers of Public Instruction or of the Interior. 

 The minor States of Europe exhibit a similar official 

 interest in historical monuments. In our own country, 

 however, only tentative efforts have been made at arrange- 

 ments which on the Continent are in full working order. 

 So far as any expenditure is concerned, the Ancient Monu- 

 ments Acts are almost a dead letter. The indifference of 

 the Government to the whole matter is sufficiently in- 

 dicated bv the fact that since the death of the inspector 

 of ancient monuments, General Pitt-Rivers, in 1900, no 

 successor has been appointed to the post, although no 

 emoluments are attached to it. It seems impossible to get 

 our so-called statesmen to see that unless the State shows 

 active interest in the preservation of our ancient monuments, 

 many of our national assets of the highest historical value 

 are doomed to destruction. The public and public bodies 

 would soon learn to prize such monuments if the Govern- 

 ment would take steps to show that these structures are 

 of national importance. 



Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., palEContologist to the 

 Geological Survey, retired on May 4 after a distinguished 

 service extending over forty years. In 1865 he joined the 

 Geological Survey as assistant naturalist under Prof. 

 Huxley, while Murchison was director-general ; and when 

 Huxley severed his connection with the Museum of Prac- 

 tical Geology, he worked under the late Robert Etheridge 

 until 1881. On Mr. Etheridge's transfer to the British 

 Museum, Mr. George Sharman and Mr. E. T. Newton 

 were appointed joint palaeontologists to the Geological 

 Survey, and on Mr. Sharman's retirement in 1897 Mr. 

 Newton remained as chief of the palaeontological depart- 

 ment. The loss of his great experience and knowledge 

 on all branches of palaeontology, to say nothing of the 

 NO. 1853, VOL. 72] 



personal loss, will be widely felt in the museum at Jermyn 

 Street by the officers and by the visitors who come for 

 assistance in the study of fossils. It is satisfactory to 

 learn that Dr. F. L. Kitchin has been appointed to succeed 

 Mr. Newton ; he received his palaeontological training under 

 Zittel, and joined the staff of the Geological Survey in 

 1898. He has published important monographs on fossil 

 Invertebrata in the " Palaeontologia Indica." 



Mr. John Gavey, C.B., engineer-in-chief to the Post 

 Office, has been nominated for election as president for 

 1905-6 of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. 



News has just reached this country that Dr. J. E. Dutton 

 died at Kosongo, in the Congo, on February 27, while 

 actively engaged in the investigation of trypanosomiasis and 

 tick fever. 



The Paris Natural History Museum has accepted a 

 bequest made by M. Emmanuel Drake del Castillo con- 

 sisting of a herbarium, a botanical library, and a sum of 

 25,000 francs. 



Prof. H.-vns Meyer, of the University of Vienna, we 

 learn from Science, has accepted the invitation to deliver 

 the Herter lectures at Johns Hopkins University on 

 October 5 and 6. His subject will be " The Physiological 

 Results of Pharmacological Research." 



It is announced that the New Mexico legislature has 

 passed a law authorising a geological survey of the State ; 

 the sum of i2ooi. has been voted for the purpose, and is 

 to be expended under the direction of the New Mexico 

 School of Mines at Socorro. 



Prof. W. Konig, of Greifswald, has been appointed 

 ordinary professor and director of the physical laboratory 

 at Giessen- Prof. M. Disteli, of Strassburg, professor of 

 mathematics at Dresden ; and Dr. Ernest Orloch professor 

 at the National Physical Laboratory at Charlottenburg. 



Prof. H. M. Howe, professor of metallurgy at 

 Columbia University, Bessemer medallist of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute, has been elected foreign correspondent of 

 the Paris Society for the Encouragement of Industry to 

 succeed Sir Lowthian Bell. The other four recipients of 

 this honour are Cannizzaro, Mendel^eff, Solvay, and Sir 

 Henry Roscoe. 



Mr J H Hammond has given looo/. to establish a 

 mining and metallurgical library at San Francisco The 

 State Mining Bureau already possesses an extensive library 

 but for want of funds, it has not been possible to add 

 new books during the past ten years. The new library is 

 to be placed in the rooms of the Mining Bureau, but as a 

 separate unit. Three trustees are to select the books. 



The President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 has appointed a departmental committee to inquire, by 

 means of experimental investigation and otherwise, into 

 the pathology and etiology of epizootic abortion, and to 

 consider whether any, and, if so, what preventive and 

 remedial measures may with advantage be adopted with 

 respect to that disease. The chairman of the committee is 

 Prof. J. MacFadyean, principal of the Royal Veterinary 

 College. 



The Baly medal, given every alternate year on the re- 

 commendation of the president and council of the Royal 

 College of Physicians of London for distinguished work in 

 the science of physiology, especially during the two years 

 immediately preceding the award, has been awarded to 

 Prof. Pawloff, of St. Petersburg. The Bisset Hawkins 



