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2 NATURE 
[JuNnE 6, 1912 
been intended rather to allow the Speaker to see the 
members than to help the latter to read their notes. 
It does not by any means appear to be beyond the 
powers of modern illuminating engineering to secure 
both these ends. The present proposal is to use 
metallic filament lamps enclosed in holophane globes 
behind amber-coloured glass to cut off completely all 
ultra-violet rays. In view of the great opacity of 
ordinary glass for ultra-violet rays, the amber glass 
seems unnecessary. 
At the annual meeting of the Verband Deutscher 
Elektrotechniker in Leipzig, Prof. Gisbert Kapp, as 
the representative of the British Committee of the 
International Electrotechnical Commission, is to 
present to the president of the commission, Prof. 
Budde (who last year succeeded Elihu Thomson), a 
picture of Faraday as a marl of the esteem of his 
English colleagues. The portrait was painted for 
the occasion by Miss Beatrice Bright, a daughter of 
Sir Charles Bright, the pioneer in cable telegraphy. 
Nineteen States are represented in the commission, 
which has already done good work in settling ques- 
tions of nomenclature, signs, direction of rotation of 
vectors, and units for electric and magnetic quanti- 
tes. 
isation of machinery so as to facilitate and regulate 
the commercial side of electrical engineering. 
THe proceedings of the International Radio- 
telegraphic Convention, at which thirty-five States are 
represented, were opened on Tuesday by the Post- 
master-General at the Institution of Electrical 
Engineers. The King will receive the delegates at 
Buckingham Palace on June 10. Great importance is 
attached to the convention, for there have been 
extensive developments in wireless telegraphy since 
the last convention was held in Berlin in 1906. The 
object of the convention is to consider the amendment 
of the existing regulations and to’ bring them up to 
date. The subjects to be discussed will deal with 
communication between ship and ship and ship. and 
shore, and various questions which have arisen in 
connection with the loss of the Titanic will come 
before the delegates. 
WE regret to see the announcement of the death, 
at seventy-fcur years of age, of M. F. Lecoq de | 
Boisbaudran, corresponding member of the French 
Academy of Sciences in the section of chemistry, and 
distinguished by his works on spectroscopy and his 
discovery of gallium. The Davy medal of the Royal 
Society was awarded to M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 
1879 for his discovery of gallium. The metal filled a 
gap which had previously been pointed out in the 
periodic series of known elements. Mendeléeff had 
shown that a metal might probably exist intermediate 
in its properties between aluminium and_ iridium 
before Boisbaudran’s laborious spectroscopic and 
chemical investigation of numerous varieties of zinc 
blende led him to the discovery and isolation of 
gallium—the fifth terrestrial element which the 
spectroscope was instrumental in bringing to light— 
in 1875, 
Tue death is announced of Dr. H. de Struve, who 
The next point to be dealt with is the standard- | 
University of Warsaw. A correspondent of The 
Times states that Dr. de Struve may be claimed as 
the founder of the present-day school of philosophy 
in Poland. Among his works are the ‘ Critical Intro- 
duction to Philosophy,’”’ written in 1896, of which the 
third edition appeared in 1903; ‘‘ History of Philo- 
sophy in Poland,’’ written in 1900; and ‘ Herbert 
Spencer and his System of Philosophy,” written in 
1904. In addition to his many academical distine- 
tions, Dr. de Struve was for twelve years Dean of the 
Evangelical Hospital and president of the Society for 
the Propagation of Scientific Research. He was a 
member of the Grand Council of the Russian Empire, 
and had received the Orders of St. Anne, St. 
Wladimir, and St. Stanislas (First Class). 
WE regret to see the announcement of the death, 
on June 2, at eighty-three years of age, of Mr. B. J. 
Austin, who was a pioneer of scientific teaching in 
Reading. He was the first science teacher appointed 
by the Reading Science and Art Committee in 1871, 
and upon the foundation of University College, 
Reading, in 1892, he became lecturer in physiology 
and hygiene. In 1907 the college conferred upon 
Mr. Austin the title of Emeritus Professor of Botany, 
and last year he was made an associate of the 
college, honoris causé. Among his many pupils may 
be mentioned Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., who 
writes of him as follows :—‘I well remember, when 
a boy attending the science and art classes at Read- 
ing forty years ago, the excellent teaching and 
inspiring personality of B. J. Austin, who lectured 
on botany and animal physiology. Even earlier than 
this I had gone to him for advice in starting a fresh- 
water aquarium, and had been received with the 
kindest help and sympathy, going home with a piece 
of the Vallisneria’ growing in his own bell-jar. 
Austin’s enthusiasm for nature did not show itself 
in any impetuous rush of thoughts too full and rapid 
to admit of arrangement. He stands in memory 
sharply contrasted with Rolleston, under whose in- 
fluence I first came at about the same period of my 
life. The orderly sequence of Austin’s clear, crisp 
sentences seemed one with his exquisitely formed 
handwriting. There was all the charm of surprise 
about his personality. Self-contained and_ perfectly 
balanced, it was not one which we should expect to 
reveal and convey, as it did, a deep and absorbing 
interest in natural history. He has passed away full 
of years, honoured in the native town where he strove 
so long and so successfully, happy in the twenty 
years of rapid development which followed the 
foundation of University College, Reading, a centre 
of intellectual life which he was among the first to 
welcome and to aid.” 
THe annual exhibition of the Society of Colour 
Photographers, although small, is always worth a 
visit by any who are interested in the subject. It is 
open during the present week at 24 Wellington 
Street, Strand. Among the screen-plate colour photo- 
graphs, autochromes still hold their own, and a 
frame of examples contributed by Messrs. Lumiere 
and Jougla, besides those of other exhibitors, show 
from 1871 to 1903 was professor of philosophy at the | what excellent results they yield. The new colour 
NO. 2223, VOL. 89] 
